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CISN on NYSE

Cision

Logo: Cision Ltd., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons5

American media company founded in 1867

Cision Ltd. is a public relations and earned media software company and services provider. The company is incorporated in the Cayman Islands and headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. Cision offers a portfolio of services, including PRNewswire, PRWeb, Brandwatch, and Canada Newswire.3 Its shares trade on NYSE under the symbol CISN.1 Wikipedia text CC BY-SA 4.0

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Last updated Oct 21, 2026.

Overview

Jul 17, 1867Founded1

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  • TickerCISN on NYSE1
  • Industrypublic relations, software industry1
  • HeadquartersChicago1
  • Websitewww.cision.com
  • Legal formpublic company1
  • Incorporated inCayman Islands6
  • Business address130 East Randolph Street, 7Th Floor, Chicago, Il 606016
  • Filer categoryLarge accelerated filer6
  • LEI549300Q3NIC06437H8924
  • StatusInactive4
  • LEI statusRetired4
  • Registered addressLinnegatan 87, 115 23 Stockholm, Sweden4
  • Registered withSwedish Companies Registration Office, 556027-95144

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Cision Ltd. is a public relations and earned media software company and services provider. The company is incorporated in the Cayman Islands and headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. Cision offers a portfolio of services, including PRNewswire, PRWeb, Brandwatch, and Canada Newswire.3

Corporate structure

Cision sits at the top of its group. 4 entities, 2 countries on record. Switch between the flow chart and the network, and select any entity to see its details.

  • Cision Stockholm, Sweden
    • PR Newswire Subsidiary · Manhattan
    • PRWeb Subsidiary · Ferndale
    • Europresse Subsidiary

Built from parent and subsidiary links from GLEIF, the Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (CC0); subsidiaries, stakes and holdings from Wikidata (CC0). Each entity in the chart links to its source.

What it owns

What Cision reports owning in its annual reports to the SEC: buildings, land and equipment, real estate and locations, investments, intangible assets and inventory, at the end of its latest fiscal year and a year before.

Property and equipment

ItemLatestA year beforeChange
Property and equipment, before depreciation$122.2M8 Dec 31, 2018$130.7M8 Dec 31, 2017−6.5%
Accumulated depreciation$65.0M8 Dec 31, 2018$77.1M8 Dec 31, 2017−15.8%
Property and equipment, net$57.2M8 Dec 31, 2018$53.6M8 Dec 31, 2017+6.8%

Investments

ItemLatestA year beforeChange
Cash and cash equivalents$104.8M8 Dec 31, 2018$148.7M8 Dec 31, 2017−29.5%

Intangibles and goodwill

ItemLatestA year beforeChange
Goodwill$1.2B8 Dec 31, 2018$1.1B8 Dec 31, 2017+3.1%
Intangible assets, net (excluding goodwill)$377.1M8 Dec 31, 2018$456.3M8 Dec 31, 2017−17.3%
Finite-lived intangibles, gross$839.8M8 Dec 31, 2018$806.3M8 Dec 31, 2017+4.2%
Accumulated amortization$428.2M8 Dec 31, 2018$330.7M8 Dec 31, 2017+29.5%
Finite-lived intangibles, net$377.1M8 Dec 31, 2018$456.3M8 Dec 31, 2017−17.3%

The story

In 2011, Cision AB sold its Finnish subsidiary Oy Cision Finland AB to M-Brain Group.

On September 15, 2014, Cision announced the acquisition of Visible Technologies, a social media analytics company.

On October 14, 2014, Cision AB and Vocus announced a "friendly merger" of the two public relations companies. Cision based in Sweden will relocate its headquarters to Chicago and so will Vocus based in Maryland, United States. The company will be based in Chicago and the combined entity will be known as Cision.

During 2015, Cision also acquired the UK company Gorkana. Gorkana offered monitoring, journalist databases and analysis services. On December 15, 2015, Cision agreed to acquire PRNewswire from UBM plc for $841 million (approx. £575 million).

On June 29, 2017, Cision went public via its reverse merger with special purpose acquisition company Capitol Acquisition Corporation III.

On December 26, 2017, Cision agreed to acquire PRIME Research. The acquisition was completed on January 24, 2018.

On January 31, 2020, Platinum Equity completed its acquisition of Cision Ltd for $2.7 billion making it private again. In September 2020, Cision named Abel Clark as CEO, replacing interim chief Brandon Crawley. Prior to the appointment, Clark was CEO of TruSight.

Cision announced the acquisition of Brandwatch in February 2021 for $450 million.

