The role of software license verification in mergers and acquisitions

Software Audit Essentials - Buying and Selling a business and taking over their software

Our firm was recently retained on a case where one company purchased another company and they took over all the existing computers, laptops, servers, and other infrastructure.  Both the selling company and the acquiring company were represented by counsel.  However, even so, nobody bothered to ask any questions about whether or not the software on the computers (ex. Autodesk Autocad or Revit Architecture, Adobe Photoshop, or Microsoft Office, for example) were properly licensed or not.  Fast forward a few years later, the company receives a "software audit letter" from the business software alliance and next thing you know they find out the software they received and had been using was not properly licensed.  This leads to a precarious situation where the company now faces tremendous legal liability up to $150,000 per infringing title of software.  This could literally bankrupt a company and expose officers and directors of the company to legal liability.  This episode of Vondran Legal Hour discusses this point briefly.

If you need any help verifying licensing ownership positions, or helping your business defend a software audit from the SIIA, Autodesk, the BSA, or some other software company, we can help.  Call us at (877) 276-5084.  

RESOURCES

1.  For valuable information and resources on the legal side of software audits, go to our website.

2.  To learn more about the SIIA watch this video.

3.  VIDEO: Click here to learn about Autodesk software audits