Starting the preparation process for a possible M&A event is one of the most important steps that you can take today, whether you are planning on selling your company in 2016 or in the next five years. We recommend that you begin the preparation process by assembling all of the documents that are used to operate your business in a centralized secure online data room. There are many platforms that can be used for an online data room including SecureDocs and Merrill DataSite.
In addition to what secure system should be used, I often get asked about what information should be kept in an online data room. I have seen online data rooms of various levels of sophistication. As a starting point, I recently put together a potential file structure, with examples of the type of information you should consider as you begin to prepare your data room.
This is a very basic guide—the most important point is to begin to centralize all of your corporate documents as soon as possible.