Market Strategies International (MSI), a leading full-service market research firm, announced that it has merged with Flake-Wilkerson Market Insights (F-W), a full service market research firm specializing in large scale customer satisfaction and loyalty assessments.
Flake-Wilkerson will become the Telecommunications Industry Group within Market Strategies International, complementing existing industry groups focused on Energy, Financial Services, Global Life Sciences, Healthcare and Technology. The principal partners of F-W, Karen Flake and George Wilkerson, will join the Executive Committee of MSI. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
"In the evolving research industry, this merger combines the strengths and resources of two firms which are truly dedicated to solving clients' needs," comments Karen Flake. "The F-W team is excited to combine our thought leadership with MSI colleagues whom we have admired over the years. Together, we will bring our clients a wider range of products and solutions along with our ability to respond quickly to requests."
The merger with Flake-Wilkerson follows the July merger of technology specialist firm, Doxus with Market Strategies International and brings the combined companies 2007 revenues forecast to approximately $90M.
"This merger represents another important step in our progress toward offering our clients the best market research and consulting services in the industry" notes Dr. Andrew J. Morrison, CEO of Market Strategies International. "Flake-Wilkerson has established itself with key telecommunications clients as the premier provider of dedicated Integrated Research Centers which provide a wide range of tracking and custom research services to those clients. We believe that the Integrated Research Center platform and services can be of benefit to clients in our other industry groups. Coupled with Market Strategies' advanced analytical capabilities and products, we can deliver a complete market research solution to all of our clients."
Flake-Wilkerson has been headquartered in Little Rock, AR, with offices in Albany, NY, Nashville, TN, Denver, CO, Los Angeles, CA, Stamford, CT, and Atlanta, GA. MSI will continue to operate in all locations.
Market Strategies International was founded in 1989 and is headquartered in Livonia, MI, with regional offices in Portland, OR, New Providence, NJ, Alexandria, VA and Atlanta, GA.
Market Strategies International offers market research solutions and strategic consulting to help clients successfully address their business challenges, with emphasis on customer satisfaction measurement, market opportunity assessment, communications assessment, issue and policy strategy, e-commerce assessment and brand development and management.
Market Strategies International is supported by a significant financial investment from Veronis Suhler Stevenson (VSS), a leading private equity firm which focuses on the media, marketing, information and education industries. VSS Managing Director Chris Russell said "We are very pleased to be funding the growth of MSI. With these two transactions, MSI is moving towards our shared goal of becoming one of the top market research firms in the world". Veronis Suhler Stevenson (www.vss.com) is a private equity firm that invests buyout and structured capital funds in the media, communications, information and education industries in North America and Europe. VSS provides capital for buyouts, recapitalizations, growth financings and strategic acquisitions to companies and management teams with a goal to build companies both organically and through a focused add-on acquisition program. To date, VSS equity and structured capital funds have invested in over 54 platform companies, which have in turn completed over 230 add-on acquisitions resulting in a portfolio with realized and unrealized enterprise values in excess of $12 billion.
