Breaking: Nielsen, the measurement and media firm, has bought out mobile measurement and metric firm Telephia. Terms of the transaction, which is subject to regulatory approval and expected to close in Q3, were not disclosed.

SEE ALSO: Telephia Files Patent Infringement Again M:Metrics

Telephia has been in a tough competitive fight with its younger counterpart M:Metrics, and have also been involved with lawsuits against each other. The company, based in San Francisco, was founded in 1998. It raise a big $38 million fourth round of funding back in 2001, and that was the last publicly-disclosed round. SEC filings also show at least three more subsequent rounds, but not sure if the company was recapped in between. Its listed investors are here.

For Nielsen, the deal comes three weeks after Nielsen unveiled Nielsen Wireless, overseen by Chicago-based VP Jeff Herrmann, to assess and measure mobile content, reports AdWeek. Telephia says it serves over 100 clients in the United States, Canada and Europe.
More details on how Nielsen plans to develop mobile measurement effort in the release here.

Updated: On the lawsuit against M:Metrics, Telephia spokesperson said: “Both Telephia and Nielsen will continue to defend our intellectual property as necessary.” Not sure what that means, but sounds like the lawsuit has not been settled.

NYTimes: Telephia’s consumer research is based on surveys of different people each time, in contrast to Nielsen’s monitoring what the same people watch over time.‘Telephia, however, holds patents on some techniques for media consumption tracking on the cellphone that are similar to Nielsen’s approach in TV.