Learn Spanish (Latin America): La junta prometió que adquiriría al competidor. - The board promised that it would acquire the competitor.

This is reported speech! Originally, the board probably made a future promise: We will acquire the competitor. Since the reporting verb prometió is in the past, the future tense shifts back to the conditional (adquiriría), just like changing will to would in English.

Why do we use al before competidor?

This is the personal a combining with the masculine article el to form al. You already know to use the personal a with people, but in Spanish, companies and corporate entities are often personified. Since the competitor is the direct object being acquired, it gets the personal a.

Does junta mean board like a piece of wood?

No, junta refers to a group of people coming together, like a committee, council, or a corporate board of directors. If you were talking about a physical wooden board, you would use a word like tabla.

Why is there no subject pronoun before adquiriría?

Spanish often drops the subject pronoun when it is clear from context. The ending of adquiriría tells us it is a third-person singular subject. It clearly refers back to La junta, so we do not need to repeat it with a pronoun like ella.