Private equity-backed acquisitions move fast. The financial and commercial case is made quickly—but the technology picture is often murky until well after close. Engineering teams are misaligned, platforms are redundant, and the technical debt of the acquired company wasn't fully priced in.
M&A integration is where many PE-backed software companies lose value. Competing architectures stall product velocity. Conflicting delivery practices slow engineering output. Teams that don't trust each other ship less and turn over faster.
I've lived this from the inside—as the CTO responsible for acquiring, integrating, and unifying multiple companies under a single technology organization. I know where integration breaks down and how to prevent it.