While we don’t recommend treating an acquirer as a true enemy, the parties do often have directly conflicting interests, with each striving for the best value and least risk. The best way to protect your interests is to understand your acquirer’s perspective, so that you can work collaboratively and strategically through the deal. Outsiders and experts are often able to spot problems to which an insider has become habituated. Licens.io’s software acquisition preparation allows you the benefit of an outsider’s analysis of your company without the risk during the real deal.

Our software acquisition preparation services take place before deal discussions begin; we act as a hypothetical buyer, simulating the diligence and negotiation process to bring to light issues specific to your company or in software acquisitions more generally. For example, a private equity acquirer might want to understand how easily your open source stack could be combined with a closed-source portfolio company they already own. This “practice” diligence will also prepare you with respect to what to expect during the actual due diligence process.

In addition to giving you an edge in negotiations, our preparation services will help defray diligence expenses. As we guide you through the preparation for a software acquisition, we will help prepare and gather much of the information that will be requested as part of diligence. By assembling this ahead of time, you can streamline the due diligence process, thus reducing attorney’s fees and internal labor costs and improving the buyer’s perception of your maturity and sophistication.

By engaging in a mock acquisition, we will help your company enter acquisition discussions with a clear understanding of your strengths and weaknesses. This process will also provide you with valuable time to address shortcomings, ultimately increasing your valuation.

If you’d like assistance during the acquisition or due diligence process, we also provide advisory services for software deals.