M&A Evaluation and Due Diligence

Metis Strategy conducted technology due diligence on a professional services company in preparation for a possible acquisition by the client.

Business- and technology-focused evaluations are critical parts of the due diligence process when firms choose to expand their footprint through acquisition. The CTO of a leading human capital management company asked Metis Strategy to help conduct pre-transaction due diligence on a targeted professional services company and help IT deepen its understanding of the target company’s product platforms, technology infrastructure, expertise, and organizational structure ahead of a possible acquisition..

With the client CTO and his team, Metis Strategy conducted technical and infrastructural assessments to identify synergies, redundancies, and risks, and to evaluate the target company’s strengths, weaknesses, and capabilities.

The Metis Strategy team participated in the target company’s product demonstrations and subject-matter expert interviews, reviewed and analyzed all available target company artifacts, and analyzed findings from technical and infrastructure deep-dives with the target company’s stakeholders. The team took the following actions to expand the analysis:

• Synthesized the target company’s weaknesses and key concerns based on stakeholder interviews and demonstrations
• Developed a comparative assessment of the target company’s product platforms against industry benchmarks and existing client capabilities
• Created a final report including an executive summary, product and infrastructure assessments, comments on the target company’s organizational structure, and other items
• Collaborated with the client to develop critical post-closing steps, including roadmaps for the first 100 days up to two years post-integration

Provided input to CTO and C-level decision-makers about whether to proceed with the acquisition. Also made recommendations to corporate development leaders about the strategic value of the deal and highlighted a list of challenges the client would need to address if it decided to proceed.

Metis Strategy’s assessments helped the client’s corporate development, product, and technology leadership identify product synergies, integration risks, and areas in which investment would be needed to ensure a smooth integration. Metis Strategy provided the CTO and his leadership team with a list of pre-close and first-100-days merger integration items as well as an estimated budget to address them.