News notes
The Wall Street Journal has reported that CNBC will no longer use Nielsen to measure its daytime audience. Instead, it will use the services of Cogent, a unit of Market Strategies International, which will survey over 1,000 investors and financial advisers on their media habits during the day and use that data to provide ratings for CNBC. CNBC has long claimed that Nielsen’s in-home-viewing-based system underestimates the network’s total viewership by excluding viewers in places like offices and airports. “Nielsen has never measured us accurately,” CNBC President Mark Hoffman told theJournal. “If we can’t count the people the right way we can’t get paid the right way.” Cogent ratings will be used starting in the fourth quarter of 2015.
Los Angeles software firm MarketShare has formed a technology advisory board comprised of five experts from the fields of ad technology and big data software to guide the firm’s product development. Former executives from major Internet firms are included on the board, including Greg Badros, currently at Prepared Mind Innovations and formerly at Facebook and Google, Gokul Rajaram, currently at Square and formerly at Facebook and Google AdSense, and John Slade, formerly at Yahoo!
Acquisitions/transactions
Teradata, a Dayton, Ohio, data analytics company, has purchased Appoxee, a Tel Aviv, Israel, marketing firm. The acquisition will allow Teradata to enhance its mobile marketing capabilities with Appoxee’s marketing automation platforms.
Datawise Management Services, a Hyderabad, India, management consulting firm, has acquired ComSim Inc., a Fairfield, Conn., research company, through a stock purchase.
Stamford, Conn., researcher FocusVision has acquired Fresno, Calif.-based Decipher for an undisclosed amount. FocusVision clients will now have access to Decipher’s survey and reporting software platforms and survey tools, while Decipher clients will maintain access to all research portals, tools and reports. Jamin Brazil will remain CEO of Decipher while Jayme Plunkett will become chief product officer for the combined company.
San Mateo, Calif.-based Fractal Analytics has acquired Mobius Innovations, a mobile context awareness platform founded by Fractal’s co-founder Nirmal Palaparthi, to enhance the company’s flagship Customer Genomics personalized marketing solution.
Facebook, Menlo Park, Calif., has acquired Wit.ai, a speech recognition start-up located in San Francisco, for an undisclosed sum.
Safe Foods International Holdings (SFIH), Washington, D.C., has acquired the International Food Network (IFN), a product development consultant in Ithaca, N.Y. IFN will be partnering with The National Food Laboratory, another division of SFIH, to provide product and process development services. It will have four test facilities with culinary kitchens, sensory booths and analytical labs in San Francisco, Ithaca, N.Y., Naples, Fla., and Reading, U.K.
New York researcher Nielsen has acquired Brandbank, a Norwich, U.K., firm that creates, manages and distributes content for multichannel retailing. Nielsen will acquire all Brandbank data, working processes and current client work. Terms were not disclosed.
In London, user design specialist Foolproof has acquired technology firm Knit for an undisclosed sum. Knit produces personalization and targeting software. Under the agreement, Knit will retain its name and founder Nick Thompson will continue to run the company.
In San Francisco, software giant Oracle will acquire New York firm Datalogix, which operates an audience tracking tool for over $2 trillion in consumer spending. Terms were not disclosed.
Dun & Bradstreet, Short Hills, N.J., has acquired NetProspex, a Waltham, Mass., B2B data firm for $125 million. NetProspex and its employees are now a part of Dun & Bradstreet and will continue to operate out of the Waltham offices. NetProspex CEO Michael Bird will transition to general manager of the newly-named Dun & Bradstreet NetProspex.
British ad management company Admedo has acquired New York-based online advertising and targeting specialist Dispop. Terms were not disclosed.
New York researcher Millward Brown has acquired Habitus Investigaci—n, a research firm in Quito, Ecuador. Habitus has its own national demographic panel and has developed proprietary software for questionnaire design. It also provides a range of qual and quant market research services.
