Wharton Econometric Forecasting Associates

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Wharton Economic Forecasting Associates (WEFA) was a world-leading Economics forecasting and consulting organisation founded by Nobel Prize winner Lawrence Klein.

WEFA's LINK project, to produce the world's first global macroeconomic model, was mentioned in his citation for the Economic Sciences in 1980.

WEFA was a spinoff of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where Klein taught. WEFA traced an interesting path from its initial launch in 1963 to its ultimate merger with DRI (formerly Data Resources Inc.) to form Global Insight in 2001, as summarized in the timeline below.

[edit] General corporate timeline

  • 1963: Wharton Econometric Forecasting Associates is founded as a non-profit. [1]
  • July 14, 1979: McGraw-Hill announces it plans to buy Data Resources, a major competitor of Wharton Econometric Forecasting Associates for about $103 million.[2]
  • December 18, 1979: It is announced that University of Pennsylvania plans to sell its controlling interest in Wharton Econometric Forecasting Associates, and has held talks with three potential buyers. [3]
  • June 12, 1980: Ziff-Davis Publishing Co., a privately held publishing and broadcasting company, purchased Wharton Econometric Forecasting Associates Inc. from the University of Pennsylvania for an undisclosed amount. [4]The University said it retained a minority interest. [5] Ziff announced that Wharton Econometric Forecasting Associates would be the cornerstone of a new company, Strategic Information, which planned to spend tens of millions of dollars in the next five to six years to acquire state of the art computer equipment, according to Dennis O'Brien, who was named COO and Executive Vice President.[6]
  • March 18, 1983: Cie International de Services en Informatique (CISI), a computer firm owned by the French government, acquires an 80 percent interest in Wharton Econometrics from Ziff Davis Publishing Co, and an option to buy the remaining 20 percent in 1985. At the time, Wharton Econometrics is expected to generate revenue of USD 8 million in 1983. [7]
  • June 20, 1983: CISI Wharton, part of the French CEA, announces plans to invest USD 12 million over the next three years to position the newly enlarged entity as one of the world's leading economic forecasters. [8]
  • November 16, 1986: It is announced that WEF Associates, a group of European investors headed by M Gerard Vila, would acquire CISI Wharton. At the time, CISI Wharton was described as having generated losses of FFr 100m in 1984-85 on revenue of FFr 94m, and employing 200 people. [9]
  • April 1, 1987: WEF Associates AG, the parent of Wharton Econometric Forecasting Associates, announced that it acquired Chase Econometrics from Chase Manhattan Bank N.A., a unit of Chase Manhattan Corp, and that the new entity would be called WEFA-CEIS, Wharton Consulting and Economic Consulting and Economic Information Services. [10] Chase Econometrics had been founded by Michael Kaye Evans, who had previously collaborated with Klein at Wharton but parted ways. An earlier magazine article had described Wharton Econometrics as "austere and academic", Data Resources as "cerebral and expanding", and Chase as "outspoken and controversial".[11] Lawrence Chimerine, chairman of Chase Econometrics, became chairman and CEO, of the new business, while Lawrence Klein was positioned to act as a consultant and continue to oversee the board. [12]
  • April 11, 1987: Wharton Econometrics and Chase Econometrics agreed to call the merged companies Wharton Economics rather than the originally proposed name, WEFA-CEIS. According to the CEO Lawrence Chimerin, the term "econometrics" was dropped, because the consolidated company would broaden its services from econometric modeling to areas such as financial analysis, planning support, and software development.[13]
  • August 2, 1994: Information Partners, a private investment group affiliated with Bain Capital and focused on investments and acquisitions in the information services marketplace, announced that it had completed the purchase of The WEFA Group.[14] The transaction was later valued at USD 20 million. [15]
  • January 16, 1997: Primark Corporation, headed by chairman and CEO Joseph E. Kasputys, announced it entered into an agreement to acquire WEFA Holdings Inc. from Bain Capital Inc. and other shareholders in a USD 45 million cash transaction.[16] According to Primark, WEFA had revenues of about USD 29 million in 1996 and was profitable. [17] It was also reported that in selling WEFA, Information Partners had earned a ninefold return on its August 1994 acquisition. [18] In its press release, Primark said Allen Sinai was named to the new position as WEFA's chief global economist, and that William Mundell would continue as WEFA's president and chief executive. [19]
  • Early-1997 to June 1998: Primark holds discussions with several prospective buyers, including Reed Elsevier. Reed Elsevier withdrew its offer while it dealt with a possible merger with Wolters Kluwer.[20]
  • June 5, 2000: The Thomson Corporation announced that it would acquire Primark Corporation. [21] At this point, Primark's key brands included A-T Financial Information, Baseline, Disclosure, Datastream, Global Access, GlobalTOPIC, I/B/E/S, MarketEye, PIMS, WEFA, Worldscope and Vestek. Thomson announced that is was looking at how it could integrate Primark's offerings with its own brands such as ILX and First Call. [22] The deal came as a further sign of Thomson's moves to extract itself from some of its traditional operations such as small-circulation newspapers to move toward electronic-based business. [23] It was announced that Thomson was acquiring Primark for approximately USD 842 million, and the assumption of USD 235 million in Primark debt, while Primark had 1999 revenues of USD 495 million. Joseph E. Kasputys, Primark's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, became Chairman of Thomson Financial.[24]
  • March 2001: Joseph Kasputys forms Global Insight, Inc. to be a leading company providing business executives, investors and government officials with economic information, analysis and solutions. [25]
  • May 7, 2001: Global Insight announced it would acquire DRI and WEFA from their respective parent companies to form its first subsidiary, DRI-WEFA Inc. DRI, formerly known as Data Resources Inc. was at this point a unit of The McGraw-Hill Companies, a New York publisher and financial services company, while WEFA was a unit of The Thomson Corporation, a Toronto diversified information company. Joseph Kasputys was the chairman and main shareholder in Global Insight and led the acquisition. [26] At the time of the merger, Kasputys, who had previous roles as a senior executive of both WEFA and DRI, said that he had wanted to bring together DRI and WEFA since 1990. [27] Kasputys had also been executive vice president of McGraw-Hill until 1987. At the point of the merger, WEFA had about 220 employees and DRI about 250. [28] At its peak, DRI, the larger of the two, had brought in USD 100 million in revenue. [29] Including new subsidiaries Primark Decision Economics; DAFSA, a European market research company; and Primark Poland, a software development company; Global Insight was planned to employ about 500, have 30 offices world wide, and have annual revenue of USD 70 million.[30]
  • 2005: Global Insight reportedly generates revenue of USD 86 million. [31]

