Mergers and Acquisitions aren’t just financial - they're a MarTech stack tug-of-war
When two companies merge, most of the headlines talk about market share, valuations, and synergies. Maybe there’s a stock bump. Maybe there’s a press release with the word “transformational” used at least four times. But behind the scenes - usually just out of earshot from the boardroom - there’s a group of people quietly hyperventilating.
They’re the ones staring down two overlapping, bloated, often contradictory MarTech stacks and wondering: how the hell are we going to make this work?
Because here’s the truth: mergers and acquisitions are just as much about technology alignment as they are about financial engineering. And for Marketing Operations and digital strategy teams, the real battle often starts after the deal is done.
Two stacks enter, one stack limps out
When two organisations come together, their MarTech ecosystems rarely fit like puzzle pieces. More often, it’s like trying to combine a high-performance sports car with a family SUV - both have value, both serve different needs, and neither was built with the other in mind.
You’ll usually find:
Two CRMs (with wildly different field definitions and dirty data)
Multiple email platforms (because someone once liked the UI better)
Redundant CDPs, CMSs, DMPs, and data warehouses
Conflicting customer journeys
A dozen tools that no one remembers paying for
And guess what? Every one of those tools has passionate defenders who will tell you, with complete confidence, that their platform is the backbone of everything. Welcome to the tug-of-war.
The quiet chaos of post-merger integration
While the finance team celebrates synergy and the CEO posts a LinkedIn selfie with the “new team,” Marketing Operations is in the trenches. Their job? Rationalise the stack, migrate data, maintain campaigns, and somehow keep revenue flowing.
Here’s where the wheels often come off:
No clear owner of the integration strategy. Is it IT? Is it Marketing? Is it both? (Spoiler: it’s neither unless someone gets accountable fast.)
Incomplete audits. The deal went through, but no one actually inventoried the platforms in use.
Political battles. Each team wants to keep their tech, their process, and their preferred vendor contacts.
Different maturity levels. One org might have a deeply automated, AI-enabled stack. The other may still be manually segmenting lists in Excel.
Integration becomes a minefield of duplicated functions, stalled migrations, and “temporary” dual systems that somehow persist for years.
Where M&A deals go wrong (from a MarTech perspective)
Let’s be blunt: many M&A deals fail to realise their full value because no one properly plans for the tech stack fallout. Here’s where the cracks start:
MarTech due diligence is an afterthought
In most M&A negotiations, tech gets lumped into the “IT” bucket - a checkbox in the due diligence process. But MarTech isn’t just back-office tooling. It’s how you acquire, retain, and grow customers. It’s how you engage in-market buyers. It is your go-to-market engine.
Ignoring it until after the contract is signed is like buying a house without checking the plumbing.
There’s no common customer definition
This one’s sneaky and deadly. If the two merging companies don’t have a shared taxonomy for accounts, contacts, personas, and stages, then combining their data is going to be a mess. And your CDP, CRM, and reporting dashboards will all end up lying to you.
You can’t sunset what you don’t understand
Sunsetting tools is essential post-M&A. But you can’t kill what you can’t map. If no one knows exactly what’s connected to which systems, what automations are running, and what campaigns are dependent, you end up keeping everything “just in case.” That’s how tech debt becomes cultural.
How to win the tug-of-war (or at least not lose)
Let’s be practical. If you’re navigating a merger or acquisition — or see one coming — here’s how to approach your MarTech stack with some sanity.
Start with a stack audit
You need to know what you're dealing with. Inventory all platforms, licenses, user roles, API integrations, and critical workflows. Map what’s actively used versus what’s shelfware. Look at renewal dates. Look at dependencies. Bring the skeletons out of the closet early.
Define the future-state architecture
Don’t just reactively merge tools. Design a future-state stack that aligns with the new business goals. That might mean keeping one platform, merging two, or ripping everything out and starting fresh. But make it intentional.
Ask:
What are our core platforms?
Which system becomes the source of truth for customer data?
What functionality is duplicated, and what’s missing altogether?
How will we handle compliance, consent, and governance post-integration?
Prioritise integration by value, not ease
It’s tempting to knock out “easy” integrations first, but that’s how you end up optimising trivia. Instead, prioritize based on business impact:
Which systems drive revenue?
Where are the biggest customer experience gaps?
What’s stopping campaign velocity or reporting?
Focus there first.
Communicate - and then overcommunicate
A lot of MarTech integration fails because people assume things. Don’t. Marketing needs to know what’s changing. Sales needs to know what’s working. IT needs to know what not to unplug. Document everything. Share timelines. Set expectations.
M&A is a time of uncertainty. Transparency wins.
Bonus round: What AI means in a merged world
A quick aside - AI has a role to play here, but only if your data’s clean and your systems are talking to each other. AI can’t solve a fragmented customer view or deduplicate 200,000 contacts across two CRMs. But it can accelerate personalisation, scoring, and segmentation once your stack is rationalised.
Just don’t expect ChatGPT to clean up your HubSpot–Marketo hybrid monster. That’s still your problem.
Final thought: It’s not a tech stack, it’s a growth stack
M&A deals aren’t just about combining P&Ls. They’re about unifying teams, customers, and go-to-market strategies. Your MarTech stack sits at the centre of that.
If you treat it as an afterthought - something to “sort out later” - you’ll end up with fragmented experiences, misaligned teams, and wasted investment.
But if you lead with strategy, clarity, and ruthless prioritisation, you can turn the chaos into an advantage. You’ll move faster, get more value from your tech, and actually deliver on the growth the M&A was supposed to unlock.
Because in the end, it’s not just a tug-of-war. It’s an opportunity to build a stack that’s stronger, smarter, and finally worth the hype.
