News notes
The United States government has joined a whistleblower lawsuit against The Gallup Organization, Washington, D.C., according to an August 22 statement from the Justice Department. The lawsuit was filed by Michael Lindley, a former Gallup employee, who alleges that Gallup violated the False Claims Act by making false claims for payment under contracts with the U.S. Mint, the State Department and other federal agencies to provide polling services for various government programs.
According to the whistleblower’s complaint, Gallup violated the False Claims Act by giving the government inflated estimates of the number of hours that it would take to perform its services, even though it had separate and lower internal estimates of the number of hours that would be required. The complaint further alleges that the government paid Gallup based on the inflated estimates.
Acquisitions/transactions
Westminster, Colo., research company Datalogix has acquired Connection Engine, a Summit, N.J., research company.
Deltek Inc., a Herndon, Va., provider of enterprise software and information solutions, has been acquired by Chicago private equity investment firm Thoma Bravo LLC for approximately $1.1 billion. Following the closing of the deal, Deltek will become a privately-held company. Deltek will remain headquartered in Herndon and led by its existing senior management team.
Danbury, Conn., research company IMS Health has acquired PharmaDeals Ltd., an Oxford, U.K., business information company. PharmaDeals will become part of IMS’s syndicated analytics and insights.
Seattle research company QuestionPro has acquired New Orleans research company Pollbob.
Nuremberg, Germany, research company The GfK Group has acquired User Centric Inc., an Oakbrook Terrace, Ill., research company.
Oslo, Norway, research software company Confirmit has acquired CustomerSat, San Francisco research company MarketTools Inc.’s enterprise feedback management software and services provider.
Alliances/strategic partnerships
Kinesis Survey Technologies LLC, Austin, Texas, and New Orleans research company Federated Sample have partnered to integrate their product offerings. The initial phase of integration will enable Kinesis Panel clients to optimize their market research sample within Federated Sample’s Fulcrum solution directly from Kinesis’ user interface. Longer-term integration will support the acquisition of augmented sample from Fulcrum via the Kinesis platform and allow the use of customizable routing tools for online survey research.
Research companies Arbitron Inc., Columbia, Md., and comScore Inc., Reston, Va., have partnered to develop a five-platform measurement initiative to assess changing consumption of video, audio and display content across radio, television, PCs, smartphones and tablets. ESPN, Bristol, Conn., will collaborate on the design and participate as its charter client.
Research companies Cint, Stockholm, Sweden, and Voxco, Montreal, have partnered to integrate Cint Link into Voxco’s Acuity4 Survey platform to provide Voxco customers with access to Cint’s OpinionHUB.
New York media technology company PulsePoint has formed an alliance with Chicago research company SymphonyIRI Group Inc. to combine PulseAudience, PulsePoint’s real-time audience measurement solution, and SymphonyIRI’s Consumer Network household panel and InfoScan Tracking Service for point-of-sale data.
Association/organization news
Amsterdam, Netherland, research association ESOMAR has launched a new corporate membership initiative, allowing companies as well as individuals to become members. Eight companies have signed up as Founder Members: InSites Consulting, Altria Client Services, B2B International, Bazis Group, BrainJuicer Group, MAP Market Research, Psyma and SKIM.
The European Federation of Associations of Market Research Organizations, Brussels, Belgium, and the European Research Federation have agreed to build a European self-regulation system for market, social and opinion research to promote comprehensive and coordinated self-regulation of research across 15 countries.
Awards/rankings
SSI, a Shelton, Conn., research company, announced the winners of the third-annual SSI QUEST Awards, which honor companies for creating the most engaging research experiences, at the annual ESOMAR Congress in Atlanta in September. Three research companies were recognized as overall winners for excellence in survey design: Qualtrics Labs Inc. in the Americas; Sinomonitor in Asia Pacific; and BDRC Continental in Europe. Top honors for product placement surveys went to deKadt Marketing and Research in the Americas and MMR Research Worldwide in Europe. The 2012 Best in QUEST Award went to Sinomonitor.
New York research company Kantar Health has won Best Podium Presentation at the Lawrenceville, N.J., research association International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research’s Asia-Pacific conference. “The Effect of Neuropathic Pain on Health Status, Work Productivity Loss and Healthcare Resource Use in Japan” was presented by Andy Stankus of Kantar Health and was based on research conducted by Kantar Health in conjunction with the National Institute of Public Health in Saitama, Japan.
