The British antitrust watchdog today announced it is reviewing Cision's $300M-plus acquisition of Gorkana Group to gauge its impact on competition in the United Kingdom.

The Competition and Markets Authority already ordered the potential merger partners to remain separate until its investigation is completed.

The CMA released the following announcement on the site of the London Stock Exchange:

"The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has made an Initial Enforcement Order under section 72 of the Enterprise Act 2002 to Canyon Holdings Sàrl and GTCR Canyon UK Investments Limited. This Order is without prejudice to the CMA's ongoing investigation into the completed acquisition by GTCR of Gorkana."

CMA promises the full text of the order will be released online "as soon as is reasonably practicable."

Cision provided odwyerpr.com a statement from CEO Peter Granat. It reads:

"The U.K. Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has requested additional information regarding our acquisition of Gorkana Group. This is standard practice for a transaction of this size, and Cision is providing all necessary information to the CMA as part of the acquisition process.

"We look forward to working with the CMA to ensure any questions they may have are satisfied and demonstrate that competition remains healthy post-acquisition. We have temporarily suspended any integration activities until the CMA review is completed."

Chicago private equity firm GTCR owns Cision. London investment firm Exponent Private Equity controls Gorkana.

Granat said in October the Gorkana deal is the "next step forward" in making the combo a global leader in PR software.