Nielsen’s $560 Million Buy to Give Gracenote Its 3rd Corporate Owner in 8 Years

Gracenote ownership will change hands for the third time in eight years when Tribune Media completes the sale of the audio, video and sports metadata supplier to Nielsen for $560 million cash in Q1. Selling Gracenote to Nielsen will enable Tribune to focus on its “core” TV and entertainment business, the broadcaster said in a Tuesday announcement. By bringing Gracenote into the fold, Nielsen “will have the ability to provide clients with deeper analytics on consumer behavior and offer an unprecedented view of audience engagement from discovery to consumption,” Nielsen said Tuesday in a statement. In 2008, Sony acquired Gracenote for $260 million and once viewed the company as central to plans to “enhance and accelerate” its digital content (see 0804240158). But Sony sold Gracenote to Tribune in 2014 for $170 million as part of a restructuring that later included the spin-offs of its TV and Vaio PC businesses (see 1403050067).