News notes
The scientific journal of the Chaos Computer Club (CCC), Die Datenschleuder, reports that TNS Infratest/Emnid, a German division of Horsham, Pa., research company TNS, had problems securing 41,000 private data records of its survey participants. As the magazine reports, it was possible for participants to read master data records and consumer profiles without bypassing even basic security measures. Access to the comprehensive survey results could be gained by simply changing the customer ID number in the browser’s address bar. Besides name and address, the data records included date of birth, e-mail address and phone number. Many records also included very sensitive information: monthly income, education, bank account information, health insurance data, if and which credit cards are used, which electronic devices are used in the household and children’s ages.
Louisiana Act 810, legislation drafted by the Council for Marketing and Opinion Research (CMOR), Glastonbury, Conn., which passed both the State House and Senate with unanimous approval, has been signed by Governor Bobby Jindal. The law will combat political persuasion calls (also known as “political telemarketing” or “push polls”) while protecting legitimate survey and opinion research (including message testing).
As crafted by CMOR’s government affairs experts, the law prohibits making any telephone call expressly advocating support or opposition of a candidate, elected public official or ballot proposition without identifying the source of the call. The law exempts legitimate survey and opinion research.
This is the first law in the United States to define and protect message testing in research. It will also serve as a model law for researchers to use in promoting proactive legislation at the grassroots level.
Itracks, a Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, research company, has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Fremont, Calif., research company Artafact LLC in the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts. In its complaint, filed earlier this year, Itracks asserts that Artafact’s synchronous and asynchronous online focus group products, known and sold as Artafact Online Focus Group Software and Artafact Diary Bulletin Board, infringe one or more claims of U.S. Patent No. 6,256,663. U.S. Patent No. 6,256,663, for an invention entitled “System and Method For Conducting Focus Groups Using Remotely Located Participants Over A Computer Network,” which was issued on July 3, 2001, and subsequently assigned to Itracks. The complaint seeks unspecified damages and an injunction against future infringement by Artafact.
A court has dismissed a wrongful death lawsuit against London-based research company GfK NOP brought by the daughter of an interviewer who went missing while conducting door-to-door surveys and was later found dead.
Fifty-four-year-old Summer Shipp of Kansas City, Mo., was last seen in Independence, Mo., in December 2004, at which time she was working for GfK NOP as an independent contractor. Her remains were found near a river in the town in October 2007.
In a petition filed in a Missouri district court last year, Shipp’s daughter Brandy claimed that GfK NOP and its subsidiaries had been negligent by failing to take adequate precautions to protect her while she was carrying out interviews.
The court dismissed the claim, saying the firm did not have a duty to protect workers from deliberate criminal acts by third parties.
Acquisitions/transactions
Chicago research company Synovate has acquired the African research company The Steadman Group.
Paris research company Ipsos has acquired Buenos Aires, Argentina, research company Livra, which provides panels and data collection services in Latin America.
RJ/RG LLC, a St. Louis research company, has been acquired by brand marketing and events promotion specialist The Kerry Group, St. Louis.
Oslo, Norway, research company Norstat has acquired the data collection arm of Hermelin Research, based in Finland, to create a new company known as Norstat Finland.
U.K. sports sales and marketing group Goodform has acquired Warwick, U.K., research company SportsWise.
London research company Analysys Mason has acquired OSS Observer LLC, a Sugar Grove, Ill., research company. OSS Observer’s team of analysts will be integrated into Analysys Mason’s existing research division. OSS Observer co-founder Larry Goldman will take the role of head of global telecom software while OSS Observer co-founder Patrick Kelly will take the role of research director in global telecom software.
El Segundo, Calif., research company iSuppli Corp. has acquired Telematics Research Group Inc. (TRG), Minnetonka, Minn. TRG’s operations will be integrated with the existing iSuppli automotive infotainment and electronics services, along with its research on vehicle microelectromechnical systems.
Mediamark Research & Intelligence (MRI), New York, has acquired Starch Communications, Nu-remberg, Germany. Both companies are owned by Nuremberg, Germany, research company GfK Group. Starch will become a division of MRI.
SDI, a U.K. health care analytics firm, has acquired Plymouth Meeting, Pa., research company Verispan.
