Arthur C. Nielsen and the invention of "Market Share" Arthur C. Nielsen founded the
AC Nielsen Company in August 1923 with the idea of selling engineering performance surveys. It was the first company to offer
market research. The company expanded its business in 1932 by creating a retail index that tracked the flow of food and drug purchases. This was the first retail measurement of its kind and for the first time allowed a company to determine its "share" of the market—the origination of the concept of "
market share" The company collected information on which stations radios were tuned to in one thousand homes. Then, this survey data was sold to manufacturers who were interested in the popularity of programs and demographic information about listeners for advertising purposes. This was the birth of
audience measurement that would become the most well-known part of Nielsen's business when applied to television. In July 2008, Nielsen released the first in a series of quarterly reports, detailing video and TV usage across the 'three screens' – Television, Internet and Mobile devices. The A2/M2 Three Screen Report also includes trends in timeshifted viewing behavior and its relationship to online video viewing, a demographic breakdown of mobile video viewers and DVR penetration. On September 30, 2016, Nielsen made its Digital Content Ratings available in full syndication for clients. On September 9, 2016, Nielsen announced that it would retire its paper TV diaries by mid-2017 and provide all electronic measurement in its local television ratings.
Private equity Nielsen was acquired by the
Dun & Bradstreet Company in 1984. In 1996, D&B divided the company into two separate companies:
Nielsen Media Research, which was responsible for TV ratings, and
AC Nielsen, which was responsible for consumer shopping trends and box-office data. In 1999, Nielsen Media Research was acquired by the Dutch publishing company
VNU (Verenigde Nederlandse Uitgeverijen). VNU later acquired AC Nielsen and recombined the two businesses in 2001. In between, VNU sold off its newspaper properties to
Wegener and its consumer magazines to
Sanoma. The company's publishing arm also owned several publications including
The Hollywood Reporter, Adweek and
Billboard magazine. VNU combined the Nielsen properties with other research and data collection units including BASES, Claritas, HCI and Spectra. VNU also acquired companies that added to its measurement capabilities.
Becoming a public company Nielsen was a private company from 2006 through 2011. On January 25, 2011, the company listed itself on the New York Stock Exchange and issued an initial public offering (IPO) that raised $1.8 billion in the largest private equity-backed U.S. IPO since 2006.
Mergers, acquisitions, strategic alliances and divestitures 2004 Nielsen began a joint venture called AGB Nielsen Media Research with
WPP Group's AGB Group, a European competitor which provides similar services.
2006 VNU acquired a majority stake in Buzzmetrics, a company which measures consumer-generated media online. Under the new ownership, Nielsen bought the remaining shares of the company in 2007. In the same year, Nielsen acquired Telephia, which measures mobile media, and Bilesim Medya, a Turkish advertising intelligence firm. VNU was acquired by a group of six private equity firms: the American
Kohlberg Kravis Roberts,
Thomas H. Lee Partners,
Blackstone Group,
Carlyle Group and
Hellman & Friedman, and Dutch equity firm
AlpInvest Partners for £5bn.
2007 In June, Nielsen acquired Telephia, a provider of syndicated consumer research to the telecom and mobile media markets.
2008 Nielsen acquired IAG Research which measures viewer engagement with TV commercials. The same year, Nielsen made a strategic investment in
NeuroFocus, a California firm applying neuroscience brainwave techniques for consumer research. The firm was later fully acquired by Nielsen in 2011 In 2009 and 2010, Nielsen sold its business magazines; its well-known entertainment properties went to the new company
e5 Global Media.
2009 Nielsen acquired The Cambridge Group, a
management consulting firm headquartered in Chicago. The firm researches latent and emerging consumer demand.
2010 In June, Nielsen paired with
McKinsey & Company to create the social media consulting company
NM Incite. NM Incite had operations in 13 global markets, including: US, UK,
Germany, Spain, Italy, Australia, New Zealand, China, Japan, India, Brazil, Canada and Korea.
2011 In August, Nielsen acquired Marketing Analytics, Inc.
2012 In February, Nielsen launched
The Demand Institute in collaboration with
The Conference Board. The Demand Institute is a non-profit, non-advocacy organization. In July, Nielsen acquired the advertising tech company Vizu. The acquisition was made so that Nielsen can better analyze the effectiveness of online advertisement. In November, Nielsen acquired SocialGuide, a provider of social TV measurement, analytics and audience engagement solutions. On December 17, 2012, Nielsen disclosed that it would acquire
Arbitron, a company primarily involved in
radio audience measurement, for $1.3 billion. The successful acquisition was completed on September 30, 2013.
