M&A IT integration.
What the evidence says.
Research, playbooks, and thought leadership for IT directors managing post-merger programmes. Built from real integration data, not consulting abstractions.
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68 articles published
The 89-Module IT Discovery Framework: What Every PE Firm Should Audit Pre-Close
ACQI's 89-module framework covers AD, Azure AD, M365, hybrid infra, security posture, SaaS, network, and more. A breakdown of what's actually covered.
Why 60% of AD Audits Miss Critical Groups Before a Merger
Active Directory group nesting blind spots leave privileged identities undiscovered pre-close. Here's what most M&A IT audits miss.
Add-On Acquisition IT Due Diligence: The Fast 72-Hour Assessment
Add-on acquisitions don't get the same DD treatment as platform deals. Here's a 72-hour sprint that catches the IT risks that transfer to the platform company.
Anti-Trust IT Review: How DOJ/FTC Examine Technology Infrastructure in Big Tech M&A
When regulators review tech acquisitions, they request network diagrams, data flows, vendor contracts, and integration plans. Here's what they're actually looking for.
Blast Radius Analysis: Mapping the Real Scope of an IT Integration
What happens when you merge two AD forests, M365 tenants, and Azure subscriptions. How to map dependencies and score the integration blast radius.
Cloud Readiness Assessment: A Pre-Acquisition Framework for Cloud Migration Planning
Not all companies are cloud-ready. CAF maturity assessment, WVD/FSLogix profile, Azure Arc coverage, SQL Server version compatibility. Cloud Migration Readiness Scorecard.
The Hidden IT Risk in Cross-Border M&A: Data Sovereignty and Transfer Mechanisms
Cross-border acquisitions involve data sovereignty obligations that can block integration timelines. Here's what every international M&A deal team needs to understand.
Day-One IT Failures: The Post-Close Scenarios That Kill Integration Value
Documented failure modes from real M&A integrations — forgotten service accounts, VPN dependencies, Teams federation failures, and the fixes that save the integration.
The Hidden Cost of Directory Fragmentation Post-Merger
Two AD forests maintained in coexistence cost more than just licensing — help desk overhead, security drift, and user frustration compound into a silent integration tax.
Divestiture IT Separation: The Carve-Out Discovery Problem
Selling a division or subsidiary? IT carve-out is harder than acquisition integration. The separation must be complete on Day 1 — no shared infrastructure, no shared identity.
DORA and Financial Services M&A: ICT Third-Party Risk Register Requirements
DORA's 5 pillars, TLPT testing, and the ICT third-party concentration risk that every acquirer of a bank, insurer, or asset manager inherits.
Entra ID Post-Merger: 6 Configuration Landmines
Entra ID tenant configuration after a merger is full of traps — cross-tenant sync, conditional access, named locations, legacy auth. Here's what catches teams.
Financial Services M&A: DORA, TLPT, and the ICT Third-Party Risk Register
Financial services M&A involves DORA compliance obligations including TLPT testing and ICT third-party concentration risk. What acquirers and targets need to know.
The Forest Migration Decision: Consolidate or Coexist
Full AD forest migration takes 6-18 months and $500K+. Coexistence is faster but carries ongoing risk. Here's the decision matrix.
GDPR Article 28 Processor Agreements: The SaaS Discovery Problem in M&A
When you acquire a company using Salesforce and HubSpot, you're the new data controller. Art. 28 processor agreements must be mapped and transferred. Here's the catch.
Healthcare M&A: HIPAA Compliance, PHI Inventories, and the Integration Clock
Healthcare M&A involves HIPAA compliance obligations that follow the patient data. PHI inventories, BAAs, and the integration timeline that affects covered entity status.
Identity Consolidation at Scale: When 47,000 Accounts Become One
Enterprise AD consolidation in M&A involves matching, SID history, certificate remapping, and service principal reconciliation. Here's the technical playbook.
The M&A Integration Office: Why IT Needs a Seat at the IMO Table
The Integration Management Office (IMO) drives post-merger value capture. IT integration is the biggest risk and the biggest value driver — and it's usually underrepresented.
The IT Carve-Out Valuation Problem: How to Value a Company's IT Infrastructure Separately
In a divestiture, IT infrastructure needs to be valued and allocated. How to determine the fair value of IT assets, the IT separation costs, and the IT operating model for the divested entity.
The IT Integration Budget: How to Model IT Costs in an M&A Deal Model
IT integration costs are systematically underestimated in deal models. Here's the framework for building a realistic IT integration budget.
Synergy Tracking in M&A: How IT Integration Creates — and Destroys — Value
IT integration synergies are real but they take time to realize. Here's how to model them, track them, and make sure they actually happen.
ITAR/EAR Export Controls and M&A: The Cleared Contractor Discovery Problem
When acquiring defense contractors or companies with cleared facilities, IT systems handling classified data must meet NISPOM Chapter 8 requirements. Here's what IT auditors find.
