TV ratings giant Nielsen goes private in £12bn deal as streaming closes in
Shares are up nearly 20 per cent for TV ratings giant Nielsen after it announced it would be going private in a $16bn (£12bn) deal, including debt.
Led by Brookfield Asset Management and Elliott Management, the deal offers $28 per share, a premium of 60 per cent since early March when the deal talks were first reported.
It comes just days after the firm batted away a takeover bid from a group of private equity firms, who had offered $25.40 per share.
“As a private company, Nielsen will be even better positioned to deliver the best measures of consumers’ rapidly changing behaviours across all channels and platforms,” said Dave Gregory, Managing Partner at Brookfield Business Partners.
Nielsen’s prime focus is on viewership data across TV, radio and digital platforms. This is crucial for advertisers to determine prime-time hours as they grapple with the momentous rise of streaming.
The deal marks the largest buyout since the outbreak of the Ukraine crisis and signals that buyers remain confident in measuring ad reach on cable and broadcast.
However, Elliott’s team suggested that its more broader offering, which includes streaming offerings, may be the most compelling element for the firm.
Nielsen ONE offers a more robust offering for clients, providing reach and frequency metrics across linear programming, streaming, connected TV, and digital channels.
“After months of deep market analysis, industry diligence and management reviews, we are firmly convinced that Nielsen will continue to be the gold standard for audience measurement as it executes on the Nielsen ONE road map,” said the Elliott’s managing partner Jesse Cohn and senior portfolio manager Marc Steinberg in a statement.
As reported by Reuters, the activist investor Elliott had pushed Nielsen for a sale in 2018, forcing the market research company to consider splitting into two publicly traded firms a year later.