WPP has signed a definitive agreement to swap certain assets with The Nielsen Company, which will allow the group to complete its £1.1 billion takeover of TNS.
The deal will see WPP give up its 50% stake in Nielsen, which will mean Nielsen will now own 100% of the international television audience measurement business AGBNielsen Media Research.
WPP was forced to dispose of its stake in AGBNielsen in order to satisfy regulatory requirements, after acquiring TNS last month.
TNS won BARB’s UK TV audience research contract from AGBNielsen last year, to begin from 2010.
In return for WPP’s share, Nielsen will transfer three assets to WPP – SRDS, a provider of media rates and data, PERQ/HCI, the healthcare media planning service and its 11% share in parts of the media, market and opinion research company, IBOPE Group.
WPP already owns a 31% stake in IBOPE.
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