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Cable World Staff
Nielsen Media Research Inc. is being acquired by Dutch publisher VNU NV for $2.7 billion. VNU will pay about $2.5 billion in cash for Nielsen, as well as assuming about $200 million in debt.
The Netherlands-based VNU, which owns a stable of U.S. trade magzines including Adweek, Billboard and Hollywood Reporter, will later issue shares to refinance half the cost of the purchase, and it will assume $200 million in debt as part of the buy, raising the cost of the buy to VNU to $2.7 billion.
Key to VNU's acquisition of New York-based Nielsen is its Internet rating service, Nielsen/Net Ratings. VNU estimates Nielsen/NetRatings is worth about the same as rival Media Metrix, which has an estimated market value of about $650 million. Both companies are in a hotly contested rivalry to count U.S. Internet users with tracking software placed on consumers' personal computers.
In announcing the acquisition, VNU said Nielsen also has "a good position in the area of measuring Internet use," and the merger will help VNU expand in these markets.
"An IPO will be in the not-too-distant future," VNU USA chairman Jerry Hobbs said last week at a press conference about VNU's plan to buy Nielsen. "While nothing is absolutely decided, there's an indication that we'll move in that direction, probably within a year's time."
The market for Internet audience measurement services is expected to reach $100 million by 2003 from $19 million last year, according to market researcher Forrester Research Inc.
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