Cision CEO Kevin Akeroyd steps down

Cision CEO Kevin Akeroyd has stepped down to pursue other opportunities less than two weeks after Platinum Equity completed its acquisition of the communications technology company.

On Monday, Akeroyd was replaced by Platinum Equity partner Brandon Crawley, who will serve as interim CEO.

"We remain energized by the opportunities in front of us and are confident that we are well-positioned to accelerate growth in ways that allow us to best serve our customers," Cision said in a statement.

Cision declined to share additional details about the leadership transition.

Akeroyd’s exit comes less than four months after Platinum Equity announced plans to acquire Cision for $2.74 billion via an affiliate, with plans to close the deal in Q1. Cision was allowed to solicit acquisition proposals from other companies through November 12, 2019.

Analysts have said that Cision likely agreed to the Platinum Equity acquisition to more aggressively compete with rivals on price and access capital that will allow it to innovate and drive merger and acquisition activity.

Cision, which went public in the summer of 2017, has driven much of the consolidation in communications technology, acquiring a dozen companies that provided it with capabilities for an all-in-one platform and to open new markets.

Akeroyd succeeded Peter Granat as CEO in August 2016. Previously, he was GM and SVP of Oracle Marketing Cloud, responsible for all customer-facing aspects of the company including sales, account management, marketing and customer support and activities. Akeroyd also worked as SVP of field operations at Badgeville, GM of the Data.com business unit of Salesforce and COO of Jigsaw before it was acquired by Salesforce.

Cision posted $185.7 million in revenue in Q3 2019, up 4.7% organically year-on-year, the last quarter for which it reported earnings before its acquisition.