European Commission Clears Merger of NIQ and GfK

NielsenIQ (NIQ) and GfK have received clearance from the European Commission to merge, conditional on the divestment of GfK's Consumer Panel business to an independent third party. Terms of the deal, which is expected to close in the coming days, have not been disclosed.

The deal was announced last July, with NIQ's cloud-based Connect platform and omnichannel measurement technologies to be combined with GfK's gfknewron platform, to provide a 'comprehensive view' of shopper spending through a 'total store read'.

The European Commission has now approved the proposed combination of NIQ and GfK, and the two companies will now take the necessary steps to enable the transaction to close without further delay. Until closing, NIQ and GfK remain independent companies.

Web sites: www.nielseniq.com and www.gfk.com .