By Editorial TeamWhen you’re bolting one company onto another, you create a ton of communication problems, especially with how the public sees the whole thing. The CVR Energy acquisition by Marathon Petroleum back in 2018 is a perfect example. It sparked a huge debate about how you can possibly merge two company cultures without losing the trust of your employees, customers, and investors. So many businesses just trip over themselves during this phase, completely torpedoing the deal’s potential with a PR strategy that’s either a total mess or just plain wrong.
Key Takeaways
- You need a single, proactive message plan before the announcement to keep all external comms straight.
- Don’t just map investors. You have to think about employees, customers, regulators, and the local towns, and craft messages that speak directly to what they’re worried about.
- Be transparent about timelines and what might change. It’s the only way to kill the rumor mill and build trust with regular, clear updates.
- Get on social media and build a dedicated microsite. You have to control the story by getting information out there directly.
- After the deal closes, your PR team has to be all over every channel, listening for bad info or rising concerns and jumping on them fast.
Myth 1: PR is Just About the Press Release
Thinking a good press release is all you need for an acquisition is a classic, and frankly, dangerous mistake. A lot of executives believe the PR team can pack up once the release goes out, completely missing how complex stakeholder communication gets during a merger. This kind of thinking forces you into a defensive crouch, always reacting to public perception instead of shaping it. When a giant like Marathon Petroleum buys another company, the shockwaves go way beyond stock analysts. The press release is just the first shot in a long campaign. An effective PR strategy is a real, ongoing conversation with all sorts of different groups, and each one needs its own specific message on its own specific channel. What about the employees at CVR Energy and Marathon Petroleum? They’re worried about their jobs, what the new culture will be like, and their career path. A generic press release does nothing to calm those fears, so you need internal town halls and direct messages from leadership. Customers, suppliers, and the communities where plants are located all have their own skin in the game. In fact, a study on M&A communication from the Institute for Public Relations (IPR) found that companies with communication plans that hit both internal and external audiences had way more success with integration. Their 2023 report, “Communicating Through Change: Best Practices in M&A,” drives home the point that you need to keep talking, on all channels, from the first announcement until the integration is totally done.
Myth 2: All Stakeholders Care About the Same Things
One of the fastest ways to screw up an acquisition is to think one message fits all. This idea completely misses that different groups have totally different concerns and need different information. The news that gets an investor excited about market share is the very same news that makes an employee worry about getting laid off or a community worry about its local environment. Not seeing this leads to major communication failures and can wreck your reputation. Good acquisition PR requires you to get specific about each stakeholder group. For example, the shareholders of CVR Energy and Marathon Petroleum were laser-focused on the financial upside, stock price, and growth. You reach them through investor relations, detailed financial documents, and analyst calls. But the employees at the company being bought, CVR Energy, were thinking about job security and their careers. They need to hear from HR and their own managers through the company intranet, with clear plans about the integration and the support they’ll get. Then you have the customers. Are their services going to change? Are prices going up? You have to talk to them with direct emails, special customer service lines, and website updates that promise service won’t be interrupted. And what about the communities around the CVR Energy refineries? They’re worried about jobs and environmental safety. That requires local media outreach and showing up at community forums. I’ve personally watched companies create mass confusion and even organized opposition because they failed to segment their messaging. The trick is to emphasize different parts of the same core story for each group, making it relevant to their specific world.
| Aspect | Mythical Approach to Acquisition PR | Effective Acquisition PR Strategy |
|---|---|---|
| Scope of PR | One-and-done press release | Ongoing conversation across many channels |
| Stakeholder Focus | Investors get all the attention. Everyone else gets a generic message | Talks to everyone: employees, customers, regulators, the local town |
| Message Tailoring | One-size-fits-all message | Specific messages for each group’s real concerns |
| Transparency | Dumping every detail at once, even if it’s not final | Strategic updates that build trust, not create chaos |
| Proactivity | Playing defense, reacting to bad press | Setting the narrative before the deal is even announced |
| Post-Acquisition | PR team packs up after the announcement | PR team stays on to monitor sentiment and fight bad info |
Myth 3: Transparency Means Sharing Every Detail Immediately
People confuse transparency with just dumping information. While being open is critical in a high-stakes deal like the CVR Energy acquisition, throwing every single detail out there can freak people out, cause confusion, and lead to bad assumptions, especially when your plans aren’t even finalized. There’s a huge difference between strategic transparency and just causing an information overload. Real transparency means giving people clear, accurate info that’s relevant to them, when they need it, without announcing decisions that aren’t even baked yet. For instance, in the early days after Marathon Petroleum acquired CVR Energy, it would’ve been smart to say “integration plans are in the works and some operations might change.” It would have been a disaster to publish a speculative list of potential facility closures before those decisions were final and told to employees first. That kind of premature news just creates panic and kills productivity. The whole point is to build trust by communicating honestly and consistently, even if you have to say “we’re still figuring that part out.” A 2024 HubSpot Research report on crisis communication showed that companies who talked often and honestly, even without all the answers, kept way more trust than those who either overshared half-baked plans or went silent. You have to set expectations for what you’ll share, and when, to manage the narrative and stop the rumor mill from doing real damage.
