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Mergers and Acquisitions Technology Programmatic

Neustar to be taken private in deal valued at nearly $3bn

By Sean Larkin, Programmatic Reporter

December 14, 2016 | 3 min read

In a further sign of the industry’s ongoing consolidation, martech outfit Neustar has today (14 December) announced that it is to be taken into private ownership by an investment group led by Golden Gate Capital in a deal valued at approximately $2.9bn.

Neustar

Neustar - valued at $2.9bn

Neustar announced that it has entered definitive agreement to be acquired by the private investment group with the transaction including debt to be refinanced and that the terms of the agreement had been unanimously approved by Neustar’s Board of Directors. Its shareholders will receive $33.50 per share in cash.

This represents a premium of 45% to Neustar’s closing stock price on November 11 (the day prior to Golden Gate Capital’s filing of a Form 13F with the SEC disclosing an equity position in Neustar) according to a release from the outfit which also revealed that an affiliate of GIC will also invest in Neustar and will become a minority owner of the company following close of the transaction.

The transaction is expected to close no later than the end of the third calendar quarter of 2017 and will be subject to regulatory approval.

In recent years Nester has been positioning itself to evolve beyond its traditional role in the telecoms sector to include helping those involved in the media industry to manage their inventory in real-time, and assemble “hard-to-replicate datasets”, in order to help measure marketing effectiveness.

Lisa Hook, Neustar’s president and chief executive officer, said: “We believe this transaction will enable us to continue to execute against our strategy and strengthen our market position as a leader in marketing, risk, security and communication solutions.

“Golden Gate Capital and GIC offered us a compelling opportunity to continue to invest and pursue long-term growth with operational flexibility, and we look forward to working with these two sophisticated investors. Importantly, customers, employees and partners will continue to benefit as we execute against our strategy.”

J.P. Morgan Securities LLC is serving as financial advisor while Goodwin Procter and Wiley Rein are serving as legal advisors to Neustar.

BofA Merrill Lynch, UBS Investment Bank, Jefferies Finance LLC and an affiliate of Angel Island Capital have agreed to provide debt financing in connection with the transaction.

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