ISG Buys Benchmarking Specialist Compass

Information Services Group (ISG), the acquisition vehicle formed by former VNU boss Michael Connors, has bought UK-based Compass, which provides business and IT benchmarking, performance improvement and analytics services. Terms were not disclosed.

Founded in 1980, Compass has 180 employees in 16 countries including the US and UK, Canada, France, Germany, Spain, Italy and Australia. The company applies metrics to understand the root causes of organizational performance issues, and offers benchmarking, analysis and transformational consulting services to global blue-chip clients.

ISG, which already owns outsourcing advisory consultancy TPI, is acquiring Compass from its current shareholders who include founder Olof Söderblom (pictured), senior management and a syndicate of private investors. Marek Gumienny, an investor in Compass and Chairman of UK-based private equity firm Candover Partners, has agreed to purchase an additional 500,000 ISG shares following completion of the transaction, which will bring his ISG holdings up to approximately 4.7% of the total outstanding shares.

ISG says the acquisition will unite TPI with Compass, to create a business of more than 600 employees in 21 countries on six continents.

'TPI and Compass will together take advantage of the robust demand for insight and operational expertise required by our clients around performance improvement and transformational change,' explains Chairman and CEO Connors. 'Importantly, this acquisition also represents the next step in executing our strategy of building ISG into a premier global information-based services company.'

ISG was founded in 2007 to acquire companies in the market research, analytics, media measurement, advisory services, data collection and data mining, and related sectors. The group's first major purchase was of TPI for $280m in cash.

Web sites: www.informationsg.com , www.tpi.net and www.compassmc.com .

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.