IMS buys Brewers Marketing Intelligence

Details of the buyout were confirmed in South Africa this week by George Wishart, New York-based CEO of IMS and Terry Sullivan, Managing Director of IMS (UK).

Announcing the takeover, Wishart expressed his delight in having found the right partner in South Africa.

"Chris Brewer, and his company, is exactly what we were looking for," said Wishart. "I don't think any other person or company has such an intimate knowledge of this market. We were looking for strong leadership in South Africa and we found it in Brewers."

"This merger is perfect for both parties," said Brewer. "We have established ourselves, since 1989, as leaders in provision of market intelligence and, last year, launched our own software for reading AMPS data.

"Our challenge was that, despite making excellent inroads into the media analysis market, we didn't have software to read RAMS or TAMS - both of which are vital components. And then the Americans and the British arrived and I just knew, from the very first meeting, that we would work well together."

"IMS is a big company" said Brewer. "As part of the giant VNU group, IMS is an international leader in providing media planning and analysis software to over 1,500 advertising agencies, publishers and broadcasters around the world.

Taking raw data from research companies, their software enables a range of analyses to be performed - from simple cross-tabulations of data through TV, Press, Radio and Internet planning, to more complex correspondence and cluster analysis.

"When we launched our own AMPS software," said Brewer, "we were very much aware that further expansion was going to be tough - mainly because of the sophisticated software available elsewhere. We looked at the other competitive products available here and it was immediately obvious that IMS had the best solutions of them all. At that stage we had absolutely no idea they might be looking for a South African partner.

"It's very easy to join forces with people you like - and, in my opinion, it's the most vital aspect of any business deal. I really do like these guys so it's going to be a great deal of fun taking on this market."

Brewers Interactive Market Systems will be run by Chris Brewer, as Managing Director, out of offices in Johannesburg and Cape Town - reporting directly to IMS in London.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

IMS is owned by VNU, a company which employs 38,000 people worldwide and is active in more than 100 countries with revenues exceeding $US 4 billion.

VNU's headquarters are in New York and The Netherlands. It is listed on Euronext Amsterdam stock exchange and the company is part of the AEX index of leading Netherlands-based stocks.

VNU is the world's leading market research company. It measures retail sales of consumer packaged goods and studies consumer attitudes and behaviour. It is also the world's leading supplier of media and entertainment information - measuring audiences for television, motion pictures, radio, print, the internet and other major media.

IMS is the largest international provider of information systems for the advertising industry. It has the best, most consistent method of calculating readership build and has the only software which offers probability based Reach & Frequency analysis of all industry standard surveys.

Its software includes: