Remote dealmaking – M&A in the time of COVID-19

The most fundamental of the numerous changes COVID-19 has wrought to M&A is the way deals are conducted on the purely functional level. We are talking here about social distancing, which has transformed deal methodology.

With social distancing a fact of life for the past seven months or so, and likely to remain in place for the foreseeable future, remote working has become the norm and the face-to-face element that has been such a core component of M&A for as long as dealmaking has been around has effectively been prohibited.

However, remote working was growing in popularity before the pandemic, which merely fast-accelerated the trend. It is unlikely to move into reverse once the COVID-19 crisis is over.

With remote working remaining prevalent in a post-COVID world, remote M&A could become more widespread too. Deals being done at a distance is of course nothing new, but COVID-19 has taken it to a different level and, in turn, shown just how much can be accomplished remotely.

Those who adjust more quickly to conducting M&A remotely will have an edge over others when it comes to dealmaking. Those idly waiting for normality to resume will find themselves at a distinct disadvantage in the current crisis and will be well behind the curve post-COVID.

What’s more, the dividends of adjusting could be huge. COVID-19 has led to huge levels of distress among businesses, meaning that, for parties interested in making opportunistic acquisitions, there are rich pickings out there.

In distressed acquisitions, speed is of the essence and this pressure is only intensified in a world of remote working. Acquirers need to be ready to conduct negotiations and due diligence remotely in order to get deals done.

Here, we’ll examine what COVID-19 has changed with regards to the process of M&A and how acquisitive parties or business sellers can adjust to make remote dealmaking work best for them.

What has COVID-19 changed in M&A?

M&A has long had a strong emphasis on the personal and the face-to-face. While of course highly globalised, at its core it is an industry built on physical presence, in-person networking, meeting rooms, conferences, handshakes and social events.

Building trust and solid relationships with other dealmakers through face-to-face meetings and networking has been integral to M&A. In the age of COVID-19, however, this is of course no longer possible. In-person meetings are now far harder, with adequate social distancing difficult to manage in cramped, poorly ventilated meeting rooms. Such intensive meetings have traditionally been central to all the elements of a deal, from negotiation to due diligence and beyond.

Environmental due diligence (such as site inspections) is similarly difficult. While it is perhaps easier to conduct inspections and visits in a socially distanced manner than hold in-person meetings, there are still issues. For one, travelling to a site is riskier during COVID-19, especially for long journeys requiring public transport, rail or air travel.

It is far harder to replicate the experience and value of directly viewing a site, equipment or piece of land in-person.

Another aspect that becomes harder is simply building trust. During dealmaking, trust is absolutely foundational, and is normally built through in-person meetings, networking and socialising. If trust is more difficult to build, this could have a knock-on effect on other areas of M&A that have been impacted by COVID-19.

For example, a lack of trust combined with more sinister overarching trends that have become prevalent during the pandemic, such as fraud and cybercrime, could contribute to dealmakers becoming more hesitant to conduct deals remotely.

Finally, a crucial part of an acquisition being successful, integrating the acquisition post-deal, is also trickier. Previously, this might have been achieved through in-person team bonding and co-working, but these are perhaps impossible in the age of COVID-19.

However, as evidence is increasingly showing, the ability to complete deals, sales and acquisitions doesn’t need to suffer just because people are working remotely. In fact, COVID-19 might simply be pointing the way to the future of M&A, a world in which entirely remote deals are part of the norm.

If anything, this has highlighted how crucial long-term relationships are and how they can pay off. Having a relationship with another party built on years of trust and fruitful work can allow you to make deals, even under extreme circumstances such as a global lockdown.

This was something noted by Sharon Van Zeeland, Director, Corporate Development Operations at Rockwell Automation. According to Van Zeeland, Rockwell’s policy of building relationships with potential acquisitions over time has paid dividends during COVID-19, with the company closing two significant transactions.

Another thing COVID-19 has changed in the world of M&A, as we mentioned earlier, is the profile of acquisition targets, which has in many cases shifted towards distressed businesses with high levels of debt.

What can companies involved in M&A do differently?

There is one crucial thing that companies involved in dealmaking should do when adjusting to the challenges social distancing poses to M&A: leverage the best available technology.

Primarily, with most people working from home, many on unsecure networks, dealmakers will need to be equipped with the latest in secure applications and digital technology in order to get deals done safely.

When it comes to deal negotiation, certain software has become virtually universal during the pandemic, and its usefulness extends to the world of M&A. Primarily, of course, video call and conferencing software, such as Zoom, GoToMeeting and BlueJeans, mean that dealmaking need not suffer from a lack of in-person meetings.

In terms of file sharing and due diligence, this is also an area where technology can quickly and effectively ease the difficulties arising from social distancing. Utilising virtual datarooms, buyers, sellers, advisers and accountants can share files and exchange information quickly, easily and efficiently.

In fact, this may be an instance in which remote dealmaking can improve M&A. Previously, intensive all-day meetings may have been the norm when getting through the necessary paperwork. With virtual datarooms, teams can access different workloads whenever and wherever, allowing the process to be broken down into smaller, more focused meetings.



Unlike meetings, which are easily conducted via video call, it is harder to find a sufficient substitute for physically touring a facility or seeing a target acquisition’s plant, equipment or property. When it comes to physical property, the necessary technology to view it adequately may not be available and video footage and photographs might not suffice.



For many, video and images could at least allow such deals to remain in progress until such a time as physical inspection can be safely arranged. However, it doesn’t seem too outlandish to suggest that remote inspection may become a more popular form of environmental due diligence as take-up of technology, such as drones or even VR, becomes more prevalent.



Lockdown poses a particular problem in this regard for cross border M&A, with travel between countries heavily restricted. Here again we can turn to Rockwell Automation’s Sharon Van Zeeland for insight into how cross-border M&A can continue during lockdown.

Van Zeeland revealed that one of Rockwell’s pandemic acquisitions was in Italy, a culture that prizes face-to-face communication. When COVID-19 looked set to derail this acquisition, Rockwell made the decision to hire a local expert in Italy to put on-site and help manage the relationship, while virtual discussions continued. Such an approach could easily be applied to conducting site or asset inspections in a cross-border deal.

With regards to post-acquisition integration, again, technology can here potentially provide a more than adequate solution. Throughout the pandemic, work teams have been moving en masse to technologies such as cloud-based platforms, which make file sharing, communication and collaboration as seamless as working in an office and, some have argued, more efficient.

There is no reason why this success can’t be translated to on-boarding or integrating newly acquired companies remotely following a distanced acquisition. In fact, a recent acquisition in the US shows the potential for this in more than one way.



In terms of adapting elsewhere, the best advice is to regularly monitor the latest compliance policies and proactively adjust your protocols according to the latest guidance on things such as social distancing, to help ensure that COVID-19 impacts your dealmaking operations as little as possible.

Staying abreast of the latest technology and legislation will be key to bidders on distressed companies acting quickly and decisively to secure their targets.

Finally, with levels of distress and insolvency high, being the stalking horse bidder could be key to those looking to make acquisitions. In nearly 70 per cent of company bankruptcy sales, the stalking horse bidder is successful.

Looking to the future in a crisis

In general, however, the most prescient advice regarding how companies can adapt to conducting dealmaking during social distancing is to view the disruption not as some aberration that will be over as soon as COVID-19 is gone, but as a potential harbinger for the shape of things to come.

The technologies we have discussed didn’t spring up in reaction to COVID-19. While they may have increased in popularity during the pandemic, they were already growing in prevalence prior to COVID-19.

And that is perhaps the key consideration. While there is no doubt that, post-COVID, the human touch will return to M&A, with in-person meetings, conferences and so on continuing to drive dealmaking, COVID-19 has arguably shown us another facet that will become more pronounced in future.

Long-distance M&A, such as cross-border deals, is by no means new, but COVID-19 has seen a massive uptick in the use of new technologies that can help facilitate remote sales and acquisitions.

Another recent acquisition conducted during lockdown perfectly illustrates that the demand, willingness and technology to complete deals in a socially distanced manner is out there.



The scale of this acquisition illustrates the huge value in the technology underpinning remote deals and points to a future, beyond COVID-19, where remote dealmaking is entirely common.


If dealmakers want to do more than just wait out the pandemic, then leveraging the latest available technology will allow deals to be done. After all, there are no shortage of potential acquisitions out there, as COVID-19 continues to impact thousands of businesses.

Furthermore, if acquisitive companies look at this change as more than just a reaction to COVID-19, then they could develop an edge for dealmaking in the future.

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