comScore Sells ARS Assets to MSW

US ad measurement specialist MSW Research has acquired the non-health copy-testing and non-health equity tracking assets of comScore's ad research arm ARS for an undisclosed sum. comScore will retain the health-based copy-testing/equity tracking assets following the divestiture.

comScore acquired ARS in 2010, in a bid to strengthen its position in the cross-media measurement arena. However the online measurement pioneer has seen its revenues impacted by declines at ARS and has been making noises about selling it for some time.

Founded in 1968 and headquartered in Evansville, Indiana, ARS works with advertisers to measure, optimize and predict the effectiveness of their ad messages. The firm's products evaluate and quantify the impact of campaigns run on any combination of media, including TV, print, radio, outdoor and digital.

MSW - formerly McCollum Spielman Worldwide - has now formed a new business called MSW-ARS, to offer a suite of products to evaluate, quantify and optimize the impact of advertising messages across the same range of media.

Peter Klein, Senior Partner and CEO of MSW comments: 'We're extremely excited to have joined forces with ARS. They are a unique team of exceptional researchers that we have competed with for years, and I have tremendous respect for them and their products. Now as a combined force, our clients will benefit even further from a staff of first class senior researchers that have experience working with the world's leading brands'.

comScore President and CEO Magid Abraham said the divestiture of the ARS assets will enable his firm to focus attention on comScore's core products, while thanking the ARS employees for their service and wishing them every success at MSW.

Web sites: and www.mswarsresearch.com .

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