Firmex Virtual Data Room vs. FirmRoom

Firmex Virtual Data Room is well suited to complex mergers and acquisition transactions. For example, we recently used it when acting for a potential purchaser involved in an auction transaction for a business unit worth approximately $1 billion. In that scenario, the vendor uploaded all of the documents to the data room and each of the bidders (and each of their lawyers, outside accountants, etc.) had access to the same documents. There were over 1000 documents uploaded to the data room (the index was around 100 pages I think), so it was a good way of managing such a large volume of documents, and such a large volume of users.

Incentivized

This is a great data room for a simple transaction. It does not offer all of the bells and whistles like some data rooms--but the price point is a fraction of what those data rooms cost. And I think this is a great solution for an M&A project. I'm not sure it would be as good for tracking what users viewed a document or how long--although in all honesty, I didn't see such features. These days, most clients want to try and use Dropbox or Google Docs and I feel that firm room is a far superior solution to those often-used choices and the price point is not very painful and does not decrease the attractiveness of the offering.

• Status updates
• Visual display
• Organization capabilities

Incentivized

• Securely Store Documents
• Customizable Permissions
• Organize Files

• This is a bit of a stretch, because as far as I know, no data room provides this, but I think it would be interesting if they added a feature to manage supplemental due diligence requests. In almost every transaction I've been involved with, the buyer has supplemental due diligence requests, either because the seller did not want to provide a document or because they did not think it was sufficiently material (or they just forgot!). These supplemental requests get handled separately, using a Word or Excel document, but I think it would be nice if it could be handled directly in the data room. The reason this would be handy is that you could include dynamics links in the questions (Page 2 is missing from Document 1.1.2 - and then there is a link right to Document 1.1.2) and in the answers (See Document 3.3.4 for the missing financial statements - and then there is a link right to the missing document).
• This is partly on the users, but I do not like it when a data room allows you to delete a document without there being an ongoing reference to the deleted document. It makes it hard for the other side (the purchaser) to keep straight the numbering of the due diligence documents. At a minimum, the software should just keep the numbering of the documents the same with an "Intentionally Deleted" next to the deleted document.

Incentivized

• There is some latency in loading larger documents. So sometimes it wasn't quite as quick as I would have liked.

I think Firmex has one of the best visual displays -- I like its basic user interface a lot. It's easy to recommend that clients use it who have no prior datasite experience because they onboard quickly. It is far more intuitive than Dropbox and has more organizational capabilities. Merrill is a close competitor as it also offers a sleek design and user friendly interface.

Incentivized

In expensive cost and simple design. There was basically no onboarding needed and you can sign up for yourself online. Security standards are similar to other M&A data rooms, but pricing is much less expensive. Never have to worry about permissions when adding new users to the virtual data room.

• Positive impact on conducting due diligence efficiently.
• Positive impact on being responsive to fast-moving transactions because of the e-mail updates when new documents get uploaded.

Incentivized

• Much less expensive than per page data rooms
• Can view documents quicker with the in-platform viewer
• Almost no training required which saves me time when inviting new users