Nielsen just got a pop in the ratings — among deep-pocketed buyout firms, that is.
Nielsen Holdings — the 95-year-old consumer research firm best known for its TV-ratings reports — has restarted a process to sell itself amid fresh interest from Blackstone Group, the private equity shop controlled by billionaire Stephen Schwarzman, The Post has learned.
Blackstone is partnering in a bid with fellow buyout firm Hellman & Friedman that could value the company at around $10 billion, according to sources close to the talks.
“The Blackstone team is very out in front,” according to one source close to the process.
Nielsen’s banker JPMorgan has set a Friday deadline for first-round bids in the new auction process, sources said. Other prospective bidders include Bain Capital, TPG Capital and KKR, according to sources.
If successful, Blackstone and Hellman & Friedman would own Nielsen for the second time. Previously, the two buyout shops had partnered with Carlyle Group in 2006 to buy Nielsen, formerly called VNU, for $11 billion.
Blackstone Senior Managing Director David Calhoun was CEO of Nielsen from 2006 through 2013. The buyout firms took it public in 2011 at $23 a share.
Since then, Nielsen shares have stalled. Its TV-ratings business, which it calls “watch,” is solid. But its “buy” business that sells data to consumer-goods makers and retailers has been hit by painful changes in the industry, including the rising dominance of Amazon.
Last August, billionaire Paul Singer’s hedge fund, Elliott Management, revealed an 8 percent stake in Nielsen, prodding it to sell the troubled “buy” segment of its business or sell the company altogether.
Nielsen announced it was considering alternatives a few weeks later in September.
Nevertheless, the auction never took off as Nielsen shuffled its executive ranks and signaled new turnaround initiatives.
Nielsen shares on Wednesday rose 2.7 percent to close at $25.49, giving the company a market capitalization of $9.05 billion.
It’s likely that any prospective buyer is looking to press ahead with Nielsen’s plans to slash costs and automate services as it faces slowing growth, analysts said.
“The company wants to be less head-count intensive in the consumer packaged goods side,” said Matthew Thornton, an analyst at SunTrust Robinson Humphrey. “They cannot raise prices, so they are making their product more self-service and affordable.”
Thornton estimates Nielsen’s revenue will drop 2 percent this year but that its Ebitda, or earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, could jump 8 percent next year as it moves ahead with recently announced plans to cut $650 million in expenses.
Nielsen recently was in hard-knuckle negotiations with CBS, which had complained its TV-ratings tools were increasingly outdated and overpriced, and threatened to switch over to rival comScore. That dispute got resolved earlier this month.
A Nielsen spokesperson told The Post: “On September 12, 2018, The Nielsen Board of Directors expanded its strategic review to include a review of strategic alternatives for the company and its businesses. This review includes a broad range of options, including continuing to operate as a public, independent company; a separation of either Nielsen’s Buy or Watch segment; or a sale of the company. There can be no assurance that this review will result in a specific transaction or other alternative. The company will provide updates on the review when it determines that further disclosure is appropriate or required.”