Nielsen Acquisition & Valuation
Nielsen was acquired by Elliott Investment Management and Brookfield Business Corp for $16B in March 2022, a 3.8x multiple on $4.2B of revenue.
Nielsen acquisition price
$16B
Acquired by Elliott Investment Management, Brookfield Business Corp · Mar 2022
Nielsen revenue at acquisition
$4.2B
Last twelve months · Mar 2022
Nielsen revenue multiple at acquisition
3.8x
EV/Revenue · Mar 2022
Nielsen EBITDA multiple at acquisition
17.4x
EV/EBITDA · Mar 2022
About Nielsen
Nielsen is an audience measurement, data and analytics company that measures how people watch television, listen to audio and use digital media. It traces its roots to the market research firm founded by Arthur C. Nielsen in 1923. The company provides ratings and cross-platform audience measurement to broadcasters, streaming services, advertisers and agencies, and sells data and analytics that guide advertising spend. It earns revenue mainly from subscriptions and services sold to media and advertising clients. Nielsen was long a publicly listed group with a Global Media division and a Global Connect division; it sold Global Connect, now NielsenIQ, to Advent International in 2021 and was taken private in 2022 by a consortium led by Elliott Investment Management and Brookfield Business Partners. It is headquartered in New York City.
Founded
1923
HQ
New York City, NYWebsite
Status
Acquired
Customer focus
B2B
Revenue model
Subscription, Services
Revenue
$6.2B (Dec 2015)
Valuation
$16B (acquired Mar 2022)
Nielsen Acquisition
Nielsen was acquired by Elliott Investment Management and Brookfield Business Corp for $16B on 29 March 2022.
The acquisition price implies a 3.8x revenue and 17.4x EBITDA multiple on $4.2B of revenue.
Nielsen Holdings plc, a global leader in audience measurement, data, and analytics for the media industry, entered into a definitive agreement on March 29, 2022, to be acquired by a private equity consortium led by Evergreen Coast Capital (an Elliott Investment Management affiliate) and Brookfield Business Partners with institutional partners. The all-cash transaction valued at approximately $16 billion, including assumption of debt, offered $28 per share, a 60% premium over Nielsen's unaffected stock price as of March 11, 2022. The deal included a 45-day go-shop period allowing Nielsen to solicit superior bids, with a $102 million termination fee for accepting a better offer. The acquisition provided full financing and was unanimously approved by Nielsen's board after review by independent advisors. It closed on October 11, 2022, after shareholder and regulatory approvals, delisting Nielsen from the NYSE. The consortium viewed Nielsen as positioned to lead in streaming-era measurement, supporting its Nielsen ONE cross-platform solution rollout. Elliott had prior involvement, holding a board seat and pushing the 2018 sale of NielsenIQ to separate data analytics from media measurement. The buyout came amid industry scrutiny of Nielsen's TV ratings amid pandemic disruptions and shifting viewing to CTV and digital.
| Acquirer | Date | Type | Price | EV/Revenue | EV/EBITDA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 29 Mar 2022 | PE buyout | $16B | 3.8x | 17.4x |
Sources: prnewswire.com, nielsen.com
Nielsen Revenue
Nielsen's latest recorded revenue is $6.2B, as of its secondary sale in December 2015.
Revenue grew from $5.5B in March 2012 to $6.2B in December 2015.
Nielsen revenue by funding round
| Date | Revenue * | Stage |
|---|---|---|
| Dec 2015 | $6.2B | Secondary |
| Jun 2015 | $6.2B | Secondary |
| Apr 2015 | $6.2B | Secondary |
| Mar 2015 | $6.2B | Secondary |
| Jun 2014 | $6.3B | Secondary |
| Mar 2014 | $6.3B | Secondary |
| Nov 2013 | $5.7B | Secondary |
| May 2013 | $5.7B | Secondary |
| Feb 2013 | $5.6B | Secondary |
| Mar 2012 | $5.5B | Secondary |
* Revenue (or ARR) figures are the values recorded alongside each funding round. Typically run-rate revenue at the time of the deal, or a reported LTM (last 12 months) revenue.
