Unexpected change in direction from company acquired by wealthy alien (8)
I believe the answer is:
ricochet
'unexpected change in direction' is the definition.
I can't judge whether this definition defines the answer.
'company acquired by wealthy alien' is the wordplay.
'company' becomes 'co' (abbreviation).
'acquired by' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'wealthy' becomes 'rich' (similar in meaning).
'alien' becomes 'et' (extraterrestrial).
'co' put within 'rich' is 'ricoch'.
'ricoch'+'et'='RICOCHET'
'from' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for ricochet that I've seen before include "Skip" , "Deflection of bullet's path" , "Film" , "Bullet bouncing back" , "indirect hit" .)