IT Due Diligence at the LOI Stage: The 2-Week Sprint That Changes Deal Terms
LOI-stage IT DD is fast and cheap. It catches the issues that would kill a deal or change the price. Here's the framework that works.
The M&A IT Integration Checklist: 47 Items Before Day One
The definitive pre-close IT integration checklist — organized by Identity, Data and Apps, Network, and Security. 47 items that prevent Day-One failures.
Manufacturing M&A: The IT Integration Checklist for Factory Floor Systems and OT
Manufacturing acquisitions add OT (Operational Technology) complexity that standard IT DD misses. SCADA, PLCs, MES systems, and the cybersecurity requirements for industrial environments.
Multi-Cloud Discovery in M&A: Auditing AWS, Azure, and GCP Simultaneously
Most M&A IT DD covers Azure. What about AWS and GCP? Multi-cloud discovery across all three hyperscalers reveals the full cloud footprint of a target company.
NIS2 Directive: What M&A IT Due Diligence Must Cover After January 2025
NIS2 became mandatory for essential entities in January 2025. In M&A, the target's compliance gaps become the acquirer's liability. Here's the Article 21 checklist.
The PE Firm's Guide to IT Due Diligence in 90 Minutes a Day
PE deal teams don't have time for a full IT DD sprint. Here's how to stay current on portfolio IT risk with 90 minutes of weekly focus.
The Portfolio IT Playbook: How PE Firms Manage IT Risk Across 5, 10, or 20 Portfolio Companies
PE firms with portfolio companies face shared IT risks: common cloud providers, shared vendors, and concentration risk. Here's the portfolio IT governance framework.
SaaS Sprawl and License Optimization in M&A: The Hidden Margin Driver
The average company wastes 23% of SaaS spend on unused licenses. In M&A, duplicate SaaS across two companies is pure optimization opportunity. Here's how to find it.
Service Account Password Rollover: The Day-One IT Bomb Ticking in Every M&A Deal
Service account passwords not rotated before a merger can break payroll, AADC sync, and third-party apps on Day 1. Here's how to find them before they detonate.
SOX IT Controls and M&A: What Finance Teams Miss in IT Due Diligence
SOX Section 404 requires management assessment of internal controls. Acquired IT systems must have SOX controls documentation — and most targets don't have it.
Technical Debt Quantification in M&A: A Framework for IT Due Diligence
How to measure technical debt in an acquisition target — code quality metrics, infrastructure debt, security debt, and TCO for remediation.
Agentic Commerce Intelligence: Beyond Traditional AI Assistants
How autonomous AI agents are fundamentally reshaping how businesses gather competitive intelligence, make decisions, and act on market signals in real time.
The Hidden IT Tax in Every Deal: Why 70% of M&A Integrations Run Over
Most acquirers budget for integration. None budget for the IT blind spots that blow up timelines and cost millions more than expected. Here's what the post-mortems never tell you.
Why Your Data Pipeline Is Laughing at You
A frank look at the gap between data infrastructure ambitions and actual business value — and the single fix that closes it.
89 Discovery Modules. Why the Number Matters.
Most M&A platforms talk about discovery. ACQI does it across 89 modules — covering Azure, AWS, GCP, Active Directory, Entra ID, and M365. Here's what that actually surfaces that a 5-module scan misses.
Marketplace Intelligence, The Agent Way
How autonomous agents are replacing manual marketplace monitoring with continuous, multi-channel intelligence that actually drives action.
The Divestiture Discovery Problem: Why Selling an IT Division Is Harder Than It Looks
Carving out an IT division sounds like a legal and financial problem. The IT discovery gaps that actually derail divestitures are operational. Here's what breaks in the first 30 days after Day 1.
Repricing Done Right: A Framework That Actually Works
Why most dynamic repricing strategies fail — and the framework that makes them actually profitable without destroying your brand.
Synergy Tracking in M&A: From Deal Thesis to Realized Value
Most synergy tracking in M&A is retrospective — someone updates a spreadsheet after the quarter ends. Here's how to build synergy tracking as a first-class governance function from the day the deal closes.
The AI Discovery Layer: Why M&A IT Assessment Is About to Change
The same AI that disrupted search is coming for due diligence. Here's how machine learning is changing what 'complete IT discovery' means — and why the acquirers using it now have a structural advantage.
The Anatomy of a Commerce Intelligence Stack
A technical breakdown of what a modern commerce intelligence system actually looks like — from raw data to automated decisions.
The Divestiture Playbook: Carving Out a Business Unit Without Breaking the Remainder
A healthcare system carved out a 12,000-employee business unit in 14 weeks. How ACQI discovery mapped shared infrastructure, prevented data residency violations, and kept NHS contracts intact.
Compliance-First M&A: How Regulated Industries Do Discovery Differently
GDPR, FCA, SEC, and MAS obligations don't wait for your integration to be complete. A framework for discovery, migration sequencing, and governance in regulated M&A transactions.
