German market research giant GfK AG will pursue alternatives to a takeover offer for Taylor Nelson Sofres Plc, Chief Executive Officer Klaus Wuebbenhorst said yesterday.
"We didn't want TNS at any price," Wuebbenhorst told Bloomberg News. "There are alternatives, and we will pursue them, acquiring in markets we consider interesting for an expansion. Our market position is strong without TNS, and we didn't want to pursue an adventurous course," Wuebbenhorst said. "The existing TNS shareholders would have been the only ones to benefit from a takeover battle."
GfK shares advanced as much as 1.26 euros (US$1.86), or 5.4 percent, to 24.48 euros yesterday in Frankfurt. That values the company at 878 million euros.
"That GfK ends negotiations for an expensive takeover of TNS is positive," Iris Schaefer, an analyst at Landesbank Baden-Wuerttemberg in Stuttgart, Germany, with a "hold" rating on the stock, wrote in a note.
