De-risk the deal and deliver the separation. We give acquirers an objective read on a target’s technology, model the true cost of integration, and execute clean-break divestments with zero-downtime cutovers.
Most technology risk in a transaction is invisible until it’s expensive. We cover the whole lifecycle — diligence before you sign, costed integration after you close, and surgical separation when it’s time to divest.
Automated codebase scans and architecture review give acquirers an objective, evidence-based read on a target's DevSecOps posture, cloud readiness, open-source exposure and technical debt — before the price is set.
We model the true cost and timeline of bringing two estates together — synergies, platform consolidation and the people-and-process change required — so integration budgets are defensible at board level.
We deliver clean-break divestment projects end-to-end — isolating shared infrastructure, untangling dependencies and executing zero-downtime cutovers that protect customers and the deal timeline.
Assessing a startup for acquisition, we reviewed the engineering team’s GitHub history. Seven engineers, healthy commit volume across the board — by every mechanical measure, a balanced, productive team. Then we joined their Scrum sprints and watched the work happen. Within days the real picture emerged: one engineer was quietly guiding and unblocking the other six. Design decisions, tricky reviews, every hard problem — all flowed through a single person. The commit graph showed seven contributors; the sprint showed one engine.
That is a critical business-continuity risk — one resignation away from a stalled product — and it was invisible to every firm that had assessed the company before us, because they only looked at the mechanical signals. It changed the buyer’s retention plan, the integration sequencing, and the risk priced into the deal.
Anyone can count commits. The question is who is actually carrying the company — and whether they’ll still be there a year after you buy it.
Both are necessary. Only one is standard practice. Every row below is a risk we have seen mechanical-only diligence miss — and price into a deal incorrectly.
| The mechanical signal says… | …but the behavioural reality can be | Why it matters to the deal |
|---|---|---|
| Seven engineers, balanced commit volume | One senior engineer quietly architecting and unblocking everyone else’s work | Business continuity hangs on one resignation; retention plan and key-person terms must change |
| High ticket velocity, healthy burndown | Velocity is theatre: tickets sliced thin, hard problems perpetually deferred | The roadmap the price assumes will not arrive on schedule |
| Documentation repository looks complete | Docs are stale; the real system knowledge is tribal and concentrated | Knowledge-transfer cost is 3–4× the plan; TSA timelines slip |
The full table — and the method behind it — is in the De-risking the Deal field guide.
We’re brought in when the stakes — and the dependencies — are highest. Whatever the scenario, the work is the same: turn unknowns into evidence, and plans into delivery.
Our leadership brings board-level technology ownership in an S&P 100 group — and served as primary technical authority for global M&A inside that group, across a long record of acquisitions and separations. We speak the language of the boardroom and the deal room, because we have run the buy-side technology function our clients are trying to staff.
And we’re builders at heart: the same engineers who advise on the deal run the codebase scans, sit in the sprints, untangle the infrastructure and execute the cutover. Diligence that’s grounded in delivery — not a slide deck handed off to someone else to make real.
Read the case studyDelivered by ICAN’s leadership in prior engagements and senior roles.
The systems that come with an acquisition — and the ones a carve-out leaves behind — can be ours entirely: discovered, captured, code-defined and run to contracted targets, while your integration plan moves.
Whether you’re assessing a target, planning an integration or untangling a carve-out, we’ll come back with a clear, evidence-based view of the technology risk and the path to delivery.
From pre-deal diligence to a clean-break cutover — let’s de-risk the deal and deliver the separation.
