M & A Deals
Maximize Your M&A Deals
In M&A due diligence nothing is more imperative than protecting the privacy of corporate documents and keeping buyers anonymous and segregated. From document
scanning and data room access to every person and process that touches your M&A deal, any
breach in the chain can leave you legally exposed. This is the reason why Merrill DataSite™ Virtual Data Room solution (VDR) has become an indispensable tool for streamlining the due diligence process.
Helping maintain and share critical M&A deals information in its secure environment while ensuring an airtight “chain of custody” for corporate documents, Merrill DataSite VDR has become the solution of choice for many dealmakers who are up to speed with technology.
Leverage technology to facilitate thorough due diligence and accelerate time-to-market
Your investment banker should be using enabling technologies such as virtual data rooms (VDRs) to help you bring your M&A deal to market faster and more efficiently. A virtual data room, or “datasite,” streamlines the due diligence process by transforming the traditional paper data room into an online or “virtual” data room. By managing the process in a secure, online data room, dealmakers are able to do away with most of the traditional, paper-laden processes and their inherent limitations.
Companies using Merrill DataSite virtual data room solution to manage their M&A deals cite multiple benefits for both buyers and sellers. Here are some of the advantages:
Provide a strategic platform for asset readiness. The early organization of due diligence materials in an online data repository well prepares a company for a range of opportunistic events, enabling total control and proper presentation of all information. By implementing a datasite early in the process – even as much as one to two years in advance the company can create a firm-wide culture of preparedness, routinely updating and adding to its due diligence information repository. From an operations perspective, the gathering and sharing of information also becomes a strategic advantage, as an organized company will know more about itself and know it sooner.
Create the best possible presentation of your company’s due diligence materials. With Merrill DataSite, electronic source files and scanned documents can be uploaded into an online document repository, where viewers can simply log in and easily search for relevant information. This approach streamlines the process for potential buyers and empowers them to conduct a more thorough due diligence. The virtual data room itself becomes a marketing tool that presents the asset for sale in a highly organized, professional manner.
Invite multiple buyers. What better way to drive up asset valuation than to engage multiple bidders in the deal? Traditionally, this basic strategy has been more difficult to achieve in a paper-based due diligence environment, which by its serial nature limits multi-buyer participation and the ability to effectively negotiate on several concurrent fronts.
However, in Merrill DataSite’s secure virtual data room, multiple buyers can all review the same electronic documents from anywhere in the world, at the same time. Sellers can conduct simultaneous, confidential due diligence cycles and host an unlimited number of bidders without extending transaction time, impeding access or breaching bidder confidentiality.
Accelerate due diligence review. Since prospective buyers can simply log into a secure Web browser at their convenience, scheduled visits to a physical data room are no longer necessary. The entire process takes place much more quickly, and buyers’ travel time and costs are either completely eliminated or greatly reduced.
Respond rapidly to buyers’ questions. Merrill DataSite virtual data rooms also provide private, community-based Q&A forums for potential buyers to ask questions and view responses. This provides sellers with a secure environment in which they can quickly and efficiently share confidential information. It also reduces the time-consuming process of responding to individual e-mails. The best VDR solutions allow you to easily view, group and categorize questions, as well as tailor your responses accordingly to the level of security assigned to each group. A good Q&A functionality should let you visually understand what topics are generating the most questions.
Use online search capabilities to assure complete due diligence review. Nothing is more deadly to a successful deal than the late stage emergence of critical information that causes the seller to reconsider, renegotiate or even withdraw from the deal. The best virtual data rooms reduce this risk by providing powerful search tools that make it much easier for bidders to quickly locate the information they want. The best solutions provide flexible site-wide search capabilities that empower users to quickly drill down to critical documents, as well as audit capabilities to help reduce post merger issues surrounding availability and access to information.
Identify the best buyer for the deal. Merrill DataSite virtual data rooms provide real-time tracking information that empowers sellers to more closely assess various bidders as due diligence progresses. Sellers can track their prospects’ viewing, downloading and printing activities and assess the potential buyers’ thoroughness of review. This intelligence is invaluable in helping determine the best buyer for the deal.
Reduce deal costs while supporting corporate environmental sustainability goals. When using Merrill DataSite virtual data room, clerical, staffing and other inherent costs associated with hosting a physical paper room are eliminated. Merrill DataSite’s convenient Web accessibility means that travel time and costs are either completely eliminated or greatly reduced, while significantly diminishing carbon emissions associated with business travel.
The due diligence process is best managed by providing full disclosure in as transparent and efficient a manner as possible. Letting buyers “discover” issues on their own is invariably a bad approach; this may cause them to wonder what else they may have missed in their diligence. Unexpected turns can result in renegotiation, lower valuation or the buyer’s or lender’s complete withdrawal from the M&A deal.
If you are considering a capital fundraising activity for your company but have little experience with the M&A market, don’t go it alone. Ensure that you’re best positioned for success by starting the process early, working with professionals who have experience selling companies of your size, in your market space, and leveraging technology to bring your M&A deal to market as quickly and efficiently as possible.
A trusted partner
Merrill DataSite Virtual Data Room (VDR) is an online deal room that optimizes the due diligence process by transforming the traditional paper data room into a secure online data room, accessible via the Internet. Merrill DataSite offers a secure and highly efficient method of sharing critical business information for electronic due diligence in M&A advisory, banking M&A, mid market M&A review, transfer of small business ownership when selling a company, document warehousing, mergers and acquisitions due diligence, succession in family business or when buying a business, IPO and secondary offerings, asset purchases, venture capital due diligence, bio tech licensing, commercial and corporate real estate ventures, bankruptcies, financial restructure, liquidation analysis for bankruptcy, corporate debt restructuring, preparing for exit strategies, and many other transactions that require extensive document sharing.
Merrill Corporation has been a trusted provider of secure information services to Fortune 500 companies in the financial and legal industries for over 40 years. Since 2002, Merrill DataSite has empowered 1.6 million unique visitors to perform electronic due diligence on thousands of transactions totaling trillions of dollars in asset value.
It is at the core of Merrill DataSite’s effort to share ideas and practices that can help organizations expand opportunities. Download and read a variety of documents for free, such as international surveys, summaries of field knowledge practical guides, and Case Studies of our clients and partners, from the DataSite Knowledge Center>>
