IntelliQuest Information announces the acquisition of market research firm Zona Research.
Under the terms of the merger agreement, IntelliQuest has acquired all the outstanding stock of privately held Zona Research in exchange for 250,000 shares of IntelliQuest stock, a transaction valued at $5.25 million based on its close of 20-5/8 a share Tuesday.
Zona will continue to operate under its own name and serve as a wholly owned subsidiary of IntelliQuest.
"Zona Research has established itself as a leader in providing in-depth analysis and assessments of the business-to-business aspects of the Internet and intranet industries based on factual market data and observations," said Brian Sharples, IntelliQuest president, in a statement.
"Its subscription-based analyst business, combined with our innovative and full-service quantitative research capabilities, provides our customers with an extensive line of market assessment products."
Zona, meanwhile, is looking to enhance the quality of its assessments by leveraging IntelliQuest's leading-edge research capabilities, said Stephen Auditore, Zona Research president.
The deal making began last year, Auditore added. "We were approached by a number of people last fall. We've become a high-profile, successful company and thought IntelliQuest had a lot of synergies."
Auditore noted the company did not have plans to launch an initial public offering and never had any venture funding.
Zona will be joining a company that posted revenues of $26.5 million in 1996, an increase of 38 percent over the previous year. It also reported profits of $2.6 million, up fivefold from a year ago when it posted net income of $565,000.