While most of the focus and attention is on the acquisition side and trying to hit the proverbial ground running, there is quite a bit of work that will be required on the seller side as well.

In fact, the changes can be quite disruptive. From the planning and carving out that has to be done prior to the deal close, supporting the transition activities while also supporting the normal business, and lastly there is the final closing out and tear-down after the integration is supposed to be complete.

Supporting the transition activities piece is where the seller magically has a new product with a single whale customer, and that is when they act as a service provider to ensure the components being conveyed keep functioning. Additionally, the buyer may act as a service provider where the conveyed apps may still be required by the seller until a point in time where they no longer require the functionality.

Lastly, there will be the competing interests where the seller is trying to offload the organization and all dependencies, but still have to focus on the other parts of their business while the buyer is looking for a non-disruptive way to transition the components. The buyer is also looking for additional help to account for the lack of familiarity with the old world. This can be in the form of institutional knowledge, additional licenses, hardware, or channels of communication.

All of this costs time and money which will require a budget and project plans. The kind of things you’d find in a TSA.

The challenge, especially if you’re on the executive team, is how do you budget for it? Bonus question: if you are reliant on a shared IT organization, how do you split off the costs as a part of the divestiture from the rest of the company?

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