Nielsen Funding History
Nielsen has 10 recorded secondary share sales and no primary funding rounds.
| Date | Stage | Deal Summary |
|---|---|---|
| Dec 2015 | Secondary | The last member of Nielsen’s original private-equity sponsor group disposed of its remaining shares during 2015. Nielsen reported one remaining sponsor with a 2.0 percent holding at June 30 and no Original Sponsor ownership at December 31. Nielsen provided media audience measurement, consumer information and analytical services to advertisers, media companies and other business customers. The operating context explains how the event changed the relevant KKR-backed ownership perimeter. |
| Jun 2015 | Secondary | Nielsen completed a secondary public offering in June 2015 on behalf of existing selling shareholders, primarily comprising its private equity sponsor group. The issuer separately identifies this month as one of two completed sponsor offerings during the second quarter. The April and June offerings together involved 29 million shares, and one remaining sponsor held 2.0 percent at June 30, 2015. All proceeds went to the selling shareholders, and Nielsen received no new equity capital from the offering. The transaction reduced existing shareholder interests in the publicly traded information and measurement company. Nielsen reported that the offering did not significantly affect its operating results or financial position. This is a distinct secondary share sale, separate from the company's share repurchase programme and from other sponsor offerings. |
| Apr 2015 | Secondary | Nielsen completed a secondary public offering in April 2015 on behalf of existing selling shareholders, primarily comprising its private equity sponsor group. The issuer separately identifies this month as one of two completed sponsor offerings during the second quarter. The April and June offerings together involved 29 million shares; the aggregate is not allocated between the two transactions in this release. All proceeds went to the selling shareholders, and Nielsen received no new equity capital from the offering. The transaction reduced existing shareholder interests in the publicly traded information and measurement company. Nielsen reported that the offering did not significantly affect its operating results or financial position. This is a distinct secondary share sale, separate from the company's share repurchase programme and from other sponsor offerings. |
| Mar 2015 | Secondary | Nielsen completed a secondary public offering in March 2015 on behalf of existing selling shareholders, primarily comprising its private equity sponsor group. The sale covered 8 million common shares. At March 31, 2015 the sponsors collectively continued to hold 9.8 percent of Nielsen common stock. All proceeds went to the selling shareholders, and Nielsen received no new equity capital from the offering. The transaction reduced existing shareholder interests in the publicly traded information and measurement company. Nielsen reported that the offering did not significantly affect its operating results or financial position. This is a distinct secondary share sale, separate from the company's share repurchase programme and from other sponsor offerings. |
| Jun 2014 | Secondary | Nielsen completed a secondary public offering in June 2014 on behalf of existing selling shareholders, primarily comprising its private equity sponsor group. The sale covered 20 million common shares at USD 47.08 per share. This sale followed a separate 30 million-share sponsor offering completed in March of the same year. All proceeds went to the selling shareholders, and Nielsen received no new equity capital from the offering. The transaction reduced existing shareholder interests in the publicly traded information and measurement company. Nielsen reported that the offering did not significantly affect its operating results or financial position. This is a distinct secondary share sale, separate from the company's share repurchase programme and from other sponsor offerings. |
| Mar 2014 | Secondary | Nielsen completed a secondary public offering in March 2014 on behalf of existing selling shareholders, primarily comprising its private equity sponsor group. The sale covered 30 million common shares at USD 46.25 per share. The filing identifies the sellers as the sponsor group that had held the business following its private equity acquisition. All proceeds went to the selling shareholders, and Nielsen received no new equity capital from the offering. The transaction reduced existing shareholder interests in the publicly traded information and measurement company. Nielsen reported that the offering did not significantly affect its operating results or financial position. This is a distinct secondary share sale, separate from the company's share repurchase programme and from other sponsor offerings. |
