Nielsen Holdings history

The company expanded its business in 1932 by creating a retail index that tracked the flow of food and drug purchases.

In 1933, Nielsen introduced measurements for drugstore and retail store sales.

By going beyond conventional consumer questionnaires and having auditors actually survey store shelves and accounting books to determine sales patterns, Nielsen helped pioneer key market research tools--including the concept of market share in 1935.

In 1936, Arthur C. Nielsen acquired the Audimeter, which measured which radio stations a radio had been tuned to during the day.

Indeed, as early as 1942, Nielsen began measurement of radio audiences on a national scale.

A.C. Nielsen, Sr.'s efforts gained momentum in 1945 when his son, A.C. Nielsen, Jr., joined the firm, bringing new energy and ideas.

The company began measuring television audiences in 1950, at a time when the medium was just getting off the ground.

In 1952, the company acquired one of the first computers manufactured by IBM. Although it was unwieldy in size and function compared to later models, it nonetheless marked a milestone in efficiency.

In 1953, the company began sending out diaries to a smaller sample of homes (“Nielsen families”) within the survey to have them record what they had watched.

In 1963, Nielsen introduced measurement of sales at mass merchandisers, providing a bulk of consumer-related information that would have been virtually unmanageable just a decade earlier.

Scanning of universal product codes at retail stores was introduced in 1977.

By 1979, Nielsen offered local SCANTRACK service, which gave clients proprietary means of tracking specific market trends and producing custom reports to develop better marketing and distribution plans.

The company was acquired by the Dun & Bradstreet Company in 1984.

A similar collaboration of formerly competitive forces occurred in 1988, when Nielsen acquired Logistics Data Systems, the market leader whose software product, SPACEMAN, helped retailers profitably manage shelf space and display areas.

By 1991--just three years after its inception--the National Electronic Household Panel announced coverage of 40,000 homes.

That system would win an award for outstanding artificial intelligence application from the American Association for Artificial Intelligence in 1992.

Along with Nielsen Promotion Simulator, that product placed first in the software applications category at the Information Industry Association's Product Achievement Awards in 1993.

In a joint effort aimed at ECR implementation around the globe, the company worked together with suppliers and distributors to form the Nielsen Solution Partners program in 1994.

In 1998 the company acquired The BASES Group, an international provider of simulated test marketing services and proprietary products, to create ACNielsen BASES, and the following year it purchased Media Monitoring Services Ltd., one of Britain's leading advertising measurement services.

The Dutch publishing company VNU (Verenigde Nederlandse Uitgeverijen) acquired Nielsen Media Research in 1999.

2000: VNU announces plans to acquire ACNielsen Corporation.

The Dutch publishing company VNU (Verenigde Nederlandse Uitgeverijen) acquired Nielsen Media Research in 1999. It later recombined the two halves of the business when it acquired AC Nielsen in 2001.

In 2004, Nielsen began a joint venture called AGB Nielsen Media Research with WPP Group’s AGB Group, a European competitor which provides similar services.

The company was originally incorporated in the Netherlands and later was purchased on May 24, 2006, by a consortium of private equity firms.

Under the new ownership, Nielsen bought the remaining shares of the company in 2007.In the same year, Nielsen acquired Telephia, which measures mobile media, and Bilesim Medya, a Turkish advertising intelligence firm.

In July 2008, Nielsen released the first in a series of quarterly reports, detailing video and TV usage across the ‘three screens’ – Television, Internet and Mobile devices.

In 2009, the company acquired The Cambridge Group, which is a management consulting firm headquartered in Chicago.

In June 2010 Nielsen paired with McKinsey & Company to create the social media consulting company NM Incite.

In August 2011 Nielsen acquired Marketing Analytics, Inc.

In February 2012, Nielsen launched The Demand Institute in collaboration with The Conference Board.

On June 17, 2013 Nielsen announced that Onex Corp (TSX: OCX) had completed the acquisition of Nielsen Expositions for $950 million in cash consideration.