Common Ground

Technology has brought many benefits to business relationships and transactions.    The ability to share documents electronically has improved the efficiency of document collaboration within a team.  But that efficiency may evaporate when multiple (often “opposing”) parties are involved. Technology-based collaboration tools are almost always implemented with one party in control.    Examples would be a seller…

Managing Confidentiality Obligations When Using a Virtual Data Room The traditional beginning of a transaction or confidential project is the signing of a Nondisclosure Agreement (NDA).  No one wants to start a promising transaction or relationship with an acrimonious negotiation of a NDA, but most people accept that a NDA is necessary and want to get…

Transaction Commons, a cloud-based solution for the exchange and organization of transaction and project documents and information, is pleased to announce the issuance of its third patent, US Patent No. 9,552,340.   Reflecting another of Transaction Commons’ innovative approaches to transaction and project document and information management, this invention streamlines document negotiation by allowing users to…

In Transaction Process Governance – Part 1 we shared some thoughts on how to manage the due diligence process in a business transaction.  Part 2 will focus on implementing a control structure for transaction document negotiation. Key transaction document negotiation process steps to be defined include:  Who reviews the transaction document drafts? Where and how…

As you begin your next deal or other complex business transaction, set aside time to plan how you will govern the transaction process.  Document the expected steps in the process and assign roles and responsibilities for members of the project team.  The focus should be on the mechanics of investigating, documenting, and completing the transaction…

Businesses continue to invest in rigorous cybersecurity protections and their customers take comfort in knowing that their service providers have these safeguards in place to limit the risk of unauthorized access.  But these safeguards do not matter if a renegade “user” has entered valid login information.  Every individual user needs to appreciate the vulnerability created…

With the widespread acceptance of electronic data rooms (or virtual data rooms) in recent years, most users realize that the details of their data room usage can be tracked. This is widely accepted as one of the inherent features of virtual data rooms – and is often promoted by data room providers as an advantage…