Peace maker

It’s a measure of how low relations between VNU and its investors had sunk that when the board of the Dutch media firm first recommended a private equity bid shareholders roundly rejected it. Fund managers felt they couldn’t possibly accept an offer with that kind of seal of approval. But now that the same private equity consortium has come back with a marginally improved offer, some of those same investors have happily rolled over. A 3% rise is not usually enough to carry the day. Yet in this c...