Nielsen Acquires Arbitron

Nielsen Holdings N.V., a global information provider, has announced its acquisition of international media and marketing firm Arbitron Inc. Nielsen received FTC approval to purchase Arbitron earlier this month.

“This is a great day for Nielsen and a natural step in our evolution,” said Nielsen CEO David Calhoun. “Arbitron will allow us to analyze and understand an additional two hours of the U.S. consumer’s day while bringing us another opportunity to provide advertisers with metrics on the effectiveness of the mediums that they advertise on.”

Arbitron has been rebranded Nielsen Audio and will be integrated into Nielsen’s U.S. Watch business segment, which primarily provides information to the media and advertising industries across different mediums. Nielsen’s newest acquisition will allow it to measure eight hours a day per person of media consumption.

“Our combined capabilities offer opportunities to measure unmeasured areas that are important to the industries and clients we serve, like streaming audio, out-of-home measurements for television consumption and deeper measurement of multicultural audiences in the U.S.,” said Calhoun. “Globally, this is an opportunity to expand our measurement of consumer behavior and introduce audio measurement capabilities in new markets.”

On Dec. 17, 2012 Nielsen agreed to purchase all of Arbitron’s outstanding common stock for a total of $1.3 billion. Nielsen expects $0.26 of accretion to adjusted net income per share during its first full year of operation and $0.32 during its second year.

Nielsen will provide further information on its upcoming year during the Q3 2013 earnings conference call, which will be held on Oct. 23.