• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, December 12, 2005

Dutch research and publishing giant VNU hasn't even officially gone into play, but the media industry already is speculating on how its assets might be divvied up, and names such as Anglo-Dutch publisher Reed Elsevier, Arbitron, and, ironically, IMS Health, are coming to mind. That IMS might be seen as a contender to acquire some VNU assets is ironic because it was a rushed deal by VNU's management team to forge a $7 billion merger with IMS that sparked a shareholder revolt that led to Ron van den Bergh's resignation and set private equity firms into action.

At least two consortiums of private equity firms are calculating bids to acquire VNU, which could fetch more than $8.2 billion, but may be worth more if broken up and sold as disparate assets. VNU's main operations include media research giant Nielsen Media Research, marketing research giant ACNielsen, and trade publications such as Adweek, Billboard and The Hollywood Reporter. Although the original merger fell through, IMS chief David Carlucci is believed to be interested in acquiring VNU's marketing research operations should the company be broken up.

Meanwhile, Anglo-Dutch publishing giant Reed Elsevier, which owns the lucrative Lexis/Nexis database, and publishes trade magazines such as Broadcasting & Cable, Multichannel News and Variety is weighing a major acquisition to utilize a surplus pile of cash on its books, CEO Crispin Davis said in an interview with Dutch newspaper Het Financieele Dagblad. Davis did not specifically mention VNU, or any of its assets as a takeover target.