How to Successfully Manage Your M&A Activities with Virtual Data Room

The use of data room services in mergers and acquisitions has become a common practice in the business world. A few years ago, conference participants used paper documents during meetings. Interested parties studied the copies and discussed the tasks assigned to them. Today, the data for M&A transactions can be used online through a secure service. Whether it is internal exchanges between colleagues or external businesses with employees of other companies, the security of these data is paramount. This article will tell you how to conduct mergers and acquisitions using VDR.

What Is M&A, and Why Do Companies Need It?

Mergers and acquisitions involve the transfer of ownership and change of control over the enterprise. However, in this case, data leakage is unacceptable and associated with consequences for both parties to the agreement. Therefore, in most cases, business people use data room software. Every company wants to develop and get higher profit. To do this, you can go two ways:

• Create a self-sufficient business model - a financially and time-consuming process with high risks.
• Buy another company or merge with it by completing an M&A deal.

M&A also mean the creation of strategic alliances with other companies in a broad sense. Strategic partnerships are often created based on mutual participation in the capital or on the foundation of joint ventures through contributions to a standard subsidiary. The most common form of asset separation is selling an existing subsidiary to another company.

Preparatory Stages and Organization of Transactions

Mergers and acquisitions use different methods of a company valuation. In practice, several valuation methods are used in parallel, and their results serve to determine the company's actual value. Stakeholders access a standardized set of data through a virtual data room. As part of Due Diligence, the following types of information are usually provided:

• General information about the company: extract of registration, articles of association, manager data, structure, affiliated companies, etc.
• Information about the property status and obligations of the company: a list of all tangible and intangible assets, information about existing short-, medium-, and long-term obligations (indicating debtors and creditors, interest rates, payment terms), mutual debts within the company, etc.
• Financial statements: annual and quarterly balance sheets, income statement, audit report, etc.
• Information about possible legal processes (civil, labor, tax, administrative, etc.)

Verification of the accuracy of the information provided as part of Due Diligence and the validity of the estimated purchase price is carried out by the buyer. As a rule, auditors and lawyers involved in acquiring a company are engaged in optimizing legal and tax aspects of the transaction. In this regard, an important policy decision is a choice between Share Deal and Asset Deal. Furthermore, online data room software makes the data transfer process safe and fast.

What Is VDR for M&A in Simple Words

A virtual room allows business owners to store and share documents in over 25 file formats. The use of security protocols helps users protect their information from unreasonable online attacks and ensure that communications remain private. In addition, various services offer customized solutions, from anti-hacker features to a two-step verification process. The benefits of virtual data rooms include:

• Impeccable security
• Hassle-free download
• Organizing files
• Provides valuable information and reports
• Collaboration on documents with multiple parties
• Closing deals quickly
• Competent customer support

The service offers many additional options that satisfy different needs of M&A transactions. Choosing a VDR can be tricky; so, we recommend that you compare the characteristics of several data room providers. You also need to customize the service for the needs of your business or an M&A transaction. Given current trends, it will not be challenging to do this even when you first get acquainted with the system interface. VDR reviews will guide you through the setup and give you tips that can help you work effectively together.

Afterword

There are quite a few specialized products with different capabilities and price categories in the digital market. When choosing an electronic data room, you should focus on comprehensive solutions that allow you to manage documents from the moment they are uploaded to the storage until they are deleted on the side of the counterparty. This requires support for DRM technologies and the availability of agent programs for desktop and mobile operating systems.

We wanted to show you how much easier M&A transactions can be in this data room review. Of course, the tasks of the second party to the transaction may not require such IT technologies. Still, your experience will be better if you choose VDR for M&A. Ultimately, you'll secure your documents and have team collaboration tools. This will significantly speed up the completion of the transaction on mutually beneficial terms for you and your partner.