Shadow IT in M&A: The Licensing Liability Nobody Priced
In every acquisition, there's a layer of IT spending nobody in the deal team knew existed — until the integration bills arrived. Here's how shadow IT silently creates post-close liability.
Content Strategy for Commerce Agents: What Actually Works
How AI agents are changing the content game — and why the brands winning are treating content as infrastructure, not marketing.
The Divestiture Playbook: Carving Out a Business Unit Without Breaking the Remainder
A healthcare system carved out a 12,000-employee business unit in 14 weeks. This is how ACQI discovery mapped shared infrastructure, prevented data residency violations, and kept the remaining company's NHS contracts intact.
The IT Due Diligence Checklist Nobody Gives You
What to scan, what to ask for, and what to refuse to sign without before your next M&A transaction. A technical due diligence checklist built from real acquisition post-mortems.
The 30-Day Integration Sprint: How to Not Screw Up Day 1
Day 1 is not a checklist. It's the moment when your IT infrastructure either holds or breaks. Here's the integration sprint framework that actually works — built from 40+ post-mortems.
Competition Is Not Your Enemy
A contrarian take on competitive intelligence — why watching competitors too closely can blind you to real opportunities.
The Migration Window Playbook: Cutover Without Catastrophe
How to plan a migration window, execute a cutover, and have zero P1 incidents. A practical guide to wave planning, Go/No-Go gates, and rollback procedures for IT integration teams.
Identity Integration Playbook: AD Consolidation After an Acquisition
Active Directory consolidation is the highest-risk identity event in any M&A integration. This playbook covers forest migration, identity mapping, UPN restructuring, and the failure modes that kill integrations.
The PE Deal Team's Guide to IT Due Diligence in 6 Steps
PE deal teams don't need to become IT experts. They need to know what questions to ask, which answers matter, and when to push back on what the target's CTO tells them.
The Return on Intelligence: Measuring What Actually Matters
Most commerce intelligence investments fail to show ROI because they're measuring the wrong things. Here's the framework that actually works.
The Identity Consolidation Problem: What 47,000 Identities Actually Teaches
Most M&A teams plan for 2,000 user migrations and discover 47,000 identities. Here's why the gap exists, where the complexity lives, and what a discovery-first approach to identity actually looks like.
Clean Team Architecture in M&A: Building Information Barriers That Actually Work
Clean team / information barrier failures cause deal complications, regulatory scrutiny, and deal collapse. How to design clean team infrastructure in M&A from pre-signing through integration.
What a Cloud Migration Actually Costs: The Line Items Nobody Shows You
Cloud migration quotes from vendors leave out half the cost. Here's the full cost model — built from actual migration post-mortems — so you can budget correctly and not get blindsided on Day 1.
Four Azure Tenants. One Migration Window. Zero Surprises.
How a global asset management firm discovered 47,000+ identities across four Azure tenants and delivered an 18-week migration with zero P1 incidents.
Post-Merger IT Chaos: Why Most Integrations Overrun
The six structural causes of post-merger IT failure, the real cost to organisations that ignore them, and a practical framework for integration teams who want a different result.
Building the Intelligence-First Organization
The organizational changes required to actually use commerce intelligence — and why most companies fail at the last mile.
Identity Consolidation: Why Merging AD Forests Is the Hardest Part of Any Integration
Merging two Active Directory forests is the integration task that kills timelines. It's not the technical complexity — it's the undocumented dependencies. Here's how to find all of them before Day 1.
Shadow IT in M&A: The Licensing Liability Nobody Priced
The average acquisition inherits 40-60 undocumented SaaS applications, 23% of which have expired or shared credentials. Here's where shadow IT hides, what it costs, and how to find it before it becomes a liability.
What AI Can't Replace in Commerce (And Why That's the Point)
A clear-eyed look at where human judgment remains irreplaceable in commerce — and how the best teams are designing for that division of labor.
Compliance-First M&A: NIS2, DORA, and the GDPR Discovery Problem
Post-merger GDPR violations are a £20M+ risk. NIS2 brings operational technology into scope. DORA applies to financial services. Here's what acquirers need to discover about compliance exposure before signing.
Wave-Based Migration Planning: The Anatomy of a Successful M&A Cutover
Most M&A migrations overrun because wave planning starts before discovery is complete. Here's how to structure migration waves so that dependencies, risk, and resource constraints all get resolved before you book a single cutover window.
Data Estate Due Diligence: The M&A Discovery Checklist That Actually Works
Most IT due diligence checklists produce slide decks, not useful discovery. Here's what a buyer's technical team actually needs to see before signing — and how to get it in time.
Zero Trust in M&A: How to Audit a Target's Security Posture in 48 Hours
Zero Trust is the security architecture standard. But a target's Zero Trust implementation is only as good as their actual identity and network posture — which is exactly what most security assessments don't fully audit.
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