Elliott Takes Stake In Nielsen To Urge Company To Sell Itself

(RTTNews) - Nielsen Holdings plc. (NLSN) disclosed in a regulatory filing that Elliott, Elliott International and EICA collectively have beneficial ownership of 18 million shares of Common Stock constituting about 5.1% of the shares of Common Stock outstanding and combined economic exposure in Nielsen Holdings equivalent to 30 million shares of Common Stock constituting about 8.4% of the shares of Common Stock outstanding.

In Monday Pre-Market trade, NLSN is trading at $25.49 up $3.52 or 16.02 percent.

Earlier, the Wall Street Journal reported that Activist investor Elliott Management has taken a big stake in Nielsen and plans to push the TV-ratings company to sell itself. The New York hedge fund owns more than 8% of Nielsen, worth at least $640 million.

Multiple private-equity firms already have expressed interest in Nielsen, the report said.