In general, companies that plan to merge should say so publicly as soon as they have reached an agreement to combine. This announcement should go out to all the companies’ stakeholders and to the general public.

This initial announcement should be the beginning of a series of regular communications about each phase of the transaction. Once the transaction is close to completion or completed and a plan is in place, both the acquirer and the acquired firm should disseminate the plan (in brief format) to all stakeholder groups, developing a special position statement for each group.

Prior to day one of the new company, it is important to prepare customer-facing technology on both the selling and the buying side, ranging from the company websites to social media presence. This may be the time for the acquiring company to get control and ownership of social media pages and identities, and to become “mobile friendly” or even “mobile first” in its outreach strategy.

The communications process must continue for the entire period of active integration—both during the first 100 days and through and beyond the deal anniversary. The best strategy is to establish, at the front end, a regular process of communications with stakeholders on postmerger progress. Videos with key leaders can help employees assess them—and by implication the cultures they represent—through nonverbal cues.

At every stage of postmerger integration, management of the new company should communicate to all stakeholders in all appropriate media:

Stakeholders

• Audiences
• Employees
• Salespeople
• Vendors
• Retail Customers
• Commercial Customers
• Community Businesspeople
• Bank(s)
• General Public (Global)
• General Public (National)
• General Public (Regional)
• Special Interest Groups
• Elected Officials
• Local Press
• Opinion Leaders
• Securities Analysts
• Brokers
• Shareholders
• Institutional Shareholders
• Key Investors
• Board of Directors
• Advisory Directors
• Senior Management
• Subsidiary Officers
• Subsidiary Nonofficials
• Retired Employees
• Financial Media
• General Business Media
• Directories
• Rating Agencies
• Peer Groups
• Prospective Acquirees
• State Regulators
• Government Agencies

Media

• Letter
• Capabilities Brochure
• Special Brochure/Flyer
• News Releases
• Special Press Kit
• Quarterly Report
• Annual Report
• Special Newsletter
• Regular Newsletter
• Promotional Item
• Magazines/Bulletins
• Personal Meetings
• Special Event
• Advertisement—Financial
• Advertisement—General
• Advertisement—Trade
• Internal Meeting
• External Group Meeting
• Company Website    
• Videos
• Other