Technology

French firm acquires Synovate

French research firm Ipsos has acquired the operations of Synovate, a move that completes a second ownership change of the former Steadman Group.

The Sh87 billion-worth deal was struck on Wednesday between senior managers of Ipsos and Synovate. Ipsos chief executive officer for sub-Saharan Africa David Somers said the move was driven “by a need to create a better Ipsos for clients and the people".

“We wanted to increase our coverage, scale and capabilities. This acquisition will help us strengthen our operations where penetration has been low, increase revenue and reduce unit cost,” he said. The move increases Ipsos’ coverage from 68 countries to 84, and increases its workforce from 9,500 to 14,500.

The change of ownership will however not result to any management changes at Synovate and its managing director in Kenya, Ms Maggie Ireri will continue serving in her capacity.

The company will use a combined name – Ipsos-Synovate – in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Ghana, Zambia and Cote d'Ivoire, before changing fully to Ipsos where Synovate has had a strong presence.

The merger makes Ipsos, which was established in 1975, the third largest market research company worldwide according to revenue.

Amid controversy

In 2010, Ipsos was at number five with revenue of Sh163 billion and Synovate number six with a revenue of Sh86 billion.

The developments came amid controversy over a media monitoring survey for the second quarter of this year that was cancelled after irregularities were discovered.

Synovate pan Africa executive director, Mr Roger Steadman who will continue serving in his capacity in the combined venture said the irregularities were discovered by the company’s quality control system for the months of May and June.

“We identified discrepancies and because we value integrity, we stopped the survey and notified Karf (Kenya Advertising Research Foundation)” he said.

The Karf secretariat authorised a repeat of the survey focusing on July and the results were later published. According to a letter from Karf chair, Annette Martyres dated September 16, this year and addressed to advertisers, Synovate also conducted a survey for the third quarter and promised to put in place measures to ensure integrity. The letter seen by Nation was copied to Association of Practitioners in Advertising chair, Monty Dhariwal.

“They have full confidence in us and are happy,” said Mr Steadman.

“Ipsos has no connection with Advertisers, Advertising Agencies or Media except as our clients. This is very important and reassuring for clients of our media monitoring and audience research services.”

According to Ms Ireri, operations will continue as usual with the quarterly opinion polls being expected later this month. In Kenya, Synovate derived its revenue from research (70 per cent), media monitoring (20 per cent) and opinion polling (10 percent).