At a meeting of shareholders Eric Knight, managing director of investors Knight Vinke, has proposed an alternative plan that would involve a partial tender of 30%, which would allow shareholders that want to leave to do so and the others to stay.
According to the reports, this would onvolve the creation of a revamped and renamed firm, the sale of its magazine arm and restructuring of its main market research brand ACNielsen.
Last month, shareholders rejected the bid made by a buy-out team, including Alpinvest, Blackstone, Carlyle, KKR, Hellman & Feidman and Thomas Lee.
Knight says around 70% of VNU investors are opposed to the deal, which included a €28.75-a-share offer.
VNU's magazine portfolio includes US titles such as Hollywood Reporter and Billboard and the UK publications Personal Computer World and Computer Active.
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