Nielsen Buys in Venezuela

While the VNU sale story rumbles on, its operating companies are making acquisitions of their own. ACNielsen today announced it will acquire 100% of the retail measurement business unit of Venezuela's Datos Information Resources. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Datos' ad hoc / customized research business unit will not form part of the sale, but will become an independent business fully owned by the Saade family, previous owners of the combined Datos. Information Resources Inc. (IRI) will no longer have a stake in either the retail measurement or ad hoc businesses once the acquisition is complete.

Venezuela is Latin America's fourth largest economy and Datos is one of the leading marketing information providers in the country. Based in the capital Caracas, the retail measurement business will now trade as ACNielsen de Venezuela S.A. and will employ about 300 people.

Joseph Saade will lead the new Nielsen business as country manager, and will report to Arturo Garcia Castro, president of ACNielsen Latin America, based in Buenos Aires. Edmonde Saade, one of the founders of Datos, will serve as Chairman of the Board of ACNielsen de Venezuela S.A.

ACNielsen says it will immediately begin converting the local business to its own business model and to 'upgrade and harmonize' its client offerings to match those elsewhere in the region.

Steve Schmidt, President and CEO of ACNielsen and VNU Marketing Information, says Latin America is a growth market for VNU, ACNielsen and its clients. 'We see our entrance into the Venezuelan retail measurement services sector as an important step in our strategy of expanding our retail coverage in both geographic markets and new retail channels.'

ACNielsen also recently announced that it will begin tracking retail sales in Paraguay and will launch an ACNielsen business in the Dominican Republic during 2006. The company also took 100% ownership of its business in Chile during 2005. It is online at www.acnielsen.com

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