Mergers and acquisitions are still key strategies for business expansion today. Throughout the meetings and analysis that lead up to the eventual merger of two or more companies, a great deal of effort is expended performing financial due diligence.  It is during this examination and valuation process that close scrutiny should also be devoted to conducting an inventory of all existing information assets.  Along those lines, the issue of dormant data and e-mail residing on the hard drives and other storage media of the company being acquired must be considered to undergo the same level of due diligence to identify any existing areas of potential liability such as:  

• Multi-year archiving of corporate e-mails

• Non-existent or Un-enforced document retention and destruction policies

• Any existing or pending litigation that may result in an e-discovery production request

• A history of information security breaches

• Recent resignations of key employees and management 

These are but a few of the numerous characteristics that fit the profile of a business entity that quite possibly has a field of “land mines” stored digitally throughout the network enterprise.  What makes this possibility even more onerous, is the fact that the management team of the company being acquired may have absolutely no knowledge of the existence of these potential liabilities.  

 

CyberControls is prepared assist your organization in assessing areas of concern as it relates to stored data that could expose your organization to costly litigation or worse:

1. Performing a detailed forensic examination of the target information infrastructure before the merger or acquisition is consumed. We can look at existing systems on an enterprise level, without interfering with business operations to determine the types of information or data that exist on the systems that might conflict with your existing data retention policies. 

2. Conduct an information audit of all proprietary documents and communications along with stored locations of same to ensure proper handling or disposing requirements.

3. Develop a risk assessment that looks at how the target company’s data might be handled as part of the acquisition process. CyberControls can quickly provide recommendations as to how to bring the target companies data retention policy into line with your own and reduce your risk.  CyberControls can work directly with you M&A team to develop the right strategy to eliminate risk and smooth the transition of the information assets.

For a Free, no-obligation discussion on how CyberControls can assist your company in developing effective information strategies during a merger or acquisition, please call 1-800-862-7671.