Media Measurement Firms comScore & Rentrak to Merge

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RESTON/PORTLAND: Through a new stock-for-stock merger agreement, Rentrak will become a wholly owned subsidiary of comScore, widening the scope of its measurement solutions in media content and advertising across all platforms.

Upon completion of the merger, comScore shareholders are expected to own approximately 66.5 percent and Rentrak shareholders are expected to own approximately 33.5 percent of the combined company on a fully diluted basis.

Serge Matta, comScore's current CEO, will lead the combined company as CEO. Dr. Magid Abraham will remain as the executive chairman of the board. Bill Livek, Rentrak's current vice chairman and CEO, will serve as the company's executive vice chairman and president. Mel Wesley will continue as the chief financial officer, and David Chemerow, Rentrak's current COO and CFO, will serve as a strategic advisor to the CEO, focused on the successful integration of the two companies. The combined company's board will consist of 12 directors: eight from comScore and four from Rentrak.

The combination will enable the company to introduce a more comprehensive and precise set of solutions for measuring media consumption and advertising across mobile devices, websites and TV, positioning itself as a formidable competitor to Nielsen.

"The merger of comScore and Rentrak represents an exciting milestone for our combined clients, uniquely skilled employees and shareholders," said Matta. "Together we have an even more powerful ability to deliver what our clients and the media industry have long been asking for: a comprehensive cross-platform measurement currency that accounts for all the ways in which content is consumed, whether that happens on a desktop, mobile device, live or time-shifted TV, video on demand or through over-the-top devices."

"With the advent of digital technology, the time has come to offer the cross-platform measurement systems of the future: through which content owners will ultimately be able to quantify their entire audience, and agencies will have access to the cross-platform metrics needed to effectively plan and execute campaigns," Matta said. "This merger also recognizes the critical importance of combining digital and TV assets for next generation media measurement, which requires a higher degree of precision at both a national and local market level."

Livek noted: "Both companies have been innovators in content and consumer measurement, advanced demographics and analytics, providing the industry with world-class digital, TV and movie consumption information. This merger will accelerate the pace of that innovation, and offer an improved solution for cross-platform measurement, not available anywhere else. Rentrak's expertise in precisely measuring TV and movies, and comScore's industry-leading digital measurement capabilities, are natural complements. Combined, our expertise and information assets will enable us to provide the industry with the most granular measurement solutions that reflect the ever-changing way that people are consuming content across platforms."

"Bill Livek and his team have built a cutting-edge media measurement company that has moved our industry forward in many ways, and we could not be more excited to welcome them to the comScore family," said Abraham. "We look forward to working with Bill and his team as we bring our companies together to create the most comprehensive set of measurement solutions available, delivering on our mission of making audiences and advertising more valuable."