Make well-informed decisions around Mergers and Acquisitions with Withum’s Cyber M&A Due Diligence services. Executing a merger or acquisition is a challenging and important undertaking for an organization. Understanding the cybersecurity posture of your acquisition target is critical to your investment’s success.

By 2022, 60% of organizations engaging in M&A activity will consider cybersecurity posture as a critical factor in their due diligence process, up from less than 5% today.

Withum’s cybersecurity due diligence services help uncover, assess and address information security and M&A cyber risks, pre- and post-transaction. Our diverse expertise helps ensure the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of business-critical systems throughout the acquisition process.

Cybersecurity due diligence should be a vital step in your M&A process along with the existing financial, tax and legal due diligence. Companies need to assess the IT infrastructure, security, and regulatory adherence requirements to ensure a successful merger or acquisition that may affect future business risks and strategy.

M&A Stats

  • Global M&A activity volume is greater than $2.5 trillion today. M&A activity carries economic growth but also a level of risk that requires a thorough due diligence process.
  • Historically, cybersecurity posture has been overlooked during the due diligence process and only incorporated after the deal closed as part of an overall IT integration effort.
  • A high-profile breach can seriously impact the valuation of the target and may even potentially cause the deal to falter.

Source: Gartner Research

How We Can Help:

Withum’s Cyber and Transaction Advisory teams will help you better understand potential cyber-related gaps and M&A cybersecurity risks of your target. The results can help uncover potential deal breakers, protect your investment, or put your mind at ease with a roadmap cost and timeline of remediation steps.

Our Cyber Due Diligence Services:

  • Collect and seed information from a series of assessments on the entity you are acquiring or merging with, including SWOT analysis, maturity assessments, and technical assessments (if possible).
  • Prepare an action plan for the integration phase to remediate any vulnerabilities or gaps that have been identified during the due diligence process, and collate them in a risk register exclusive to the M&A process.
  • Make a recommendation on the impacts of the proposed deal. The decision to hold off or caution a merger or acquisition will be based on your overall risk appetite and your ability to manage the cyber risk that arises from the findings assessed above. Prioritize risks around Day 0, Day 1 and post-Day 1.

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For more information or to discuss your business needs, please connect with a member of our team.

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