 In 1994 , Billboard Publications was sold to a Dutch media conglomerate , <unk> Nederlandse <unk> ( VNU ) , for $ 220 million . VNU acquired the Clio Awards in advertising and the National Research Group in 1997 , as well as Editor & Publisher in 1999 . In July 2000 , it paid $ 650 million for the publisher Miller Freeman . BPI was combined with other entities in VNU in 2000 to form Bill Communications Inc . By time CEO Gerald Hobbs retired in 2003 , VNU had grown substantially larger , but it had a large amount of debt from the acquisitions . An attempted $ 7 billion acquisition of IMS Health in 2005 prompted protests from shareholders that halted the deal . It eventually agreed to an $ 11 billion takeover bid from investors in 2006 . 