Portland, Ore., software firm Janrain has acquired Arktan, a Redwood City, Calif., firm specializing in social media engagement and trends. The merger will allow Janrain to integrate its customer identity information with engagement and activity data, allowing marketers to better understand their customers. Arktan co-founder Rahul Aggarwai has joined Janrain as general manager of its customer engagement business unit.
Cincinnati researcher Burke, Inc., has acquired Seed Strategy, a Cincinnati marketing and advertising firm.
AppNexus, a New York technology firm specializing in online advertising, has acquired MediaGlu, a Baltimore marketing company.
IS Solutions, a Middlesex, U.K., software firm, plans to purchase Speed-Trap Holdings, parent company of Celebrus Technologies, London. The cost of the acquisition is estimated at £7.5 million.
Microsoft has acquired Equivio, an Israeli-based data analytics software firm, for a sum reported as between $150 and $200 million. The Equivio software allows governments, corporations or other large organizations to sift through large amounts of data to locate references to legal or compliance issues.
Alliances/strategic partnerships
PlaceIQ is partnering with Starcom MediaVest Group (SMG) to develop a software platform, SMG MAPS, which uses consumer behavioral, demographic and consumption data across geographies and devices to provide insights for media planning and measurement.
Literated, a Bangalore, India, research firm, and iData Insights, a New Delhi research firm, have partnered to allow the distribution of iData Insights’ proprietary market analysis through the Literated.com Web site.
Portland, Ore., researcher Rentrak is partnering with Wilton, Conn.-based Kantar Shopcom, the analytics and insights division of Kantar, to integrate the Kantar retail purchase data and information for over 300 million U.S. consumers into Rentrak’s software for measuring television viewing. In turn, Shopcom will add the Rentrak TV viewing information from millions of U.S. households into its targeting and measurement software.
Nebu, the Netherlands-based software firm, is branching into the U.S. by partnering with thinqonline, New York, to be its sole U.S.-based reseller.
Actus Sales Intelligence, Fort Worth, Texas, has announced a strategic partnership with Sales Training and Results (STAR), with offices in Myrtle Beach, S.C., and Kingston, Mass. STAR provides training for sales and management staff. Actus will now offer the training workshops to the marketing research industry.
Awards/rankings
In London, technology firm Intellection received the Market Research Society/ Association for Survey Computing (MRS/ACS) Award for Technology Effectiveness for its entry Insight Out. This annual award is for innovative applications of software or technology which contributed to an improvement in the effectiveness of market research.
Blueocean Market Intelligence, Seattle, has been honored in two national public relations awards programs. PR Daily’sDigital Awards 2014 and PR News’Digital PR Awards both awarded honorable mentions to the firm for enterprise-level social intelligence campaigns.
Pizza chain Papa Murphy’s has been named a Chain Restaurant Consumers’ Choice Award winner for 2015 by Chicago research firmTechnomic and awarded the quick-serve concept most likely to be recommended by consumers.
New accounts/projects
Portland, Ore., researcher Rentrak has signed a multi-year agreement with Citadel Communications for its ABC affiliate in Providence, R.I. (WLNE).
Sorenson Media, a Salt Lake City technology firm, is partnering with Neustar, a Washington, D.C., business information firm, to integrate Neustar’s real-time data into Sorenson’s Spark Enlight TV analytics products.
Lightspeed GMI, a Warren, N.J., research firm, will serve as the 2015 fieldwork partner for Superbrands U.K., with its proprietary panels being used for the annual Consumer Superbrands, CoolBrands and Business Superbrands surveys.
New companies/new divisions/relocations/expansions
Integrated Strategic Information Services Inc. (I.S.I.S.), a San Francisco competitive intelligence firm, has changed its name to INOVIS as part of a broad restructuring.
HCD Research, Flemington, N.J., has established a new division, HCD Neuro-Cognitive Financial Insights, headed by Steve Burns, vice president of business strategy. The division will integrate applied consumer neuroscience with traditional cognitive marketing research to better understand how consumers make decisions as to financial and insurance products.
