YouGov Regulatory News (YOU)

28 Apr 2009 07:00



28 April 2009

YOUGOV ANNOUNCES ACQUISITION IN USA 

YouGov Plc ("YouGov"), the online market research agency, today announced an acquisition in the USA, having reached agreement to acquire the trade and assets of C. Horizons LLC (trading as Clear Horizons) for an initial consideration of $0.6m and a maximum consideration of $2.7m based on the achievement of a performance related earn-out over a three year period.

Clear Horizons is a Princeton, New Jersey based research firm specialising in branding, customer satisfaction, and new product market research. The business is profitable and combines strong technology sector expertise with advanced analytics skills and a commitment to online research.

Clear Horizons brings to YouGov's operations in the USA a list of blue chip clients and a team of excellent researchers. Using a consultative approach based on online surveys and sophisticated analytics, Clear Horizons will be able to take advantage of YouGov's existing US data collection infrastructure and extend the range of its market research activities. The acquisition is expected to be earnings enhancing in the current financial year.

Commenting, Nadhim Zahawi, Chief Executive, said: "This acquisition fits our defined strategy for expanding our US business and will provide immediate benefit by utilising our excellent online panel. There is a good fit between Clear Horizons' research capabilities and our data collection and product offerings such as BrandIndex. This expansion will help us in achieving our goals in the USA and provide a solid foundation for future organic growth."

Andy Cross, Clear Horizons' President and CEO, said:

"We are excited to be joining the YouGov organisation and look forward to accelerating YouGov's growth in the US. Prior to the acquisition we already had the opportunity to use YouGov's US panel as a customer and found it to be robust and highly scalable, with an excellent reporting platform. We are confident that by combining our analytic capability with YouGov's infrastructure we can offer even greater value to our current and new clients."

Enquiries 

YouGov plc 

Nadhim Zahawi / Alan Newman 

+44 (0)20 7012 6000 

Grant Thornton UK LLP 

Gerry Beaney / Colin Aaronson 

+44 (0)20 7383 5100

Financial Dynamics 

Charles Palmer

+44 (0)207 831 3113