In March 2022, Nielsen announced that it had accepted a $16 billion offer from a group of private equity investors led by Elliott Investment Management subsidiary Evergreen Coast Capital Corp., and Brookfield Business Partners.

With a presence in more than 100 countries and services covering more than 90% of the globe's GDP and population, Nielsen provides clients with data about what consumers watch (programming, advertising) on a global and local basis and how those choices intersect.

According to SEC records, on February 26, 2015, Nielsen N.V., announced that its board of directors unanimously approved a proposal that resulted in a change in the company's legal domicile, from the Netherlands to the United Kingdom.

[11] Barns joined Nielsen in 1997, and has held various roles in Europe, Asia, and North America leading major parts of the business.

[citation needed] In September 2023, Karthik Rao was named CEO of Nielsen, succeeding David Kenny who became Executive Chairman.

After substantial work to simplify the company over the last several years and divestment of NielsenIQ in 2021, Nielsen Holdings aligns its business into media audience measurement and analytics.

[17] The company expanded its business in 1932 by creating a retail index that tracked the flow of food and drug purchases.

Then, this survey data was sold to manufacturers who were interested in the popularity of programs and demographic information about listeners for advertising purposes.

In 1953, the company began sending out diaries to a smaller sample of homes ("Nielsen families") within the survey to have them record what they had watched.

This combination of data allowed the company to statistically estimate the number of Americans watching TV and the demographic breakdown of viewers.

[19] In July 2008,[20] Nielsen released the first in a series of quarterly reports, detailing video and TV usage across the 'three screens' – Television, Internet and Mobile devices.

On September 9, 2016,[22] Nielsen announced that it would retire its paper TV diaries by mid-2017 and provide all electronic measurement in its local television ratings.

[24] In 1999, Nielsen Media Research was acquired by the Dutch publishing company VNU (Verenigde Nederlandse Uitgeverijen).

VNU combined the Nielsen properties with other research and data collection units including BASES, Claritas, HCI and Spectra.

[28] In the same year, Nielsen acquired Telephia, which measures mobile media,[29] and Bilesim Medya, a Turkish advertising intelligence firm.

[32] In June, Nielsen acquired Telephia, a provider of syndicated consumer research to the telecom and mobile media markets.

[35] The same year, Nielsen made a strategic investment in NeuroFocus, a California firm applying neuroscience brainwave techniques for consumer research.

[37][38] NM Incite had operations in 13 global markets, including: US, UK, Germany, Spain, Italy, Australia, New Zealand, China, Japan, India, Brazil, Canada and Korea.

[40] In November, Nielsen acquired SocialGuide, a provider of social TV measurement, analytics and audience engagement solutions.

[41] On December 17, 2012, Nielsen disclosed that it would acquire Arbitron, a company primarily involved in radio audience measurement, for $1.3 billion.

[45] On January 22, 2015, Nielsen acquired Brandbank, specialized in the process of digitally collecting, managing and distributing FMCG product and brand image content for retail syndication across in-store, print promotional and e-commerce platforms.

[46] On March 4, 2015, Nielsen announced the acquisition of Exelate, a provider of data and technology to facilitate the buying and selling of advertising across programmatic platforms.

[47] On May 27, 2015, Nielsen acquired Innerscope Research, which specialized in consumer neuroscience using biometrics, eye tracking and facial coding.

[50] On June 21, 2016, Nielsen acquired Repucom, a sports measurement, evaluation and intelligence company based in Stamford, Connecticut.

[4] On July 8, 2021, Nielsen acquired TVTY, a TV attribution provider and ad monitoring company based in Paris, France, for an undisclosed amount.

[65] The company disposed of its entire magazine publishing arm later in 2001 to Sanoma for €1.25 million, and sold its newspaper properties to Wegener.