London research company BrainJuicer Group PLC received the Fernanda Monti Award for Best Paper Overall at the 2012 annual ESOMAR Congress in Atlanta in September. The paper, “Research In A World Without Questions,” written by BrainJuicer’s Tom Ewing and Allstate’s Bob Pankauskas, explores the extent to which researchers can uncover insight without asking direct questions.
Research companies Optimal Strategix Group, Newtown, Pa.; uSamp, Encino, Calif.; and Decipher Inc., Fresno, Calif., have been named to Inc. magazine’s annual Inc. 500|5000, which ranks the nation’s fastest-growing private companies based on percentage revenue growth from 2008 to 2011.
New accounts/projects
Research organization NORC at the University of Chicago has selected Montreal research company Voxco’s Command Center data collection platform for its research data gathering and survey capabilities.
Additionally, Voxco’s Command Center and PRONTO predictive dialing system have been adopted by New York research company Abt SRBI.
American Directions Group, a Gainesville, Fla., research company, has expanded its survey research capabilities via an award by the U.S. Government General Services Administration of a five-year MOBIS Multiple Award Schedule Contract for market research survey services.
New Orleans research company Federated Sample’s respondent exchange platform Fulcrum has been adopted by Ugam Research, Mumbai, India.
Grocery chain Supervalu Inc., Eden Prairie, Minn., has selected Toronto research company LoyaltyOne’s Precima analytics solution to develop its customer segmentation.
Fresno, Calif., research company Decipher Inc. has integrated Palo Alto, Calif., research company SurveyMonkey’s TrueSample data quality solution into its Beacon market research platform.
New companies/new divisions/relocations/expansions
Caroline Florence has launched Insight Narrator, a U.K., research company. The company is online at www.insight-narrator.co.uk.
Jeff Green has opened Stone Door Media Lab, a Nashville, Tenn., research company serving the music industry. The company is online at www.stonedoormedialab.com.
Jessica Cameron has launched User Crunch, a San Francisco research consulting business. The company is online at www.usercrunch.com.
Becca Kornet and Charley Hajduk have formed Helical Research. The company is online at www.helicalresearch.com.
Market Sensory Solutions, an India research company, has opened its doors for business. The company is online at www.mss-mrs.com.
New York research company PlayScience has opened its first PlayLab in downtown Manhattan. The PlayLab is designed to be a kid- and family-friendly research and incubation facility. The PlayLab is online at www.letsplaylab.com.
Honeoye Falls, N.Y., research company KJT Group Inc. has established its first European office in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
The Research Partnership, London, has opened a market access consultancy called The Access Partnership, serving the pharmaceutical, biotech and med-tech industries.
InSites Consulting, a Ghent, Belgium, research company, has launched B-Conversational, a division focused on coaching companies on conversation management. Steven Van Belleghem will lead the operation.
Salt Lake City research company The Modellers has opened ModHub, a division created to provide focused analytics services. The company is online at www.themodhub.com.
London research company BrainJuicer Group PLC has opened an office in India to provide client-facing support.
Tokyo research company AIP Corporation has opened an office in New Delhi. Roy Kimura has been appointed to lead the operation.
New York research company Hall & Partners has launched its dedicated qualitative research viewing facility, The Room, in London and New York.
Research company i-view London has opened a new research viewing facility in London.
GMO Internet Group Company, GMO Research and GMO Japan Market Intelligence, Tokyo, have opened an operations center in India. Anupam Kaul will head the office.
Stamats Healthcare Marketing, a Cedar Rapids, Iowa, research company, has launched a division dedicated to delivering strategic insight, planning and successful outcomes to the medical industry.
IntelliQ Research and Strategy Inc., Cincinnati, has relocated its State College, Pa., office and corporate call center to the SunPointe Business Center.
Shelton, Conn., research company SSI has entered into a joint venture with Interresearch, Copenhagen, Denmark, to form SSI Denmark.
Research company earnings/financial news
BrainJuicer Group PLC, London, reported 14 percent revenue growth for the six months ended June 30, 2012.
Vision Critical, Vancouver, B.C., completed a $20 million investment from OMERS Ventures.