Roper Starch Worldwide sold to United Business Media.

United Business Media (UBM; London) has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Roper Starch Worldwide (New York), the leading U.S. consumer market research and trends consultant company, for $88 million in cash. UBM said that Roper will be merged with NOP World's Audits & Surveys Worldwide to create RoperASW.

Roper Starch Worldwide is a consumer trends consulting company. Its assets, including syndicated research, "Roper Reports," "Roper Reports Worldwide" and the "Roper Youth Report," provide U.S. and global consumer trend analysis and marketing consulting to businesses in a variety of sectors, including health-care, financial services, information technology and automotive.

The company's Custom Research division provides research and analysis on brand management, customer satisfaction, advertising tracking, market segmentation, and research on public affairs and public opion studies. For the year ending Aug. 31, 2000, Roper Starch had revenues of $68.8 million and has had double--digit growth for the last three years.

The purchase of Roper Starch closely follows UBM's acquisition of Allison--Fisher International (Detroit, MI), a supplier of syndicated market research for the automotive industry, for $45 million in cash.