There are many different types of press releases—from those announcing a product launch or new hiring to the latest prize, a merger, an acquisition, or an upcoming event for your business. You can create press releases for a wide range of reasons. From driving traffic to your website to building brand reputation, press releases help companies reach a variety of goals. One of the main goals of companies’ press releases is to attract media attention. When you distribute an acquisition announcement press release or a press release announcing a merger, or partnership, getting media attention isn’t so easy.
Mergers and acquisitions are an interesting phase in the growth process of any business. Only time can say whether these organizational strategic cooperations will prove to be successful in helping the company prosper, or if they have been a catastrophic decision on behalf of the owners or managers.
AN ACQUISITION PRESS RELEASE IS A PRESS RELEASE COMPANIES SEND OUT TO NOTIFY THE MEDIA OF A RECENT ACQUISITION.
If you have difficulties creating a great acquisition announcement press release, did you know there are services that can assist? You can save some time and effort—and give your press release the best chance of landing press coverage—by having your press release created professionally and distributed to thousands of credible and popular publications by using a press release distribution service, such as PRNEWS.IO. You also can create it yourself—it’s possible, but the following tips and tactics will help you.
What Is an Acquisition Press Release
An acquisition press release is a press release companies use to notify the media of a recent acquisition. Acquisition press releases must cover the names of the parties involved, pivotal details about the acquisition, and the effect the acquisition is expected to have on the acquired business’s goals and strategy.
A PR manager or journalist can try to transfer the key values and goals of a business as it relates to the acquisition in a press release. Other important factors toto highlight in an acquisition press release:
- how a merger or acquisition is a strategic step for a business to survive or grow
- how a merger or acquisition will bring a desired increase in products, markets and technology resources and lowers the risk for the acquiring business
If you’re planning on announcing this move via a press release, you can use the opportunity to address any reported or perceived changes in roles, structure, ownership and elements of organizational culture as a result of the merger or acquisition.
You can not only announce this event but also describe and present it in a way that readers and key stakeholders do not refuse these changes thoughtlessly, but on the contrary, support it as a plan or a change that will succeed because it is based on a broader, deeper and more involved strategic decision.
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How to Write an Acquisition Press Release
Press releases can be used to achieve a variety of business goals. However, while writing a press release, keep in mind the essence of the news. You should answer four questions there:
1. Who Cares?
Who cares about such changes in the company, like a merger, partnership or acquisition? Apparently, this decision is newsworthy to someone. Determine who. If you find more than one group of the interested audience, choose who will be most interested. This insight will not only help you create an appropriate headline, but it’s the base of your press release content.
Note: If the only audience who are affected by your news is your internal employees, keep exploring. Your news undoubtedly affects others as well.
2. Why Do They Care?
Now that you’ve understood who cares about such changes in the company, it’s time to find out why. Why do they care? What difference do these changes make to them? For example, when one company buys another, the people who care the most may be the employees, because they worry about their future employment, salaries and new conditions of work. Hence, you should highlight the prospects of these changes, that partnerships may offer more products or services to clients and acquisitions may bring more working places and income to the community. Make a list of reasons why people care about such activity. After, determine priorities in the list. What reason is most important to them? This is the topic for your headline.
3. Highlight Benefit and Reason Why in Your Headline
Now that you find out who cares and why they care, it’s time to begin creating the press release. Remember, it’s not about the announcement itself. You should think about the effect your announcement will have on the target audience. Publications don’t care that you made an acquisition. They care about what this process means to their audience. If your acquisition means new jobs to the community, then this information should be your headline. “XXX Company brings 800 new jobs to YYY Company.”
4. Insert Video, Quotes and Supplemental Content
Enrich your news with relevant support material. The publications will look to this content before they create a story about your company and cover your news. Such content can be videos relevant to your news, information about the decision-makers involved in the announcement and interviews with those impacted by your news.
The Must-Have Items of Acquisition Announcement Press Release
In order for your acquisition announcement press release to work successfully, your Press Release should include the following content:
- Catchy headline
- Details about the company
- name (new/old), formalities
- date
- reason for the merger/acquisition
- impact of the merger/acquisition
- niche, mission, operation of the businesses involved
- products/services offered by the businesses involved
- owner/ CEO
- Quote from involved parties, such as the CEO, a board of trustees member or other decision-makers
- Relevant images, such as a company logo, office building, owner, CEO, investors
- Company website URL
- Dateline
- Boilerplate–general information about the companies
- Contact information (contact person, company address, phone) to learn more about the press release’s content
The Template of Acquisition Announcement Press Release
Check out the following template, which you might find useful during the press release writing process.
[Headline of the Press Release]
[City] [State] Date of Release]
[Summary Section: Briefly characterize your announcement]
[Include a quote from a company representative related to the merger and acquisition]
[Describe more details about the announcement: try to respond to all relevant W-questions (where, what, why, when, who) and share more information about the changes in the company and their future impact]
[Include another quote or another section with details about the news]
[Insert a call to action and an URL address where the viewer can find more information about the announced event, or the companies’ offerings]
[Include the following information:
Contact info:
Contact Person:
Company:
Address:
Phone:]
Utilize a compelling story for your PR efforts and lead your audience to act and move in the desired direction.
The Examples of the Successful Acquisition Announcement Press Release
eBay
In the beginning, eBay’s press release does an amazing job of describing why this new hire should attract journalists’ interest: Jamie Iannone was the chief operating officer of Walmart eCommerce. The new hiring gives expertise that places the company in a better position in the business world.
Tesla
Tesla proactively issues crisis communication-style press releases to describe all sides to a story. While other companies may hide any bad news under the rug, Tesla’s approach is to display it up front and start a dialog around it. By discussing any issues up front, Tesla broadcasts to the audience that the brand is involved actively with its products and engages proactively with any claims, stories or news that involve it.
Zoom
Zoom’s acquisition press release is a part of a continuing response plan to increasing security concerns around the Zoom online platform. As such, the elements of the release were created strategically as part of a continuing crisis communications scheme. The company does a great job of bringing new stakeholders up to speed, showing its intention to improve the security of its software and providing ways users can keep on receiving updates.
NASA
NASA’s press release outstandingly covers all the bells and whistles to make research in the discussed news topic captivating. A high-resolution image spans the top of the release, pulling viewers in before the title is even read. Next, the title highlights the feel-good newsworthy topic of the release: a school-aged child, Alexander Mather, was given the honor to be naming NASA’s next Mars Rover. Eventually, call-to-action (CTA) links allow journalists to follow the story, learn the history of the Mars Rover and find out about future events around it.
Wrapping Up
Journalists and PR managers are often working on tight deadlines. Hence, they need events and stories they can immediately determine as newsworthy—stories that can be covered in a timely manner easily and fast. This means that while the press release should be short and objective, you need to give plenty of resources and info to captivate journalists and copywriters.
If you need to share a newsworthy event or announcement but feel you lack contacts and a list of media outlets to distribute it to, use a press release distribution service, such as PRNEWS.IO, which will get your press release to thousands of journalists.