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Nielsen Holdings
Nielsen Holdings
N.V.
AMERICAN GLOBAL INFORMATION AND MEASUREMENT
COMPANY
INTRODUCTION
Headquarters - New York (USA) and Diemen, the Netherlands
Type Public
Founded - 1923
Industry - Media
Chairman - David Calhoun
CEO - Mitch Barns
Products - Consumer information, Consumer research, Market measurement
Revenue - $5.7 billion (2013)
Net income - $736 million (2013)
Employees - 40,000 (2013)
Presence - Approx. 100 countries
INTRODUCTION
Nielsen is a leading global information and measurement company that enables
companies to understand consumers and consumer behavior. Nielsen measures
and monitors what consumers watch (programming, advertising) and what
consumers buy (categories, brands, products) on a global and local basis.
While the Nielsen brand is most often associated with television ratings, those TV
ratings services comprise approximately one-quarter of the company's business
and revenues. After substantial work to simplify the company over the last several
years, Nielsen today aligns their business into two divisions: What Consumers Buy
and What Consumers Watch.
1999 - Nielsen Media Research was acquired by the Dutch publishing company VNU
2001 - VNU acquired AC Nielsen and recombined the two businesses. VNU combined the Nielsen properties with
other research and data collection units including BASES, Claritas, HCI and Spectra. VNU also acquired companies
that added to its measurement capabilities.
2006 - VNU acquired a majority stake in Buzzmetrics (measures consumer-generated media online)
2007 - Nielsen acquired Telephia (measures mobile media), and Bilesim Medya (a Turkish advertising intelligence
firm). VNU was renamed as The Nielsen Company.
2008 - Nielsen acquired IAG Research (measures viewer engagement with TV commercials)
2009 - Nielsen acquired The Cambridge Group (a management consulting firm headquartered in Chicago)
2010 - Nielsen paired with McKinsey & Company to create the social media consulting company NM Incite
2011 - Nielsen acquired NeuroFocus (a California firm applying neuroscience brainwave techniques for consumer
research), and Marketing Analytics, Inc. (to strengthen Nielsen's marketing ROI and marketing mix capabilities)
2012 - Nielsen acquired the advertising tech company Vizu to better analyze the effectiveness of online
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