| Nov 2013 | Secondary | Nielsen’s selling shareholders arranged a secondary public offering of 30 million existing common shares through an underwriting agreement dated November 21, 2013. The sale formed part of the original sponsor group’s reduction of its ownership following Nielsen’s initial public offering, with the issuer’s annual report confirming three completed sponsor offerings during 2013. These transactions transferred existing shares rather than raising new capital for the company, and the proceeds were received by the selling shareholders. The transaction is attributed to the sponsor ownership period, which included KKR, without treating the full offering size as shares sold by KKR alone. Nielsen’s business provided market measurement and analytical information concerning consumer purchases and media audiences to commercial customers. The secondary distribution placed shares with public-market investors, whose individual identities are not specified as transaction buyers in the reviewed disclosure. No full-company valuation or unsupported allocation of annual aggregate proceeds is assigned to this individual offering. |
| May 2013 | Secondary | Nielsen’s selling shareholders arranged a secondary public offering of 40.25 million existing common shares at USD35.01 per share. The sale formed part of the original sponsor group’s reduction of its ownership following Nielsen’s initial public offering, with the issuer’s annual report confirming three completed sponsor offerings during 2013. These transactions transferred existing shares rather than raising new capital for the company, and the proceeds were received by the selling shareholders. The transaction is attributed to the sponsor ownership period, which included KKR, without treating the full offering size as shares sold by KKR alone. Nielsen’s business provided market measurement and analytical information concerning consumer purchases and media audiences to commercial customers. The secondary distribution placed shares with public-market investors, whose individual identities are not specified as transaction buyers in the reviewed disclosure. No full-company valuation or unsupported allocation of annual aggregate proceeds is assigned to this individual offering. |
| Feb 2013 | Secondary | Nielsen’s sponsor holding company, Luxco, and certain Nielsen employees completed a secondary public offering of 40,814,883 existing common shares at USD32.55 per share. The issuer’s annual report identifies the sale in February 2013, without establishing a specific day in the reviewed passage. Following the disposal, Luxco’s remaining holding was reported at approximately 52% immediately after the offering, demonstrating a reduction in the private-equity sponsors’ ownership. The sale transferred existing shares to public-market investors and did not provide new equity capital to Nielsen itself. The original sponsor group included KKR, but neither the aggregate offering size nor proceeds are attributed solely to KKR. Nielsen provided consumer purchasing information, media audience measurement and associated analytical services to commercial customers during this period. The disclosed share count and per-share price are retained as transaction terms, while no unsupported single buyer or full-company valuation is assigned. |
| Mar 2012 | Secondary | Nielsen’s sponsor holding company, Luxco, and certain Nielsen employees completed a secondary public offering of 34,500,000 existing common shares at USD30.25 per share. The issuer’s annual report identifies the sale in March 2012 and gives March 26 as the completed offering date. Following the disposal, Luxco’s remaining holding was reported at approximately 65% at year end, demonstrating a reduction in the private-equity sponsors’ ownership. The sale transferred existing shares to public-market investors and did not provide new equity capital to Nielsen itself. The original sponsor group included KKR, but neither the aggregate offering size nor proceeds are attributed solely to KKR. Nielsen provided consumer purchasing information, media audience measurement and associated analytical services to commercial customers during this period. The disclosed share count and per-share price are retained as transaction terms, while no unsupported single buyer or full-company valuation is assigned. |
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Start Free TrialAcquisitions by Nielsen
Nielsen has acquired 26 companies to date.
Last acquisition by Nielsen was on August 5th 2026. Nielsen acquired DoubleVerify for $2.1B.
