Nielsen Holdings, a global leader in television audience measurement with a presence in 100 countries, filed on Thursday with the SEC to raise up to $1.75 billion in an initial public offering. The company, which was founded in 1923 by market analyst Arthur Nielsen, booked $4.9 billion in sales for the 12 months ended March 31st, 2010. Nielsen's two major reporting segments are What Consumers Watch (media audience measurement) and What Consumers Buy (consumer purchasing measurement), which comprise 97% of 2009 sales, according to its S-1. Net proceeds from the IPO will be used to repay part of its $8.7 billion in outstanding debt and for general corporate purposes. Nielsen, which was bought out by a consortium of investors including KKR, Blackstone, Thomas H. Lee Partners and The Carlyle Group in May 2006 for roughly $9.7 billion, joins the growing list of large, private equity-backed deals in the IPO pipeline. Others include Toys "R" Us (TOYS), HCA (HCA) and NXP (NXP). J.P. Morgan and Morgan Stanley are the lead underwriters on the deal, for which pricing terms and timing were not disclosed.
