As 2019 winds down and we inch closer to 2020, it’s important to look back and reflect on the last 12 months. A lot has transpired in the world of mergers and acquisitions and across the financial landscape, and the SecureDocs blog has provided insights and updates along the way.

This article covers some of the 2019 highlights from the Official SecureDocs Blog, including posts on M&A activity, venture capital news, the importance of due diligence, resources for investment bankers, and more.

The banking sector has contracted significantly over the last twenty years. In 1988 there were approximately 13,400 commercial banks in the US; by the end of 2018 that had dropped to about 4,800. That's a 65% drop.

Most of these banks didn't fail - they merged. The rate of mergers today for banks with less than $10bn in assets is almost double what it was during the financial crisis.

Investment banking is a specific sector of the financial industry designed to help organizations raise capital for their businesses. The industry also supports companies by providing various financial services including proprietary trading, mergers, and acquisitions.

Today, governments, companies, and businesses all actively use investment banking and the bankers that service it to assist in offering strategic advice on how to utilize their funds. To get a better understanding of the investment banking industry, here are three great reads that can give you a more in-depth look at the industry and how it's developed over the last several years.

As the name suggests, a virtual data room, or as it is more frequently called, a “VDR,” is an online database in which companies can store and share confidential information, usually used during a financial transaction. It may also be described as a type of electronic repository or document filing system. With the ubiquitous reliance on computers and specialized software to keep a business running smoothly, coupled with the fact that more and more companies are making the transition to a completely paperless office, many of the previously document-heavy operational practices have been shifted to the virtual realm.

Venture capital (VC) has been and continues to be critical to the growth and success of countless startups. Most VC firms create impressive funds with a plan to invest in innovative business ideas, and have a lofty goal of selling those interests at a high return after about ten years. This may seem like a fairly long time, but it is actually a relatively short timeframe considering the typical length of a lot of other investment vehicles. One of the benefits of the VC life cycle is that it can help those seeking VC funding to assess prospective investors, and it is not overly cumbersome to perform this analysis. Depending on where the VC firm is in the cycle, startup leaders can get a pretty good sense of the firm’s strategy and performance, which will of course influence whether or not to pursue an investment from it. Here is a brief look into how one can evaluate an investor using the VC life cycle:

For fledgling startups generating a good amount of attention and interest, embarking on a fundraising round may bring out some prospective investors with less than ideal backgrounds and performances. With the meteoric success of more than a handful of startups over the last decade, investors from an array of industries are keen on bankrolling the next big thing. Unfortunately, this may mean that investors with rather questionable past dealings will try to get in on the action. Here is how to avoid dangerous and shady investors:

It is exciting for a company to finally get to the due diligence phase of a deal since so many deals fall apart well before that ever happens. Of course, it is also incredibly overwhelming because there is so much to consider and put together, and in many cases, there is only a brief window of time during which a lot has to happen. Most companies probably don’t give the due diligence process much thought until it is actually on the horizon, but this could end up destroying the deal.

Investments in the tech sector continue to be all the rage, with countless startups clamoring for venture capital funding and existing enterprises turning to the big guns in finance to guide them through extremely high value transactions. But, there are a handful of investment bankers, in particular, that have really made a name for themselves in Silicon Valley. Here are some of the top tech deal makers, although they are not listed in any particular order:

Here is the March 5th issue of SecureDocs Virtual Data Room's Market Insights By the Numbers. A weekly review of top industry transactions, security news, insights into theSecureDocs Virtual Data Room, and a weekly wrap up of complementary resources, courtesy of SecureDocs. Enjoy!

Going public is an exciting, frightening, and overwhelming process. There is a lot for an executive team to consider before taking this leap. CFOs in particular take on a tremendous amount of responsibility when making this transition. Here are a few tips for CFOs embarking on their first IPO: