GfK could wait until September to make a bid for fellow market research group TNS, ignoring Sir Martin Sorrell’s “put up or shut up” call, according to reports in the German press.
The reports quote GfK chief executive Klaus Wuebbenhorst as saying: “We have until September to present a friendly offer. We will use this time.”
It is also reported that GfK could use this time to look at other, as yet unnamed acquisition targets.
Although GfK is understood to have held talks with private equity groups Apax Partners, Cinven, and German billionaire Gunter Herz over funding, it has yet to make an offer for TNS.
This led to Sorrell telling journalists last week: “They are misleading the market. They say they have access to an unidentified but substantial source of capital. It is time to put up or shut up.”
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