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(Adds context, deal value)
By Pamela Barbaglia, Kate Holton and Paul Sandle
LONDON, April 19 (Reuters) - British market research firm
Kantar said it has clinched a deal to buy U.S. rival Numerator
from Vista Equity Partners as it seeks to boost its presence
overseas and better compete with the likes of Nielsen
in gathering data on consumer behaviour.
The deal, which was first reported by Reuters earlier on
Monday and is expected to complete by September, will see Kantar
taking full control of Numerator for about $1.5 billion, two
sources familiar with the transaction said.
Chicago-based Numerator specialises in providing market
intelligence and has been backed by buyout fund Vista since
2017.
The business, which ranks as a leading player in shopper
data, relies on a panel of more than 1 million shoppers and has
an advanced technology platform to capture real time shopper
behaviour.
Kantar, a former unit of media giant WPP, is well
familiar with Numerator's business model having previously
backed InfoScout, a retail-focused market specialist which was
sold to Vista-backed Market Track in 2017 and later re-branded
Numerator.
Kantar's new boss Alexis Nasard banks on the deal to gain
access to a wider pool of consumers in the United States and
defy the challenges posed by industry disrupters, including
Dublin-based e-commerce performance analytics platform
Profitero.
"The combined dataset will provide insights into the
shopping habits of almost five billion consumers globally,"
Kantar said in a statement adding the deal was also
complementary to its U.S. ad intelligence business.
"The deal will enable Kantar to bring Numerator's technology
to markets such as the UK to further enhance its leadership
there," one of the sources said.
Bain Capital bought about 60% of Kantar in 2019 in a deal
that valued the business at about $4 billion while WPP retained
a 40% stake.
WPP is expected to contribute between $125 million and $150
million to the transaction in a bid to retain its 40% stake,
another source said.
Kantar recently pocketed $375 million from the sale of its
global health division - headquartered in New York - to U.S.
healthcare technology company Cerner in December.
(Reporting by Pamela Barbaglia, Kate Holton and Paul Sandle.
Editing by Andrew MacAskill and Aurora Ellis)
