Post-Acquisition Product Portfolio Rationalization

January 1st, 2018

Summary

After one company acquires another, the combined product portfolio can balloon to a size that is unmanageable and is a challenge for sales and customers to understand. Product leaders should vet the markets and buyer needs addressed by the combined portfolio before diving into portfolio configuration. Rationalize the portfolio based on a number of factors, including offering fit, supplier contract, and legal or contextual issues.

When one company acquires another, the purpose is often to acquire new products, but the combined product portfolio may include multiple offerings that address the same buyer needs. Maintaining duplicative products can more than double development and maintenance expenses, as research teams work to improve and update both sets of products — which can also cause confusion among customers and sales reps. In this report, we describe a three-step process for identifying product portfolio overlaps and gaps after an acquisition and making decisions about overlapping products.

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