Global audience measurement company Nielsen has agreed to acquire media quality expert DoubleVerify in an all-cash transaction with an enterprise value of $US2.15 billion.
DoubleVerify shareholders will receive $US13.60 per share in cash, a 30% premium to the company’s 60-trading day volume weighted average price.
The combined company is expected to generate more than $US4 billion in revenue while expanding solutions to companies that generate more than $US300 billion in advertising spend.
The deal extends Nielsen's platform across the media intelligence stack.
Nielsen currently spans the media lifecycle from content discovery and audience planning through cross-platform measurement and outcome attribution, while DoubleVerify adds verification that impressions underpinning campaigns are real, viewable, brand-suitable and free from invalid traffic.
The combination unifies these signals, previously reconciled across separate vendors, into a single platform covering audience, context and delivery quality.
Karthik Rao, CEO of Nielsen, said the company had undergone a transformation over recent years.
"Over the last few years, Nielsen has undergone a fundamental transformation — accelerating product innovation; expanding our platform across the full media lifecycle, from discovery and planning through measurement and outcomes; and strengthening our financial foundation," Rao said.
“The result is a stronger, more agile Nielsen that has earned its place as a leading media intelligence platform for the modern advertising ecosystem.
"This combination will unite two organisations focused on strengthening independence and trust in advertising.
“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.”
Mark Zagorski, CEO of DoubleVerify, said the deal was a milestone for the business.
"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,” Zagorski said.
“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.”
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