South African Agency BMi Acquired

South African consumer and industrial researcher BMi Research has been acquired by telecoms and IT solutions provider Cognition Holdings Limited, which was previously a minority shareholder.

Last summer Cognition - which was then known as FoneWorx - bought 35% of BMi which it said would strengthen its customer consulting business unit Knowledge 350 degrees by helping it analyse and exploit the mass of consumer data gathered through its various mobile technology platforms. Two months ago, Cognition acquired an additional 4.7% of BMi from an existing minority shareholder, and it has now agreed the purchase of the remaining 60.3% from three remaining shareholders.

BMi provides custom qual and quant solutions including pricing research, in a broad range of sectors including automotive, CPG, financial, food services, IT, manufacturing, retail and wholesale. Cognition says it will 'look at' offering its clients services and skills around shopper insights, category quantification, in-store observations and mystery shopping, and both companies' clients will be offered the full range of products from both. This aside, the acquisition 'will in no way impact clients, suppliers, staff or operations of the two businesses'.

BMi Chief Exec Gareth Pearson says the deal is positive for both parties: 'BMi Research, for example, is looking to grow its advanced analytics and facilitate data usage optimisation for it clients in line with current market trends. This is directly aligned with Knowledge 350˚'s offering. There are also favourable opportunities to take the BMi Research brand into Africa with our current clients, and our position within the Cognition group will now help facilitate that'.

Cognition CEO Mark Smith (pictured) comments: 'We have been extremely happy with our relationship with BMi Research, and felt the timing was right to consolidate BMi Research into the group and leverage our collective skills towards our efforts in the knowledge economy'.

Web site: www.cognitionholdings.co.za .