What a Pre-Close Licensing Assessment Actually Involves
Deal teams assume a licensing assessment will slow things down. It doesn’t. We work in days, not months, and it fits inside a normal diligence window.
I’m Paul Lindberg, president of Altaris Cloud — 17 years in Microsoft licensing and compliance, more than 600 audits personally. This is the final video in a six-part series on licensing risk in mergers and acquisitions. Let me walk you through what we actually do here at Altaris Cloud.
Our Process Mirrors a Real Microsoft Audit
Our process has four steps, and it mirrors an actual Microsoft audit — same tools, same methodology, same review structure. That’s deliberate. We’re not approximating what an auditor would find. We’re running the process an auditor would run.
Step One: Scoping
We determine which environments need to be assessed, how we’re going to pull the data, and who the responsible parties are on both sides.
Step Two: Data Collection
We execute scanning tools, export data, and run scripts to capture what software is actually deployed across the environment, and understand how it’s being used.
Step Three: Analysis
We reconcile that deployment data against the license entitlements the company actually holds, and we present the findings.
Step Four: Recommendations
Risk mitigation where there’s exposure, and optimization where there’s money to recover.
When Should You Call?
As early as possible — ideally at letter of intent, before diligence is fully scoped. That’s when we can be built into the work stream rather than bolted on at the end.
But hey, late is better than never. If you’re three weeks from signing and this video just made you nervous, call us anyway. There’s almost always something we can do while there’s still a counterparty across the table.
And it doesn’t matter how big the deal is. A hundred-million-dollar platform acquisition and a $5 million bolt-on can carry proportionally similar exposure, because the risk tracks the environment, not the enterprise value.
Before close, a licensing gap is leverage. After close, it’s a liability. That’s the entire reason we exist. If there’s Microsoft licensing anywhere in your deal, call before you close.
