Rentrak To Acquire Kantar Media's U.S. TV Measurement Assets

(RTTNews) - Rentrak Corp. (RENT), which provides viewership information for TV and movies, Thursday said it agreed to acquire the U.S. television measurement business of Kantar media, a unit of advertising company WPP (WPP.L), in exchange for 1.53 million Rentrak shares valued at $98 million.

Rentrak expects the acquisition to add about $7 million to $9 million in revenues to Rentrak's fiscal 2016.

The acquisition will merge Kantar's U.S. client contracts with Rentrak to create a single massive and passive TV measurement ratings service, the company said.

The acquisition, which does not include Kantar media units outside US, will also integrate Rentrak's Television measurement services with Kantar's services for digital media and advertising expenditure and purchase data.

"This agreement is designed to help all of our U.S. agency and TV advertiser clients with new services in television measurement and consumer insights," said Rentrak's CEO Bill Livek

In addition, WPP will purchase $56 million worth of Rentrak shares directly, giving WPP a 16.7 percent stake in Rentrak. WPP can purchase more Rentrak shares as long it does not own more than 20 percent of total stock, Rentrak said in a statement.

The acquisition is scheduled to close by the end of the year.