Nielsen Holdings announced Tuesday morning that it would be acquiring Arbitron, the radio ratings company, for $1.26 billion, Michael de la Merced reported. The acquisition price amounts to $48 a share in cash for each outstanding share of Arbitron, or a 26 percent premium to Arbitron’s closing price on Monday. The deal was described by Nielsen as part of its effort to track how people view and listen to media programs, which can be delivered in an increasing array of formats.
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NBC News’ chief foreign correspondent, Richard Engel, was freed after being held for five days by gunmen in Syria, an ordeal he detailed on Tuesday morning on the “Today” show. He described how he and his crew were traveling with Syrian rebels and were captured by a group who emerged suddenly from behind the bushes. The release came at the hands of rebels, who stopped the kidnappers at a checkpoint — by the time he and two of his crew members appeared on “Today” they were in Turkey.
- The kidnapping, Brian Stelter and Bill Carter write, once again highlights the perils of reporting from Syria, which is said by the Committee to Protect Journalists to be “the world’s most dangerous place for the press.” Mr. Engel has made frequent trips to Syria — on Thursday, NBC News aired a report of his from Syria’s commercial center, Aleppo, where the fighting has been intense.
While lacking a breakout hit like last year’s biography of Steven Jobs, independent bookstores are reporting that sales are up this year, Leslie Kaufman reports. Rather, they say a range of unexpectedly popular titles, including Barbara Kingsolver’s “Flight Behavior” and Chris Ware’s complex graphic novel “Building Stories” have made up the slack. The picture was more mixed at Barnes Noble, the nation’s largest book chain, which is investing heavily in digital books, and solid but not stellar growth in digital sales.
The photo-sharing site Instagram announced new terms of service for its users as part of its integration within Facebook, which acquired the company in April. The new terms, Jenna Wortham and Nick Bilton write, give Facebook great latitude in using pictures that are shared through the service starting Jan. 16, when they go into effect. They provide a list of the changes, which include: “Instagram can share information about its users with Facebook, its parent company, as well as outside affiliates and advertisers,” and “Ads may not be labeled as ads.” And a final term: “The only way to opt out of the new Instagram terms is to not use the service.”
- The anger at the changes is fast growing, with Instagram users taking to Twitter to vent.