Myth 4: PR’s Role Ends When the Deal Closes
If you think PR’s job is over when the deal closes, you’re setting yourself up for failure. This view completely ignores that integration is a long process that needs constant strategic communication to manage how people feel, deal with problems, and keep selling the value of the new company. The deal closing is just a milestone for PR. It’s definitely not the finish line. In fact, the time right after a deal closes, like with the CVR Energy hostile takeover bid by Marathon Petroleum, is when you can make or break long-term sentiment. This is when the big operational changes happen, cultures clash, and you have to prove the deal was worth it. If you don’t have PR actively engaged, negative stories will pop up everywhere, driven by unhappy employees or confused customers. A solid post-acquisition PR plan means always monitoring the media, talking to stakeholders to keep them updated on progress, and constantly reminding them why the merger was a good idea in the first place. For example, if Marathon had to make big changes at a former CVR Energy plant, the PR team’s job would be to explain why, handle any local environmental worries, and point to the benefits. That could mean local press events or dedicated website updates. A 2025 study from the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) on post-merger comms found that companies who kept a dedicated communication plan running long after the deal closed had faster cultural integration and kept more of their employees. PR has to be in the room for the entire integration lifecycle, adapting the message as the new company takes shape. Drop the ball here and you’ll burn through goodwill fast, making it that much harder to get the results you wanted from the deal.
Myth 5: Negative News Can Be Ignored or Downplayed
It’s always tempting to just ignore bad news during an integration. It’s also a terrible idea. Whether it’s a surprise operational problem or unhappy employees, trying to sweep bad news under the rug just doesn’t work anymore. In a world of instant news and social media, trying to hide something is pointless. Information gets out. Not responding to negative stuff quickly and openly can turn a small problem into a massive crisis that destroys your reputation and trust. A smart acquisition PR strategy has a plan for this. You need protocols ready to go for finding and responding to problems. When an issue pops up, say, a delay in upgrading a former CVR Energy facility, the PR team needs to get out in front of it. Acknowledge the problem, explain what you’re doing to fix it, and talk directly to the people affected. The goal is to own the narrative by being the first and most credible voice on the issue. As a marketing pro, I’ve seen how managing a negative story well can actually build trust because it shows you’re accountable. On the other hand, ignoring a problem can cause reputational damage that lasts for years. A 2024 Nielsen report on consumer trust found that people see companies that admit to their mistakes as more trustworthy than ones that go quiet or try to hide the facts. The lesson is simple: you have to face bad news head-on with a clear plan to protect your credibility. When it comes down to it, pulling off a complex integration like the CVR Energy refinery PR challenge by Marathon Petroleum requires a long-term commitment to being open and targeted in your communications with every single stakeholder group. Public perception isn’t a one-off event. You have to build it continuously.
What is the primary goal of acquisition PR?
It’s about managing how everyone sees the deal, making sure the integration goes smoothly while keeping stakeholder trust and protecting the new, combined company’s reputation.
How early should an acquisition PR strategy be developed?
You need to start building your PR strategy way before the deal is announced, usually while due diligence is still happening. This lets you get ahead of the story instead of just reacting to it.
Why is internal communication so important during an acquisition?
Because your employees are the most nervous group. Good internal comms calms fears about job security, clarifies what’s changing, and can turn them into supporters of the merger instead of people spreading rumors.
What role do social media channels play in acquisition PR?
Social media is huge. It lets you talk directly to people, see what they’re saying about you in real-time, and shut down rumors before they spread. It’s a key tool for getting your official story out there transparently.
How does PR contribute to the long-term success of an acquisition?
Long-term, PR is what builds and holds onto trust with everyone from investors to employees. It explains why the deal makes sense, handles reputational hits, and helps create a positive environment that lets the business actually hit its goals.
