Type | Public (NASDAQ: HPOL) |
---|---|
Industry | Market research |
Founded |
|
Headquarters | New York, New York[1] |
Key people | Howard Shecter (Chairman)[2] Al Angrisani (President and CEO)[2] |
Revenue | $184.3 million, FYE June 2009[1] |
Employees | 850 (full time)[1] |
Website | http://www.harrisinteractive.com/ |
Harris Interactive (NASDAQ: HPOL), headquartered in New York, New York, is a custom market research firm, known for the Harris Poll. Harris works in a wide range of industries. Harris claims to have clients in more than 215 countries and territories through North American, European, and Asian offices and a network of independent market research firms.
The company is a member of numerous 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.
Contents |
History
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.[3]
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.[3] 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.[3]
- February 2001 — the custom research division of Yankelovich Partners, Inc., headquartered in Norwalk, Connecticut.[4]
- August 2001 — all of the capital stock of Market Research Solutions Limited, a privately-owned U.K. company headquartered in Oxford, England.[3]
- September 2001 — all of the capital stock of M&A Create Limited, a privately-owned company headquartered in Tokyo, Japan.[3]
- November 2001 — all of the capital stock of Total Research Corporation, a Delaware corporation headquartered in Princeton, New Jersey.[3]
- March 2004 — all of the capital stock of Novatris, S.A. (“Novatris”), a share corporation organized and existing under the laws of France.[3]
- September 2004 — all of the capital stock of Wirthlin Worldwide, Inc. a privately-held California corporation headquartered in Reston, Virginia.[5]
- April 2007 — all of the capital stock of MediaTransfer AG Netresearch & Consulting, a privately-held German stock corporation headquartered in Hamburg, Germany.[6]
- August 2007 — all of the capital stock of Decima Research Inc. (“Decima”), a corporation incorporated in Ontario, Canada. [7]
- 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.[7]
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 (interim) | June 2011 – present |
Harris Poll
The Harris Poll has been running since 1963 and covers a broad variety of topics[8]. 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
- ^ a b c "Harris Interactive - About Us". Harris Interactive. http://www.harrisinteractive.com/about/. Retrieved 23 November 2009.
- ^ a b "Board of Directors". Harris Interactive. http://ir.harrisinteractive.com/directors.cfm. Retrieved 23 November 2009.
- ^ a b c d e f g Harris Interactive| About Us| Our Heritage. Last accessed 2007-03-25.
- ^ Zippern, Andrew. "Technology briefing: Research; Harris Buys Yankelovich Unit" in The New York Times, February 15, 2001.
- ^ "Harris Interactive Inc - HPOL - Unscheduled Material Events". Retrieved 2004-03-26.
- ^ "Harris Interactive Inc - HPOL - News". Retrieved 2007-01-22.
- ^ "Hoovers Company Report". http://www.hoovers.com/company/Harris_Interactive_Inc/jryfxi-1.html. Retrieved October 2, 2011.
"Harris Interactive Drops Lawsuit Against MAPS, ISPs" in Direct, Sept 13, 2000. </ref>