Rentrak, the US ratings measurement company, recently completed its acquisition of Kantar Media's US assets in a deal worth around $128 million, $30 million higher than projected back in October, when Rentrak agreed to issue 1.53 million shares of its stock (priced at $64.51 a piece) for all of Kantar's assets. Since the deal was announced, Rentrak's stock has risen by around 30%, which is believed to be the primary reason for the increase in purchase price. The transaction encompasses all Kantar Media's customer contracts and customer relationships that work within the US television measurement realm.
Rentrak recently completed its acquisition of Kantar Media
Rentrak reports on movie box office takes and TV viewership in the states, and is amongst the companies responsible in many instances for deciding which movies get sequels or which TV shows get renewed. With the acquisition of WPP's UK-based Kantar Media business unit, Rentrak believes they will be able to “Produce multiple long-term revenue streams directly, as well as from anticipated future joint marketing agreements with Kantar.” Rentrak expects to add between $7 million and $9 million in revenue as a result of the move, when it becomes accretive in the fiscal year of 2016.
As part of the deal, Rentrak will be integrating its national and local TV measurement with many of Kantar's US-based services focusing on digital media, advertising expenditure and purchase data. This integration will provide companies in the US access to tools that will help them understand consumer's purchasing habits and give them the ability to link TV viewing habits with purchases, which will be particularly useful for advertisers.”
WPP, Kantar's parent company, purchased additional restricted shares in Rentrak
In connection with the Kantar acquisition, its parent company, WPP, purchased additional restricted shares in Rentrak for $56 million, giving the British multinational advertising and public relations company a 16.7% ownership stake of Rentrak's stock as of the closing date.
The Kantar Media Team
In related news, Rentrak was recently also granted two new patents, which should help it extend its leadership in the field even further. The first patent (US Patent 8,887,188) was for a “Method and system for television advertisement audience measurement.” This patent secures Rentrak's intellectual property rights around “Exact Commercial Ratings.” The second patent (US Patent 8,893,165) was for a “Method and system that compensates for problems with return path TV data storage.” The press release added that “In some cases, a return path TV is not able to store all the channel changes before sending them back for processing by Rentrak, but this patent detects when this problem happens, enabling Rentrak to fix the problem quickly.”
