Extract from IPRO’s article “Ensuring Data Privacy and Internal Accessibility During Mergers & Acquisitions”
Mergers and acquisitions often result in complicated issues for legal teams regarding proper eDiscovery and Information Governance.
The subsumption or combination of both companies’ data sets creates the need to understand both data sets more clearly and to have a cohesive plan on how to treat the data moving forward.
In an ideal world, the acquired or merging target company coming on board has exactly the same strategy for Information Governance and data management as the purchasing company. But in reality, there are likely numerous differences between the two companies’ approaches.
Purchasing and target companies must understand their data prior to finalizing the deal to ensure that privacy and internal accessibility are maintained both during and after the transition, ultimately enabling the future success of the resulting combined company.
Gathering Data: Focus on Data Management
Mergers and Acquisitions result in a large volume of new and existing data that requires review by the related companies, their legal representatives, and potentially regulatory authorities.
So, having your in-house or outside counsel review every single piece of data on their own or turn over entire sets of data to regulatory authorities for review would take too long to complete, nor would it be cost-effective.
