The Nielsen Company (VNU)

David Calhoun is the CEO of The Nielsen Company (VNU).

Formerly known as VNU Group B.V., The Nielsen Company is a large information and media company with operations worldwide. The company provides its clients with business information and business-to-business tools including market research, media research, database marketing services, business publications and trade shows.

In March 2006, VNU N.V. was acquired by Valcon Acquisitions, formed by a group of six private equity companies including AlpInvest Partners N.V., The Blackstone Group L.P., The Carlyle Group L.P., Hellman & Friedman LLC, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. L.P. and Thomas H. Lee Partners, L.P.. The purchase price was approximately $10.3 billion.

Since 1964, VNU expanded from a Dutch publishing firm to an international conglomerate. Today, The Nielsen Company operates in three core segments: marketing information, media measurement & information and business information.

As one of the world's largest market research companies, The Nielsen Company operates AC Nielsen, the leader in packaged goods market research. Four VNU companies are involved in the analysis of market research data -- BASES, Claritas, HCI and Spectra.

The Nielsen Company is a global leader in media research through its subsidiary Nielsen Media Research, which measures TV usage of households and individuals. Worldwide, the company measures the viewing habits of more than half the world's population and provides information on 85% of the world's advertising spending. The Nielsen//NetRatings division collects data on Internet usage worldwide.

The Nielsen Company provides a range of entertainment information services covering motion pictures, home entertainment, music and publishing. Nielsen EDI tracks box-office receipts from more than 50,000 movie screens. Another unit, Nielsen NRG, is Hollywood's leading market research and consulting firm. Nielsen ReelResearch tests TV program and advertising material. Nielsen SoundScan, Nielsen VideoScan and Nielsen BookScan track and report retail sales of audio and video entertainment products and books.

Nielsen media solutions include software, systems and tools for analyzing advertising data and planning media campaigns in the US. This division contains a number companies: SRDS, Scarborough and PERQ/HCI.

The Nielsen Business Media Group publishes well over 100 magazine titles, including Adweek and Billboard magazines. And VNU Expositions holds a leading position in the trade show industry, running 150 trade exhibitions.

The Nielsen Company's headquarters are located in Haarlem, The Netherlands and New York, USA. Operating in over 100 countries worldwide, the company's 2004 total revenue was approximately $4.8 billion.

Contact Information

Media Subsidiaries

Other The Nielsen Company (VNU) Properties

Comments about The Nielsen Company (VNU)

Comments to date: 2. This is page 1 of 1.

Dave Horchak   BHC AZ	Posted at 8:51am on Friday, July 25th, 2008
I had the same thing happen to me. I reported it and never heard back. Considering what they have allowed to happen to E&P I am not surprised.
John Austin   Flatwoods	Posted at 11:37am on Friday, June 13th, 2008
In the future, would you ever participate in these forms of market research? After I answered these questions on the above post, the next page came up as an error. I didn't do this for free and it irritates me very bad that I spent all that time only for it to screw up. :[ I expect/better to get the 35$ for all the time spent watching those 2 shows and spending all this time doing the survey......... John Austin 2005 Washington St Flatwoods, KY 41139 Nielsen ReelResearch Error Reporting Form Microsoft OLE DB Provider for ODBC Drivers error '80040e14' [Microsoft][ODBC SQL Server Driver][SQL Server]Line 3: Incorrect syntax near 't'. /NewSurveySystem/Survey/error_email_newsystem.asp, line 149

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