VNU Nearing Deal To Buy IMS Health For $6.3 Billion
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
VNU, owner of the market research firm A.C. Nielsen, is close to a deal to buy data provider IMS Health for $6.3 billion in cash and stock, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing sources it didn’t name.
VNU would pay $28 a share, 60% in cash and 40% in stock, which is 8.1% more than IMS’s closing price on July 8, the Journal said. The transaction would almost double the size of Haarlem, Netherlands-based VNU.
IMS Health, which collects data on drug sales, is like VNU’s other units that give clients data about how their products and services are used, the newspaper said. IMS Health, based in Fairfield, Conn., has one of the largest pharmaceutical databases, the Journal reported.
The transaction may be announced today, the Journal said. A call late yesterday to the office of IMS spokeswoman Darcie Beck wasn’t immediately returned.
VNU also owns Billboard, Ad week, and the Hollywood Reporter.
