Top tens of 2013: News stories

1. Ipsos wants $100m back from Aegis over Synovate sale – Bloomberg
Ipsos accused Aegis Group of inflating profits and failing to disclose tax and fraud probes at Synovate prior to its purchase by Ipsos in 2011, according to a Bloomberg report. 

2. Millward Brown signs Unilever and Coke to facial coding deals
Millward Brown announced a major expansion of its Link and facial coding technology offerings, with Unilever and Coca-Cola amongst the first clients to make use of the service in 2013. 

3. Ipsos warns of slowing pace in market research market
With marketing budgets being tightly controlled, Ipsos warned in April that the market research market might not grow in 2013.

4. Salesforce.com buys EdgeSpring
CRM software developer Salesforce.com bought business intelligence and analytics platform provider EdgeSpring. 

5. BrainJuicer cut 9% of staff after profit warning
BrainJuicer announced in January that it had cut 9% of its workforce in the latter part of 2012 after a sharp downturn in revenues in the final two months of that year. 

6. BSkyB, TNS and Incite win big at MRS Awards 2013
BSkyB clinched three top prizes at the MRS Awards in December – walking away with Client of the Year, Best In-house Team, and the AURA/MRS Insight Management Award. TNS and Incite were crowned Best Agencies.

7. Biggest market research firms top $8.8bn in revenue for 2012
In his final Global Top 25 report, the late Jack Honomichl announced that the world’s biggest market research firms grew revenues by 2.6% in 2012, despite nearly half reporting declining sales compared with 2011. 

8. TNS’s Judith Passingham to join Ipsos in 2014
In May, Research exclusively revealed that Judith Passingham, TNS’s chief executive for Northern and Eastern Europe, was set to join Ipsos in 2014. In December, it was confirmed that Passingham would become global CEO for Ipsos Interactive Services.

9. Harris Interactive to be acquired by Nielsen
Nielsen struck a deal to acquire Harris Interactive for $116m.

10. Nielsen ‘making layoffs’ after Arbitron buy
US marketing press reported that 500 jobs were at risk following the merger of Nielsen and radio ratings firm Arbitron.

Check back tomorrow for the Top 10 features of 2013