News notes
In response to press reports of its interest in acquiring the Interpublic Group’s NFO WorldGroup, Taylor Nelson Sofres issued a statement in late March confirming that it was in discussions with Interpublic Group but offered no assurance that a transaction was forthcoming. Further, the company stated, "It is anticipated that any proposed acquisition would be funded primarily by debt and that any additiQnal funding would not involve TNS making a rights issue to its shareholders. It should also be noted that the price currently under
discussion is below the $500 million level quoted in previous press reports. TNS reconfirms its previously stated acquisition policy, that any acquisition should be earnings enhancing in the first full year of ownership."
Contemporary Research Centre, Montreal, has sold its Vancouver operation.
Acquisitions
Forrester Research, Inc., Cambridge, Mass., has completed its acquisition of Giga Information Group, Inc., a technology advisory firm. Giga will operate as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Forrester Research.
New York research firm FIND/SVP, Inc. has acquired Guideline Research Corporation. Terms of the deal, which included a combination of cash and stock, were not disclosed. Petra Mezzanine Fund, a private equity firm based in Nashville, Tenn., provided the financing for this transaction.
San Diego-based Directions in Research (DIR) has purchased the Grand Rapids, Mich., telephone interviewing center formerly operated by Wirthlin Worldwide. The 55-seat center will complement DIR’s 100-seat center in San Diego. Led by Director of Field Operations Kevin Scheppman, Wirthlin Worldwide’s operations team will join DIR as full-time staffers.
Alliances/strategic partnerships
Square One Research, Atlanta, and Itracks, a Saskatoon, Sask.-based online research firm, have announced a strategic partnership agreement under which Square One Research will use Itracks’ Ordine Usability to provide online Web site usability testing for clients.
Chicago-based Information Resources, Inc. (IRI) has formed a new strategic agreement with Management Ventures, Inc. (MVI), a retail research organization. Under the agreement, will become the exclusive supplier of syndicated retail tracldng and consumer household panel-based information for MVI and its U.S. customers.
Greenfield Online, Inc., Wilton,Conn., has entered into a multi-year agreement with Delta Marketing Dynamics, Inc., a Syracuse, N.Y., health care and pharmaceutical research firm. Under the agreement, Greenfield Online will provide Delta Marketing Dynamics’ online research data collection needs.
U.K-based research software firm E-Tabs has partnered with Insight Marketing Systems, Melbourne, Australia, to market and distribute Research Reporter market research management and library software to research buyers in the U.IC and Europe. Research Reporter is a Web-based system that integrates with a corporation’s intranet to provide a central portal for research buyers to manage the disparate research conducted by their organization, and disseminate documents to internal clients and decision makers.
New York research firm The Ziment Group has joined forces with WorldOne Research to expand WebSurveyEurope, a physician Interact panel for marketing research in Europe. In the partnership, WebSurveyEurope will be responsible for client service, programming and panel/data management. WorldOne will be responsible for recruiting, translation and daily panel maintenance. WebSurveyEurope will focus in 2003 on building their reach in five European countries - the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy and Spain. In subsequent years, additional recruiting in other European countries will be initiated.
New York-based NetRatings, Inc. has reached an agreement with Univision Online, Inc., the operator of www.univision.com, the most-visited Spanish-language Web site in the U.S., to build an Interact audience measurement panel to better understand Hispanic consumer behavior online. The agreement between NetRatings and Univision will span a five-year period. This agreement will result in a representativeHispanic Intemet audience panel generated by industry accepted random-digit dial (RDD) methodology. NetRatings will deploy its Internet measurement technology to a representative panel of 3,600 Hispanic individuals. The Hispanic sample will be folded into the current Nielsen//NetRatings panel, reflecting a representation of the entire U.S. Interact universe.
Megatab, a Montreal research firm, has teamed up with Montreal, Quebec-based Atredes Technologies, a Web ergonomics, educational technology and Interact application development firm. By integrating Interact technologies, their objective is to control and measure the validity of the data collected through surveys, questionnaires and studies conducted on the Web. Their new approach will solve a fundamental problem in marketing research. By being able to control and measure the validity of the responses, the Megatab-Atredes solution aims to ensure reliability of the results in a controlled environment.
