When you're about to acquire a company, what you can’t see in its IT stack can hurt you.
And cost you.
Badly.
Most M&A due diligence teams focus on financials, legal risk, and commercial strategy. But IT? Often overlooked. Or worse — simplified into a checklist.
That’s where the real risk hides.
Christian Fastenrath
What’s Often Missed in M&A IT Due Diligence
Many acquirers don’t know what to look for — or don’t have the time.
The typical problems we see:
- Tech debt buried in legacy systems
- Shadow IT — tools used outside formal IT knowledge or governance
- Compliance exposures tied to GDPR or sector-specific rules
- Missing documentation for critical integrations
- Overstated scalability of internal systems
- No clear ownership for support post-acquisition
Each of these can slow down integration. Or derail it entirely.
The Real Costs of Missed IT Red Flags
When IT due diligence is too light, you expose the investment to serious risks:
1. Delayed Post-Close Integration
- Incomplete system maps cause weeks — sometimes months — of delay.
- Sales and operations can’t sync. Reporting stalls. Leadership loses visibility.
2. Unexpected Infrastructure Spend
- You thought the systems would scale. Turns out, they won’t.
- Now you’re budgeting for re-platforming, cloud migration, or ERP expansion — none of which was priced into the deal.
3. Regulatory Trouble
- If compliance isn’t assessed up front, you could inherit liabilities.
- A GDPR violation? That’s fines, audits, and damage to brand reputation.
4. Loss of Key Talent
- IT teams often get blindsided during M&A.
- When integration is chaotic or leadership shows no understanding of the existing stack, key tech staff walk — leaving you with a system and no one who knows how it works.
5. Investment Thesis Breakdown
- If IT can’t support the growth plan, your entire thesis collapses.
- Cross-selling, operational synergies, shared services — all blocked by misaligned systems.
Why This Happens
Two words: Speed and Assumptions
M&A timelines are short. Due diligence windows are tight. Investment teams move fast, often using generic checklists or consultants who don’t speak infrastructure.
The result? IT becomes a blurry section of the report. Not a detailed map of risks, gaps, and costs.
What You Need Instead
Dategro’s approach was built for this.
We assess the real IT picture — the one that impacts value, scale, and risk.
Here’s how:
- We evaluate tech debt — not just current tools, but what they’ll cost to keep or replace
- We flag compliance gaps — including system-level exposures
- We measure scalability — what happens when volume triples?
- We project integration timelines and effort — before you sign
And we do it fast. Structured, board-ready, and grounded in the systems reality — not theory.
What Does This Clarity Deliver?
For M&A teams and private equity investors, it delivers:
- Confidence to close
- Fewer surprises post-deal
- More accurate budgeting
- Stronger hand in negotiations
- A clear integration roadmap
Ask Yourself:
- Do you know what it will take to integrate this company’s systems?
- Can you guarantee compliance on Day 1 post-close?
- Is IT a blocker or an enabler in your investment thesis?
If you can’t answer these with certainty, the deal may be more expensive than it looks.
Let’s fix that.
