New York – While consolidation has not taken off in the larger-picture equity research industry, there are a few hubs where consolidation has indeed dominated in the recent past and continues to shape these spaces. One example is the ESG research space where around 20 firms have been involved in some form of consolidation in the last two years. The survey research space is another hub where consolidation rules.
This week, e-Rewards, a survey research firm based in Dallas, announced its acquisition of Peanut Labs, a social media survey firm in San Francisco. The acquisition will allow e-Research to conduct online research surveys within the social media space. Respondents complete a preliminary profile questionnaire that enables Peanut Labs to target these respondents with the most appropriate survey invitations. Peanut Labs has established partnerships with over 200 highly-diversified social media applications and communities, including major social and gaming networks such as Facebook, Zynga and MySpace. Its respondent pool is currently around 240 million consumers.
About a year ago, e-Rewards acquired ResearchNow, an online panel research firm based in the UK. This transaction added stronger online survey capabilities and global reach to e-Rewards’ US coverage. This year the two companies are consolidating their brands under the Research Now name. Peanut Labs will retain its brand. Its survey business will trade as part of Research Now and will cease to be client-facing trading brand from January 1, 2011, when all of Peanut Labs operations will be fully integrated with Research Now.
Integrity will continue to track and inform our readers about further consolidation (of lack thereof) in the research industry.
About e-Rewards, Inc.
e-Rewards, Inc. headquartered in Dallas, TX, owns Research Now, the leading global online sampling and online data collection company, recognized for delivering high-quality panelists, high response rates, and industry-leading panel retention rates. Research Now serves over 2,000 clients, has over 900 employees and a multilingual staff located in 21 offices around the globe.
About Peanut Labs
Headquartered in San Francisco, CA,Peanut Labs currently manages monetization for more than 200 million monthly website visitors. The company has won numerous awards, including a FAST Top 50 2008 ranking and the Advertising Research Foundation’s 2008 Silver Innovation Award.