Offline Q&A Slows Deals
LONDON, November 6, 2008 — Seventy percent of M&A professionals see the Q&A process in M&A transactions as time-consuming, while nearly a third describe it as painful, according to IntraLinks’ Autumn M&A Monitor, a survey of more than 300 M&A professionals across Europe. Respondents indicated that the offline Q&A process was viewed by professionals as difficult and complex challenge to the transaction process.
The manual Q&A process generates time and accuracy issues, said sixty percent of respondents, citing a need to manually chase answers to questions. Additionally, one in two respondents does not feel confident in tracking the status of answers to the questions asked in deals.
“The IntraLinks Monitor reflects the issues M&A professionals deal with every day,” said Andrew Pearson, managing director, EMEA at IntraLinks. “They have a large workloads and need to have access to information at the touch of a button.”
“Thirty percent of respondents believe physical data rooms will be obsolete within two years,” continued Pearson. “This is no surprise: They are often outdated and lack flexibility compared to online versions, which provide a secure space for documentation, available wherever and whenever it’s needed.”
“Our aim is to simplify the entire deal process — automated submission and tracking of Q&A, hosted online, will allow deals to take place faster, while M&A professionals will be able to work more effectively. With our new Q&A feature, which will be released in early December, we’ll be able to provide businesses with the most sophisticated and easy-to-use Q&A functionality available on the market,” Pearson concluded.