DoubleVerify and Nielsen will come together to form an independent intelligence platform for advertisers.
Nielsen, a measurement, data and media intelligence platform, has entered into an agreement to acquire DoubleVerify, in a deal worth roughly $2.15bn (£1.62bn).
Under the all-cash agreement, DoubleVerify shareholders are set to receive $13.60 per share – a 30% premium against the company’s average 60-day share price.
The deal will bring digital media verification and audience measurement onto one platform. The two firms expect to give advertisers a more detailed and integrated view of campaigns, audience measurement, media verification, and attribution.
Nielsen’s cross-platform audience measurement capabilities is set to be combined with DoubleVerify’s tools to check media quality, including brand suitability, viewability, and invalid traffic. It will also be embedded into advertiser, agency, and publisher workflows.
DoubleVerify’s existing verification standards will stay independent, as well as capabilities to detect fraud, invalid traffic, brand suitability, and viewability.
The acquisition between the two companies is likely to optimise and measure advertising across linear TV, social, mobile, connected TV, and emerging AI-powered advertising environments.
Mark Zagorski, DoubleVerify chief executive, said: “As a private entity with the support of Nielsen, we will have access to expanded resources to deliver new, market-leading solutions that drive exceptional value for our customers and partners.
“DoubleVerify’s MRC-accredited quality signals, in combination with Nielsen’s deduplicated cross-screen audience measurement, will fuel genuine market innovation – a single currency that scores media on both audience delivery and media environment quality. I’m proud of the strong momentum we’ve built for DoubleVerify as the leading media effectiveness platform, the strength of our AI-powered measurement and optimization platform, and the exceptional work of our team.”
Karthik Rao, chief executive at Nielsen, added: “Joining forces with DoubleVerify will extend our capabilities deeper into the digital media industry, ensuring that the spend flowing between buyers and sellers is reaching real people in brand-suitable environments, through verified channels.
“As advertising workflows become increasingly automated, together we can offer publishers, advertisers, agencies, and platforms a truly independent, end-to-end partner that connects trusted audience intelligence with verified media delivery – across every screen, every channel, and every transaction – enabling superior decisions and outcomes.”
The deal is expected to come to a close in the first quarter of 2027, subject to regulatory and shareholder approval.
