Unilever Cuts BrainJuicer Stake Again

In the UK, home products giant Unilever has sold a further 720,000 shares in online market research specialist BrainJuicer, reducing its stake in the firm to 14.2%.

BrainJuicer was founded in 1999 by John Kearon (pictured), who began his career as a researcher with Unilever.

His former employer initially invested £550k in Kearon's firm in 2003, for an equity stake of approximately 40%.

However, last month, Unilever sold nearly half its BrainJuicer shares - equivalent to around 16% of the company - netting around £4.1m in the process.

Then on Tuesday, Unilever sold a further 500,000 shares at 205p per share, and yesterday a further 220,000 shares at 208p per share - raising £1.48m in total.

Earlier in the year, Unilever and Kearon each sold 325,000 shares back to the company in order to set up an equity-based incentive scheme for BrainJuicer's employees and management.

Web sites: www.unilever.co.uk and www.brainjuicer.com .