TNS has acquired Compete for $75m (£37.8m). The digital intelligence company conducts continuous analysis of internet clickstream data from close to 2m people, weighted to match the US online population.
This information is used to measure how consumers consider, engage with and buy a client's products or services online, relative to those of the competition.
TNS will apply Compete's ability to profile, measure and segment the online behaviour of consumers to its own 6th dimension access panels. This will begin in the US where TNS has a fully managed access panel of more than 1m people and will then be extended across its network.
David Lowden, chief executive of TNS, said: "This acquisition is an important move for TNS that builds on our ability to help clients understand consumer behaviour in the new and highly complex digital world."
TNS reported revenue growth of 6.3% and said that cash generation was strong, allowing the completion of its share buy back programme. In total £100m has been returned to shareholders.
The group reported a good performance in its syndicated services based on their market positions and the strength of their service offering.
It also reported strong growth in global accounts. Revenue growth from its global partnership accounts was 13%, which is more than double the rate of the group overall.
TNS continued to focus on becoming more cost efficient in 2007 by making improvements to its operational infrastructure.
Over 630,000 hours of work was off-shored to lower cost destinations, representing an increase of over 50% from 2006.
TNS is also continuing to reduce unit costs of data collection, including the transition of more surveys to the internet.
In 2007 the amount of business attributable to data collected using internet access panels grew by 15%. In Europe and Asia, this growth was over 20%.
TNS said that in 2008 it will continue to expand internet research coverage in Europe, Asia and Latin America.
Lowden said: "2007 was a successful year for TNS, with good revenue growth, margin improvement and cash generation. We continued to make excellent progress against the key objectives that support our strategic goal to become the global leader in delivering value-added insights to our clients."