# Brendan Cody-Kenny: Buyers decide at deal time whether to merge the software they buy, and what the codebase allows shows up a year or two later.

Technical Due Diligence for Software M&A https://sub.xiliary.com/p/brendancodykenny

### 2026-10-15 update #due-diligence #integration #m-and-a
Buyers decide at deal time whether to merge the software they buy, and what the codebase allows shows up a year or two later.
- Constellation mostly does not merge. Mark Leonard's 2015 letter calls consolidation synergies a siren song, and the 2016 letter says Constellation does not sunset products.
- West Monroe puts the average platform merge at 6 to 9 months, and the long cases at 18 to 36.
- I compare a target's repositories with what the owner already runs. Where stacks match there is usually still a language or package ecosystem the owner's team has little experience in.
- https://www.linkedin.com/posts/brendancodykenny_buyers-decide-at-deal-time-whether-to-merge-share-7516479020558061569-qLNI

https://sub.xiliary.com/p/brendancodykenny/posts/86/buyers-decide-at-deal-time-whether-to-merge-the-software