Tuesday September 23, 06:17 PM
WPP plan to buy TNS gets conditional EU clearance UPDATE
(adds continued rejection from TNS (NYSE: TNS - news) )
BRUSSELS, Sept 23 (Reuters) - WPP Group Plc, the world's second-largest advertising company, won conditional approval from the European Commission on Tuesday for its bid to buy market research company Taylor Nelson Sofres (LSE: TNN.L - news) .
The Commission said in a statement its decision was conditional 'upon WPP (LSE: WPP.L - news) 's commitment to divest Television Audience Measurement services' in the 30-country European Economic Area and the TNS market research services business in Ireland.
Britain's Taylor Nelson Sofres earlier this month again urged its shareholders to reject the offer from WPP after it said the Martin Sorrell-led group had refused to consider a higher bid.
In response on Tuesday Taylor Nelson Sofres said it continues to recommend its shareholders reject the WPP offer, which based on the closing price of 486.5 pence per WPP share as at Sept. 23 values each TNS share at 264.9 pence.
TNS added that its trading performance continues to be strong and the outlook for the full year remains in-line with the guidance provided in the interim results for the six months ended 30 June 2008.
WPP had said it would extend its offer to Sept. 26 after receiving acceptances from 11 percent of TNS shareholders, but TNS responded by explaining that it still rejected the bid after holding discussions with WPP.
WPP had said at the time that its offer valued each TNS share at about 278.3 pence, or a premium of about 63 percent to the closing price of TNS shares before it entered merger talks with German rival GfK (Xetra: 587530 - news) .
WPP is an international marketing communications services group. It provides services such as advertising, marketing data, insight and consultancy, public relations and public affairs.
TNS is a global information and consultancy firm which provides market research services.
(Reporting by Darren Ennis and Dale Hudson) Keywords: WPP TNS/EU
|
|
|
Send Article by Email
Send Article by IM
Blog This with Y! 360
Printable View
