United Business Media (UBM; London) has agreed to sell NOP World (New York), a supplier of syndicated and custom marketing research, to Gfk AG (Nuremberg, Ger.) for $725 million.

United Business Media (UBM; London) has agreed to sell NOP World (New York), a supplier of syndicated and custom marketing research, to Gfk AG (Nuremberg, Ger.) for $725 million. Gfk said the acquisition will move it from being the 10th largest research firm in the world into the top five with pro forma annual revenues of more than $1.2 billion. NOP offers services in six major industry markets, automotive, business and technology, consumer and retail, financial services, health and media. Four of the company's five 'Centers of Excellence' focus on stages of the marketing cycle, including Market Opportunity, Brand Strategy, Marketing Effectiveness and Customer Management. The fifth, NOP's World's Research Center, provides research design, methodologies and analytics. UBM also said it is in discussions to sell several other non-core assets, including its minority stakes in news production company ITN, Internet horse racing service SIS, Paperloop, Inc., news service the Press Association, and British TV Channel 5.