Webinar

Understanding Why Open Source Risk Surges in M&A

M&A amplifies every underlying open source issue—license noncompliance, missing attributions, vague component origins, outdated policies, and unknown security vulnerabilities. What may be a manageable internal risk can quickly become a financial, legal, or valuation concern once another company begins diligence. The webinar highlights how open source can influence deal timelines, shift build‑versus‑buy decisions, and even determine whether a transaction proceeds at all.

The Foundations of Open Source Governance

A major emphasis is on establishing streamlined, lightweight policies and processes that guide how open source is selected, approved, tracked, and updated. Rather than recommending heavyweight bureaucracy, the session outlines how effective governance is achievable with simple, clear, and consistently applied rules. Strong governance not only reduces risk but also signals organizational maturity to potential acquirers.

Building a Complete and Actionable Software Inventory

The webinar underscores that you can’t manage open source risk without knowing exactly what you’re using. Attendees learn how inventories should include component names, versions, licenses, usage context, distribution models, and release history. Having this information up front prevents last‑minute scrambles during diligence and allows teams to proactively identify outdated libraries, security gaps, or problematic dependencies.

The Expanding Importance of SBOMs

Software Bills of Materials (SBOMs) are positioned as a core requirement—not just for diligence, but for secure software development overall. The webinar explains how SBOMs enable transparency, support vulnerability monitoring, and provide a standardized way to share component data with partners, regulators, and potential buyers. They also serve as a foundational artifact for demonstrating compliance readiness.

Notice and Attribution Compliance as Non‑Negotiables

While often overlooked, the requirement to include proper license texts, copyright notices, and attribution statements is shown to be one of the most frequently mishandled areas of open source use. The webinar breaks down why missing notices create immediate compliance failures and how producing accurate notice files early can dramatically smooth an acquirer’s review process.

Security Risks Within Open Source Components

The session emphasizes that open source is neither inherently more nor less secure than proprietary code—it simply requires active oversight. Vulnerabilities emerge over time, so continuous monitoring is crucial. By tying security risks back to inventory quality and tooling maturity, the webinar demonstrates how organizations can quickly pinpoint exposure when new CVEs appear.

Deep Scanning and File‑Level Evidence

One of the most compelling topics is the value of deep code scanning to detect hidden snippets, embedded licenses, or copied code that traditional SCA tools fail to identify. The webinar illustrates how developers often paste code fragments containing partial license text or copyright notices, which can trigger obligations that teams never realized existed. Capturing file‑level evidence becomes essential for producing accurate SBOMs, notices, and remediation plans.

Prioritizing and Managing Remediation

Remediation can be costly and time‑consuming, especially when deferred for years. The webinar outlines how prioritizing remediation based on licensing impact, security severity, and deal timing enables teams to avoid unmanageable workloads. Attendees gain practical guidance on sequencing fixes, identifying what must be addressed before signing, and determining what can be negotiated as post‑close obligations.

Establishing an Open Source Program Office (OSPO)

The OSPO is presented as a crucial structure for organizations looking to scale their open source use responsibly. It centralizes policies, reviews, approvals, SBOM creation, and cross‑department alignment. The webinar explains how an OSPO signals reliability to acquirers and how frameworks like ISO 5230/OpenChain help companies demonstrate formal compliance maturity.

Contractual and Deal‑Level Implications

Beyond technical review, the session explores how open source impacts transaction agreements, including representations, warranties, indemnities, and remediation covenants. These provisions reflect the buyer’s need for transparency and the seller’s need to limit liability. The recap clarifies how accurate diligence artifacts directly affect the fairness of these clauses and the overall deal risk profile.