Cambridge, Mass., research company Forrester Research Inc., has acquired JupiterResearch LLC, Darien, Conn., and its parent company, JUPR Holdings Inc., from MCG Capital Corporation for $23 million in cash plus assumed liabilities, subject to post-closing adjustments.
Nuremberg, Germany, research company GfK Group has acquired 100 percent ownership of Ann Arbor, Mich., research company Arbor Strategy Group (ASG). ASG will trade under the name of GfK Strategic Innovation. GfK Custom Research North America will see new GfK locations of ASG offices in Ann Arbor, Mich., and Chicago.
Norwalk, Conn., research company IMS Health has acquired Moscow research company RMBC.
Alliances/strategic partnerships
Phoenix Marketing International, a Rhinebeck, N.Y., research company, has entered into a joint marketing and services agreement with IBM Corporation, Rochester, Minn., under which Phoenix will combine its research and analytic service with IBM Global Services’ marketing event and customer equity solutions.
Naperville, Ill., research company Millward Brown has entered the Kenyan market via a joint venture with Scangroup, a research company in Nairobi, Kenya, which owns 49 percent of the new company, named Millward Brown East Africa Limited.
Wilton, Conn., research company Greenfield Online has partnered with research technology firm RelevantView, Westport, Conn., to incorporate RelevantView’s RelevantID digital fingerprinting system into its duplicate response detection tool.
Berlin research company nugg.ad and Nielsen Online, a division of New York researcher The Nielsen Company, have formed a pan-European partnership to make the market research data from the Nielsen Homescan panel available for online marketing campaigns. The new nugg.ad product will initially be available in Germany and the U.K.
Association/organization news
The Qualitative Research Consultants Association (QRCA), St. Paul, Minn., has formed an ethnography special interest group, which serves QRCA members who conduct ethnographic research on behalf of clients worldwide.
Separately, QRCA has awarded Huajing (Jeanne) Huang, from Beijing, its first-ever Global Outreach Scholarship.
The Marketing Research Association, Glastonbury, Conn., in conjunction with its Interactive Marketing Research Organization division and the Council for Market Opinion Research, has completed work on an internal review system for panel companies. This evaluation system will analyze elements that impact the online research process to provide a level of assurance as to the work being done by individual companies. It addresses the internal performance as well as a company’s ability to address individual panel member issues.
Awards/rankings
Chicago research software company SPSS Inc. has been recognized by Nucleus Research, Wellesley, Mass., for providing the technological advancements that led to Truckee Meadows Community College winning a 2008 Nucleus Research Technology ROI Award.
Dallas research company e-Rewards Inc. has been named one of the 50 Best Small and Medium Companies to Work for in America by the Society of Human Resource Management.
Kevin J. Clancey, chairman of Copernicus Marketing Consulting, Waltham, Mass., has been inducted into the Market Research Council’s Market Research Hall of Fame.
New accounts/projects
Redlands, Calif., geographic mapping software company ESRI and its ArcGIS Server has been selected by Aqua America Inc., a Bryn Mawr, Pa., water and wastewater company, as the basis of its enterprise-wide geographic information system (GIS).
Separately, the Government of Hong Kong Lands Department (LandsD) recently awarded ESRI a $4.9 million contract to replace its computerized land information system (CLIS). CLIS contains up-to-date digital map data and land boundary records accessed by 450 users in LandsD. ESRI will replace the existing CLIS with an enterprise (GIS), allowing users throughout the department to work with one central geodatabase instead of disparate silos of data.
Additionally, GeoDecisions, a Harrisburg, Pa., IT company, has signed an enterprise license agreement with ESRI.
New York research company Arbitron Inc. has signed a contract with the New York Giants professional football team for Portable People Meter custom radio ratings services.
Separately, KidCARE TV, producers of place-based digital video education programs in doctors’ offices, has signed a contract for Arbitron custom services to measure how pediatrician office visitors and employees experience the network. Arbitron will conduct custom surveys of patients and visitors exposed to KidCARE TV about their advertising recall, awareness of the media, acceptance of the content and overall experience.
San Francisco research company Peanut Labs has signed a deal with Beverly Hills, Calif., games company Acclaim to source potential survey respondents from its community of online multiplayer gamers.
