Press Releases

April 16, 2001

MindBranch, Inc. Makes Acquisition, Launches New Products that Incorporate Internet into Research Buying and Selling

MindBranch Acquires Intelligex
MindBranch has acquired Intelligex a New York-based company that matches buyers and suppliers of custom research in an online marketplace. Launched in December 2000, Intelligex has attracted more than 225 top companies as participants. Maritz Marketing Research, Yankelovich Partners, Opinion Research Corporation, and Guideline Research are among over 125 research firms that will bid on requests for proposals from 100 research buyers such as Arthur Andersen, Mattel and 24/7 Media.

The first and only online exchange of its kind, Intelligex (www.intelligex.com) will help MindBranch revolutionize the purchasing process for custom research (proprietary marketing research and all forms of custom data and statistics.) Using the Internet, Intelligex creates premium matches between buyers and suppliers increasing the quality of research produced while saving both players time and money in the procurement process. Based upon Intelligex's experience to date, the company estimates that buyers can save as much as 40%-60% on time spent on their research purchases and up to 25% in costs.

By way of introducing MindBranch's client base of 2,000 research buyers and 265 research sellers to Intelligex, visitors to Intelligex.com will be redirected to the custom research area of www.mindbranch.com. MindBranch will quickly integrate Intelligex technology into its current custom research offering.

MindBranch's matchmaking focuses exclusively on eliminating inefficiencies in the procurement of custom research by:

• Offering a robust set of tools that enable decision-makers to produce complete and detailed RFPs and that allow suppliers to quickly turnaround responsive, thorough proposals;
• Culling down potential suppliers to between 3 and 5, MindBranch-evaluated suppliers that market research experts recommend to buyers based on the specifications of each individual RFP
• Providing online negotiation tools that displace the analog processes used until now (face, phone, in-person meetings, email)

"The annual global demand for market research is estimated to be $31 billion. World class corporations use custom market research every day to answer questions like: 'Will customers purchase my new product?'; 'Will they pay more if I guarantee faster delivery?'; 'Why are my competitors gaining market share?'," says Alton Adams, Chief Executive Officer of MindBranch. "However, the research industry that delivers this analysis is deeply fragmented and both buyers and suppliers suffer from high transaction costs. Intelligex's platform is a full service solution that (a) aggregates and matches custom research buyers with MindBranch-evaluated suppliers that best fit their needs and (b) allows them to negotiate, collaborate, and transact custom research online. Intelligex's buyers gain a competitive edge in decision making, while Intelligex's suppliers benefit from improved reach and reduced sales and marketing expenses."

Terms of the acquisition are not disclosed. Intelligex founders Matthew Storm, Thomas Doyle, and Eric Fishman are providing consulting to MindBranch during the transition, but will not join the company.

MindBranch Launches QuickLink Desktop Tool
QuickLink, a Web-based tool designed for business and corporate intranet desktops that helps companies centralize purchasing of market research, track research expenditures, and allows users to share information about reports that they have purchased across their entire organizations, has been launched by MindBranch.

QuickLink is a free, co-branded Web interface customized for client companies, available through their corporate intranet, and includes information on more than 16,000 market-research products; information exclusive to the client such as targeted daily news feeds, analyst insights, customized newsletters; and online account histories.

Functioning as a "research portal" QuickLink helps not only drastically cut the time spent finding appropriate research, it also helps companies track their research spending across multiple offices thus eliminating duplicate purchases and providing users with a list of studies they can share.

"There is tremendous efficiency in being able to find the right research report in real time," says Mr. Adams. "QuickLink not only expedites the search but also eases the administrative burdens of tracking and managing the company's purchase and use of marketing intelligence information. We also add tremendous value with customized news and information."

Among the MindBranch clients which have installed QuickLink are: Scientific Atlanta; Advanced Hardware; Village Ventures; The Parthenon Group; and Telect.

MindBranch, Inc., a privately held company based in North Adams, MA. is the world's largest reseller of market research. With a constantly updated library of more than 16,000 syndicated and custom market research reports, forecasts studies and data from more than 265 research companies around the globe, MindBranch is the most powerful single source for research and market intelligence for over 2000 corporations and small businesses throughout the world.

Founded in 1992 as the Publications Resource Group, the company uses dedicated account consultants to help clients quickly find the best -- and most cost effective -- research and information for their needs. In 2000, the company name was changed to MindBranch as it launched a comprehensive initiative to shift delivery of its products to digital format. MindBranch is also at the forefront of the information industry in developing desktop collaboration tools that help its clients catalogue and share research that may be acquired through various branch offices, thus providing greater cost efficiency for its customers.