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Former VNU Execs Raise Quarter Billion for Acquisitions
Michael Connors, until recently Chairman and CEO of VNU's MMI Group, has resurfaced at the head of an acquisition company with almost $260m in funds. Information Services Group, Inc. (ISG) completed its IPO oversubscribed this week and boasts a strong line-up including several former Nielsen and VNU Execs.
Located in Stamford, CT, ISG will seek an acquisition in the information services industry, which the founders say presents 'attractive opportunities for consolidation and growth'. They define a broad range of sub-sectors within it, including among others MR, analytics, media measurement, advisory services, data collection and data mining, software for data interpretation and enhancement, and Internet-based services relating to the collection, aggregation and analysis of information.
The Initial Public Offering consisted of 32,343,750 units priced at $8.00 per unit, raising gross proceeds of $258.75m.
Chairman and CEO Connors was instrumental in creating the MMI (Media Measurement and Information) Group within VNU in 2001. Prior to joining VNU, he was Vice Chairman of ACNielsen Corporation, helping to lead its turnaround into a profitable company. Earlier, as Senior Vice President of D&B, he played a key role in its break-up into three separate publicly traded companies.
Joining Connors as Executive VPs are two men who worked at VNU, ACNielsen and D&B from the mid-90s until last year. ISG's CFO and Treasurer is Frank Martell, until recently COO of ACNielsen Corporation and CEO of ACNielsen Europe and Emerging Markets, while General Counsel and Corporate Secretary for the new firm is Earl Doppelt, who was Chief Legal Officer of VNU until November 2006.
Richard Gould, also an ISG Executive Vice President, was with Morgan Stanley until October 2006, most recently as co-head of its North America Equity Distribution as well as head of Global Derivatives Sales, Quantitative Research and the Global Pensions Group.
On the board of directors, Connors is joined by Robert J. Chrenc, another former ACNielsen C-suite exec; R. Glenn Hubbard, Dean of Columbia University, Graduate School of Business; and former Cognizant and IMS Health CEO Robert E. Weissman.
ISG's web site will be at www.informationsg.com .
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