Use a Onehub Virtual Data Room to Maintain Bidder Anonymity

Onehub’s virtual data rooms make it simple to securely share sensitive information with multiple parties without them being aware of each other. Anonymity management allows you to solicit bids or investments in a controlled environment that’s optimized to support a profitable transaction for your business.

When is user anonymity important?

There are several instances where anonymity is key to successfully closing a deal. Below, we’ve highlighted just a few of the common use cases for virtual data rooms.

M&A auctions

An M&A auction allows a seller to probe the market for as many potential bidders as possible. This increases the chances that a company will find the perfect candidate for its merger or acquisition. The drawback is that the seller must share all of the company’s financial and proprietary information with each bidder. 

Onehub’s virtual data rooms enable a seller to collect all of the necessary information in one secure location and share it without revealing the identities of the other parties. This protects each bidder’s privacy while providing the access everyone needs to make decisions about their bids. 

Due Diligence

There’s no way to overstate the importance of due diligence, whether it’s for a simple property purchase or a complex business merger. Due diligence requires a massive amount of data to be collected and securely displayed for multiple interested parties. 

Until a few years ago, the due diligence process was paper-based and conducted in physical rooms. Thousands of pages of information had to be organized in a way that would make it simple for prospective buyers to review it. Data room access had to be carefully controlled and scheduled out so that the various interested parties retained their anonymity. 

With Onehub’s virtual data room, you can dramatically speed up the due diligence process without sacrificing the anonymity of potential buyers. The interested parties can access the data room from anywhere and at any time. Multiple people can be logged into the VDR simultaneously and never know anyone else is viewing the data. 

Property sales

Real estate firms and property owners often need to share property photos, building plans, contracts, tax documents, and many other files. Firms can use a virtual data room to house their data for multiple properties and customize access so potential buyers only see information for the properties they’re interested in. 

While in the data room, no user will be able to see the identities of anyone else or view what documents are being shared. Sellers are able to review the bids of several buyers and pick the best option, all without compromising any bidder’s anonymity. 

What happens if you don’t have bidder anonymity?

• Potential for lower bid or sale price. If multiple bidders are aware of each other’s identities, they can organize against your company’s interests to control the sale price. 
• Negatively impact the bidder’s financial interests. For example, if word gets out that Company A is bidding to merge with Company B, it could negatively impact Company A’s stock prices and investor interest. Potential buyers need to stay anonymous to protect their business interests. 

It’s important to keep identities confidential in a VDR to ensure you get the best price for your M&A, property sale, or other transaction. You will also attract more bidders and investors if you can protect their interests by guaranteeing anonymity. 

Onehub’s anonymity management enables you to keep virtual data room users anonymous and hidden from each other. This allows you to conduct due diligence, M&As, real estate sales, and many other transactions with complete privacy. 

Additional VDR features for Onehub users

Anonymity management is an important part of conducting sensitive transactions successfully. Onehub also offers many other essential features to ensure your data room has the highest level of security while still being simple to use. 

User-based roles and permissions

Onehub gives you strict control over what people can see and do in your data room, ensuring that your sensitive data is used only in the ways you approve. To keep your confidential information from being shared, you can prevent document details from being copied and pasted, or you can keep files from being printed or downloaded. 

This means your information can only be viewed while logged into the data room. It keeps unauthorized users from accessing sensitive information from printed files left on someone’s desk or hackers stealing files downloaded onto a vulnerable network. 

NDAs

With Onehub’s virtual data rooms, you can require all users to accept a customized nondisclosure agreement before accessing anything in the data room. This ensures that there’s a legally binding NDA for everyone who views your financial, proprietary, or other sensitive information.

Watermarking

If you allow users to print or download data room content, document watermarks can help keep that information safe. A watermarked file will have “CONFIDENTIAL” diagonally across the entire document along with the IP or email address of the person who printed or downloaded it. Associating the user with the specific file copy means you can trace the source of any leaked information.

Audit trails

Audit trails allow you to view every action by every user in the data room. This provides another level of security and also gives VDR administrators valuable insight into what data is most important to each user. 

With this insight, you can improve your pitch to a bidder or investor. Suppose you see a potential investor has repeatedly viewed a less-than-stellar quarterly financial report. You know the report is an area of concern and can proactively address it. 

Automatic indexing

It’s not uncommon for VDRs to house thousands of files and folders that users need to easily sift through. To help with this, Onehub provides automatic indexing of files and folders so they can be quickly and easily referenced. Organized information is essential to successfully closing deals, so this deceptively simple feature has a big impact. It can speed up the due diligence process and keep bidders from becoming overwhelmed or frustrated and withdrawing their bids. 

Are you looking for a secure, easy-to-use data room solution for an upcoming deal? Sign up today for a free 14-day trial to find out how Onehub can make the process seamless.