Information Resources to be Acquired for $98 Million

Information Resources Inc. (IRI), Chicago, which sells data culled from grocery story checkout scanners, said late on Sunday it had agreed to be acquired for about $98.4 million cash to help it fight an antitrust suit against its rivals, according to a Reuters report.

IRI said business software investor Symphony Technology, based in Palo Alto, CA, and Los Angeles-based investment firm Tennenbaum Capital would pay $3.30 a share, a 10.7% premium over Friday’s $2.98 closing price on the Nasdaq. Under terms of the deal, Symphony and Tennenbaum had agreed to put up $10 million to help IRI fund its antitrust lawsuit against market research firm ACNielsen and other competitors.

“For shareholders, this transaction locks in the gains in IRI’s stock price over the past several months, funds the cost of litigating the antitrust suit against ACNielsen and other defendants, and enables IRI shareholders to participate in any future proceeds from that suit,” IRI chairman and chief executive Joe Durrett said in a statement.

Last December, Procter & Gamble Co. ended a nine-year run as a customer of IRI and signed on with ACNielsen. That prompted one of the company’s biggest shareholders to call for Durrett to resign or sell the company. Shortly thereafter, IRI hired investment bank William Blair & Co. for advice. IRI had suffered a major blow two years earlier when Wal-Mart Stores Inc. stopped providing data from its shoppers to third-party providers.

A new company formed by Symphony and Tennenbaum is expected to begin a tender offer for shares of IRI on or before July 14 and to complete the deal to take the company private in August, IRI said. Shareholders would also receive one contingent value right for each common share they own. By owning the rights, shareholders will be entitled to some portion of 60% of proceeds won from the antitrust lawsuit.