Nielsen snapped up by private equity consortium for US$16bn

Nielsen is being acquired by a private equity consortium for about US$16 billion, including the assumption of debt. The consortium is led by Evergreen Coast Capital Corporation, an affiliate of Elliott Investment Management, and Brookfield Business Partners together with institutional partners.

The deal was previously priced at US$15 billion including debt, according to The Wall Street Journal. A few days later, however, WSJ reported that Nielsen rejected the offer as it "undervalues the company".

This time around, Nielsen's Board of Directors voted unanimously to support the acquisition proposal, which represents a 10% premium over the consortium's previous proposal and a 60% premium over Nielsen's unaffected stock price as of 11 March 2022, the last trading day before market speculation regarding a potential transaction. The Board reached this determination following a comprehensive review of the proposal, with the assistance of its independent financial and legal advisors. The bid was US$28 per share.

Managing partner Jesse Cohn and senior portfolio manager Marc Steinberg on behalf of Evergreen and Elliott said after months of deep market analysis, industry diligence and management reviews, it is firmly convinced that Nielsen will continue to be the gold standard for audience measurement as it executes on the Nielsen ONE roadmap.

"Having first invested in Nielsen nearly four years ago, we have a unique appreciation for the company's ongoing relevance to the global, digital-first media ecosystem. Today's outcome represents a significant win for Nielsen's shareholders and for the business itself, as our multi-billion-dollar investment will help Nielsen reinforce its transformation at this critical inflection point," they said. Nielsen CEO David Kenny and the existing management team will remain with the company following the acquisition.

Elliott previously purchased an 8.4% stake in Nielsen in 2018 and the latter also received interest from several other private equity firms. Two years later, Nielsen entered into an agreement with Elliott which saw the former agreeing to increase the size of its board of directors and appoint media veteran Jonathan Miller to the board. According to an SEC filing, Elliott had a 13% economic interest in Nielsen at that time.

In November 2020, Nielsen sold its global connect business to private equity firm Advent International for US$2.7 billion. Nielsen Global Connect offers retailers with data and insights to turn market observations into business decisions and is now known as Nielsen IQ.

For decades, Nielsen has been the benchmark for TV measurement but the rise of streaming posed a stumbling block for the company. Nielsen has attempted to double down on the integration of streaming data into its media planning products. In February this year, Nielsen Media Impact expanded its coverage to include streaming data from CTV for a better full cross-platform audience reach of TV, digital, radio, print, and OOH.

Aside from streaming, Nielsen also hit a road bump last September when the Media Rating Council suspended its accreditation to measure national and local TV in the US after it undercounted national TV household viewership during the pandemic.

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