Total Research Corp. has terminated its letter of intent to acquire certain assets of Kapuler Marketing Research Inc. of Arlington Hts., Ill. After a preliminary due diligence review of Kapuler, Total Research management felt the invest-ment required to complete the transaction would exceed the one encompassed in the letter of intent. Consequently it informed Kapuler of its intent to terminate further negotiations.
Siri Lynn, a former executive vice president with Sun Research, Norwalk, Conn., has founded Idea Exchange Inc. in Fairfield, Conn. A qualitative market research firm, Idea Exchange specializes in consumer and business-to-business market research, including focus groups, indepth interviews, and creative and ideation sessions.
Chicago-based Information Resources Inc. and Venezuelan marketing research firm Datos C. A. have completed the formation of a previously announced joint venture ("Research Company News," March QMRR). The company, Datos Information Resources, will provide syndicated market tracking and other research services in Venezuela. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Todd C. Jones has formed Phone Base Research, a telephone data collection company in Ft. Collins, Colo. Jones left Western Wats Center, where he was director of client services, to start Phone Base Research, which has 24 telephones with full remote monitoring and employs a number of students from nearby Colorado State University. The company's address and telephone number are: 115S. College Ave., Suite 2. Ft. Collins. CO 80521.
Friedman Marketing has opened a second mall facility in the Denver area. Bevo Beavins manages the new facility, which is located in the Westminister Mall. The facility features conference and viewing rooms, a taste test kitchen, and private interviewing areas.
Cardiff Software Inc., Solana Beach, Calif., developer of Teleprint automated registration software and Teleforms for Windows forms processing software, has signed an OEM agreement with IntelliQuest Inc., an Austin, Texas-based technology marketing information firm. Under the terms of the agreement, IntelliQuest will integrate Cardiff's Teleprint with its own ReplyDisk electronic customer registration system to make fax- and scanner-based registrations available to IntelliQuest customers. IntelliQuest is already using Teleforms for Windows with IQinteractive, a new survey response service.
Market Facts Inc. has announced significantly improved earnings and record revenue for 1993. Revenue for the fourth quarter was $12,652,000, an increase of 20% over the same period last year. The company reported earnings of $342,000 for the quarter compared to $45,000 for the fourth quarter last year. For the 12 months of 1993, the company's revenue of $45,609,000 was 12% greater than 1992 revenue and an all-time record. Year-to-date net income was $ 1,074,000 - compared to a loss of $437,000 for the previous year. Market Facts credits expanded client acceptance of its proprietary research products with keying the 1993 revenue gain.
Atlanta Focus has opened a focus group facility. The office has three focus rooms with viewing rooms that have floor-to-ceiling mirrors. Each room can accommodate 20 viewers. Remote control video taping is available. The facility also has three client lounges and three individual interviewing rooms, two of whichhave a shared viewingroom. AtlantaFocus, which is part of the Focus Network, conducts focus groups, taste tests, one-on-one interviewing and car clinics, among other services, for its clients. The company's address and telephone are: Druid Chase Office Park, 2801 Buford Hwy., Ste. 250, Atlanta, GA 30329.
Laurie Kersten has left Carmichael Lynch Advertising Inc., where she was associate director of research and account planning and a partner, to work as an independent marketing research consultant specializing in qualitative research. As proprietor of Laurie Kersten Consulting, she will work as a marketing researcher and moderator, using focus groups, small group discussions and in-depth interviewing.
Irwin Research Services Inc., Jacksonville, Ha., has opened a new focus group facility, including two large discussion rooms, two-way viewing mirrors, separate client and respondent waiting rooms, recruiting capabilities, audio taping and/or video taping, client lounges with viewing mirrors, moderators and a data bank of more than 30,000 respondents. The address of Irwin's new facility is: Sun Bank Building, 9250 Baymeadows Rd, Suite 350, Jacksonville, FL 32256.
Harte-Hanks Marketing Services, River Edge, N.J., has changed its name to Harte-Hanks Market Research. The company's address and telephone remain: 65 Route 4 E., River Edge, NJ 07661-1924.
Right Information Systems Ltd., London, England, has opened a U.S. subsidiary, Right Information Systems Inc., in Newbury, Mass., to introduce 4Thought, the company's Windows-based modeling and forecasting software. The stateside address and telephone numbers for RIS are: The Carriage House, 28 Green St., Newbury, MA 01951.
Martin Zeidner has formed a marketing research company, the Zeidner Research Group, with headquarters in Westchester County, N.Y. Zeidner recently left Topline Research, where he was president. The new company will offer field and tabulating research services, including telephone interviewing, mail surveys and mall intercepts. The Zeidner Research Group's address and telephone are: 19 Ridge Ln, Mt. Kisco, N.Y. 10549.
Environmental Systems Research Institute Inc., Redlands, Calif., has announced overall growth exceeding 15% for 1993. The company posted record increases in software sales and won major federal contracts from the National Park Service, the U.S. Geological Survey and the Bureau of Land Management. Its software numbers were driven by Workstation ARC/INFO, which recorded an increase of more than 41% over 1992 sales. Sales of ArcCAD increased by 122% over 1992 numbers. Arc View, ESRI' s desktop GIS and mapping software - 15,000 copies of which have been shipped by the company - posted a 30% increase. PC ARC/INFO sales reflected a modest increase over 1992 numbers. The company expects that with the addition of forthcoming new features, PC ARC/INFO sales will increase in 1994.
ESRI also has announced that Equinox, a division of Indus Corp., Falls Church, Va., has joined the ArcData Publishing Program. As a member of the program, Equinox will develop two of its databases in ARC/INFO-compatible formats: PopBlocks, which provides boundary polygons with related 1990 census data for each of nearly 7 million census blocks nationwide, and PopBlock/Points, which provides the geographic centroids with the same characteristics.