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WindAcre Partners, the Nielsen (NYSE:NLSN) holder who is opposed to the TV measurement firm’s sale to a private equity consortium, almost double its stake this week.
WindAcre raised its stake in Nielsen to 18.9% from 9.6% after purchasing about 33.4 million shares this week for about $912 million, according to an amended 13/D filing from late Friday.
WindAcre earlier this week said it planned to take steps to block the $28/share sale of the TV measurement company to Elliott Management and Brookfield Asset Management (NYSE:BAM). WindAcre said it could try to block the transaction by purchasing securities of Nielsen, voting against the deal, communicating with other shareholders or third parties, and proposing corporate resolutions.
WindAcre was originally opposed to Elliott and Brookfield earlier $25.40/share bid for Nielsen and said it would oppose the deal and use its efforts to block a transaction as it believed the company’s intrinsic value was well in excess of $40/share.
Bloomberg reported on Thursday that WindAcre offered to support the deal if it received about another $1 billion in equity. WindAcre also asked for an option to roll all or just a portion of its investment into the new company. But the structure was quickly rejected by Brookfield and Elliott.