In this era of big data, a company’s value may increasingly depend on the value of the information it has collected and stored. As companies amass ever-growing amounts of often sensitive personal data, the privacy and cybersecurity risks involved in mergers and acquisitions have become greater. As a result, today’s M&A transactions necessarily require deep due diligence on the privacy and cybersecurity risks posed by these deals, including a review of the M&A target’s communications on internal- and external-facing social media platforms.
In a practical webinar on September 26, 2017, Socially Aware contributor Christine Lyon and Mike Krigbaum discussed privacy and data security due diligence in M&A transactions. The topics they covered included:
- Common challenges and pitfalls in performing privacy and cybersecurity due diligence;
- The questions an acquirer’s team should ask to better identify, evaluate, and manage an acquisition target’s privacy and cybersecurity vulnerabilities; and
- Steps the seller’s team can take to mitigate risk and help ensure that the deal is not jeopardized.