Investment Hedge Fund Urges Nielsen To Sell Itself

Activist investor billionaire Paul Singer at Elliott Management Corp. has taken a big stake in Nielsen Holdings and plans to push the TV-ratings company to sell itself.

The New York hedge fund owns 8.4% of Nielsen, worth about $660 million, according to a filing Monday. The Wall Street Journal first reported Sunday that Elliott had built a sizable position and planned to urge a sale.

Multiple private-equity firms already have expressed interest in Nielsen, people familiar with the matter said, and bidders could include Elliott itself.

Paul Singer

The news sent Nielsen shares up more than 16% premarket Monday.

Nielsen, which measures how people shop and consume media, has been hurt by a rapidly changing retail environment. The company has a market value of almost $8 billion and is the S&P 500’s third-worst performer in 2018, with its shares off around 40% so far this year.

Nielsen’s stock price tumbled 25% in a single day last month after the company reported a weak second quarter and lowered its revenue estimates for the year. Chief Financial Officer Jamere Jackson said in July the second quarter “was one of the most challenging quarters for our business in over a decade.” He cited challenging conditions for consumer-packaged-goods clients, which hurt its “buy” business, which measures retail and consumer behavior.

The company also said Chief Executive Mitch Barns would step down at year-end and initiated a search for his successor.

New York-based Nielsen also said at the time it will consider selling the “buy” segment, which provided nearly half of its $6.6 billion in revenue last year. The remainder comes from its core television-and-media ratings businesses, called its “watch” segment. That has been doing significantly better.

Elliott believes the “buy” segment has failed to keep up with competitors such as IRI, which has invested in data-intensive offerings, while Nielsen has continued to rely on its employees to provide analysis to clients, the people said. The hedge fund wants Nielsen to initiate a strategic review of the entire business rather than just the “buy” segment.

Nielsen also said in July it was conducting a strategic review of its “buy” segment, which tracks retail behavior. But Elliott thinks the whole company — including the “watch” segment that tracks TV viewing — should be up for sale.

A Nielsen spokeswoman said the board continues to evaluate how to best position the business and welcomes the views of its owners, including Elliott.

Nielsen was taken private by several buyout firms in 2006 and went public again in 2011.