Using Open-Source Intelligence for Mergers and Acquisitions


Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) have been challenging for IT and security teams for as long as businesses have relied on technology. Every company’s IT system is as unique as the company itself. Your business may run on commonly used tools and apps, and industry best practices to deploy and configure them. Nevertheless, these systems get molded to the specific needs of the business over time.


Bringing Two Disparate Systems Together


This can make the M&A process difficult when it comes to bringing together the technical systems and security needs on which the merged companies must function. This can result in drawn-out projects that may take years to fully transition to one IT pipeline.


The growth of cloud platforms has made these already challenging processes more complex. First, many apps used for work moved to a software-as-a-service model. In addition, the assets which comprise the products and unique selling points of many businesses now reside in one of the many cloud-hosted platforms. They aren’t physical assets in a data center anymore.


In order to help address these challenges, assess and review tech early in the M&A cycle. It’s tempting to assess targets based mainly on their places in the market. After all, companies acquiring others want to fill a gap in their portfolio or own a specific tool or service. Checking for tech bottlenecks often comes late in the M&A cycle, leaving little time to consider the impact they will have on the future.


How Using OSINT Helps


This is where open-source intelligence (OSINT) can help. It lets an acquirer assess a pote ..

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