Acquiring a Private Company Outright

AI-controlled tech companies that are private and independent may be open to acquisition offers.

Making an acquisition offer

Open the Corporate Details report for the company you are interested in. A private company shows Private Corporation in place of the usual Stock Overview — there are no shares to buy on the market, which is why the whole company has to be acquired at once.

Click [Acquire Company].

The Corporate Details report for the private company Circle Cross, with the Acquire Company button highlighted

You are quoted a price for the company and asked to confirm it. Here, Circle Cross can be acquired for $285,315,000.

The Acquire a Private Company dialog, offering Circle Cross for $285,315,000

Two ways to go ahead:

Button	Result
[Acquire]	You buy the company and it continues to exist as a separate company under your control.
[Acquire and Merge]	You buy the company and merge it into the acquiring company in one step, so its firms and assets come across directly.

Acquiring through a subsidiary

With the Subsidiary DLC enabled, a subsidiary can make the purchase instead of your main company. After clicking [Acquire], the game asks which of your companies will buy.

The dialog asking which company under your control will acquire the target, listing each company's cash against the acquisition cost

The list shows each company’s cash beside the acquisition cost, so you can see at a glance which of them can actually fund the purchase before you choose.