Post-M&A Integration in Technology: Overcoming Challenges and Building Long-Term Value
This article is the third in a three-part series about the role of insurance in technology sector mergers & acquisitions. It aims to help brokers prepare clients for a successful integration. Other articles cover insurance risks and opportunities before and during a transaction.
The ink has dried, the announcements have been made, and the deal is officially complete. But for technology companies, closing a merger or acquisition isn’t the end of the journey. It’s the beginning of a more complex phase: integration.
“While the earlier stages of M&A focus on strategy and negotiation, and the transaction itself is dominated by financial and legal scrutiny, the post-M&A period is where long-term value is truly won — or lost,” said Jon Preston, Technology Practice Leader at Travelers Europe. “For brokers supporting technology clients, this phase presents a critical opportunity to help companies protect, stabilise, and grow their newly combined organisation.”
Why post-deal integration opens a new advisory window
Unfortunately, it’s common for M&A deals to underperform after completion. One recent report found that over 50% of UK-based M&A deals fail in the sense of not meeting original objectives.1 The reasons can be financial, but more often they are operational, cultural, and human factors that undermine strategic alignment.
This finding is echoed in the 2025 Travelers Special Report: Today’s M&A Trends – What Technology Risk Teams Need to Know. In a survey of 100 technology executives, respondents identified cultural differences and IT system integration difficulties as their leading post-merger risks.2
Conversely, companies that anticipate these factors and ensure a suitable fit before a deal is final can generate post-transaction goodwill that supports the combined organisation’s partnership. Canva’s 2024 acquisition of UK-based Affinity, for example, brought the latter company’s professional design software suite under Canva’s broader, mass-market creative platform. Both companies highlighted a strong cultural and mission alignment in their announcements about the transaction, which paired Canva’s scale with Affinity’s specialist, engineering-led team to create a unified service aimed at competing more directly with Adobe.3 While the transaction is still new, media reports have continued to highlight the combined organisations’ complementary strengths.4
Where brokers can add the most value during post-M&A integration
Integration changes everything. As new processes, systems, and teams come together, the risk landscape shifts. Brokers can help clients stay on course by reinforcing these potential areas of weakness:
1. Supporting key talent to boost retention
In the technology industry, talent retention is a strategic imperative. Developers, engineers, and data scientists often hold the knowledge that drives product innovation and customer trust. Losing them during or after integration can quickly erode the value that motivated the acquisition in the first place.
This type of risk is both human and financial — and brokers can play a crucial role in helping clients anticipate and mitigate talent disruption. Reviewing how existing protection programmes, employment benefits, and continuity plans support key technical and leadership personnel can help maintain operational stability and reassure stakeholders through the transition.
Tip: Encourage clients to review and reinforce talent-retention strategies post-merger. Align continuity plans, benefits, and leadership succession measures with the roles most essential to innovation and integration success.
2. Clarifying governance risk, leadership liability and post-deal accountability
Culture is often called the “soft” side of integration — but in reality, it can have hard consequences. Clashing organisational values or incompatible management styles can quickly lead to disengagement, turnover, or lost productivity.
For UK technology companies — many of which operate across borders and time zones — cultural alignment also encompasses communication styles, decision-making processes, and attitudes toward innovation. In cross-border M&A, these differences can be magnified by variations in employment law and regulatory expectations.
Assessing the exposures of the combined entity’s directors and officers is vital, as inaccurate disclosures, undisclosed conflicts, regulatory lapses, intellectual property uncertainties, cultural or employment misalignment, and data-privacy vulnerabilities can all generate claims against leadership. Although insurance cannot solve cultural challenges, brokers can help clients build resilience through Directors & Officers (D&O) and Employment Practices Liability covers that protect against management disputes or HR-related claims that may arise during restructuring.
Tip: Position insurance not just as protection, but as part of a wider governance strategy that supports leadership teams during the transition.
