Why they write "company to do something" instead of "company will do something"?

Question

In the news I often see titles like "Microsoft to acquire Xamarin and empower more developers to build apps on any device".

Why "to acquire" instead of "acquired" or "will acquire"? Is there any special meaning?

Moreover, why tenses differ? They didn't write "Microsoft to acquire ... and to empower", nor "Microsoft acquire ... and empower", but "Microsoft to acquire ... and empower".

My old answer (on headlinese) should be helpful: http://ell.stackexchange.com/a/17710/3281. — Damkerng T., Mar 04 '16 at 10:17

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 04 '16 at 10:02

It is called 'headline-ese' - a special form of English used in news reporting, particularly in the headlines of newspapers or news websites. It has a meaning similar to future tense: 'Microsoft will acquire Xamarin' - the purchase of Xamarin has been approved and announced, but hasn't happened just yet. When it does happen, we say in real life 'Microsoft has acquired Xamarin' but in headline-ese, it would be 'Microsoft acquires Xamarin' (because present perfect is rarely used in headline-ese).

Why they write "company to do something" instead of "company will do something"?

1 Answers1