Jump to content

The Harris Poll

Edit links
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Kku (talk | contribs) at 10:28, 8 April 2016 (lx). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

This article is about the pre-acquisition marketing research firm. For the current company, see The Harris Poll. For the American college football poll, see Harris Interactive College Football Poll.
Harris Interactive, Inc.
Company typePublic
Nasdaq: HPOL
IndustryMarket research
Predecessor
  • 1956 (1956) (Louis Harris & Associates)
  • 1975 (1975) (Gordon S. Black Corporation)
Founded1997 (1997)
FounderGordon S. Black
DefunctFebruary 3, 2014 (2014-02-03)
HeadquartersRochester, New York
Key people
Howard Shecter
(Chairman)[1]
Al Angrisani
(President and CEO)[1]
RevenueDecrease US$ 165 million (2011)[2]
Decrease (US$ 7 million) (2011)[2]
Decrease (US$ 8 million) (2011)[2]
Total assetsDecrease US$ 72 million (2011)[2]
Total equityDecrease US$ 11 million (2011)[2]
Number of employees
733 (full-time), 187 (part-time) (2011)[2]
Websitewww.harrisinteractive.com

Harris Interactive, headquartered in Rochester, New York,[3] was a market research firm, known for "The Harris Poll". Harris worked in a wide range of industries, across countries and territories through North America, Europe, and Asia. The company was a member of several research organizations, including the US National Council of Public Polls, the British Polling Council, the Council of American Survey Research Organizations, the US Council for Marketing and Opinion Research, and the UK Market Research Society.

In November 2013, Nielsen Holdings agreed to purchase Harris Interactive for $116.6 million.[4] The purchase was completed on February 3, 2014.[5] The Harris Poll continues to run and current releases by The Harris Poll can be found on their new website.[6]

History

Former headquarters in Brighton, Monroe County, New York

Harris Interactive was founded by Dr. Gordon S. Black in 1975, then a professor of political science at the University of Rochester in New York. The company was originally named the Gordon S. Black Corporation. In 1996, it acquired Louis Harris & Associates (founded in 1956) from the Gannett Corporation. In 1997, the merged company renamed itself Harris Black International Ltd.[7]

Growth of online polling

In 1997, the Internet was relatively new to the non-technical public. Harris Black International Ltd began exploring its use in the fall of that year.[7] In December 1999, it went public and re-branded itself as Harris Interactive, a name that hinted at the increasing role of interactive surveys on the Internet.

Mergers, Acquisitions, and Sale of Business

The Gordon S. Black Corporation was founded in 1975 as a New York corporation. It formed and became part of the Delaware corporation now known as Harris Interactive in 1997. During these years, the company’s acquisitions have included:

  • February 1996 — all of the stock of Louis Harris and Associates, Inc., headquartered in New York.[7]
  • February 2001 — the custom research division of Yankelovich Partners, Inc., headquartered in Norwalk, Connecticut.[8]
  • August 2001 — all of the capital stock of Market Research Solutions Limited, a privately owned UK company headquartered in Oxford, England.[7]
  • September 2001 — all of the capital stock of M&A Create Limited, a privately owned company headquartered in Tokyo, Japan.[7]
  • November 2001 — all of the capital stock of Total Research Corporation, a Delaware corporation headquartered in Princeton, New Jersey.[7]
  • March 2004 — all of the capital stock of Novatris, S.A. ("Novatris"), a share corporation organized and existing under the laws of France.[7]
  • September 2004 — all of the capital stock of Wirthlin Worldwide, Inc. a privately held California corporation headquartered in Reston, Virginia.[9]
  • April 2007 — all of the capital stock of MediaTransfer AG Netresearch & Consulting, a privately held German stock corporation headquartered in Hamburg, Germany.[10]
  • August 2007 — all of the capital stock of Decima Research Inc. ("Decima"), a corporation incorporated in Ontario, Canada.[11]
  • August 2007 — all of the capital stock of Marketshare Limited, a company incorporated under the laws of Hong Kong, and Marketshare Pte Ltd, a company incorporated under the laws of Singapore.[11]
  • February 2014 — Harris Interactive joins Nielsen. Nielsen and its wholly owned subsidiary, Prime Acquisition Corp., completed tender offer to buy all outstanding shares of common stock of Harris Interactive, Inc. (NASDAQ:HPOL). Harris Interactive became a wholly owned subsidiary of Nielsen and its shares ceased to be traded on the NASDAQ Stock Market.[12]
  • June 2014 — ITWP Acquires Harris Interactive UK, Harris Interactive SAS in France, and Harris Interactive AG in Germany from Nielsen.[13]
Chief executives
Name Tenure
Gordon S. Black 1975 – January 2004
Robert E. Knapp January 2004 – May 2005
Gregory T. Novak May 2005 – October 2008
Kimberly Till October 2008 – June 2011
Albert A. Angrisani June 2011 – March 2012 (interim)
March 2012 – February 2014 [5]

Harris Poll

The Harris Poll has been running since 1963 and covers a broad variety of topics.[14] In 1997, Harris Interactive began developing an on-line version of The Harris Poll. It has also developed several Internet-based polls in conjunction with other companies.

References

  1. ^ a b "Board of Directors". Harris Interactive. Retrieved 23 November 2009.
  2. ^ a b c d e f Harris Interactive, Inc. (2011-09-28), FORM 10-K FOR THE YEAR ENDED JUNE 30, 2011, Washington, D.C.: U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, File 000-27577, film 111112283, retrieved 2012-03-30 {{citation}}: horizontal tab character in |id= at position 6 (help)
  3. ^ http://www.harrisinteractive.com/AboutUs.aspx
  4. ^ Feltner, Kerry (November 25, 2013). "Nielsen Holdings to acquire Harris Interactive for $116.6 million". Rochester Business Journal. Rochester, New York. Archived from the original on January 9, 2014. Retrieved January 9, 2014.
  5. ^ a b Harris Interactive, Inc. (2014-02-03), Form 8-K for HARRIS INTERACTIVE INC, Washington, D.C.: U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, File 000-27577, retrieved 2015-02-12 {{citation}}: horizontal tab character in |id= at position 6 (help)CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link)
  6. ^ http://www.theharrispoll.com/
  7. ^ a b c d e f g Harris Interactive| About Us| Our Heritage. Last accessed 2007-03-25.
  8. ^ Zippern, Andrew. "Technology briefing: Research; Harris Buys Yankelovich Unit" in The New York Times, February 15, 2001.
  9. ^ "Harris Interactive Inc - HPOL - Unscheduled Material Events". Retrieved 2004-03-26.
  10. ^ "Harris Interactive Inc - HPOL - News". Retrieved 2007-01-22.
  11. ^ a b "Harris Interactive Inc - HPOL - News". Retrieved 2007-01-22.
  12. ^ http://www.nielsen.com/us/en/press-room/2014/harris-interactive-joins-nielsen.html
  13. ^ http://www.harrisinteractive.com/vault/ITWP_Acquires_Harris_Interactive_Europe_from_Nielsen.pdf
  14. ^ "Hoovers Company Report". Retrieved October 2, 2011.

Further reading

"Harris Interactive Files Suit Against AOL, Microsoft, Qwest, and other ISPs Over Restraint of Trade"

"Harris Interactive- Information from Answers.com"

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Harris_Poll&oldid=714213009"