Ipsos

M&A Activity • Jul 29, 2009

Pr e ss R e l e a s e

Ipsos acquires MRBI, the leading polling and research player in Ireland.

Paris, 29 July 2009. Jean-Marc Lech and Didier Truchot, Co-Presidents, announce today that Ipsos has signed an agreement to acquire Market Research Bureau of Ireland Limited (MRBI), Ireland's leading polling and research company. Should the European Competition Authority approve it, Ipsos will acquire 100% of the share capital of the company from WPP.

Ipsos is the second largest survey based research company in the world, headquartered in Paris and with offices in more than 60 countries. Ipsos initially entered the Irish market with the acquisition of Mori MRC in 2005. The opportunity to make another Irish acquisition came about for Ipsos as a result of an EC ruling which required WPP to sell MRBI for competition reasons.

Founded in 1962 and acquired by TNS in 1996, MRBI is the longest established custom market research business in Ireland. The company has a varied business mix, with particular strengths in polling, media audience measurement and stakeholder management research. MRBI, that employs 34 full-time staff, is primarily known for custom quantitative research, but also operates a significant panels business and has built a strong qualitative team.

Didier Truchot commented: "MRBI has an excellent reputation in the industry for the quality of its work over a long history. We are delighted to welcome MRBI's team, whose talent, experience and long lasting relationships with local clients will greatly benefit the Ipsos group."

Damian Loscher, Managing Director of MRBI said: "Ipsos are world leaders in public opinion, media, customer loyalty and communications research, which creates obvious synergies for our business and will allow us to bring new and innovative thinking and techniques to the Irish market and to our clients."

Press release (continued) – 29 July 2009

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