EDGARfilings sells to Thomson Reuters

EDGARfilings was a privately held software company with approximately sixty employees. Founded in 1993, the Company provided software to assist publicly traded companies and mutual funds with their SEC filings. During mid-2008 the Company received an unsolicited offer for its assets from Thomson Reuters, a global news and information company.

The Challenge

The acquisition team from Thomson Reuters delivered an eighteen-page due diligence request list, and asked for a response as soon as possible. The questions were both broad and in-depth.
Being small and privately held, the Company's records were scattered and inconsistently formatted. Furthermore, EDGARfilings’ headcount was lean, making it difficult to respond to the request while also negotiating transaction terms.
In the meantime, failure to run the business well might cause financial results to suffer, jeopardizing valuation or potentially the entire transaction.

The Strategic Services Solution

Strategic Services' Principal was responsible for four of the seven sections of the eventual fifty-page due diligence response. Five hundred pages of appendices accompanied this main document.
Following the initial response, Mr. Lane assumed primary responsibility for all follow-on due diligence responses, allowing other team members to focus on the transaction.
Weekly standing meetings with key managers were held throughout the transaction process to maintain focus on employees and customers and keep rumors and uncertainty to a minimum.
After the transaction closed, an intense integration effort ensued, during which Mr. Lane played a key role, acting as business lead for Human Resources, Finance, and Order-to-Cash processes.

The Results

Acquisition closed on time on December 9, 2008 and the integration was substantially complete four months later.
During the twelve month period following close, the business met all financial targets laid out in the acquisition projections.
At the termination of the escrow period, the entire balance of the escrow account was returned to EDGARfilings’ owners.

The transaction succeeded in its stated strategic goals: enhancing product offerings for customers, broadening career opportunities for employees, and allowing shareholders an attractive exit opportunity.

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