The Observatory

Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are powerful tools for business growth, allowing companies to expand their capabilities, reach new markets, and consolidate industry leadership. However, the digital integration process following an acquisition is often overlooked, leading to several areas of risk. Without a unified strategy, companies face:

• Fragmentation in web footprint creates higher risk of Ransomware, Cyber penetrations, and failure to maintain basic web security standards
• Inconsistent branding causing confusion amongst customers
• Operational inefficiencies that can lead to siloed knowledge about any aspect of your business.
• Creating higher cost due to mounting technical debt, implementation of enterprise systems, and tribal training across the different platforms

This was the exact challenge our client partnered with Carimus to resolve. As one of the world’s largest energy conglomerates, they continued acquiring companies to expand their service network; they encountered an increasingly complex and unmaintainable digital ecosystem. Each acquisition introduced different tech stacks, hosting platforms, and third-party services, making it difficult to manage and scale effectively.

The Challenge: Create Unified Digital Footprint

The client was making 3-5 enterprise size acquisitions per year.  The acquisitions were made to be stand alone organizations but the parent company struggled keep up with domain registrations, broken links pages, and had an unmanageable security and compliance risk.

As the client’s portfolio of acquired companies expanded, so did the complexity of managing their digital presence. Each acquisition required substantial effort to onboard, integrate, and maintain, often leading to delays, technical debt, and security risks. With multiple tech stacks in play, maintaining brand consistency, managing hosting solutions, and securing websites became overwhelming.  In many cases, the legacy websites were no longer linking to meaningful content.  

Additionally, the unpredictable surge in website traffic post-announcement of merger componded these issues. The first 24 to 72 hours following an acquisition saw a 2x to 10x increase in website traffic, fueled by media coverage, investor interest, and customer inquiries. Without a streamlined digital approach, acquired companies struggled to handle these surges effectively, leading to potential missed opportunities and captured data points.

Our Solution: A Unified, Scalable Digital Framework

To address these challenges, we developed a strategic M&A workflow centered around a scalable, maintainable, and cost-effective digital foundation. Our approach provided the following key solutions:

1. Standardized WordPress Brand Approved Themes 

Instead of navigating the complexities of disparate tech stacks, we introduced a set of pre-built, customizable WordPress starter themes. These themes allowed newly acquired companies to quickly transition into our client’s digital ecosystem without sacrificing their unique branding and recognition. Each theme maintained the same foundational codebase, ensuring:

• Faster deployment
• Brand consistency across all acquired entities
• Reduced development and maintenance costs

2. Centralized Hosting on WP Engine

We created a centralized hosting infrastructure on WP Engine, consolidating all acquired company websites under one managed server. This approach:

• Simplified server maintenance and security updates
• Allowed for seamless plugin management and performance optimizations
• Ensured compliance with security best practices and ADA accessibility requirements
• Allowed our client’s internal IT team to manage user permissions and access across all their sites.

By bringing hosting under one roof, we eliminated the inefficiencies of managing multiple hosting providers while improving website performance, uptime, maintenance, and security.

3. Scalable and Secure Infrastructure

Security and compliance are critical concerns in any M&A strategy. Our solution addressed these risks by:

• Implementing robust security protocols, reducing vulnerabilities across the portfolio
• By leveraging WP Engine, our client is able to schedule backups across the portfolio. In the event a site has become under attack, they are able to restore quickly with minimal loss of content and data.
• We leaned into using WP Engine Atlas server to create a headless WordPress site with a Next.js frontend. This setup allows us to integrate well with any other systems the client uses, improve page speed performance, and create another security layer between the frontend site, and where the data is stored on the backend.
• Using a secure hosting provider like WP Engine prevents known WordPress-specific threads that other hosting providers may not prevent.
• Using Google Analytics and server data across all the sites to provide insights and make more informed decisions to optimize the client’s reach.
• Enforcing password management best practices to mitigate unauthorized access risks.
• Ensuring ADA compliance across all digital properties, minimizing legal exposure.

The Impact: Immediate Gains and Long-Term Efficiencies

Immediate Surge: Handling 2x to 10x Traffic Spikes

Post-acquisition website traffic can surge dramatically within hours. Our scalable infrastructure and optimized WordPress framework ensured that each acquired company’s website could handle these spikes efficiently. By preparing for traffic surges in advance, we helped our client capitalize on media attention, investor curiosity, and customer engagement without performance degradation.

Sustained Growth: 1.5x to 3x Increase Over Time

Beyond the initial spike, websites often experience 1.5x to 3x sustained traffic growth in the following weeks. Our centralized management system allowed our client to maintain visibility and control over these digital properties, ensuring long-term performance, content consistency, and audience engagement. A site’s performance has a direct correlation to its SEO scores. Since we build with performance at the forefront, we are able to provide speedy sites that leverage more dynamic content (videos, interactive maps, etc) while seeing improved SEO scores.

Beyond Efficiency: Unlocking New Opportunities

Beyond addressing inefficiencies, our solution opened new opportunities for our client:

• Common Reporting: By integrating all websites into one ecosystem, we enabled consolidated analytics and reporting, which provided deeper insights into audience behavior and acquisition performance.
• Cost Consolidation: By standardizing hosting and infrastructure, our client significantly reduced costs associated with disparate hosting providers and redundant technology solutions.
• Improved Integration: Acquired companies could be quickly integrated into the conglomerate’s digital framework, reducing onboarding friction and accelerating their transition into the corporate ecosystem.

Conclusion: A Blueprint for Scalable M&A Success

For enterprises engaging in frequent acquisitions, managing digital transformation efficiently is not just an operational necessity—it’s a competitive advantage. By implementing a standardized, scalable, and secure digital framework, our client turned M&A complexity into an opportunity for streamlined growth. With our solution, every acquisition became a seamless extension of their brand, ensuring long-term sustainability, enhanced security, and optimized performance.

As the global landscape evolves, organizations that embrace digital scalability will emerge as industry leaders. Our approach sets the foundation for successful, future-proof M&A strategies that align with business objectives and operational excellence.