Nielsen//NetRatings will acquire rival NetValue for 18 million euros (about HK$140 million) in cash and stock, signalling another demise in the competitive Internet audience measurement market.
Hong Kong director for Nielsen//NetRatings Peter Steyn said it was too early to tell whether any offices in the region would close, as Nielsen//NetRatings had acquired only a controlling 52 per cent stake in Paris-listed NetValue.
A bid to acquire the remainder from public investors would be launched and after this decisions would be made about office premises and staffing levels, Mr Steyn said.
Both Nielsen//NetRatings and NetValue, which compete in selling reports based on data collected from panels of Internet users, have offices in Hong Kong and have shed staff here in the past year.
In several other Asian markets there is no overlap. NetValue has offices in Singapore, Taiwan and South Korea, while Nielsen//NetRatings' are in Japan, Australia and China.
'We will continue to evaluate each market where NetValue is and where we are and then based on the economic importance and viability, we will decide which markets to keep. Honestly at this point I don't know which markets we will keep,' Mr Steyn said.