Deadline Is Friday for Nielsen Bids

Nielsen Holdings — the 95-year-old consumer research firm best known for its Radio and TV-ratings reports — has restarted a process to sell itself amid fresh interest from Blackstone Group, the private equity shop controlled by billionaire Stephen Schwarzman, The NYPost has reported.

Blackstone is partnering in a bid with fellow buyout firm Hellman & Friedman that could value the company at around $10 billion, according to sources close to the talks.

Nielsen’s banker JPMorgan has set a Friday deadline for first-round bids in the new auction process, sources said. Other prospective bidders include Bain Capital, TPG Capital and KKR, according to sources.

If successful, Blackstone and Hellman & Friedman would own Nielsen for the second time. Previously, the two buyout shops had partnered with Carlyle Group in 2006 to buy Nielsen, formerly called VNU, for $11 billion.

Blackstone Senior Managing Director David Calhoun was CEO of Nielsen from 2006 through 2013. The buyout firms took it public in 2011 at $23 a share.

Since then, Nielsen shares have stalled. Its TV-ratings business, which it calls “watch,” is solid. But its “buy” business that sells data to consumer-goods makers and retailers has been hit by painful changes in the industry, including the rising dominance of Amazon.

Last August, billionaire Paul Singer’s hedge fund, Elliott Management, revealed an 8 percent stake in Nielsen, prodding it to sell the troubled “buy” segment of its business or sell the company altogether.

Nielsen announced it was considering alternatives a few weeks later in September.

Nevertheless, the auction never took off as Nielsen shuffled its executive ranks and signaled new turnaround initiatives.

It’s likely that any prospective buyer is looking to press ahead with Nielsen’s plans to slash costs and automate services as it faces slowing growth, analysts said.