comScore acquires Dutch Web analytics company Nedstat for $36.7 million

Audience measurement company comScore has acquired Nedstat, an Amsterdam-based provider of web analytics and video measurement solutions for approx. $36.7 million.

ComScore says the purchase will help the company accelerate its global expansion strategy, particularly in European markets.

In addition, the acquisition of Nedstat will strengthen its Unified Digital Measurement (UDM) platform, which combines panel-based audience measurement with census-level data collection to provide a holistic view of digital consumer behavior, the company adds.

“The Nedstat platform helps us deliver substantial additional value to clients, expand existing customer relationships, and broaden the scope of our addressable market by adding new and unique digital business analytics to comScore’s offerings,” said Dr. Magid Abraham, comScore President & CEO.

According to the press release, the Nedstat technology is installed on ‘thousands of sites’.

Abraham adds: “Nedstat clients have benefited over the years from the platform’s detailed and flexible analytical tools and elegant user-experience. We are committed to using Nedstat’s technology to develop new applications, greater scalability, a more expansive data set, and a unified and consistent view of audience statistics, all of which we think will help generate actionable insights that can lead to improved business results for customers.”

Nedstat’s customer list includes Europcar, London Stock Exchange, Panasonic, Renault and Wolters Kluwer. Its video analytics product, Stream Sense, is said to be used by many public and commercial television organizations throughout Europe (including Eurosport).

The company was founded in 1996 and employs 125 people with offices in Amsterdam, Antwerp, Frankfurt, London, Madrid, Paris and Stockholm.

Nedstat will now become a wholly owned subsidiary of comScore, and CEO Michael Kinsbergen will be helping in the transition and will join comScore’s advisory board. In addition, Fred Appelman, Nedstat’s CTO, and Michiel Berger, co-founder and Chief Innovations Officer, will join comScore in senior strategy and technology roles.

comScore says the purchase of Nedstat acquisition will contribute approximately $4 million of additional revenue for the remainder of 2010.

Earlier this year, the company spent $24 million on the products division of Nexius, a mobile analytics and data networking company. It also bought ad researcher ARSgroup for an undisclosed sum back in February.

In October 2009, comScore acquired Latin American web researcher Certifica.