The Nielsen Company (NYSE: NLSN) has sold National Research Group (NRG) to The Stagwell Group via its fund Stagwell Media LLC. NRG has over 100 employees and two offices located in Los Angeles, California and London, England, serving Hollywood studios primarily through its global tracking product that provides critical metrics in the weeks leading up to the release of their movies.

JEGI CLARITY (www.jegiclarity.com), the leading independent investment bank for the global media, information, marketing, software and tech-enabled services sectors, headquartered in New York, NY, represented The Nielsen Company in this transaction.

Founded in the late 1970s, NRG has been a pioneer in movie marketing research and continues today with a key focus on working with the major and independent studios and their home entertainment divisions. Annually, the firm conducts over one million tracking survey interviews online and by mobile phone across the 13 largest movie markets around the world, including ad hoc research consisting of movie screenings, focus groups, exit surveys, ad/trailer testing and industry benchmark studies.

“We are excited to welcome NRG into the Stagwell family of companies, and as a market research practitioner for the last 40 years, I’m particularly pleased to add these key capabilities,” said Mark Penn, Managing Partner and President of Stagwell Group, LLC. “NRG has been a global leader in Hollywood market research, and we see product innovation as a key ingredient for success in a rapidly changing entertainment marketing landscape,” Penn added.

Howard Ballon, an experienced entertainment research leader, has been appointed Interim Chief Executive Officer of NRG upon closing of the transaction.