Kantar, the world’s leading data analytics and brand consulting group, today announces the company has reached a definitive agreement with Vista Equity Partners to acquire Numerator, a Chicago-based, tech-driven consumer and market intelligence company. Numerator blends proprietary data, including a digital panel of over one million U.S. consumers, with advanced technology to create unique insights that help companies understand their customers in real time and identify growth opportunities.
Consumer behaviour is transforming radically, and a detailed understanding of these changes is fundamental to strategic decision making for brands. Kantar is committed to remaining at the cutting edge of technology to deliver those critical data-driven insights.
Today, the Worldpanel division of Kantar provides currency grade data in more than 45 countries outside of North America. With Numerator’s world-class data breadth, depth, methodology and delivery platform in the U.S. and Canada, the combined dataset will provide insights into the shopping habits of almost five billion consumers globally. The acquisition is also complementary to the company’s U.S. Ad Intelligence business and exemplifies the role Kantar is increasingly playing at the intersection of brand and technology.
Eric Belcher, CEO of Numerator, commented, “In Kantar we have found a natural home. This is a smart, strategic move by Kantar as they expand their global influence. This combination will create even more value for our customers and for the industry overall.”
In the near-term, Numerator will continue to operate as a stand-alone business. Longer term, the combination of complementary geographies, technologies, methodologies and data is expected to create a step-change in global consumer insights for brands and retailers.
Numerator revenues in 2020 were $176 million including 57% y/y revenue growth of the core shopper panel. The acquisition will be financed by a mixture of debt, equity and cash on the balance sheet. The transaction is expected to complete by Q3 2021, subject to the relevant legal and regulatory processes.
Notes
This announcement contains certain forward-looking statements with respect to certain of our current expectations and projections about future events. These statements reflect management’s beliefs and expectations and involve a number of risks, uncertainties and assumptions that could cause actual outcomes to differ materially from any expected future outcomes expressed or implied by the forward-looking statement. The information contained in this announcement is subject to change without notice and, except as required by applicable law, we do not assume any responsibility or obligation to update publicly or review any of the forward-looking statements contained in it. Readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, which speak only as at the date of this announcement.