Marketing firm VNU changes name to Nielsen Co.

NEW YORK, Jan 18 (Reuters) - VNU [VNU.UL], the world's largest market research firm, is changing its name to Nielsen Co., reflecting the widespread awareness of its Nielsen audience ratings business, the company said Thursday.

"Nielsen is one of the great names in the information-services industry," said Chief Executive David Calhoun. The name also more clearly highlights the company's growing focus on media information services, he said.

Nielsen is known as the dominant television ratings agency in the United States. Its audience tracking data is used by advertisers and broadcasters to set prices for commercial time.

Nielsen Co. said it would find ways to link its other brands, from ACNielsen to business publications Billboard and Hollywood Reporter, to the new company identity.

VNU, with headquarters in both the Netherlands and New York, went private in a leveraged buyout that closed in August.

It has since been restructuring its portfolio of assets, planning to cut about 4,000 jobs this year and agreeing to sell its European business magazines to private equity firm 3i Group Plc (III.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz).

In December the company named Susan Whiting, CEO of the Nielsen TV ratings business, as an executive vice president of VNU, charging her with working across the entire company to develop new products.

The private equity groups that bought VNU include Carlyle Group [CYL.UL] and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. [KKR.UL]. They pledged to keep the company substantially together as an integrated company for the first 18 months after the buyout.