AsiaNet 88338

CHICAGO and BRIGHTON, England, March 3, 2021/PRNewswire=KYODO JBN/--

Cision, PR Newswire's parent company, announced on February 26 that it has

entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Brandwatch, a global leader in

digital consumer intelligence and social media listening, for $450 million.

This strategic move will combine two leaders in their respective industries and

will bring to customers the substantial benefits of their complementary

capabilities to deliver the future of PR, marketing and digital customer

engagement.

The forces of digital transformation reward those organizations and boardrooms

that listen to and quickly capitalize on digital insights from their consumers.

Leading companies are quickly adapting and using these insights to create

tailored, authentic communications and direct connections with customers at

scale. This paradigm shift to real-time, customer-centric PR, marketing and

customer care strategies will continue to accelerate and differentiate those

companies that take action.

Cision is a leader in news distribution and media monitoring and analysis with

a media contact database of approximately 1 million journalists and media

outlets and over 75,000 customers. Brandwatch works with thousands of the

world's most admired brands, using the latest in artificial intelligence(AI)

and machine learning to bring structure to and derive meaning from the voices

of the billions of people using social media.

Cision and Brandwatch are a compelling combination. Together, they will provide

brands and organizations with consumer and media intelligence to devise more

effective customer engagement strategies from PR and marketing to research and

product development. Whether teams are connecting with journalists and

influencers, launching social campaigns, developing brand messaging or

conducting deep research into consumer behavior, they will have real-time

insights and long-term trend analysis to guide them.

"The continued digital shift and widespread adoption of social media is rapidly

and fundamentally changing how brands and organizations engage with their

customers," said Abel Clark, CEO of Cision. "This is driving the imperative

that PR, marketing, social and customer care teams fully incorporate the unique

insights now available into consumer-led strategies. Together, Cision and

Brandwatch will help our clients to more deeply understand, connect and engage

with their customers at scale across every channel."

"We have always built Brandwatch with ambition. That was recognized by

Forrester, who recently named us as a leader in our space," said Giles Palmer,

founder and CEO of Brandwatch. "Now is the time to take the next step – joining

a company of significant scale to create a business and a suite of products

that can have an important global impact. We are excited to join Abel and the

Cision team to supercharge our work and bring even more value to our customers."

Brandwatch was named a Leader in The Forrester

Wave(TM)(https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&l=en&o=3080307-1&h=3131620880&u=https%3A%2

F%2Fwww.brandwatch.com%2Fp%2Fforrester-2020-social-listening-wave%2F&a=Leader+in

+The+Forrester+Wave%E2%84%A2): Social Listening Platforms, Q4 2020.

The deal is expected to close in the second quarter of 2021.

Macquarie Capital acted as an exclusive financial adviser to Brandwatch on this

transaction. Cooley LLP acted as legal counsel to Brandwatch.

Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP acted as M&A legal counsel, Willkie Farr &

Gallagher LLP acted as financing legal counsel and Latham & Watkins LLP acted

as regulatory counsel to Cision.

About Brandwatch

Brandwatch is the world's pioneering digital consumer intelligence suite. The

company's AI-powered deep social listening and content marketing analytics

products help over 2,000 of the world's most admired brands and agencies make

insightful, data-driven decisions. Brandwatch includes leading content

marketing platform BuzzSumo in its portfolio. Brandwatch has 10 offices around

the world and is headquartered in Brighton, UK.

About Cision

As a global leader in PR, marketing and social media management technology and

intelligence, Cision helps brands and organizations to identify, connect and

engage with customers and stakeholders to drive business results. PR

Newswire(https://en.prnasia.com/), a network of over 1.1 billion influencers,

in-depth monitoring, analytics and its

Falcon.io(https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&l=en&o=3080307-1&h=4080652418&u=http%3A%2

F%2Fwww.falcon.io%2F&a=Falcon.io) social media platform headline a premier

suite of solutions. Cision has offices in 24 countries throughout the Americas,

EMEA and APAC. For more information about Cision's award-winning solutions,

including its next-gen Cision Communications Cloud(R), visit www.cision.com and

follow @Cision on Twitter.

Media Contacts:

Cision

Maggie Lower

Chief Marketing Officer

CisionPR@cision.com    

Brandwatch

Will McInnes    

Chief Marketing Officer

will@brandwatch.com

SOURCE Cision Ltd

Image Attachments Links:

   Link: http://asianetnews.net/view-attachment?attach-id=385743

   Caption: Cision has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Brandwatch