Commission Extends Review of WPP Bid

The European Commission has extended by ten working days its investigation into the potential effect on competition of communication group WPP's takeover bid for global agency TNS.

A combination of TNS and WPP's own market research division Kantar would create the world's second-largest market research group behind privately-owned Nielsen.

The Commission originally had until 9 September to decide on whether the acquisition would meet EU merger rules, but has now extended the deadline to 23 September, to provide more time to conduct a thorough enquiry.

TNS believes the WPP offer undervalues the firm and urged its shareholders to reject the proposal, after GfK pulled out of the bidding war last week.

On Monday, WPP extended its offer to buy shares in TNS to 3pm on September 12, after the original deadline passed on Friday with just 8.6% of TNS shareholders opting to sell.

At the time, TNS said: 'The board continues to recommend that TNS shareholders reject the WPP offer by taking no action in response.'

Web sites: www.tns-global.com and www.wpp.com .

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.

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