Saturday, August 31, 2013

Nielsen-Arbitron $1.3B Deal Review Gets Extension

Nielsen Holdings said Friday, it has agreed with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission to extend the period for the antitrust review of its $1.3 billion acquisition of Arbitron.

According to The Street, the company's statement said the review was extended into September without specifying a date.

Nielsen, with a core TV ratings and consumer buying habits business, is acquiring Arbitron, which focuses on radio and out-of-home media consumption, for $48 per share in cash, or $1.26 billion. The deal received a second request from the FTC on March 8 and Nielsen said July 30 that the companies expected the FTC to accept that they have complied with the second request. At that time, the companies expected to hear from the FTC by the end of August.

An FTC commission meeting scheduled for Aug. 22, which was perceived by some risk arbitrageurs as a vote on the Arbitron deal, was cancelled. This raised expectations that Nielsen had approached the commission with some proposed fix for the FTC's competition concerns.

No comments:

Post a Comment