Veteran statistical software house SPSS Inc has agreed to acquire Quantime Ltd, a supplier of software and services to the market research industry, in exchange for 900,000 shares of its common stock. The buy, which values Quantime at just over $28m, is, says SPSS set to change the face of market research. Quantime, which employs 150 people and has offices in London, New York, Cincinnati, Mexico City, San Francisco and Amsterdam, develops software for market researchers, from the design of questionnaire, through data collection up until producing tabular reports. Its 1996 revenues totaled $16m. SPSS says it plans to continue to develop and market the Quantime products, adding and integrating its own SPSS analytical functionality and graphics to the future product lines. SPSS, which was founded as long ago as 1968, has acquired four other companies over the last four years – but three of them were aimed at developing the company’s core scientific software technology. But last year’s acquisition of Clear Software Inc for $4.5m took the Chicago, Illinois-based company in a more commercial direction for the first time. The company has also been pushing its software into the fashionable area of data mining. Later this year the company is planning to launch NewView, a next generation reporting tool it says will enable researchers to access, analyze and distribute information stored in corporate databases. SPSS has around 500 staff and annual revenues of $90m.
