Mergers and acquisitions live or die by the quality of execution. Yet, time and again, there’s a blind spot in the transition from deal to delivery: the handover between those who run pre-deal due diligence and those who run the business afterward.
The Disconnect
In theory, due diligence is conducted to unearth risks and provide insight that shapes investment decisions. But in practice, it’s also a treasure trove of operational intelligence—data that should guide the first 100 days and beyond.
The problem? Much of this insight doesn’t make it into the hands of the post-deal team.
Instead, they’re handed a bullet-point summary, a “100-day plan,” or a few PowerPoint slides. What they don’t get is access to the detailed diligence documents—the ones with real nuance, the full risk map, cultural landmines, or the true state of the tech stack.
Why This Happens
There are a few consistent reasons we see this gap:
- Different Stakeholders: The people driving the deal (investors, M&A teams, external advisors) are often not the ones managing integration or value creation post-close.
- Data Room Access Gets Shut Down: The data room is often closed shortly after the deal is signed. Unless someone actively exports and archives everything, it’s gone. No one’s downloading 10GB of structured insight on the eve of close.
- Cognitive Overload: Even when documentation is shared, it’s rarely digested. The operational team is thrown into execution mode—hiring, restructuring, systems, reporting—and reading 150 pages of diligence just doesn’t make the list.
- No Formal Handover: There’s rarely a “diligence-to-delivery” debrief. And without one, operational teams miss out on context, risks, and—frankly—opportunity.
Why It Matters
Without access to full diligence materials, post-merger teams:
- Don’t fully understand the target business they are integrating
- Repeat investigations already completed
- Miss key risks and integration dependencies
- Make assumptions about tech, culture, or people that have already been disproven
- Undermine the return on diligence investment
You paid a premium for due diligence. Why bury it?
The Simple Fix
This isn’t about reinventing the process. It’s about a small but strategic shift:
- Make Full Diligence Available to the Ops Teams
Don’t just send the summary. Give them the reports. Tech, product, commercial, HR—unredacted and unedited. Trust them to make use of it. - Use an Evergreen Dataroom
Ensure the same information and observations made in DD are readily and affordability available to all team. Tools like our platform, Lens, do this automatically, tagging and indexing content so it’s actionable post-close. - Run a Post-Merger Diligence Debrief
Set up a 60-minute session where the key diligence leads (internal or external) brief the operational team on what matters most. It’s low-cost and high-impact. Consider it the transfer of institutional memory. - Track Risks Forward
Roll forward any risks, flags, or areas marked “investigate post-close” into the value creation plan. These often get lost in the shuffle and reappear six months later as fire drills.
Sharing Isn’t Just a Best Practice—It’s a Value Multiplier
Due diligence shouldn’t stop at the deal. It should fuel the roadmap for transformation, product acceleration, and commercial growth.
By embedding the diligence insight into the operational engine of the business, you’re not just bridging a process gap—you’re safeguarding value, accelerating time-to-impact, and giving your team the context they need to win.
Final Word
If you’re in private equity, portfolio ops, or leading post-merger integration, ask yourself:
- Do I have access to the full diligence archive?
- Was there a formal handover from diligence leads to operators?
- Is risk tracking embedded in our post-close plan?
If not, it’s time to close that loop.
