Packer seals deal in data room Stuart Kennedy OCTOBER 18, 2006 JAMES Packer's Publishing and Broadcasting Ltd is understood to have used a cyberspace data room to keep a tight lid on its massive reconstruction deal while it was being hatched.
Big M&A deals make a lot of noise as armies of lawyers and bankers working on the transaction waltz through hundreds of meetings and share millions of document pages.
All that noise can tip off competitors, analysts and the press, while the physical paper trail is vulnerable to unauthorised copying. Rival bidders converging on a target HQ can bump into each other in the lift and possibly swap notes.
To dampen the clamour, speed up the document flow and beef up the security on M&A activity, companies are turning to data rooms where the players deal online from their own offices, rather than trooping around town loaded down with ultra-sensitive documents.
All the documents surrounding the deal are loaded into a repository inside the data room service where an audit trail can be wrapped around every viewing of a document.
Local data room services outfit Ansarada is believed to have been the online venue for the latest PBL deal although it would not confirm or deny its involvement.
The Australian
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