Aloft Hotels, a new brand offering from White Plains, N.Y., hotelier Starwood Hotels & Resorts, has selected LRA Worldwide Inc., Horsham, Pa., to design and deploy its brand assurance evaluation program. This selection is an extension of the partnership between LRA and Starwood.
London research company Ipsos MORI has been commissioned to carry out the National GP Patient Survey for the next three years, from 2008 to 2011. Ipsos MORI has carried out the survey since 2006.
Venco Electronica, a Spanish electronics solution provider, has integrated Tampa, Fla., research company TruMedia’s iCapture audience measurement solution into its digital signage screens.
Additionally, True Colours Distribution, a Hampshire, U.K., digital signage distributor, has signed an exclusive deal with TruMedia.
Nielsen Mobile, a branch of New York researcher The Nielsen Company, and Mediamark Research & Intelligence (MRI), New York, have collaborated to jointly launch Mobile-MRI, an integrated database of consumers’ mobile and offline media usage designed to allow mobile media companies and advertisers target audiences with their mobile campaigns.
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, research firm Insightrix Research Inc. has selected the Oslo, Norway, research software company Confirmit’s platform to support its survey design, data collection, reporting and panel management activities. The deal, which covers Insightrix’s headquarters in Saskatchewan and its subsidiary in Victoria, Australia, will see Confirmit replace the company’s custom-built software solution.
New companies/new divisions/relocations/expansions
London researcher BrainJuicer Group PLC has established a presence in both Australia and Switzerland. BrainJuicer has agreed to license its products to Slater Marketing Group, Mel-bourne, Australia. The license agreement allows Slater to sell BrainJuicer’s services in Australia and New Zealand on a profit share arrangement, which will lead to the acquisition of Slater, dependent on a series of financial targets. BrainJuicer has also opened an office in Switzerland.
London research company DunnhumbyUSA has opened a third office in Chicago. Other U.S. offices are located in Cincinnati and Atlanta.
Matt Dusig and Gregg Lavin, the founders of Encino, Calif., survey sample firm goZing, have launched a new company, United Sample, to offer online survey solutions.
London research company b2b research has opened an office in New York, headed up by Matthew Harrison.
Mexican media company Televisa Publishing & Digital has allied with BIGresearch, Worthington, Ohio, to expand and create a new unit, Televisa Hispanic Insights.
New York researcher The Nielsen Company has extended its agreement with Cincinnati-based Procter & Gamble (P&G). Under the multiyear agreement, Nielsen will provide P&G with marketing information and technology services, including retail tracking, insights on consumer purchase behavior, marketing analytics and Nielsen Answers.
Additonally, Wolters Kluwer Health, a Conshohocken, Pa., health care information company, and The Nielsen Company announced the Healthcare Consumer Informatics Alliance. The first platform, HealthScape, combines de-identified patient prescription-related transaction data with consumer purchasing, attitudinal and behavior information to provide deep insights into therapeutic market activity, patient trends, consumer segmentation and targeting opportunities.
Research company earnings/financial news
National Research Corporation (NRC), Lincoln, Neb., has announced results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2008. Revenue for both quarters ended June 30, 2008 and 2007 was $11.9 million. Net income for both quarters ended June 30, 2008 and 2007, was $1.6 million, or $0.24 per basic and $0.23 per diluted share.
Revenue for the first half of 2008 increased 5 percent to $25.4 million, compared to $24.2 million for the same period in 2007. Net income for the first six months of 2008 increased 11 percent to $3.6 million, resulting in $0.53 per basic and $0.52 per diluted earnings per share, up 13 percent and 12 percent respectively, over the same period in 2007.
Wilton, Conn., research company Greenfield Online Inc. has announced financial results for its second quarter ended June 30, 2008. Total net revenue was $36.0 million for the second quarter of 2008, compared with $30.8 million for the same period in the prior year for an increase of $5.2 million or 16.8 percent, of which approximately $1.8 million or 5.9 percent was due to favorable currency effects.
For the Internet survey solutions segments, total third-party net revenue was $24.6 million for the second quarter of 2008, compared with $23.3 million for the same period in the prior year for an increase of 5.4 percent.