2013 On June 17, 2013, Nielsen announced that Onex Corp (TSX: OCX) had completed the acquisition of Nielsen Expositions for $950 million in cash consideration. Nielsen Expositions operated tradeshows in the United States. The company was renamed Emerald Expositions Inc. after the transaction.
2014 On February 3, 2014, Nielsen announced the acquisition of Harris Interactive, Inc. (NASDAQ:HPOL). This allowed Nielsen to take ownership of
The Harris Poll. Later on February 26, 2014, Nielsen acquired Nexium, a retail in-store execution and sales analytics company. On September 18, 2014 Nielsen announced the acquisition of Indicus Analytics Pvt Ltd. On October 8, 2014, Nielsen acquired Affinnova, an international media and marketing research firm. The Affinnova team joins Nielsen's legacy BASES team to form Nielsen's Innovation Practice area.
2015 On January 22, 2015, Nielsen acquired Brandbank, specialized in the process of digitally collecting, managing and distributing FMCG product and brand image content for retail syndication across in-store, print promotional and e-commerce platforms. On March 4, 2015, Nielsen announced the acquisition of Exelate, a provider of data and technology to facilitate the buying and selling of advertising across programmatic platforms. On May 27, 2015, Nielsen acquired Innerscope Research, which specialized in
consumer neuroscience using
biometrics, eye tracking and facial coding. Nielsen renamed its combined offering as Nielsen Consumer Neuroscience, and named Carl Marci as Chief Neuroscientist.
2016 On March 3, 2016, Nielsen acquired Pointlogic, in marketing decision support systems. On March 10, 2016, Nielsen acquired Mumbai-based mobile usage measurer Informate Mobile Intelligence for an undisclosed amount. On June 21, 2016, Nielsen acquired Repucom, a sports measurement, evaluation and intelligence company based in
Stamford, Connecticut. On December 20, 2016, Nielsen announced its agreement with Tribune Media Company to purchase
Gracenote, a provider of media and entertainment metadata.
2017 On January 5, 2017,
The Carlyle Group acquired Claritas from Nielsen. On January 20, 2017,
The NPD Group acquired the US assets of
Nielsen BookScan. On January 23, 2017, the Stagwell Group announced that it acquired Nielsen's Harris brand and the Harris Poll through its Stagwell Media LLC. On February 1, 2017, Nielsen completed its acquisition of Gracenote. On February 23, 2017, Nielsen acquired Rhiza, Inc., a Pittsburgh-based media and consumer analytics software firm.
2019 In December 2019, Nielsen music data business was sold to
Valence Media (then parent company of
Billboard, another former Nielsen business). The transaction includes
Nielsen Broadcast Data Systems, Music 360, and
Nielsen SoundScan.
2021 On March 5, 2021, Nielsen Holdings announced the completion of sale of Global Connect business (the former AC Nielsen) to private equity firm Advent International.
Verenigde Nederlandse Uitgeverijen '
(VNU', literally "United Dutch Publishers", founded 1964) was a
Dutch publishing company with products including European
consumer magazines,
Dutch regional newspapers, business publications in the European and North American markets, and educational publications. VNU acquired Nielsen Media Research, part of the former AC Nielsen Company, in 1999. It was the owner of the
Hungarian business magazine
Figyelő in the 1990s. In 2000, VNU acquired
Miller Freeman, Inc. from
United News & Media for a reported price of $650 million. VNU merged much of the purchased Miller Freeman assets into VNU Expositions. VNU subsequently divested themselves of a few former Miller Freeman assets. VNU announced a heavy restructuring of its technology news portal, VNUNet, in February 2001. Ten employees were laid off due to the plan. The company disposed of its entire magazine publishing arm later in 2001 to
Sanoma for €1.25 million, and sold its newspaper properties to
Wegener. Focusing instead on market research and data collection, it acquired AC Nielsen in 2001, recombining the two halves of the former Nielsen business, and added other research and data collection units including BASES, Claritas, HCI and Spectra. In 2006, the company was acquired by a consortium of six investors for €28.75 per share, a sum of €7.5 billion. In the same year, the group hired
David L. Calhoun, formerly of
General Electric, as CEO. In 2004,
VNU World Directories was sold to
Apax Partners and
Cinven. VNU sold its business publications division in 2006 for €320m (£210m) to venture capital group
3i, which then sold the UK division (VNU Business Publications Ltd) to
Incisive Media. ==Corporate affairs and culture==