Business News
Digimarc and The Nielsen Company Expand Relationship; Form Joint Ventures
Monday 15. June 2009 - New JVs to Deliver Solutions Leveraging Key Assets from Both Companies
Digimarc Corporation (NASDAQ:DMRC) announced it has entered into an agreement with The Nielsen Company to jointly launch two new companies that will leverage the intellectual property assets of Digimarc and the wealth of consumer and business data amassed by Nielsen. Through the creation of these joint ventures, Digimarc and Nielsen will expand and extend their existing relationship to enhance television viewing, facilitate mobile commerce, and create valuable other new opportunities for television networks and consumer brands to more deeply engage with audiences.
“These joint ventures with Digimarc will provide tremendous opportunities for us to deliver innovative transaction-based solutions for new media businesses, including mobile,” said Itzhak Fisher, head of Nielsens global product leadership organization. “By combining Nielsens first-class market intelligence – particularly our analysis of video consumption across TV, Internet and mobile – with Digimarcs rich patent portfolio, we are uniquely positioned to drive exciting new ways to engage consumers through digital entertainment and transactions.”
The two joint venture agreements and a revised license agreement expand and replace the previous Digimarc/Nielsen license and services agreement that has been in operation since late 2007. Under the new agreement, Digimarc and Nielsen will work together to develop new products and services, including the expansion and deployment of those that have been under development in connection with the prior agreement.
Each company will own roughly one-half of each joint venture. Digimarc is expected to account for the operations of the joint ventures under the equity method of accounting and will report its portion of the net results of the entities based on its ownership share. It is expected that both Nielsen and Digimarc will provide shared general overhead services to the joint ventures.
“This is a great moment for our Company. Our nearly two years of successful and mutually rewarding collaboration position us well to succeed in these ventures. With Nielsens unparalleled data and other technical and marketing assets available to the joint ventures, we have an unprecedented opportunity to advance our strategic vision for the future and build shareholder value,” commented Bruce Davis, Digimarc CEO.