Description
J.D. Power is an American data analytics and consumer intelligence company founded in 1968 by James David Power III. The company, headquartered in Troy, Michigan, describes itself as "a global data & analytics company." It conducts surveys of customer satisfaction, product quality, and buyer behavior for the automotive, banking & payments, wealth & lending, telecommunications, insurance, health, travel and utilities sectors. The firm is best known for its customer satisfaction research and benchmarking on new-car quality and long-term dependability. Its service offerings include industry-wide syndicated studies, proprietary research, consulting, training, and automotive forecasting.
McGraw Hill Financial purchased from James David Power III in April 2005. Dave Habiger was named its president and CEO in March 2018, with the objective of continuing to aggressively build and enhance the company's data and analytics and customer insights leadership. On July 30, 2019, equity firm Thoma Bravo announced that they had reached an agreement to buy the company from XIO Group for an undisclosed sum. On December 16, 2019, J.D. Power announced a merger with Autodata Solutions, a provider of data and software for the automotive ecosystem. The merger marked the completion of J.D. Power's acquisition by Thoma Bravo, a leading private equity firm, and owner of Autodata Solutions.
J.D. Power reportedly charges hundreds of thousands of dollars to carmakers for access to its survey results, a large fee to mention their awards in advertisements, and has a service to help companies make improvements that should raise their rankings.
History
J.D. Power was founded in 1968 by James David Power III. Power had previously worked in advertising and doing customer research for the Ford Motor Company, where he felt customer satisfaction data was too often overlooked. He later joined Marplan, and then McCulloch, a chainsaw manufacturer. He left his position at McCulloch and founded J.D. Power and Associates on April 1, 1968. The company incorporated on February 7, 1969.
In 1973, the company first drew significant national attention when Julia P. Power, working from the results of customer surveys, discovered a design flaw in the O-rings of certain Mazda rotary engines. The report was then publicized by the Wall Street Journal and widely repeated in other outlets. In the following years, J.D. Power and Associates became particularly known for its automotive customer satisfaction rankings, while continuing to work in other areas such as food and computers. The firm created the first Dealer Attitude Study in 1976 and the U.S. Automotive Customer Satisfaction Index in 1981.
In a commercial during Super Bowl XVIII in 1984, Subaru became the first company to use its ranking in the J.D. Power Awards to promote its product, which one journalist described as a "watershed moment for the company". In the decades since, J.D. Power's rankings have appeared in more than two billion advertisements and become "an international household name".
In 2002, the company moved its headquarters from Agoura Hills, California, to Westlake Village in Ventura County. In 2005, James David Power was ready to retire and sold the firm to McGraw Hill Financial and also resigned as chairman. In September 2016, McGraw Hill sold JD Power to XIO Group for US $1.1bn.
J.D. Power expanded its offerings to sell financial and insurance products through car dealerships in 2017. In March 2018, Dave Habiger was named its president and CEO, with the objective of continuing to aggressively build and enhance the company's data and analytics and customer insights leadership.
On December 16, 2019, J.D. Power was acquired by Thoma Bravo and, as part of this acquisition, JD Power was merged with Autodata Solutions, a provider of data and software for the automotive ecosystem.
