“An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.” – Benjamin Franklin
Are you looking to buy, or invest in a company that has significant technical intellectual property?
Investing in technical, software, product companies goes much further than the financials due-diligence and can include the following areas:
- Technology assessment (languages, 3rd party products, open source, engineer availability)
- Porting & modernisation (can older components be migrated)
- Intellectual property ownership (are there any risks through use of contractors, 3rd party development companies, claims from competitors or clients, patent infringements)
- Code quality & maintenability
- Key staff
- Operational procedures & use of quality management system (QMS), code management systems (CMS)
- Contractual obligations (releases per year, end-of-life, replacement policies)
- ESCROW compliance
- Code management & versioning
- Support procedures and liabilities
- Client issues, defects/bugs
- Roadmap/projects ongoing enhancement commitments
- Strategy & ability to deliver on strategy, such as geographical expansion/localisation/internationalisation
- Market opportunity & competitors
- Product documentation
- Partnerships & distributors
- Staff assessment (key men, skills, locations)
- Pipeline/sales assessment
- SWOT analysis
- Compliance, GDPR, SOX, PCI…
The 3rd Wave is able to provide end-to-end due-diligence, though it doesn’t stop there. We will also provide advice & guidance on potential improvements to quality, cost base, performance, taking into consideration your post-acquisition goals.
Identifying concerns before acquisition will help you develop & cost a viable transitioning plan, accurately price the acquisition and gain insight into unforeseen opportunity.