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Reverse and Job Cuts for erinMedia
Nielsen challenger erinMedia LLC has laid off a majority of its employees as a hoped-for $25m investment failed to materialise. Boston-based Spark Capital said late last week that it was dropping attempts to build a consortium of investors. erinMedia will begin its antitrust suit against Nielsen in early 2008.
After March 1, erinMedia will operate out of St. Petersburg, Florida, and will switch its main focus to the licensing of its census-based Inverse Demographic Matrix (IDM) system to research firms interested in analyzing digital set top box data using second by second overnight ratings. It has six recently secured patents for the technology. The majority of those laid off were involved with programming, database management, and project management for the deployment of measurement systems.
erinMedia founder Frank Maggio, a Florida real estate multi-millionaire, says the fund-raising efforts were 'chilled' by Nielsen's announcement on 12th Feb of its new DigitalPlus set top box ratings division, and claims its timing was 'not coincidental'. Nielsen spokesman Gary Holmes said the implication that the move was intended to scupper negotiations was 'absurd' and added: 'These initiatives have been around for a long time, and [DigitalPlus] is something that didn't just happen'.
Maggio says his team will be 'evaluating over the next couple of weeks' whether to add new claims to the antitrust suit based on Nielsen's recent actions. The suit was filed in June 2005 and cites Nielsen's use of long-term, staggered contracts as a means 'to insure that no competitor can secure a foothold in the TV ratings industry'. The landmark case marked the first antitrust action against Nielsen since 1963.
According to Maggio, the events will not prevent the simultaneous rollout of interactive cable TV programming service ReacTV, which is exploring licensing measurement data from alternative suppliers including TNS. Nielsen has rejected ReacTV's attempts to purchase its data, citing its erinMedia connection.
The warring parties are at www.erinmedia.net and www.nielsen.com .
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