M-Brain acquires Norwegian media intelligence company Opoint

HELSINKI, Finland, April 7, 2016 -- M-Brain, the Finnish globally operating information services, technology and advisory company, expands its operations through the acquisition of Norwegian media monitoring and analysis company Opoint Holding. The acquisition includes Opoint's three subsidiaries in Norway, Sweden and Estonia. All of Opoint's shares are transferred into M-Brain's ownership. The transaction makes M-Brain the leading company in its field in the Nordics.

- The acquisition supports our strategic goal to become market leader in our field in the Nordics and throughout the Baltics. Our aim is to further strengthen our position in the industry, comments M-Brain CEO Kim Nyberg.

- The combined offering of M-Brain and Opoint will be unbeatable, comments Opoint CEO Terje Andersen.

All of Opoint's roughly 150 employees will be transferred to M-Brain. Opoint's turnover in 2015 was approximately EUR 11 million.

After the acquisition M-Brain will have operations in Finland, Sweden, Norway, Estonia, Russia, France, Germany, UK, Canada, US, Brazil, China, Singapore and Malaysia.

According to CEO Nyberg, the industry consists of several, different sized, but mostly smaller players. It must therefore be assumed that the industry's fast consolidation process continues. The digitalization is also continually advancing as a result of amongst others, changes in the traditional media field. At the same time, new intelligence companies specialised in social media continue to emerge as well as hybrid solutions, which combine eCommerce and Big Data. This development leads to the continuous creation of new information needs.

The amount of information continues to grow, but the amount of relevant and analysed data doesn't

In an ever evolving world, the need for relevant and analysed data for corporate decisions and management is all the more important.

- Some 10 years ago, the challenge was simply to find information. Today, the challenge is the excessive amount of data, which continues to grow exponentially. What really is important is to find relevant information while saving time for the end user. The most effective way to manage this is by utilizing semantic Big Data technology combined with human intelligence. M-Brain has been one of the fore-runners when it comes to utilizing hybrid solutions in this industry, says Nyberg.

- The problem companies are facing is that as much as 60 percent of information used for business purposes is historical data. Internal reports show what has worked in the past and what hasn't, but they don't tell what should be done right now and in the future, Nyberg says.

Every year, the amount of stored data grows by about 28 percent, but the amount of analysed data grows only by six percent. Over half of organisations have difficulties in managing all the data they receive.

"M-Brain's Big Data technology currently performs on average 21 billion automated relevance judgments of web material daily, out of which it filters roughly 150 000 pieces of information relevant to our client-base. This number is optimal for the size of our current client-base and increases with the number of clients", states CTO Kimmo Valtonen. "Out of this mass, the company's experts further refine about 10 000 pieces of relevant information daily to support out clients' decision-making."

The role of M-Brain's Big Data technology is based on finding relevant information for our clients. This relevance is based upon automatic data analysis. M-Brain's analysts further refine this information according to the client's needs. At the same time, the system evolves through the involvement of human intelligence in the process, teaching the machine to continuously improve its source and content judgments. The media material handling technology developed by Opoint complements M-Brain's technology, making M-Brain also one of the leading technology providers in the industry.

For further information, please contact:
 
Kim Nyberg, CEO, M-Brain
E-mail: [email protected]
Phone: +358 (0)400 430 538

Joakim Nyberg, CSO, M-Brain
E-mail: [email protected]
Phone: +358 (0)44 538 9227

M-Brain is a global information services company with offices in fourteen countries. Our services are based on a unique combination of our own proprietary big data technology and human intelligence. We offer media, business and market intelligence solutions, strategic analysis and advisory services, consultation services, as well as online intelligence tools and technology to bring true insight into our clients' business environment. Our solutions and services are tailored to serve varying business needs regardless of function, industry type or language barriers. For more information, please visit www.m-brain.com

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