Synovate

Synovate

Used during the merger transition period in 2011-2012
Type	Subsidiary
Industry	Market Research
Headquarters	London, UK
Key people	Adrian Chedore, Robert Philpott, CEO
Services	Management Consulting, Business Intelligence, Market Analysis
Revenue	US$816 million (Synovate Inc., 2009)
Number of employees	5,968 (Synovate Inc., 2009)
Parent	Ipsos
Website	www.synovate.com

Synovate was a leading global market research company with more than 100 offices in 62 countries. It was acquired by Ipsos in 2011 which combined to be the 3rd largest in the world.

Synovate was one of the largest firms specializing in custom research (customized ad-hoc research). They called themselves the most "curious" people in the world. Divisions included Synovate Healthcare, Synovate Business Consulting, Synovate Customer Experience, Synovate Censydiam and Motoresearch.

Synovate was owned by the Aegis Group. It was formed from the acquisition of a number of market research firms such as Blackstone, Market Facts, Censydiam, ISIS Research, Tribi, Symmetrics, Proactive Insights, and AMI.

Synovate was sold by the Aegis to Ipsos on October 11, 2011 for £525 million (€595 million) The combination of the 5th and 6th largest market research companies formed the 3rd largest market research company in the world with offices in 84 countries. Ipsos announced the agreement in July 27, 2011, and financed the acquisition through a new debt financing of €250 million. Synovate was fully integrated into Ipsos early in 2012.

Following the sale of Synovate, Aegis became a scaled media and digital communications specialist. It returned £200 million to shareholders via a special dividend, sharply reducing net debt from £393 million (in the end of 1st half of 2011) to £128 million (in November 2011)

Ipsos's post-merger revenue has declined every year since 2011. In 2013, Ipsos sued Aegis for £100 million compensation over deception on the sale of Synovate. The case was dismissed by the commercial court in 2015 .