The blog
What we learned doing the work.
Playbooks, post-mortems, and honest takes on IT due diligence, integration sprints, shadow IT, divestiture carve-outs, and everything else that goes wrong on Day 1 when nobody read the dependency map.
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.
199 Discovery Modules. Why the Number Matters.
Most M&A platforms talk about discovery. ACQI does it across 199 modules — covering Azure, AWS, GCP, Active Directory, Entra ID, and M365. Here's what that actually surfaces that a 5-module scan misses.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.