Value of preparation for Due Diligence
For years in our Selling Up Selling Out M&A conference for software and tech executives, we’ve stressed the value of preparing in advance for an M&A event. This point has been driven home recently as I sat for two days in a hotel with our client and a team of 5 people from the buyer’s side. Working from a comprehensive checklist provided by the acquirer, my client worked for several weeks to make sure each item was addressed and available on a thumb drive in a carefully indexed file, all linked back to the original checklist. Make it easy for the acquirer to get at the information and make sure it is accurate and addresses the questions. But, this quality response was not created overnight. Our client had made keeping good records a habit, and has been keeping electronic copies of all records for years. As a result, the data was readily available, and little needed to be created for these due diligence efforts. Let me know if you’d like to see a checklist, as there is plenty you can do in advance to ready yourself for the time a buyer knocks on the door.
Posted by WardCarter, Chairman on 28 November 2011
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