Nielsen is acquiring San Francisco-based Telephia, the leading provider of syndicated consumer research to the telecommunications and mobile-media markets.
Terms of the transaction -- which is subject to regulatory approval and expected to close in the third quarter -- were not disclosed. Telephia and Nielsen are both privately held companies.
The transaction is meant to help accelerate Nielsen’s strategy of providing clients worldwide with the most accurate measurement and analysis of consumer behavior and media use across all platforms.
Telephia serves more than 100 clients in the United States, Canada and Europe from all sectors of the telecommunications and mobile-media markets, including mobile operators, device manufacturers, retailers, infrastructure vendors, investment analysts and content providers.
The company provides independent, technology-based measurements of consumer behavior, product quality and consumer attitudes, and it is the mobile industry’s standard for subscriber market share, network quality, consumer satisfaction and mobile-media consumption.
This acquisition provides Nielsen with an entry into measurement services for the estimated $350 billion mobile sector, where telecommunications and media are quickly converging. Telephia expands Nielsen’s ability to measure the rapidly expanding mobile-content-delivery industry, where there are currently more than 232 million U.S. wireless subscribers.
Through its Anytime Anywhere Media Measurement (A2/M2), Nielsen is committed to measuring consumer use of video and online activity on any platform on which consumers can access that content. Nielsen also recently announced that its Nielsen Wireless service will begin measuring how many people use content services such as mobile Internet and mobile video and what impact this has on established media behavior.
Telephia’s patented technology, industry expertise and analytic strengths will enhance and accelerate Nielsen’s activities in these areas. At the same time, Nielsen expects to invest in and grow Telephia’s core measurement products, while creating opportunities to expand these businesses into media measurement.
