Cision sold to Platinum Equity in for $2.7 billion
Cision, the major media insights and comms software company has been acquired by private equity firm, Platinum Equity. The deal is worth $2.74 billion.
Cision’s media monitoring tools are used across the industry. The conglomerate has been growing rapidly through their own acquisitions, 12 in the last 5 years, including social intelligence and management company Falcon.io, PR insights firm TrendKite and social media intelligence and benchmarking company Unmetric.
Platinum Equity Partner Jacob Kotzubei said: "Cision has a long history of leadership providing software and services to public relations and marketing communications professionals and has developed a growing portfolio of earned media management offerings for the world's leading brands. Platinum looks forward to nurturing Cision's core business, supporting and anticipating the diverse needs of the company's customers, and driving new opportunities for innovation.”
Why should we care?
There’s been a lot of this kind of news over the last few years. It’s positive for those of us in social intelligence, an industry which in the past has been seen as fragmented. Big deals like this show confidence and certainty in the industry and go against the idea of fragmented tech startups. Yet more proof that social intelligence has an important place in martech.
It’s also likely that the M&A activity from other players in the industry will continue, stay tuned for more updates.
About Cision
Cision Ltd. (NYSE: CISN) is a leading global provider of earned media software and services to public relations and marketing communications professionals. Cision's software allows users to identify key influencers, craft and distribute strategic content, and measure meaningful impact. Cision has over 4,800 employees with offices in 22 countries throughout the Americas, EMEA, and APAC. For more information about its award-winning products and services, including the Cision Communications Cloud®.
About Platinum Equity
Founded in 1995 by Tom Gores, Platinum Equity is a global investment firm with more than $19 billion of assets under management and a portfolio of approximately 40 operating companies that serve customers around the world. Platinum Equity specializes in mergers, acquisitions and operations – a trademarked strategy it calls M&A&O® – acquiring and operating companies in a broad range of business markets, including manufacturing, distribution, transportation and logistics, equipment rental, metals services, media and entertainment, technology, telecommunications and other industries. Over the past 25 years Platinum Equity has completed more than 250 acquisitions.