Nielsen Holdings PLC agreed to promote itself to a bunch of private-equity corporations in a deal that values the media-measurement firm at $16 billion together with debt, resurrecting a deal after talks fell aside final week.
A consortium led by Elliott Administration Corp.’s private-equity arm and Brookfield Asset Administration Inc. agreed to pay $28 a share for the corporate Tuesday.
The Wall Avenue Journal reported earlier Tuesday that the 2 sides have been near such a deal.
Nielsen had been in superior talks with the buyout corporations to go non-public in a deal that will have valued the corporate at $25.40 a share. However Nielsen rejected the deal final Sunday. It mentioned WindAcre Partnership LLC, a Houston funding agency that has a roughly 10% stake within the firm and an extra 14% by means of swaps, advised the corporate it will purchase a big sufficient stake to dam the transaction if accomplished.
WindAcre was notified of the brand new deal forward of time, however hasn’t indicated whether or not it helps it, folks accustomed to the matter mentioned. WindAcre didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark Tuesday.
The brand new deal value represents a roughly 60% premium to Nielsen’s share value earlier than The Wall Avenue Journal reported a deal was within the works earlier in March. Nielsen shares rose sharply after that and remained elevated after the talks fell aside. They closed Monday at $22.21.
The deal is absolutely financed and features a 45-day “go-shop” interval, which permits Nielsen to solicit presents from different bidders throughout that interval.
Nielsen measures U.S. TV scores, which give viewers estimates that networks use to promote industrial time and reassure advertisers they received what they paid for. Its maintain has been loosening as streaming positive aspects steam and conventional broadcast and cable TV lose viewers. Whereas the New York-based firm has launched metrics for streaming in recent times, it’s certainly one of many gamers in that area.
Elliott has owned a stake in Nielsen since 2018, when it known as for the corporate to discover a sale. The next 12 months, Nielsen mentioned it will spin off a part of its enterprise to create two separate, public corporations: International Join, a market-analytics operation that measures retail and shopper conduct, and the core media enterprise.
International Join was offered final 12 months to private-equity agency Creation Worldwide Corp. for almost $3 billion and is now often called NielsenIQ.
Toronto-based Brookfield has a presence in additional than 30 international locations and about $690 billion in property below administration throughout various funding methods resembling buyouts, actual property, infrastructure and personal credit score.
Elliott, which has about $52 billion below administration, is finest recognized for its activist investing however has extra not too long ago been energetic in non-public fairness. It’s doing the deal by means of its private-equity arm, Evergreen Coast Capital Corp.
In January, Evergreen Coast agreed with a associate to purchase cloud-computing firm Citrix Techniques Inc. in what’s the third largest deal introduced to this point this 12 months, in accordance with Dealogic.
The Nielsen deal, price roughly $10 billion on an fairness foundation, can be among the many largest introduced to this point this 12 months. A slowdown in merger volumes pushed by market volatility has curtailed the variety of large offers getting signed.
This story has been printed from a wire company feed with out modifications to the textual content
Supply: Live Mint