For the comparison-shopping segment, total third-party net revenue was $11.4 million for the second quarter of 2008, compared with $7.5 million for the same period in the prior year for an increase of 52.4 percent.
Total gross profit was $27.2 million or 75.7 percent of revenues for the second quarter of 2008, as compared with $22.6 million or 73.2 percent of revenues for the same period in the prior year.
Operating income was $3.0 million for the second quarter of 2008 or 8.3 percent of revenue, as compared to operating income of $4.4 million or 14.3 percent of revenues for the same period in the prior year. Net income for the second quarter of 2008 was $2.1 million as compared with $3.1 million for the same period in the prior year.
Chicago research software company SPSS Inc. has announced results for the quarter and six months ended June 30, 2008. SPSS reported second-quarter revenues of $75.7 million, an increase of 10 percent from $68.9 million in the second quarter of 2007. Net income was $7.8 million, up 9 percent from $7.2 million in the second quarter last year, with diluted earnings per share of $0.41, a 14 percent increase from $0.36 in the 2007 second quarter. License revenues were $34.8 million, up 8 percent from $32.4 million in the same quarter last year. Operating income was $10.9 million, or 14 percent of revenues, compared to $10.2 million, or 15 percent of revenues, in the 2007 second quarter. Approximately 60 percent of total revenues in the 2008 second quarter came from outside the United States. Excluding the effects of currency exchange rates, total revenues were up 3 percent over the 2007 second quarter.
Norwalk, Conn., research company IMS Health has announced second-quarter 2008 revenue of $600.7 million, up 12 percent (or 4 percent on a constant-dollar basis), compared with revenue of $537.5 million for the second quarter of 2007. Operating income in the second quarter of 2008 was $131.4 million, up 11 percent (or 1 percent constant dollar), compared with $118.1 million in the year-earlier period.
Reston, Va., research company comScore Inc. has announced results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2008. The company’s results reflect the acquisition of M:Metrics Inc., which was completed on May 27, 2008, and include M:Metrics’ operating results since that date. In addition, results excluding the impact of the M:Metrics acquisition are highlighted on a one-time basis for this reporting period to facilitate comparisons with company guidance issued prior to the acquisition.
ComScore reported revenue of $28.8 million for the quarter ended June 30, 2008, an increase of 38 percent compared to the second quarter of 2007 and an increase of 9 percent over the first quarter of 2008. This revenue performance exceeded the range of the company’s guidance of approximately $27.1 million to $27.4 million for second quarter 2008. Excluding the results of M:Metrics, revenue in the second quarter of 2008 was $27.8 million, an increase of 34 percent over the second quarter of 2007.
Non-recurring items for the second quarter of 2008 include an unrealized loss of $386,000 associated with the company’s investment in certain auction rate securities and all non-recurring costs associated with the M:Metrics acquisition. The non-recurring M:Metrics costs include salaries, benefits, payroll taxes and bonuses paid to M:Metrics employees who will be terminated after a transition period in 2008 along with related severance costs and temporary third-party survey research costs that will be eliminated by the end of this year.
International revenue was $4.1 million in the second quarter of 2008, an increase of 75 percent compared to the corresponding prior year period, and accounted for 14 percent of the company’s total revenue in the second quarter of 2008, as compared to 11 percent of total revenue in the second quarter of 2007.
Oslo, Norway, research software company Confirmit reported revenues increased in the second quarter of 2008 by 80 percent to $11.0 million. Operating results for the second quarter totaled $1.2 million, an increase of 154 percent compared to the corresponding quarter of 2007.
Confirmit reported 80 percent revenue growth for the second quarter and 78 percent revenue growth for the first half-year.
United Sample, an Encino, Calif., research company, has announced the closing of its Series A round of venture capital financing, which was led by Sacramento, Calif., venture capital firm DFJ Frontier.
Copenhagen, Denmark, research company iMotions has raised $2 million in bridge funding intended to help iMotions accelerate eye-tracking software (Emotion Tool 2.0) sales before the next round of funding.
Market & Research Corp. (MKRC), Westport, Conn., has submitted a Form 10 to the SEC, requesting re-registration pursuant to the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. This would enable MKRC to apply to become a bulletin board stock.