Arbitron Jumps 24% on Nielsen Buyout

Shares of Arbitron ARB rallied strongly higher on Tuesday, up over 24 percent from Monday's close, after Nielsen Holdings NLSN said it would buy the company for $48 per share. The acquisition combines a top TV rating firm -- Nielsen -- with a top radio one, Arbitron. Investors seemed to have liked Nielsen's aggressiveness, as shares of Nielsen traded up over two percent early Tuesday. Frequently, major acquisitions see shares of acquiring companies trade lower. Following its move to acquire both McMoRan MMR and Plains Exploration PXP, Freeport-McMoRan's FCX dropped some 10 percent. Although a fairly large company (with a market cap over $10 billion), Nielsen is not often in the news. However, on Monday, the company announced that it would be partnering with Twitter to provide a benchmark to measure TV program engagement. With the rise of mobile computing and ever advancing smartphone technology, viewers have taken to actively discussing the content they are watching over social networks like Twitter. There has even been reports that some movie theaters are considering creating zones were the use of mobile devices would be permitted. While entertainment offerings continue to evolve, it seems like a positive for Nielsen's shareholders that the company is willing to be aggressive and evolve along with the industry.