Virtual Data Rooms

Merger and acquisition deals are moving faster than ever, with less and less time to wrap up due diligence before a transaction closes. As a result, more and more sellers are trading in the sometimes awkward use of physical data rooms – dominated by three-ring binders, bankers boxes and filing cabinets – for virtual data rooms, where documents can be searched and retrieved with a click of a mouse. 

Virtual data rooms have done more to accelerate the pace of M&A deals than any innovation since the fax machine and the advent of e-mail. For sellers, they keep the pressure on buyers to move quickly and reduce the risk of merger discussions leaking to competitors or the media. For buyers, virtual data rooms provide access to a huge range of information quickly and efficiently. The advantages are so significant that physical data rooms may soon become little more than war stories told around the lunchroom by an older generation of deal makers.