The moment the world moved from the typewriter to the word processor (and eventually Email, Microsoft Word, better networks and repositories) there was a content problem. To share and manage the explosion of information buried inside files is now unmanagable.
What makes this more complicated is the velocity and size of mergers, acquisitions and divestitures. Each moment you read about an organization buying another (or even a division) there are easily millions of documents and content (100s of file formats) that need to be analyzed, change hands and secured.
Just in the months of August and September 2020 in just the oil industry you have:
- 7-Eleven owner Seven & i Holdings Co. is spending $21 billion to buy about 4,000 gas stations in the U.S. from Marathon Petroleum Corp. <MORE HERE>
- Wilks Brothers LLC has made a competing proposal to recapitalize struggling energy company Calfrac Well Services Ltd. <MORE HERE>
- Offshore drilling contractor Noble Corp. has filed for bankruptcy. The company is one of the largest offshore drilling contractors in the world today <MORE HERE>
- Saudi Aramco said it’s still working on a deal to buy a $15 billion stake in Reliance Industries Ltd.’s refining and chemicals business <MORE HERE>
- Brookfield Asset Management Inc.’s infrastructure arm is in talks to acquire Blackstone Group Inc.’s minority stake in liquefied natural gas terminal operator Cheniere Energy Partners LP <MORE HERE>
- Southwestern Energy Co. reported Wednesday that it has reached a definitive agreement to acquire Montage Resources in an all-stock transaction <MORE HERE>
- Occidental Petroleum (NYSE: OXY) has entered into a deal to sell Wyoming, Colorado and Utah land grant assets to Orion Mine Finance for approximately $1.33 billion. <MORE HERE>
- Devon Energy Corp. agreed to acquire WPX Energy Inc. in a $2.56 billion all-stock deal, creating one of the largest independent U.S. shale producers <MORE HERE>
- Blackstone (NYSE: BX) has announced that private equity funds managed by Blackstone Energy Partners have closed the sale of their approximately 42 percent stake in Cheniere Energy Partners, L.P. to Brookfield Infrastructure and funds managed by Blackstone Infrastructure Partners. <MORE MORE>
Just in a 60 day window in the oil industry. Consider the upheaval in other markets because of COVID-related economic changes, macro-economic trade issues and the prevalence of technology inside everything = and ‘disruption’ is the word of the day.
“SO WHAT” YOU ASK?
With every publicly shared ‘economic event’, there are dozens that don’t happen. Within them all are data and documents that have to be evaluated by the potential buyer. Risk measured. A value placed on intangible assets like intellectual property, asset and real estate leases, reservoir engineering information, renewable revenue opportunities (and risks). Consider the massive loss AT&T is realizing from the DirecTV purchase <MORE HERE> . This information is not all inside accounting systems to run reports around. They end up living in network drives, SharePoint repositories running under a desk, legacy content management systems, cloud-apps like BOX Or DROPBOX. Most likely in some combination of them all. They need to be found and evaluated very quickly.
Download and review our white paper that discusses this topic further. <MORE HERE>
