Cision CEO Departs, Asset Sale Rumoured

PR, consumer and media intelligence solutions firm Cision is reportedly facing financial 'challenges'. CEO Cali Tran left the job a month ago, after the group created a new corporate entity, interpreted by some analysts as a prelude to an asset sale or collateral transfer.

Cision, which is backed by investor Platinum Equity, is the home of PR Newswire and social media analysis and management solution Brandwatch, the latter acquired in 2021 for $450m. It has recently launched CisionOne, which promises comms and PR teams real-time monitoring across 'all' media channels - print, online, TV, radio, social, podcasts and magazines - with detailed analytics and reporting capabilities, as well as a built-in journalist Outreach tool.

The company formation was disclosed to some of the group's lenders without further explanation at the start of November, according to 'people familiar with the situation' reported on Bloomberg. Tran has moved to the Chairman's role and been replaced as Chief Exec on an interim basis by CFO Prasant Gondipalli.

Bloomberg notes that Cision has $US 2.5 billion of debt - just under half of which as a first-lien term loan is due in 2027 - and the firm was downgraded by Moody's earlier this year.

Separately, Cision recently announced a new collaboration with Google Cloud to enhance AI-powered communications solutions in its product suite, including PR Newswire, CisionOne, Brandwatch and Streem. With Google's Vertex AI platform and Gemini models enhancing the firm's own recently launched AI suite within PR Newswire, the partnership promises users more powerful AI-delivered insights and enhanced productivity features.

The firm is on the web at www.cision.com .