Toluna shareholders approve Greenfield Online deal
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FRANCE— Toluna shareholders approved plans to acquire the survey businesses of Greenfield Online and Ciao at a general meeting held earlier today.
The $40m deal, which was unveiled last month, is set to be closed by 15 July. Shareholders also agreed to sell a stake in the firm to Belgian investment house Verlinvest, raising £28m. As a result of the deal Frederic de Mevius, Verlinvest’s CEO, will become a non-executive director at Toluna.
Microsoft bought Greenfield Online and its subsidiary Ciao for $486m last October. It kept Ciao’s comparison shopping business but hoped to sell the research operations to private equity house ZM Capital, but that deal collapsed.
