Nielsen Will Lay Off 3,500 In Cost-Cutting Restructuring Plan

As part of its continuing restructuring efforts, Nielsen Holdings will lay off about 3,500 employees. 

Nielsen says the total restructuring charge for this year will now be higher -- $150 million to $170 million versus its previous guidance in April 2020 of $120 million to $140 million. 

About half of these charges taken in its second-quarter financial period are employee severance costs. 

Nielsen says permanent overall cost reduction will yield $250 million in annual savings.

This comes as the company continues to right its financial ship by spinning off Nielsen Global Connect.

Last year, Nielsen said it would split into two companies -- one focused on marketing services, Nielsen Global Connect, and the other focused on media measurement, Nielsen Global Media -- as two publicly traded companies.

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David Kenny, the current CEO of Nielsen, will head the media business, Nielsen Global Media -- the larger of the two units. 

As part of the plan, Nielsen says it will “exit several smaller, underperforming markets and non-core businesses” in the second half of 2020.

In the first quarter of this year Nielsen posted near-flat revenue results --- $1.56 billion versus $1.53 billion in the same period a year ago. Nielsen’s Global Media grew 2% in revenue to $842 million. Its troubled Global Connect slipped 2.7% to $717 million.

In Tuesday morning trading, Nielsen’s stock was down 1.3% to $14.85.

 
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