Kantar may be best known in the media space for its U.S. Ad Intelligence business, which tracks ad spending globally across a range of media channels and provides media planning and other tools for advertisers. Now the London-based media and market research giant is expanding its knowledge base of consumer purchase behavior with a $1.5 billion purchase of Numerator. Chicago-based Numerator has a digital panel of over 1 million U.S. consumers along with a tech platform that allows it to extract insights from them to help companies understand their customers in real time and identify growth opportunities. It has been backed by buyout fund Vista Equity Partners since 2017.
Kantar’s Worldpanel division provides data in more than 45 countries outside of North America. The deal will expand Kantar’s presence in the U.S. giving it access to a wider collection of panelists and making it a bigger competitor to Nielsen in the area of consumer panels.
Merging Numerator’s dataset with Kantar’s will provide insights into the shopping habits of almost five billion consumers globally. Kantar says the acquisition, which is expected to close in third quarter 2021, will complement its U.S. Ad Intelligence business as it looks to play a larger role at the intersection of brands and technology.
As consumer behavior continues to change at a lightning pace, Kantar says brands need to better understand these behavioral shifts when making strategic decisions.
“In Kantar we have found a natural home,” Numerator CEO Eric Belcher said in a press release. “This is a smart, strategic move by Kantar as they expand their global influence. This combination will create even more value for our customers and for the industry overall.”
Initially, Numerator will continue to operate as a stand-alone business. Longer term, the two companies plan to combine complementary geographies, technologies, methodologies and data with the goal of creating “a step-change in global consumer insights for brands and retailers.”