Drive secure mergers and acquisitions
Unify identities for seamless, secure Day 1 access and enforce consistent policies to streamline your M&A.
Challenges
Traditional M&A forces a choice between speed and security
Manual processes and siloed systems struggle to scale to the speed of modern M&A. This outdated approach creates security gaps and operational friction that erodes deal value from Day 1.
Pre-merger blind spots
Without a way to quickly assess security, you can unknowingly inherit all of an acquisitions’s vulnerabilities and compliance gaps.
Day 1 dilemmas
Manual provisioning forces a tough choice: grant access fast with security gaps, or secure setup with delayed productivity for new users.
Fragmented security posture
Enforcing one consistent policy across two disparate IT environments creates security risks with complex, error-prone tasks.
SOLUTIONS
The new integration playbook starts with identity
Turn identity from a roadblock into an M&A accelerator. Okta provides a single control plane to unify both organizations and drive value.
DISCOVER
Achieve pre-integration visibility
Get a unified, pre-merger view of both IT environments. Okta discovers accounts while assessing posture for a full risk report.
GOVERN
Deliver Day 1 productivity
Automate provisioning with role-based policies for immediate access, while enforcing key controls like MFA and time-bound access.
AUTOMATE
Continuously safeguard privileged access
Enforce advanced policies like just-in-time (JIT) access, while using automated monitoring to secure admin accounts across both orgs.
DELEGATE
Empower teams with secure autonomy
Empower business units with delegated admin roles to manage their own users and apps, without compromising central security.
Advanced products that power the solutions
Customer Story
Proven success, from global food to global media
“Okta makes it easier for us to roll out capabilities consistently to all our business units, so that we can get brands working together globally wherever we need them to.”
Dominic Shine
Chief Information Officer, News Corp
Learn more about Okta & News Corp
“Okta makes integrating newly acquired companies simple. Instead of a forever process, it takes hours or, at most, days to onboard employees and provide access to our services and the apps they need. These rapid deployment capabilities are one of the biggest benefits for Mars.”
Sasa Jankovic
Global Identity Director, Mars
Learn more about Mars & OktaResources
Frequently asked questions
Often, the biggest security risk during a merger or acquisition is inheriting the other company's undisclosed vulnerabilities, often called “inheriting the breach.” Without thorough security due diligence and a plan to unify identity and access controls, you can unknowingly expose your organization to significant threats.
Effective M&A integration requires a centralized IAM strategy. The first step is to consolidate all users from both companies into a single Universal Directory. From there, you can enforce consistent security policies, like MFA, and provide seamless, role-based access to applications for all employees.
“Day 1 access” refers to providing employees from an acquired company with immediate, secure access to the applications and resources they need to be productive from their first day. It's critical for a successful M&A because it minimizes disruption, accelerates time-to-value, and fosters a positive experience for new employees.
Securely integrating two IT environments starts with identity. By using a neutral, third-party identity platform like Okta, you can create a single control plane to manage users from both organizations. This allows you to enforce universal security policies before fully merging networks, reducing the risk of cross-environment breaches.
A post-merger integration plan is a detailed roadmap for combining the people, processes, and technology of two companies. A key part of this plan involves IT and security, including how to unify user directories, manage application access, enforce security policies, and ultimately create a flexible, agile enterprise.
