DFIN acquires Guardum to help companies tackle their risk and compliance needs

DFIN announced it has acquired Guardum, a data security and privacy software provider that helps companies locate, secure, and control data. The acquisition strengthens DFIN’s software solutions portfolio by making data security a competitive differentiator, enhancing regulatory compliance, safeguarding privacy, and improving data accuracy.

Guardum helps to solve one of the most pressing data problems companies face today: quickly locating personal information — in many languages — among vast stores of corporate data, implementing an agile workflow across data governance and GRC, and redacting that information either temporarily or permanently.

A powerful combination

One of Guardum’s strengths is its ability to examine semi-structured and unstructured data in native document format — eliminating the need to convert files. This is extremely useful during the due diligence phase of an acquisition. DFIN’s Venue virtual data room, with Guardum’s privacy tools, allows companies to meet global deal regulations and confidentially accelerate transactions by safeguarding critical documents and market sensitive information, tax data, employee personal data, and more.

In addition, regulations and guidelines involving personal data are becoming more stringent. The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and General Data Protection Regulations ((EU) 2016/679 GDPR) are two examples of government regulations that have increased the burden on many companies. As global regulators continue to create and modify data compliance rules, the need for data security will only increase.

“DFIN’s industry-leading software solutions address the most challenging regulatory and compliance issues that companies face,” said Craig Clay, president of Global Capital Markets at DFIN. “Incorporating Guardum’s data security and public information technology into our platform creates privacy intelligence by identifying and protecting our clients’ sensitive data, automating time-consuming processes, and reducing the risk of exposing sensitive data to comply with the growing number of privacy regulations in an ever-changing digital world.”

“DFIN has a stellar reputation for providing the highest quality software solutions that help companies tackle their risk and compliance needs,” said Rob Westmacott, co-founder at Guardum. “Working together, we will develop software solutions that will help lower overall compliance spending and significantly mitigate risk for organizations throughout the globe.”

Eliminating the need for manual review processes allows executives to focus on higher priority aspects of any transaction. Businesses can now benefit from the following:

• Speed and efficiency: Up to 93 percent faster in helping to find and redact data (versus manual)
• Cost reduction: Improved operational compliance, process, and efficiencies
• Scale: Eases the burden on Information Technology departments since the technology is highly scalable, easy to use, and integrates with other applications
• Enhanced security: Enhanced overall security extending beyond general-purpose discovery or classification tools

These capabilities and benefits are a top priority for executives responsible for mergers and acquisitions; data protection officers; and compliance and legal experts; as well as human resources; security; and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) teams.