This stuck out to me, too. This is exactly the scenario where you want to bring in a third-party consulting team.
My team has been hired for this role several times: we receive full access to the technology stack and the target's engineering team. We then prepare a thorough report that the potential acquirer can ask us questions about, discuss any concerns, and request potential solutions to any issues and associated costs.
This has at least three benefits:
1. Isolating the target from revealing their IP to the acquirer,
2. We're experts in the target's stack (say Rails), whereas the potential acquirer may be more of a Java or Django shop, and be unaware of stack-specific issues to look for,
3. Allowing us to offer an unbiased opinion: we don't have any vested or emotional interest in the sale going through or not, so we can be pretty blunt about anything that might be an ongoing issue.
I won't say how much we charge for a service like this, but it's absolute flea spit compared to the $14 million on the table.
I'm not sure, we received our gigs through referrals. I've long thought I should set up a landing page for this kind of service—this seems pretty well-received on HN so maybe I'll finally get around to it now.
@AznHisoka: I'm interested in knowing what term the type of services the parent's company offers generally go by. Something like "outsourced technical due diligence" perhaps?
First time I've heard about such a service. Sounds useful.
Just curious, no offense intended, but how would I go about trusting a third party company which likely has much lesser reputation than the potential acquirer.
My team has been hired for this role several times: we receive full access to the technology stack and the target's engineering team. We then prepare a thorough report that the potential acquirer can ask us questions about, discuss any concerns, and request potential solutions to any issues and associated costs.
This has at least three benefits:
1. Isolating the target from revealing their IP to the acquirer,
2. We're experts in the target's stack (say Rails), whereas the potential acquirer may be more of a Java or Django shop, and be unaware of stack-specific issues to look for,
3. Allowing us to offer an unbiased opinion: we don't have any vested or emotional interest in the sale going through or not, so we can be pretty blunt about anything that might be an ongoing issue.
I won't say how much we charge for a service like this, but it's absolute flea spit compared to the $14 million on the table.