By Staff Writer
JSE-listed Cognition has moved to take full ownership of BMi Sport, a research firm specialising in consumer and industrial research.
The South African firm that operates quietly to provide telecoms and IT solutions to big telecommunications operators currently holds 63% interest in BMi Sport, and has struck a deal with two remaining shareholders (David Ian Sidenberg and Wayne Deary) to buy the remaining 37% shareholding for an undisclosed amount.
BMi Sport was established in 1990 as an independent research company focusing exclusively on the sport and sponsorship market.
It has been at the forefront of the industry and has, through its ongoing commitment to the development of unique sponsorship evaluation research products, become recognised as a leader in its field, both in South Africa and internationally.
Cognition also owns Knowledge 350, a specialised consulting services division, which collects data in line with POPI, creates permission-based marketing, and transforms raw data to information and ultimately knowledge.
This division was created to deal with the challenges of companies collecting data while respecting that customers own their data and have rights to privacy around the data.
Knowledge 350 assists companies to manage these challenges and to exploit opportunities.
Cognition Holdings, formerly known as FoneWorx, has successfully traded for the past 19 years, building solid blue chip clients such as Cell C, DStv, MTN, SAB, SABC, Telkom, Unilever and Vodacom.
Cognition presently operates in 38 countries in Africa through relationships with 95 mobile networks. It provides SMS campaigns, which are part of its active data exchange services such as SMS, instant/multimedia messaging service (IM/MMS), interactive voice response (IVR), etc.
