GfK withdrew offer for TNS
Jinfo Blog

27th August 2008

By Udo Hohlfeld

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German GfK withdraws from efforts to acquire British rival TNS. The vision of a transnational market research company burst like a bubble: The reason for the failed acquisition is simply lack of money. Originally, GfK (Gesellschaft fuer Konsumforschung, Germany) and TNS (Taylor Nelson Sofres, UK) aimed at a merger of peers by exchanging shares. Due to a hostile takeover bid by WPP (Wire & Plastic Products, UK), GfK changed its strategy from merging with TNS to acquring the company at the beginning of this month. With the help of venture capital investor Apax the acquisition seemed realistic. But Apax had conditions which GfK would not accept resulting in a break up. Time was too short for GfK to identify a replacement for Apax, eventually it has had to withdraw its acquisition offer for TNS. Meanwhile, TNS also rejected WPP's offer of almost €1.4 billion as this is judged to be too low. GfK (9,300 employees, EUR 1.16 billion revenues), currently the number five in market research worldwide, would like to take over, TNS (EUR 1.3 billion revenues) currently the number three, forming the second largest market research company in the world. WPP reaches out for TNS to merger it with its subsidiary Kantar, which also would lead to a new number two in the market for market research. TNS reported healthy results for the first six months of its current fiscal year: revenues grew by 5.1% and the operating profit grew by 20% to GBP54.3 million. By the end of the fiscal year revenue growth is projected with 6%. Resources: Joint website of GfK and TNS: http://www.gfktns-merger.com Gfk homepage: http://www.gfk.com TNS homepage: http://www.tnsglobal.com WPP homepage: http://www.wpp.co.uk

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