Ropes & Gray Represents Nielsen IQ in its Combination with GfK

Ropes & Gray represented NielsenIQ, a portfolio company of Advent International, in connection with its entry into a definitive agreement to combine with GfK SE. The combined business of two leaders in global information services will offer its customers new capabilities in the consumer and retail measurement industry. Powered by state-of-the-art cloud technology, the combination will bring together complementary data and analytics assets to provide a comprehensive view of shopper spending through a total store read, enabling clients to anticipate trends and react faster to consumer needs and expectations.

As part of the transaction, Advent will become the majority shareholder of the combined company. GfK’s current shareholders, the Nuremberg Institute for Market Decisions and KKR, will remain invested as significant shareholders of the combined company. The terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

The Ropes & Gray team was led by private equity partner Christian Westra and included private equity partner Matthew Richards, private equity counsel Tony Bernard, private equity associates Konrad Thallner and Amirali Agha-Khan, tax partners David Saltzman, Chris Agnoli and Andy Howard, tax counsel Sam Duncan, executive compensation partner Jenny Rikoski, labor and employment partner Doug Brayley, strategic transactions partner Ed Black, and data, privacy & cybersecurity partner Rohan Massey.