Thursday, March 09, 2006
VNU: Whistling in the Dark, Etc.
Whistling in the Dark?
From (VNU USA) National Jeweler's editorial director, Whitney Sielaff, on the pending sale of VNU to a consortium of private equity firms:
"This is an excellent development for NATIONAL JEWELER, its readers and customers," Sielaff says. "As we celebrate our 100th anniversary in 2006, we can now look forward to elevating our service to the industry even further, given the support and operating environment that a privately held company will provide. Short-term financial results will be far less important for every brand the company owns, including us. What will matter will be driving the scope and value of the information servicing we provide to jewelers to help them build their businesses stronger."
I hope he's right. But in my experience, there's nobody more short-term than bankers. Miss your numbers, and you'll dream of the days when that just made your stock price drop. Debt has to be repaid contractually; shareholders want to be repaid, too, but sometimes aren't. That's why the stock market is risky.
Opposition
Also, from The New York Times: two major VNU shareholders (Fidelity and Knight Vinke, who own 17% of the company) are already on record as opposing the deal.
Grab:
Because the sale agreement is subject to approval by shareholders representing 95 percent of VNU's shares, the two dissenting shareholders would appear to have sufficient power to block a deal.
I wonder what VNU's board is thinking. Having learned (one would hope) a big lesson from shareholder reaction to the aborted IMS deal, they should have engaged major shareholders in the sale process upfront, to earn buy in. The disconnect here is painful, and apparently, continuous.
Acquisition
In the meantime, VNU continues to acquire things, bringing tweakers.net into the fold.
Grab:
The acquisition builds on the existing VNU cross-media brands Computable, PCM, Computer Idee and Emerce. VNU also recently bought the rights to publish content from the popular Gizmodo blog, based in the US.
"The acquisitions of The Inquirer.co.uk in the UK, Silicon.fr in France and Tweakers.net in the Netherlands are important steps to transforming VNU Business Media Europe to the leading European cross-media player," said Ruud Bakker, CEO of VNU Business Media.
Background
The Financial Times has a nice summary of VNU's history and operations.
Comments
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From (VNU USA) National Jeweler's editorial director, Whitney Sielaff, on the pending sale of VNU to a consortium of private equity firms:
"This is an excellent development for NATIONAL JEWELER, its readers and customers," Sielaff says. "As we celebrate our 100th anniversary in 2006, we can now look forward to elevating our service to the industry even further, given the support and operating environment that a privately held company will provide. Short-term financial results will be far less important for every brand the company owns, including us. What will matter will be driving the scope and value of the information servicing we provide to jewelers to help them build their businesses stronger."
I hope he's right. But in my experience, there's nobody more short-term than bankers. Miss your numbers, and you'll dream of the days when that just made your stock price drop. Debt has to be repaid contractually; shareholders want to be repaid, too, but sometimes aren't. That's why the stock market is risky.
Opposition
Also, from The New York Times: two major VNU shareholders (Fidelity and Knight Vinke, who own 17% of the company) are already on record as opposing the deal.
Grab:
Because the sale agreement is subject to approval by shareholders representing 95 percent of VNU's shares, the two dissenting shareholders would appear to have sufficient power to block a deal.
I wonder what VNU's board is thinking. Having learned (one would hope) a big lesson from shareholder reaction to the aborted IMS deal, they should have engaged major shareholders in the sale process upfront, to earn buy in. The disconnect here is painful, and apparently, continuous.
Acquisition
In the meantime, VNU continues to acquire things, bringing tweakers.net into the fold.
Grab:
The acquisition builds on the existing VNU cross-media brands Computable, PCM, Computer Idee and Emerce. VNU also recently bought the rights to publish content from the popular Gizmodo blog, based in the US.
"The acquisitions of The Inquirer.co.uk in the UK, Silicon.fr in France and Tweakers.net in the Netherlands are important steps to transforming VNU Business Media Europe to the leading European cross-media player," said Ruud Bakker, CEO of VNU Business Media.
Background
The Financial Times has a nice summary of VNU's history and operations.