Read the full text

Brandon Crawley returned as interim CEO in February 2022. In April 2022, Cision acquired Streem, an Australia based realtime media monitoring company. In November 2022, Cision acquired Factmata, a media monitoring and analytics technology company.

In January 2023, Cali Tran joined as CEO. In June 2023, Cision launched CisionOne, an AI powered platform.

In July 2024, Dow Jones & Co. filed a lawsuit against Cision for a breach of contract.

Guy Abramo was named CEO on January 15, 2025, replacing Cali Tran.

From Wikipedia’s article on Cision, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.7

Leadership

Who has led Cision, and when. Pick a name to see everywhere that person has worked.

Chief executive

  1. Kevin D. Akeroyd2017–2020

President

  1. Jason Edelboim2017–2018
  2. Kevin D. Akeroyd2017–2020
  3. Yujie Chen2017–2020
  4. Abraham Smith2017–2018
  5. Rainer Mathes2018–2019
  6. Peter B. H. Low2019–2020
  7. Erik Huddleston2019–2020

Chief financial officer

  1. Jack Pearlstein2017–2020

Chief operating officer

  1. Gregg Spratto2018–2020
197019801990200020102020
Board members and other officers (14)

Products and brands

Cision provides public relations services to businesses. The company offers social media monitoring and engagement and media publicity services.

Cision's software is distributed in seven languages. As of June 2014, it was used by more than 16,000 annual subscribers worldwide, including commercial businesses and governmental, educational and non-profit organizations.

Software

The company offers three web-based packages: the "CisionMarketing Suite", the "Public Relations Suite" and the "Government Relations and Political Action Committee Suite". The Cision "Public Relations Suite" allows users to distribute press releases, access a database of bloggers and journalists (with no option to opt out), and monitor and analyse news and social media sites. The company's "Government Relations Suite" manages government contacts, analyses lobbying activity, facilitates communication with elected officials and provides PAC compliance software for filing reports to the FEC and state elections commissions.

Services

Through a series of acquisitions, the company provides services in PRWeb, HARO, North Social, Eureka, Vocus, and Media Insight Suite which Cision has continued to operate under the existing brand names.

Read the full text

PRWeb is an online press release service. PRWeb services are available through the "Vocus Marketing Suite", the "Vocus PR Suite" or as a separate service.

From Wikipedia’s article on Cision, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.7

Subsidiaries and ownership

Subsidiaries

From Wikidata.1

Acquisitions

  1. 2015Acquired PR Newswire1

Former names

  • Capitol Acquisition Holding Co Ltd.Mar 20, 2017 to Jun 29, 20176

Timeline

  1. Jul 5, 2017New chief executive Kevin D. Akeroyd becomes CEO9
  2. Jul 3, 2013Went public Listed on NYSE1
  3. Jul 17, 1867Founded Founded1

SEC filer profile

How Cision is registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission, from its EDGAR record and the cover page of its latest annual report.

  • Name on EDGARCISION LTD.2
  • CIK0001701040
  • Filer statusLarge accelerated filer2
  • Incorporated inCayman Islands2
  • Fiscal year endsDecember 312
  • Industry code (SIC)7372 Services-Prepackaged Software2
  • Business address130 East Randolph Street, 7Th Floor, Chicago, IL 606012
  • Phone(866) 639-50872
  • Shares outstanding148,484,875 as of Nov 5, 201931
  • Public float$823.8M as of Jun 29, 20188
  • On EDGAR sinceMar 20, 20172
  • Filings334 in all: 4 (116), 8-K (37), 424B3 (32), 3 (25), 425 (17), EFFECT (11), SC 13D/A (10), 10-Q (8)2
    All 38 form types

    CORRESP (7), POS AM (7), SC 13G/A (7), SC 13G (5), UPLOAD (5), S-4/A (4), 10-K/A (3), DEFA14A (3), POS EX (3), S-8 (3), S-8 POS (3), SC TO-I/A (3), 10-K (2), 25-NSE (2), 4/A (2), CERTNYS (2), DEF 14A (2), S-3 (2), S-4 (2), 15-12B (1), 3/A (1), 8-A12B (1), 8-K/A (1), D (1), DEFM14A (1), DRS (1), PREM14A (1), S-1 (1), SC 13D (1), SC TO-I (1)

  • Latest filingsAnnual report (10-K) Mar 1, 2019
    Quarterly report (10-Q) Nov 8, 2019
    Proxy statement (DEF 14A) Aug 9, 2019
    Latest 8-K (8-K) Jan 31, 2020

Sources

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