From stockholders to employees, the announcement of takeovers can often be a chaotic, hostility filled event for many companies. During the 1980s takeovers were viewed as hostile raids by wealthy investors who were out to profit regardless of the consequences in terms of employees or stock prices. Today, in a global marketplace where takeovers, mergers and acquisitions are the norm, takeovers are viewed more as a strategic move to retain competitive advantage. Nonetheless, the announcement of a takeover must be handled strategically with public relations planning that is sensitive to all individuals affected directly or indirectly by the takeover. With our engineering trading and services company planning to announce the takeover of the Trading Division by a foreign firm, we have devised a four-tiered strategic public relations plan to announce the change of ownership. The four tiers of this PR campaign include: A stockholders meeting; An employee meeting, mailing, email notification and management liaison; A local press conference including local and regional television stations with national affiliates, newspapers, trade publications and local and regional radio; A buyer/supplier mailing. All of these will be strategically conducted to coordinate the PR campaign that will be most effective in communicating the move in a sensitive and effective manner. The details of each level of the PR campaign, including a time-line and the forms of communication for each are listed below.
Four weeks before the public announcement of the takeover, a stockholders meeting will be conducted. This is the most crucial step of the PR campaign because without stockholder approval no takeover is possible. As such, this meeting will include two main forms of communication. The first will be an explanation of the deal by the CEO of the company. Stockholders are most concerned about how the deal will affect economics, particularly the value of ...