Latest Acquisitions by Nielsen
| Description | DoubleVerify Holdings Inc is a digital media measurement and analytics software platform. Its solutions provide advertisers with unbiased data analytics that enable them to increase the effectiveness, quality, and return on their digital advertising investments. Its DV Authentic Ad, a proprietary metric of digital media quality, measures whether a digital ad was delivered in a brand-suitable environment, fully viewable, by a real person, and in the intended geography. The company's software interface, DV Pinnacle, delivers these metrics to customers in real time, allowing them to access critical performance data on their digital transactions. Geographically, the company operates in the United States and also has a presence in Germany, Singapore, France, Canada, Japan, and other countries. | TVTY is an advertising technology company that measures television campaigns' effects on website traffic, online sales, and offline purchases in real time. Its platform integrates proprietary TV signal monitoring with household-level audience data to attribute ad exposure to consumer actions, enabling advertisers to optimize spend across search, social, video, and display channels. Premium clients include Amazon, Facebook, Volkswagen, Coca-Cola, and Dyson. New York-headquartered with additional offices in London, Madrid, Paris, and Lyon, TVTY supports operations across more than 20 countries. | Precima is a Toronto-headquartered provider of analytics solutions for retailers and consumer goods companies. The firm specializes in assortment optimization, price optimization, promotional planning, targeted marketing, and supplier collaboration to enhance sales, profitability, and customer loyalty. Serving Fortune 1000 brands and major grocery chains, Precima operates as part of Alliance Data, a Fortune 500 entity that includes LoyaltyOne, BrandLoyalty, AIR MILES, and IceMobile as affiliates in data-driven loyalty programs worldwide. | Sorenson Media is a Salt Lake City-headquartered developer of video encoding and streaming technologies. Founded in 1995, it provides Squeeze encoders for professional video compression and Spark solutions for broadcast addressability and interactivity. The products support OTT platforms and TV broadcasters adapting to digital distribution. | |
| HQ Country | | |  | | |
| HQ City | New York City, NY | New York City, NY | Toronto | Salt Lake City, UT | |
| Deal Date | 5 Aug 2026 | 8 Jul 2021 | 10 Jan 2020 | 21 Feb 2019 | |
| Valuation | $2.1B | undisclosed | $50M | $11M | |
| EV/Revenue | |||||
| EV/EBITDA | |||||
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Investments by Nielsen
Nielsen has invested in 5 companies to date.
Latest investment by Nielsen was on March 2nd 2021. Nielsen invested in Placense in their $5M Seed round.
Latest Investments by Nielsen
| Description | Placense is a location intelligence company linking consumer behavior to physical locations. Its proprietary algorithm ensures data privacy by anonymizing records while preserving aggregate accuracy, delivering metrics on visits, durations, frequencies, journeys, demographics, transport modes, age groups, gender, and income levels. | ciValue is a SaaS platform enabling retailers and suppliers in grocery, drug, and specialty sectors to personalize customer experiences using data science and proprietary algorithms. Headquartered in the U.S., it offers omnichannel personalization, data monetization, and collaboration tools, recognized as a 2019 Gartner Cool Vendor in Retail for customer intelligence execution. | Revuze is a Tel Aviv-headquartered AI platform that analyzes e-commerce, social media, and survey data to deliver Voice of Customer insights at category, product, and SKU levels. Founded in 2017, the company processes billions of reviews for brands like Unilever and Procter & Gamble, enabling product innovation, marketing optimization, and e-commerce performance gains. Revuze's machine learning models achieve 98 percent accuracy in sentiment analysis, supporting operations across North America and Europe with integrations to Shopify and Amazon. | Zollo is a price comparison app relying on crowdsourced data from supermarkets. Israel-based, users scan product barcodes via smartphones to upload prices, enabling shopping lists optimized for lowest costs at nearby stores. The platform covers groceries and household goods across chains in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, and other cities. | |
| HQ Country |  | | | | |
| HQ City | Tel Aviv | Yokneam Illit | Netanya | Tel Aviv | |
| Deal Date | 2 Mar 2021 | 9 Oct 2018 | 31 Aug 2016 | 9 Dec 2013 | |
| Round | Seed | Series A | Seed | Seed | |
| Raised | $5M | $6M | $4M | $3M | |
| Investors | Future Energy Ventures; The Blue Minds Company; Pi Labs; Zero One Hundred | Bright Pixel; Emery Capital | TIC Group; NPD Group | - | |
| Valuation | undisclosed | undisclosed | undisclosed | undisclosed | |
| EV/Revenue | |||||
| EV/EBITDA | |||||
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Nielsen Competitors
Nielsen competitors include listed companies like Wolters Kluwer, Sportradar, RELX and Clarivate, and private ones like ElevenLabs and Synthesia.
