The board of Nielsen Holdings PLC said Wednesday that it is open to reviewing more strategic options for the company amid activist pressure to either sell or spin off parts of it.
Last month, activist hedge fund Elliott Management said it had taken an 8.4% stake in Nielsen, valued at around $660 million at the time, and would push the company to look into strategic options including a sale, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Nielsen’s board said Wednesday that it had expanded the scope of its previously announced strategic review and would consider a broader range of options, including whether to take the company private, separate its “buy” or “watch” segments or explore a sale of the company.
Nielsen has two segments—a near-monopoly media and television-rating business, which it calls its “watch” business, and a business that tracks purchases of groceries and other consumer goods, called “buy.”
Nielsen’s “buy” segment has become a particularly sore spot. In July Nielsen reported that the segment’s revenue had declined by 5.4% from a year earlier in the second quarter in constant-currency terms. Nielsen said that same day that its chief executive would step down and that it would examine options for the “buy” business that might include a sale.
Though Nielsen has undertaken some cost-cutting initiatives and consolidation, Nielsen’s Executive Board Chairman James Attwood said “the Board believes that a broad review of strategic alternatives is in the best interest of the company and its shareholders."
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