e-Rewards Owners 'Seeking a Sale'

The private-equity backers of e-Rewards - owner of Research Now and Peanut Labs - are said to be in discussions to find a buyer, according to sources quoted on Bloomberg, with a price tag of 'at least $600m' according to one contact.

e-Rewards bought online panel specialist Research Now in the autumn of 2009, and adopted the ResearchNow brand worldwide around a year later, also snapping up social media sampling firm Peanut Labs in 2010. A year later it added social media specialist Conversition Strategies, and in 2012 it acquired mobile research specialist iPinion, which it has rebranded it as 'Research Now Mobile'.

An article on www.bloomberg.com this week quotes 'people with knowledge of the matter' saying the company is working with Morgan Stanley to find a buyer via a private sale, and has at least one interested party. Backers include private equity firms TA Associates Inc. and Sutter Hill Ventures, and venture capital firm Polaris Partners.

Spokesman at Morgan Stanley, the investor firms and e-Rewards itself have not responded to reporters' enquiries seeking comment, and at the time of going to press e-Rewards had not responded to DRNO's own enquiry.

e-Rewards was founded in 1999 and has around 1,200 employees, reporting c.$300m in revenue last year according to Bloomberg's sources. The company's home page is at www.e-rewardsinc.com .