| Company | HQ | Status | Revenue | EBITDA | Valuation | Revenue Multiple |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Netherlands | Publicly listed | $6.9B | $2.5B | $22B | 3.8x | |
 Switzerland | Publicly listed | $1.4B | $597M | $4B | 2.3x | |
 United Kingdom | Publicly listed | $13B | $4.9B | $70B | 6.1x | |
| United Kingdom | Publicly listed | $2.5B | $829M | $1.5B | 2.4x | |
 Warsaw | Private | $600M | - | $22B | 36.7x | |
| London | Private | $100M | - | $4B | 40.0x |
Nielsen Public Comps
Nielsen is no longer listed, but its public comps include Fair Isaac, Dynatrace, Gartner, Equifax, Wolters Kluwer, Unity, Elastic, SenseTime Group, NIQ Global Intelligence and Verisk Analytics.
| Last FY | EV/Revenue | EV/EBITDA | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | EBITDA | Last FY | LTM | 2027E | Last FY | LTM | 2027E | |
| $2.5B | $1.3B | 7.9x | 7.9x | 15.0x | 12.9x | |||
| $2B | $276M | 5.9x | 5.4x | 43.1x | 18.2x | |||
| $6.5B | $1.2B | 2.1x | 2.1x | 11.0x | 8.3x | |||
| $6.1B | $1.8B | 4.5x | 4.2x | 15.0x | 13.1x | |||
| $6.9B | $2.5B | 3.9x | 3.8x | 10.9x | 11.4x | |||
| $1.8B | ($18M) | 12.3x | 10.1x | (1254.9x) | 31.3x | |||
| $1.7B | $35M | 4.7x | 4.3x | 235.7x | 23.6x | |||
| $753M | ($71M) | 6.9x | 5.6x | (73.1x) | 47.1x | |||
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Common questions about Nielsen
| When was Nielsen founded? | Nielsen was founded in 1923. |
| Where is Nielsen headquartered? | Nielsen is headquartered in New York City, NY, United States. |
| Is Nielsen publicly listed? | No, Nielsen was acquired by Elliott Investment Management and Brookfield Business Corp in March 2022. |
| Who acquired Nielsen? | Nielsen was acquired by Elliott Investment Management and Brookfield Business Corp in March 2022. |
| How much was Nielsen acquired for? | Nielsen was acquired for $16B in March 2022, a 3.8x revenue multiple. |
| What is Nielsen's revenue? | Nielsen's latest recorded revenue is $6.2B (December 2015). |
| Which companies are comparable to Nielsen? | Companies comparable to Nielsen include Wolters Kluwer, Sportradar, RELX, Clarivate, ElevenLabs and Synthesia. |
| How many companies has Nielsen acquired? | Nielsen has acquired 26 companies, including DoubleVerify, TVTY, Precima, Sorenson Media and SuperData Research. |
| What was the largest acquisition by Nielsen? | The $2.1B acquisition of DoubleVerify in August 2026 is the largest acquisition Nielsen has made to date. |
| How many companies has Nielsen invested in? | Nielsen has invested in 5 companies, including Placense, ciValue, Revuze, Zollo and NM Incite. |
| What was Nielsen's last investment? | In March 2021, Nielsen invested in Placense's $5M seed round alongside Future Energy Ventures, The Blue Minds Company, Pi Labs and 1 other investor. |
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