3. Strengthening cyber and technology coverage during system integration
After M&A, the most technically demanding challenge often lies in merging digital systems. Integrating platforms, networks, and data repositories can expose vulnerabilities in both security and compliance.
A 2025 report from the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) warned that the number of “nationally significant” cyber incidents is rising as attackers exploit periods of transition.5 Combining systems without fully harmonising security protocols can inadvertently expand the attack surface — especially in AI, SaaS, or data-driven businesses. Here, cyber insurance can help clients manage not just existing vulnerabilities, but also those in the merged entity.
Tip: Work with clients’ IT and compliance teams to review system integration timelines. Confirm that cyber policies account for data transfers, third-party vendors, and inherited vulnerabilities from the acquired business.
4. Continuing oversight of compliance and evolving regulation
New compliance challenges often emerge once two organisations begin operating as one. Under the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018, any material change in data processing — such as consolidating customer databases — requires updated records and, in some cases, new privacy impact assessments. The UK government’s evolving AI framework may introduce more stringent reporting and transparency requirements as well.
Brokers can support clients by recommending periodic regulatory liability and compliance reviews to help them manage evolving obligations without slowing innovation.
Tip: Offer a post-M&A compliance audit as part of your value proposition, as well as subsequent reviews. Identify where new obligations have arisen and align cover accordingly.
5. Supporting operational continuity
Once the excitement of deal completion fades, many companies shift their attention back to daily operations — sometimes prematurely. Yet the first 12–24 months post-merger are critical for embedding new processes, aligning teams, and ensuring continuity of risk management.
This is where brokers can distinguish themselves as long-term partners. By helping clients re-evaluate their insurance portfolio — from professional indemnity to business interruption — brokers can ensure that cover remains relevant to the company’s new structure and objectives.
Tip: Schedule a structured insurance review within six months of completion to reassess cover, exposures, and business priorities. Send the message that post-M&A, effective risk management is not static — it’s iterative.
6. Spotting emerging risks and opportunities
The technology landscape never stands still. Emerging challenges such as AI regulation, cross-border data governance, and intellectual property disputes will all influence the future of technology M&A in the UK. Brokers who stay ahead of these developments can help clients navigate uncertainty and position M&A as a strategic advantage rather than a compliance burden.
Tip: The ever-changing technology landscape is ripe for the development of new solutions to help clients manage risk. Beyond new products, offer ongoing risk management services that can help clients manage AI threats and boost their cyber resilience.
How brokers can operationalise this opportunity
If the pre-M&A phase is about planning and the mid-M&A phase is about execution, then the post-M&A phase is about endurance. This is when the strategic vision behind the deal is tested — through culture, compliance, and continuous innovation.
For brokers, supporting clients through this stage means going beyond protection and being a valued partner. By helping technology firms retain talent, secure systems, and sustain confidence, brokers ensure that the promise of M&A becomes a platform for long-term success.
Integration isn’t just about joining systems — it’s about building trust. That’s where having the right risk partners makes all the difference.
Jon Preston, Technology Practice Leader
Travelers Europe
This article is provided for general informational purposes only. It does not, and it is not intended to, provide legal, technical or other professional advice, nor does it amend, or otherwise affect, the provisions or coverages of any insurance policy issued by Travelers. Coverage depends on the facts and circumstances involved in the claim or loss, all applicable policy provisions, and any applicable law.
Sources
1https://www.bayes.citystgeorges.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0009/787761/M-and-A-during-Uncertainty-A-Risk-Worth-Taking.pdf
2https://asset.trvstatic.com/download/assets/2025-technology-m-and-a-special-report.pdf/2e4a2ffc930d11f08cd18668ee5e8a84
3https://tech.eu/2024/03/26/canva-acquires-affinity/
4https://www.creativebloq.com/design/design-software/affinity-by-canva-review-free-is-the-magic-number
5https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/speech/cyberuk-2025-ncsc-ceo-keynote-speech
