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Ipsos Acquires F-Squared
Ipsos has this week announced its acquisition of F-Squared, the Central and Eastern European custom researcher. According to the agreement, Ipsos will acquire all of the company's holdings. Set up in 1997, F-Squared has offices in Moscow, Warsaw, and Kyiv (Ukraine).
Operating mainly in Russia and Poland, F-Squared's revenues are believed to have reached a total of USD 5.6 million in 2001. The company conducts research across all C.I.S. markets and Central European countries. Multi-country research for 2001 is thought to have accounted for some 20 percent of overall trading.
F-Squared was originally founded in 1997, in Moscow, by Shane Farrell and Michael Fodor. Both have lived and worked in the region for ten years. In 1999, the company expanded into Poland, and the Warsaw office is now fully established under the management of Daniel Leis. In total, F-Squared currently employs 86 full-time staff across three full-service offices. The company's clients include Kraft Foods, GuinnessUDV, Japan Tobacco, Unilever, South African Breweries, and Danone.
Jean-Michel Carlo, chairman and CEO Ipsos Europe, said 'With F-Squared, Ipsos enters high potential markets in marketing and advertising research, two major specializations of the Group. Ipsos is already present in Poland and Hungary. With the acquisition of F-Squared, the Group becomes one of the major survey-based research companies in Central and Eastern Europe.'
Shane Farrell and Michael Fodor, founding partners of F-Squared, said, 'We are tremendously excited to join the Ipsos group. The company's philosophy of being 'multi-local' exactly mirrors our own, making for an excellent partnership. Our team looks forward to bringing even more value to our expanding client base by offering Ipsos technologies, methodologies, and products.'
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