Sard Verbinnen & Co is one of the most influential firms in the U.S. corporate crisis and special situations market. Founded in 1992, the firm operates at the intersection of bet-the-company crisis communications, M&A and activist defense, board and CEO advisory, and complex litigation communications.
Edelman acquired Poptent in October 2013. The acquisition history since — Strategy One, Zeno, Edelman Data + Intelligence, and the 2020-2024 capability buildout — is the case study in how a private PR firm builds for the AI era through M&A.
FarmVille, the IPO collapse, the Pincus reset, the $12.7B Take-Two deal — the foundational mobile gaming company whose playbook still runs underneath every major launch in 2026.
News Corp paid $580M for MySpace in 2005. Sold it for $35M in 2011. A 94% loss — and the canonical case study in platform-acquisition risk in the attention economy. The lessons compound every time another platform changes hands.