London research firm SPA Future Thinking has opened a pharmaceutical health care division in Paris, Future Thinking Pharma. It will be led by Beatrice Chemla.
Offerwise, an Ashburn, Va., research firm, has opened a Sao Paulo office.
Research firm Annik Inc. has moved into a larger facility in Bellevue, Wash., which will serve as a delivery center as well providing more office space.
Nashville-based 20/20 Research is opening a United Kingdom office to make its products and services more readily available throughout Europe, the Middle East and Africa. It will be headed by David Chandler, a U.K. market research veteran. Separately, 20|20 Research has moved its headquarters and focus group facility to the historic Frost Building in central Nashville, Tenn. The firm is leasing all 31,000 square feet of space and has updated the technology of the building.
James Industry Research Group (JIR Group), a marketing research consulting, design and management firm, has launched. The firm will specialize in convention and trade show research and was recently awarded contract as the exclusive preferred research vendor and research broker for Reed Exhibitions and will manage all research activities at Reed trade shows.
B2B International, Manchester, U.K., has opened an office in Singapore, to be headed by Stephanie Teow, who previously was a research manager in the U.K. office.
In Chicago, Tania Haigh has launched Magnolia Insights, a research agency specializing in marketing to women.
ABN, a Hong Kong research company, has opened an office in Indonesia, to be led by Kurt Thompson.
Research software provider Dapresy has opened a new office in Brisbane, Australia, led by Heath Adams as managing director, Australasia. The firm is headquartered in Norrkoping, Sweden.
Peter Brook has set up a new Fort Lauderdale, Fla., firm, Travel Tech Strategies. He will work with clients in the travel sector to collect and analyze large volumes of data to find market trends, customer preferences and other patterns.
Australia-based Clinical Network Services (CNS), which provides services in the planning, implementation and delivery of preclinical, Phase 1 and 2 trials, has established a new office in the U.S. under the name Clinical Network Services USA Inc. CNS appointed Megan Hill as business development manager in the U.S.
Research company earnings/financial news
London-based researcher BrainJuicer announced its 2014 revenue increased 1 percent to £24.6 million. Its U.S. revenue increased by 5 to 6 percent on a constant currency basis. The company is predicting pre-tax profits for 2014 of at least £4 million.
Mixpanel, a San Francisco-based analytics firm, has raised $65 million in a new investment round.
UniversalSurvey and SurveyHealthCare, New York researchers, have completed an equity and debt funding round, intended for platform development and future mergers and acquisitions.
Lancaster, Calif.-based Simulations Plus Inc., a provider of simulation and modeling software for pharmaceutical discovery and development, reported financial results for its first quarter of fiscal year 2015 ended November 30, 2014. Simulations Plus Inc. acquired Cognigen Corporation through a merger that closed on September 2, 2014, and the numbers presented here represent the consolidated financial results. Net revenues increased 54.7 percent, or $1.4 million, to $4.1 million from $2.6 million; $1.1 million of the increase was from Cognigen consulting revenue. Gross profit increased 40.9 percent to $3.1 million from $2.2 million; $600,000 of this increase is due to Cognigen revenue. Income before taxes and net income decreased approximately 22 percent due mainly to the effect of one-time charges for the Cognigen merger. As a result, diluted earnings per share decreased $0.01 to $0.03 from $0.04 per share. Without the one-time charges, diluted earnings per share would have been approximately $0.05 per share, up 58 percent.
AppFlyer, a mobile app tracking and analytics firm based in Israel, has raised $20 million in Series B funding which will be used to further develop its platform and open new offices.
Manchester, U.K., research firm RealityMine obtained $2.5 million of new investment funding, which has been earmarked for recruiting technical, sales and client support staff.
GraphLab, a Seattle-based software firm, has rebranded to Dato and has completed a $18.5 million Series B investment round.