Due to some Dutch bank holidays, I am behind in following some of the blogs lately, and to my surprise, several blogs (e.g. Research Live and the Spanish Netquest or the Dutch Mediaonderzoek) had postings of the proposed merger between GfK and TNS.
And indeed, the TNS website announced discussions between the two MR giants on their website.
They'll be the second largest research agency after Nielsen. We have not yet seen the end of the consolidation in the industry and I wonder what this will mean for companies like Ipsos, Synovate or WPP....
It sounds like a bad idea
ReplyDeletei agree that we have not seen the end of consolidation in the MR industry:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.multiscope.nl/kennis/weblog/fusie-gfk-tns-begin-van-consolidatie.html
Thanks John, I agree indeed. Like ESOMAR is stating in it's latest industry report: Of the research firms ranked in the top 25 ten years ago, 12 have been acquired by the firms on the 2006 list, and replaced by another 13.
ReplyDeleteDue to overwhelming presence of Nielsen in North America, I'd like to see this merger happen. I'd like to see a company strong enough to take on Nielsen, particularly in the television ratings marketplace.
ReplyDeletehi,
ReplyDeleteas an employee of GfK AG, Germany i'm wondering about the logo placed in this blog.
Hope this is not an 'insider' information as i hate this 'pink' especially combined with the very clean an serious squared GfK logo :-)
Don't get me wrong. The logo is not the most important part to be discussed about this merger, but the logo found on this side made me sick :-)
Greets from Germany
syracus
Dear GfK-reader,
ReplyDeleteThank you for leaving a comment! Just to "comfort" you regarding the GfK TNS logo: it's just my funny way of triggering attention and I actually made it myself. So please regard it as a just a "joke". Best of luck to Germany!
Hi emiel,
ReplyDeletewell, my colleague appears to have been a bit confused by all the to and fro.
Actually, I entered this site just because of the amazing logo => great idea! (your joke, not the merger:-(
If anybody wants to know: about 80% of the employees are NOT in favor of this merger. We#d like to go ahead with a fair competition and all the variety of cultures that is left today.
About ten days to go - any more opinions from the real life, i.e. outside our 'orange world'?
Here's the buzz from the US side of the pond. Sales from CR-NA are down in first half of 2008, there is a hiring freeze, Debbie Pruent is "managing" the US from her corporate board of director position in Germany, in the same week that DP cancelled the US summer company picnic bc of poor sales she appeared in the company newsletter at Cannes. Now there's great leadership for you!
ReplyDelete4% of the US Gfk-NA's workforce was laid off this week. Look for deeper cuts before the end of year.
ReplyDelete