Company data sheet · Nielsen Holdings
Nielsen Holdings: three lost years, and the economy wasn't the reason.
- Industry
- Business Services
- Headquarters
- United States
- Sources
- SEC filings (2010–2022), Stratrix's verified Decision Cases, market data and official economic statistics for the United States
- Data as of
- October 18, 2026
- From profit to three straight losses. Nielsen Holdings earned $1.5 billion in 2015–2017. Then it lost money every year from 2018 to 2020: $1.1 billion in all. 2021 was its first profit in four years: $1 billion.
- It wasn't the cycle. The losses began in 2018, a year the US economy grew 3.0%. When a company falls while its economy grows, look inside the company first.
- Left behind by its peers. From 2016 to 2021, its revenue shrank 45% in US dollars; the median among 307 large service companies grew 49%. It outgrew only 6% of them.
- Still smaller than it was. Revenue reached $3.5 billion in 2021, 47% below its 2017 peak of $6.6 billion.
- Leaders came and went. Nielsen Holdings filed 37 leadership changes since 2016, more than 94% of large service companies (the median is 16).
Financial results
| Fiscal year | Revenue | Net income | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | $6.3 billion | $0.5 billion | |
| 2017 | $6.6 billion | $0.4 billion | |
| 2018 | $6.5 billion | −$0.7 billion | |
| 2019 | $3.4 billion | −$0.4 billion | |
| 2020 | $3.4 billion | −$0 billion | |
| 2021 | $3.5 billion | $1 billion |
As reported in its annual filings. Losses in red.
The full data sheet · Data Plan
Everything behind these findings, ready for your board deck.
- Market reaction to disclosed decisions: 61 decision filings since 2016, each linked to the SEC, with the share return against its sector and the S&P 500 the next day and the next year (0 with market data).
- Economic context: 7 measures for the United States, every year since 2016, from the official sources.
- Peer comparison: against 528 companies of its size in its sector.
- Financial results: ten years of revenue, operating and net income, and every annual report, linked.
- Methods and sources, so each number can be checked and cited.
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