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YouGov Buys Swiss Agency LINK
Research and analytics group YouGov has acquired Zurich, Switzerland-based market and social research agency LINK Marketing Services AG. Terms were not disclosed.
 LINK was founded in 1981 in Lucerne, and three years later became the first Swiss market research company to internally develop and use software for CATI surveys. It began offering online surveys in 1998. Clients include leading Swiss companies and multinationals in financial services, FMCG, retail industries and the public sector. Its c.100 staff are split across two divisions, covering full service MR and social research respectively.
Following the buy, the existing LINK management team will continue running the business under its existing name, 'for the foreseeable future'. YouGov says the expansion of its panel into several new European countries has helped recent growth in Mainland Europe, as has a shift towards targeting large-scale, regional tracking projects. The buy will strengthen its offer in what is a key market for a number of its European clients, and assist development of YouGov's syndicated data products in Switzerland - as well as using LINK's strong client relationships to boost subscriptions.
YouGov says collaboration with LINK's social research business, 'highly complementary' to its own existing public data efforts, will help it expand the offering globally; and LINK's high-quality panel of 115,000 members will help to service existing YouGov clients. CEO Stephan Shakespeare says LINK, like YouGov, is 'renowned for world class social and political research'. He adds: 'Switzerland is home to a large number of multinational companies and LINK's data is best-in-class in the market'.
Benedikt Lüthi (pictured), CEO of LINK, comments: 'We are excited to join the YouGov family, and while it opens up a world of possibilities for our clients, we will continue to offer them what they have come to expect from us over the years - the best data drawn from the best panel which provides the most accurate answers'.
With operations in the UK, the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, India and Asia Pacific, YouGov is online at www.yougov.com . LINK's home page is at www.link.ch .
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