First years in France
Ipsos was founded in 1975 by Didier Truchot, who had experience working in the Institut français d'opinion publique.
Truchot centered in offering services to the advertising and media companies and developed methods to measure the success of their campaigns, something new in France. The first of these methods was the Baromètre d'Affichage (BAF) in 1977, an instrument to analyse the effectiveness of billboard advertisements. It was followed by an instrument specific for media and, in 1979, the France des Cadres Actifs (FCA), which was used to determine reading habits of French executives.
Despite the success, the company's profitability remained at modest levels until the arrival of Jean-Marc Lech as co-chairman. From then on, it started to perform public opinion researches, another innovative activity in the French market. By the end of the '80s, it was the fifth largest media research company in France. The great activity of French policymakers at the time helped to strengthen the position of the company, especially the public opinion research sector.[7]
European expansion
During the 1990s, Ipsos expanded, principally through acquisitions, to Spain, Italy, Germany, the United Kingdom and Central Europe, especially Hungary.
In 1992, the company was opened to private investment to improve its purchasing capital. The first new shareholder was Baring Private Equity. Truchot and Lech, the major shareholders, retained two-thirds of the company.[7]
Global expansion
In the mid-1990s Ipsos was one of the most important research companies in Europe and decided to expand globally. Ipsos took on new investment partners, selling 40 percent of the company to Artemis Group, led by François Pinault, and the Amstar investment fund led by Walter Butler.
In 1997, Ipsos entered into the South American market with the acquisition of Novaction’s companies in Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico. In 1998, it entered the North American market with the purchase of the American company ASI Market Research.
In 1999, Ipsos was listed on the Paris stock exchange. The successful offering enabled Artemis and Amstar to cash out on their investments and also gave Ipsos the possibility to continue its expansion. Then, it participated of the creation of an Internet audience research joint-venture, MMXI Europe, with the majority of shares held by partner Media Matrix and 20 percent by Ipsos. The company also took control of four subsidiaries of NFO Worldwide specializing in the formation of access panels. The expansion continued in Asia, South America and especially in North America (with the purchase of the Canadian company Angus Reid, renamed Ipsos-Reid in 2000).
In 2009, Ipsos partnered with Thomson Reuters to conduct multi-country polling on consumer topics, politics, and economic confidence. The results of the polls would be published on Reuters.[8]
