• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, November 9, 2004

In a development signaling new geographic priorities, media and marketing research giant VNU Tuesday said Rob Ruijter, CFO-designate, would relocate from VNU's headquarters in the Netherlands to the company's New York operations in 2005. The company said the move "is a consequence of the recent changes in VNU's business portfolio" and the fact that the majority of its operations are now managed from New York.

The timing of the move is noteworthy, because VNU recently sold its European directories division and raised more than $1 billion in cash that it is expected to use to make a major new acquisition. The company also recently negotiated a new credit facility giving it more than $1 billion in borrowing power to be used for acquisitions or other corporate purposes.

VNU is the parent of Nielsen Media Research and ACNielsen, as well as publisher of trade magazines like Adweek, Billboard and The Hollywood Reporter, and analysts have speculated that it would seek to expand its media research portfolio by acquiring a major U.S. researcher, possibly Arbitron, which it has struck agreements with to explore two high-profile ventures: a portable people meter-based media ratings system, and Project Apollo, a single-source media and marketing measurement system that would combine Arbitron's PPM system with ACNielsen's Homescan panel.

VNU also said all of its executive board members would also be based in New York and that a number of other Netherlands-based corporate functions would be transferred to New York in the second half of 2005. The move would affect about 40 jobs, less than half of which would be directly related to the New York relocation.