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Nielsen Media parent, VNU, agrees to $9B purchase


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Updated

Companies like Nielsen Media Research, ACNielsen and the Hollywood Reporter now have a new owner. Make that plural.

Netherlands-based VNU NV has come to terms with a consortium of buyers led by The Blackstone Group that pulled together just under $9 billion to purchase the conglomerate. Now the sale has to be approved by 95 percent of its shareholders.

The deal is expected to close by mid-May, according to the trade publication Mediaweek, and will remain an integrated company until at least November 2007 when the consortium - which includes AlpInvest Partners, Hellman & Friedman, The Carlyle Group, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. and Thomas H. Lee - will decide the fate of the different subsidiaries of the company.

Nielsen Media Research, which measures television ratings in the United States, maintains an office in Oldsmar.

Frank Maggio, president of St. Petersburg-based erinMedia LLC, has filed two separate lawsuits against Nielsen under both federal antitrust laws and false advertising. Maggio has expressed interest in purchasing the subsidiary from the consortium once they are ready to decide the fate of the subsidiaries.

Rob van den Bergh, the company's chief executive officer and chairman who had announced his resignation last year, said he would remain in his position until the sale closes.