[edit] References

  1. ^ “Big Forecasters Failed to Predict Own Misfortune”, Los Angeles Times, 1985-3-3 
  2. ^ “McGraw-Hill announces it plans to buy Data Resources headed by Prof Otto”, New York Times Abstracts, 1979-7-14 
  3. ^ “Pennsylvania Univ to sell controlling interest in its Wharton Econometric”, New York Times Abstracts, 1979-12-18 
  4. ^ “ZIFF CORP. PLANS ENTRY INTO FINANCIAL-INFORMATION SYSTE”, The Wall Street Journal, 1980-6-18 
  5. ^ “ZIFF CORP. ACQUIRES WHARTON ECONOMETRIC FORECASTING”, Dow Jones News Service, 1980-6-12 
  6. ^ “ZIFF CORP. PLANS ENTRY INTO FINANCIAL-INFORMATION SYSTE”, The Wall Street Journal, 1980-6-18 
  7. ^ “Cie International de Services en Informatique of France has acquired an 80% interest in Wharton Econometrics of Philadelphia, USA from Ziff Davis.”, Textline Multiple Source Collection (1980-1994), 1983-3-18 
  8. ^ “CISI Wharton, part of the French CEA, is to invest $12m over the next 3 years, making the newly enlarged entity one of the world's leading economic forecasters.”, Les Echos, 1983-6-20 
  9. ^ “CEA Industrie of France, part of Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique, is selling its economic information and forecasting division, CISI Wharton, to WEF Associates of Switzerland.”, Textline Multiple Source Collection (1980-1994), 1986-11-16 
  10. ^ “WEF ASSOCIATES ACQUIRES CHASE ECONOMETRICS”, Dow Jones News Service, 1987-4-1 
  11. ^ Flash and a Touch of Brash (HTML). Time. (1979-6-25). Retrieved on 2007-05-05.
  12. ^ “Wharton's Swiss Parent Buys Chase Econometrics --- A Wall Street Journal News Roundup”, The Wall Street Journal, 1987-4-2 
  13. ^ “COMPANY NEWS; Company Returns To Wharton Name”, The New York Times, 1987-4-11 
  14. ^ “Information Partners completes purchase of The WEFA Group”, Business Wire, 1994-8-2 
  15. ^ Year End Deal List 1994 (HTML). Private Equity Week. (unknown). Retrieved on 2007-05-05.
  16. ^ “Primark Corporation to Acquire WEFA Holdings, Inc.”, PR Newswire, 1997-1-16 
  17. ^ “Primark Corporation to Acquire WEFA Holdings, Inc.”, PR Newswire, 1997-1-16 
  18. ^ “Cognizant to Report $5.4 Million First Quarter Gain From Sale of WEFA Group, Inc.”, PR Newswire, 1997-3-19 
  19. ^ “Primark Completes Acquisition of WEFA Holdings, Inc.”, PR Newswire, 1997-2-7 
  20. ^ “Thomson Corp. to Acquire Primark”, Information Today, 2000-7-1 
  21. ^ “The Thomson Corporation to Acquire Primark”, Business Wire, 2000-6-5 
  22. ^ “Thomson Corp. to Acquire Primark”, Information Today, 2000-7-1 
  23. ^ “Thomson snaps up U.S. giant Buys major financial information firm Primark for $842-million, continuing its makeover into e-powerhouse”, The Globe and Mail, 2000-6-6 
  24. ^ “The Thomson Corporation to Acquire Primark”, Business Wire, 2000-6-5 
  25. ^ “DRI-WEFA Announces Appointment of Chief Economist”, PR Newswire, 2001-5-17 
  26. ^ Hilsenrath, Jon (2001-5-7), “McGraw-Hill, Thomson Units Merge to Form Separate Entity”, The Wall Street Journal 
  27. ^ Loyd, Linda (2001-5-8), “Eddystone, Pa., Economic Research Firm to Merge with Massachusetts Company”, Knight Ridder Tribune Business News - KRTBN 
  28. ^ Loyd, Linda (2001-5-8), “Eddystone, Pa., Economic Research Firm to Merge with Massachusetts Company”, Knight Ridder Tribune Business News - KRTBN 
  29. ^ Hilsenrath, Jon (2001-5-7), “McGraw-Hill, Thomson Units Merge to Form Separate Entity”, The Wall Street Journal 
  30. ^ “Global Insight Creates Economic Powerhouse With Five Acquisitions”, PR Newswire, 2001-5-8 
  31. ^ “Lexington's Eye on the World”, The Boston Globe, 2006-6-1