Hamilton Thorne - an acquisition of the AI company

CLIENT

Hamilton Thorne

INDUSTRY

MedTech

SERVICE

Technical Due Diligence

Project

Hamilton Thorne is a leading US global provider of precision instruments, consumables, software and services that reduce cost, increase productivity, improve results and enable breakthroughs in Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART), research, and cell biology markets.

As a next step in its growth strategy Hamilton Thorne considered a number of inorganic growth opportunities, including a target that could help them significantly expand their expertise in artificial intelligence product offerings and expand into Europe as well as globally.

The Challenge & Scope of Work

This acquisition  posed the challenge of ensuring that the addition of the new company would complement and enhance Hamilton Thorne’s existing technological capabilities and product standards.

The Sphere team mobilized quickly and structured the work around five parallel workstreams, each focusing on critical aspects of the target company’s technology.

Platform Assessment

Evaluating system architecture, software infrastructure, and the alignment of architecture patterns with industry standards.

Data Model and Availability

Reviewing the data model, technology stack, third-party integrations, and tech stack suitability.

Code Quality and Scalability

Benchmarking code quality, assessing vulnerabilities, scalability issues, and performance.

AI/ML Capabilities

Analyzing AI/ML design choices, transferability, scalability, and data controls.

Team and Leadership

Aligning the product roadmap, assessing skills, especially in AI/ML.

SaaS Readiness and Cybersecurity Framework

Assessing SaaS readiness, cloud service utilization, and evaluating leadership in critical areas like GDPR and cybersecurity.

The Outcome

The diligent and structured approach to Technical Due Diligence provided Hamilton Thorne with a deep understanding of the target company’s technological landscape.

The assessment identified areas of excellence and opportunities for improvement, with deviations from best practices documented and actionable recommendations provided for each identified issue.

Key Achievements

Enhanced Integration Strategy

The comprehensive assessment informed a strategic integration plan that leveraged the strengths of both companies while addressing any identified gaps.
Future-Proofing through Innovation

Tech due diligence confirmed solid AI/ ML capabilities of the company and right tools deployed to enable these capabilities. However, due to the fact that ML model development was outsourced, a concern was raised on further development  and lack of in-house resources with the right skillset.
Given  the ambition of the buyer to turn the target company into a SaaS business, Sphere team assessed thoroughly readiness for cloud migration and concluded that significant effort and investment is required to enable this. Due diligence helped the deal team understand costs to be built into the business case.
Risk Mitigation

Our team assessed the cyber security risks as high that required urgent attention during post acquisition. We provided recommendations on how to ensure post acquisition the target company can start adhering to highest standards of data protection and other regulatory requirements. Besides, Sphere’s research showed that product architecture was not documented using the best practices which indicated business continuity risk and prompted the deal team to consider how to ensure that key talent is retained post acquisition to close this gap.

Takeaways

  • The deal team could value this investment correctly and understand additional costs that were not highlighted in the forecast.
  • Cloud Migration readiness helped the client understand the cost and next steps for future-proofing their business.
  • The buyer was fully equipped to deploy a recommended set of critical actions.