Tales from the DataRoom

“Never compromise on the integrity of your information – it does not pay”

Having been privy to scores of data rooms over the years in both the capacity of buyer and seller I have seen them all.  The disorganised, the ultra-organised, from highly managed and secure to a nonchalant approach. 

The data room is the beating heart of the due diligence process where buyers base their ultimate decision on their potential acquisition.

The most important points to consider when establishing and contributing to a dataroom:

• Access needs to be controlled and well protected, ensuring all privacy laws in compliance. with.
• The requested due diligence questionnaire should be sequential and ordered, with the data room setup mirroring the sequence.
• Information provided by both parties to be accurate, complete and must cover everything the other party has requested.
• Information should be well presented – messy information is a reflection on the seller and can form a negative perception in the mind of the purchaser.
• Information needs to be provided timeously… don’t give the other party an excuse to think information is being covered up.
• Any information which could be seen as a negative, needs to be provided up-front with a positive spin.
• Never provide false or mis-leading information, it will come back to bite you.

The views expressed in this article are the views of the author. This article provides general information, does not constitute advice and should not be relied upon as such. Professional advice should be sought prior to any action being taken in reliance on any of the information.