New York, NY- July 1, 2015 - Nielsen, a leading global provider of information and insights into what consumers watch and buy, today announced that it has signed an agreement with Vermont Information Processing (VIP) for the acquisition of its Beverage Data Network (BDN) assets. With this agreement, VIP, a leading supplier of wholesaler depletion data to the beverage alcohol industry, will acquire all Nielsen BDN assets, the largest supplier of wholesaler depletion data to the wines and spirits industry. Effective immediately, together with the BDN network, VIP will now process wholesaler depletion data across the majority of ALL beverage alcohol products (beer, spirits and wine) that moves through the three-tier system in the U.S., and will service and support all BDN customers.

Nielsen remains fully mitted to the unique needs of the beverage alcohol space with its continued focus on the expansion of retail measurement coverage both off and on premise, deeper consumer/shopper insights and both participation and contributions of thought leadership to industry trade groups and events. In support of this mitment, Nielsen and VIP intend to embark on a long term business relationship to collaboratively deliver best-in-class data collection, reporting, and analytic services with end-to-end coverage across all tiers of beverage alcohol distribution.

Elements and benefits of this collaborative relationship are expected to include:

  • The use of Nielsen TDLinx across each pany's data model, where customers licensing Nielsen TDLinx and VIP depletion collections services will continue to enjoy the timely assignment of Nielsen TDLinx retail outlet attributes, as well as greater breadth in the sourcing of account information.
  • An option to house and display various Nielsen information assets within VIP's iDIG reporting tools, on its own or integrated alongside depletion data.
  • A coordinated approach to helping customers maximize revenue and profitability by delivering best in class analytics and insights through all tiers of beverage alcohol distribution across: pricing, promotion, trade spend management, assortment, replenishment/on shelf availability, and consumer/shopper profiling.
  • Leveraging existing and future services offered by both Nielsen and VIP as part of a coordinated strategic information insights plan.

According to Danny Brager, Senior Vice-President of Beverage Alcohol Practice at Nielsen,"Nielsen and VIP both have a long history of providing critical services to the beverage alcohol industry. As Nielsen continues to pioneer new frontiers in measuring and delivering business-driven insights to this industry, we felt pelled to find a collaborative partner that could help bring new capabilities, analytics, and efficiencies to the marketplace. VIP, with their extensive Supplier Reporting Services network and track record for innovation was a natural choice. We are confident that they have the expertise, capabilities and focus to meet both current and future needs of our customers as it relates to depletion data collection, reporting and management. The BDN and broader Nielsen Beverage Alcohol client base - both suppliers and distributors - will be well served by this ownership change and new collaboration between our two panies."

BDN's customers will have the opportunity to benefit from VIP's full range of capabilities and resources. These capabilities include expertise in daily invoice level sales information, reporting through its industry leading iDIG reporting application, and a variety of other sales automation applications.

"The addition of Nielsen's BDN assets to our supplier network marks an exciting step towards a unified vision of a more optimized process of collecting depletion data," said Dan Byrnes, President of VIP. "With Nielsen's insights and analytic capabilities, together we will be able to deliver solutions that drive even greater efficiencies across all three tiers of the industry."

ABOUT VIP

Vermont Information Processing (VIP) is a privately held pany that has developed solutions for the three-tier beverage industry since 1973. VIP collects distributor retail-level sales depletions and daily inventory transactions and is fully integrated in the three-tier distribution system. The bination of data collection, analytical reporting, web applications, and mobile applications provides turnkey solutions for brand owners.

ABOUT NIELSEN

Nielsen N.V. (NYSE: NLSN) is a global performance management pany that provides a prehensive understanding of what consumer Watch and Buy. Nielsen's Watch segment provides media and advertising clients with Total Audience measurement services across all devices where content - video, audio and text- is consumed. The Buy segment offers consumer packaged goods manufacturers and retailers the industry's only global view of retail performance measurement. By integrating information from its Watch and Buy segments and other data sources. Nielsen provides its clients with both world-class measurement as well as analytics that help improve performance. Nielsen, a S&P 500 pany, has operations in over 100 countries that cover more than 90 percent of the world's population. For more information, visit www.nielsen.

Genevieve Aronson, 914.393.2829, Genevieve.Aronson@nielsen.

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