ComScore to buy viewership rating provider Rentrak

Upon completion of the merger, comScore shareholders are expected to own approximately 66.5% and Rentrak shareholders approximately 33.5% of the combined company.

While comScore and Rentrak have made great strides in winning over advertisers and media owners with their measurement tools, Nielsen has remained the dominant player. Rentrak CEO Bill Livek will serve as executive vice chairman and president.

The boards of directors of both companies have already approved the merger, and once the companies are combined Rentrak will have four board seats to ComScore’s eight. ComScore gained in extended trading after the announcement, rising as high as $45, suggesting the deal could be worth as much as $51.75 a share to stockholders of Rentrak, which also advanced.

The deal is expected to be dilutive to comScore’s earnings per share in 2016, but the company did not provide specific numbers. There are about $20 million in synergies in 2016 and $35 million in 2017.

The deal is subject to approval of shareholders from both companies, and is expected to be completed by early 2016. “As consumers’ viewing habits increasingly shift across time and platform, it’s no wonder we see traditional ratings in decline even though people are watching more content than ever”, they add.

Rentrak, which had been trading near a 52-week low, jumped almost 13 percent.

About comScore Founded in 1999 and headquartered in Reston, Virginia, comScore, Inc. ComScore’s strength is in digital audience measurement while Rentrak has historically excelled in census-based measurement around the box office and set top box and video on-demand.

ComScore rose 2% to $42.36. For more information onRentrak, please visit www.Rentrak.com.

Nielsen, which also offers other products such as the Catalina Solution that merges shopper loyalty-card data with TV viewership, dwarfs the emerging measurement competitors in size.

ComScore and Rentrak have always been companies that were known largely to wonks, the sort of people who love to sort through reams of data about what kind of audience is tuning into a cable network or web site. That isn’t the case with comScore and Rentrak, as holding company WPP is an investor in both companies. The contents of the websites referenced above are not deemed to be incorporated by reference into the registration statement or the joint proxy statement/prospectus. Information regarding the persons who may, under the rules of the SEC, be deemed participants in the solicitation of comScore or Rentrak security holders in connection with the proposed merger will be set forth in the registration statement and the joint proxy statement/prospectus when filed with the SEC. Rentrak’s expansive footprint of video on demand usage combined with more than 100 million televisions and devices will be unified with comScore’s massive digital assets to deliver national and local coverage at scale. Copies of the foregoing documents may be obtained as provided above. These interests will be described in the joint proxy statement/prospectus when it becomes available.