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MARKET RESEARCH AGENCY
BOUGHT OUT BY VNU
Leading market research agency ORG-MARG
has been bought out by Dutch information services group
VNU. ORG-Marg conducts the continuous Indian television
survey, Indian Readership Survey, and also runs one
of the two TV viewership rating systems in India.
VNU has bought out the 50% equity holding
owned by the Business India group and now-off channel
TVi promoter Ashok Advani. The price: $22 million, which
has been extended to Advani over a long term period
in the form of loans. His flourishing business publications
group had ended up facing a cash flow problem after
he launched TVi. Advani was finally forced to lay off
employees and air TVi as a truncated service with programme
repeats for a while.
VNU, with its 80-85% equity stake, is
expected to give ORG-Marg a renewed thrust in its television
viewership research, readership surveys, retail audits,
and pharma research.
The remainining holding in ORG-Marg is
with Marg promoter Tito Ahulwalia and employees.
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