Kantar announces proposed sale of Reputation Intelligence business to Symphony Technology Group

Kantar, the world’s leading data analytics and brand consulting group, announced the proposed sale of its Reputation Intelligence business to leading software investor Symphony Technology Group “STG”.

Commenting on the announcement Ian Griffiths, Deputy CEO and Chief Financial Officer, Kantar, said: “Today we set Reputation Intelligence’s course for sustainable growth and leadership. Under this new ownership structure, Reputation Intelligence would have the flexibility and capacity to prioritise its growth and innovation priorities. At the same time, this proposed transaction would allow our Media division to focus on its highest priority growth platforms such as Cross Media Audience Measurement and new digital approaches for our Advertising Intelligence and TGI offerings.”

Petra Masinova, future CEO of Reputation Intelligence, added: “In the communications and reputation management space, clients are asking for multi-market, multi-channel, and ever-more value-enhancing solutions. With this proposed sale, we would become a focused company with a strong software and technology-oriented investor and would be better placed to invest to accelerate our product roadmap. We would scale up our insight-led and social media monitoring capabilities, whilst at the same time bringing leading cloud-based capabilities in analytics and artificial intelligence into our portfolio to create fast, flexible solutions helping communications professionals plan and execute better.”

“We are very excited by the opportunity to partner with Reputation Intelligence and the Kantar organization to create an independent market leading data and software company in the communications and reputation management sector,” said J.T. Treadwell, Managing Director at STG. “STG has a long history of driving innovation in companies that operate at the intersection of data, software, and analytics and we believe we would be a great partner for Reputation Intelligence and Kantar on this journey. We look forward to working with Petra and the new team to invest, grow and innovate together.”

The proposed project is expected to conclude by the end of 2021 subject to completion of the relevant shareholder, legal and regulatory processes, and subject to the completion of information and consultation processes with employee representatives where necessary.