Nielsen Buys DoubleVerify

Nielsen has acquired media monitoring, verification and measurement company DoubleVerify (DV) in an all-cash transaction valuing the company at around $2.15 billion.

DV shareholders will receive $13.60 per share in cash, a 30% premium to the company's volume weighted average price in the 60 days prior to August 5th. DoubleVerify will become a privately held company within Nielsen and will keep its name and brand on completion.

The firms say DV's solutions will complement Nielsen's end-to-end measurement with independent verification that the impressions underpinning every campaign are real, viewable, brand-suitable, and free from invalid traffic. In addition, DV's integrations in the day-to-day workflows of 'the platforms, publishers and agency groups that execute the world's largest campaigns' will help Nielsen expand its addressable market into high-growth digital channels to provide 'end-to-end, independent, transparent measurement and optimization across linear TV, CTV, social, mobile and AI platforms.'

The buy has been approved by the Boards of Directors of both companies, and is expected to close by the first quarter of 2027, subject to DV shareholder approval and other regulatory approvals and conditions. Funds affiliated with Providence Equity Partners, making up some 11.8% of current DV shares, have agreed to vote in favor of the transaction and Providence will exit the investment when the deal closes.

The transaction will be financed through a combination of committed debt financing provided by Barclays, BofA Securities and Citi, incremental equity financing and cash on hand at Nielsen.

CEO Karthik Rao (pictured below) says the combination 'will unite two organizations focused on strengthening independence and trust in advertising.' He comments: 'Joining forces with DoubleVerify will extend our capabilities deeper into the digital media industry, ensuring that the spend flowing between buyers and sellers is reaching real people in brand-suitable environments, through verified channels. As advertising workflows become increasingly automated, together we can offer publishers, advertisers, agencies, and platforms a truly independent, end-to-end partner that connects trusted audience intelligence with verified media delivery - across every screen, every channel, and every transaction - enabling superior decisions and outcomes.'

DV Chief Executive Mark Zagorski (pictured below) adds: 'As a private entity with the support of Nielsen, we will have access to expanded resources to deliver new, market-leading solutions that drive exceptional value for our customers and partners. DoubleVerify's MRC-accredited quality signals, in combination with Nielsen's deduplicated cross-screen audience measurement, will fuel genuine market innovation - a single currency that scores media on both audience delivery and media environment quality.'

The firms are online at www.doubleverify.com and www.nielsen.com .

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.