Nielsen says Oldsmar office has room for two businesses
November 2, 2020 - Nielsen Holdings, one of the largest technology employers in the Tampa-St. Petersburg area, has agreed to sell part of its business to private equity investor Advent International, in a partnership with James "Jim" Peck, former CEO of TransUnion. Advent and Peck will buy the Nielsen Global Connect business for $2.7 billion, a news release said. Nielsen Global Connect will become a private company and in early 2021, be renamed NielsenIQ. Nielsen has a Global Technology and Innovation Center in Oldsmar, with nearly 2,500 employees in teams focused on engineering and technology, application development, operations, customer service, survey research and project management. Most of those workers are in Nielsen's Global Media business. "As we commented last year, real estate optimization is one of the workstreams we had in place as we worked towards separating our two businesses," a spokesperson for Nielsen (NYSE: NLSN) told the St. Pete Catalyst Monday. "Over the past several months we have worked to ensure that both Media and Connect have the office space needed. For locations where we have shared offices, like our facility in Oldsmar, we have ensured that both businesses can operate independently."