Association/organization news
The Travel and Tourism Research Association (TTRA) has announced its support of the Principles of Marketing Research certificate program, which was developed by the Marketing Research Association in conjunction with the University of Georgia Center for Continuing Education. "For several years we have struggled with the best method of offering industry certification to our members, and after careful review by the TTRA board of directors, we have chosen to recommend this excellent program to our members," says John Packer, TTRA president. "We are very excited about the opportunity this gives our members to receive a more intensive, practical marketing research education while working in the field."
ESOMAR (the European Society for Opinion and Marketing Research) has changed its domain name to www.esomar.org. The transition coincides with a restyled Web site design which facilitates access to information and enables easier navigation.
The founder members of ECOR (the European Consortium for Online Research) - GfK, Ipsos, MORI, NFO Europe, NOP World, and SPSS MR - have announced the creation of an online research program to quantify the methodological impact ofvarions online sampling options. Working together across multiple countries and using multiple sources of online sample, ECOR members hope to address various methodological issues that have been cited as barriers to the acceptance of online research among European research buyers. By joining forces, the partners hope to stimulate the growth of online research and expedite its adoption in Europe.
The founding consortium members are attempting to establish industry standards to ensure the success of European online market research. By understanding the methodological impact of varions online sampling alternatives, guidance can be provided to the industry at large, malting it easier for research buyers to have greater confidence as they move a greater portion of traditional research online.
A first World Industry Network (WIN) meeting will be held on May 22-23 in Brussels. Facilitated by ESOMAR/EFAMRO (European Federation of Associations of Market Research Organizations) and the Advertising Research Foundation, this meeting will bring together research associations from around the globe for the first time to assess and collectively take action against the challenges and opportunities that the market research industry is facing.
Key objectives of the summit include setting the agenda and jointly addressing industry issues related to the need for concerted industry effort, quality standards of performance, legislative representation among others.
The WIN meeting will partly build on the outcome and the follow up of the process of RELEAS (Research Leaders Summit). The WIN meetings will alternately consist of a meeting of industry leaders every other year and a meeting of representatives of market research associations. Participation is by personal invitation.
New companies/new divisions/relocations/expansions
Milward Brown has opened an office in Taiwan which will be headed by Deepender Rana, managing director, Millward Brown Hong Kong and Taiwan.
St. Louis-based Maritz Research has formed a new group called Product Planning & Development. Wally Balden assumes the group’s lead role as director of product planning and development. The new unit will be focused primarily on new product development, product management and portfolio management.
Opinion Research Corporation, Princeton, N.J., has opened an office in Shanghai.
KLD Marketing Research, Inc. has moved to a new location and expanded the services provided. The address is 570 Vale Park Road, Suite B, Valparaiso, Ind., 46385. All phone numbers, fax numbers and e-mail addresses remain the same.
Company earnings reports
Taylor Nelson Sofres PLC (TNS) has announced its preliminary results for the year ended December 31, 2002. During 2002, the group’s reported revenues including joint ventures increased by 6.2 percent to £618.9 million (2001 £582.7 million). This includes acquisitions made during the year to strengthen the group’s position in the U.S. market and media intelligence sector and reinforce its online research capabilities, as well as to extend its operations into Sweden and Greece. Underlying growth, excluding teh effect of currency, acquisitions and operations discontinued during the year, was 0.5 percent. Revenues excluding joint ventures was £603.2 million (2001 £575.1 million).
Adjusted earnings per share before goodwill charges were 8.6p, an increase of 7.5 percent (2001 8.0p). Basic earnings per share fell by 23.3 percent to 3.3p (2001 4.3p). The board is recommending a final dividend of 1.7p per share (2001 1.6p), giving an 8.3 percent increase in the total dividend for the yearof 2.6p (2001 2.4p).
Seattle-based online satisfaction survey firm NetReflector, Inc. announced that it ended 2002 profitably, with total billings up by 75 percent over 2001 and revenues up by 40 percent, beating the 2002 forecast by 111 percent. The company attributes these financial results to the launch of InstantSurvey 4.0 and a change in the company’s sales and marketing strategy.