Aon launches Quality of Intellectual Property Solution

Global professional services firm Aon has launched its Quality of Intellectual Property (QoIP) Solution that helps companies realise higher transaction value by specifically articulating the quality of the seller’s IP portfolio in the mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and capital markets.

The solution is already available and was most recently used to support Victory Innovations in its sale of a majority stake to The Carlyle Group.

“Our QoIP Solution and resulting report helps companies articulate and realise the full value of their IP portfolio for M&A or financing transactions,” said Lewis Lee, CEO of IP Solutions at Aon.

“With QoIP, a deal team can catalogue IP with greater precision, describe its connection to the enterprise’s revenue streams and strategy, and benchmark it against competing IP portfolios. We believe this will help sellers better position their company to the marketplace.”

Intangible assets today are nearly 85 percent of the total asset value in the S&P 500. Yet in most transactions, IP-intensive companies fail to effectively articulate the role of their IP as a source of enterprise value, relegating it instead to a confirmatory due diligence item considered in the late stages of the deal, after value and terms have been negotiated. This process gap leads to value leakage for companies of all stages and sizes.

“QoIP solves a real problem for companies that have invested in IP and need to position it as a source of value in the M&A market,” said Matt Zimmer, head of industrials investment banking at William Blair.

“Working with Aon, the deal team can quickly develop an IP value narrative tied to the enterprise—all in plain English terms that the market can understand.

“Similar to how Quality of Earnings improves visibility into financial performance and cashflow, QoIP paints a game-changing picture of technology innovation and protection relative to traditional IP disclosure,” continued Zimmer. “We believe QoIP is best practice for IP-intensive M&A.”

The QoIP solution produces a report that focuses on high-impact themes enabling a company and its advisors to make the IP discussion more tangible in an M&A or capital markets transaction.

“Victory Innovations thanks Aon for its impactful role in our sale process,” said Chris Gurreri, CEO of Victory Innovations.

“In four weeks, they helped us package years of innovation and IP development into a concise report that augmented our sale process and drove value for shareholders.”