VNU Thursday said it agreed to pay $55 million to Information Resources Inc. to settle claims of an antitrust suit filed by IRI against Dun & Bradstreet - the former parent of VNU's ACNielsen and
Nielsen Media Research units - in 1996. VNU is in the process of considering a takeover bid from a group of private equity firms, as well as a proposal from key shareholders to break the company up
into three pieces.