Intellicast S5E33 – A Rash of Acquisitions in the MRX Industry

Welcome back to Intellicast!  We have a jammed packed news episode for you today. 

Before jumping into the latest market research news, Brian Lamar and Producer Brian catch up on some current events, including some Halloween talk, as well as talking about the last couple of conferences of 2022.

Then the guys jump into the news, starting with a couple of stories about Momentive.  First, they discuss the announcement that Momentive was reducing their workforce by 11% as part of a restructuring plan. They then touch on another Momentive story that came out a few days after the previous one where they had been approached about another potential sale.

The guys then discuss a string of merger and acquisition stories, starting with the news that Maru Group was acquired by Stagwell, a marketing communications company. They also talk about the acquisition of GutCheck by Toluna, and Voxpopme acquiring Jamin Brazil’s company HubUX. 

As part of the discussion around these acquisitions, it leads Brian and Producer Brian down a road to a couple of philosophical discussions.  One is the impact of investment, specifically in the sample industry, and how it is causing sample to become inconsistent because of the investment. The other is how sample is not a commodity.

After the large acquisitions segment, Brian and Producer Brian touch on the news about the new product enhancement Suzy has rolled out to their platform.

In a story that is right up Producer Brian’s alley, the guys talk about the announcement that Nielsen will be reporting viewing figures for Netflix next year as Netflix rolls out their ad-supported subscription option. This leads to a deeper discussion about the bad blood that existed between the two companies just a few years ago, and how they might have moved forward from it.

In the final story of this extended episode, the guys touch on the latest IPA Bellweather report that found marketing research spending declined 4.1% in Q3 and the third consecutive quarter of a spending downturn.

Thanks for listening!

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