Glossary
The words of the data room and M&A.
Short, verifiable definitions of the terms that come up in a mergers-and-acquisitions transaction and in a deal data room.
- Data room
- A secure digital space where the documents of a transaction are gathered and reviewed. Also called a virtual data room (VDR).
- Due diligence
- The audit phase during which a buyer or investor examines the file before committing.
- M&A
- Mergers and acquisitions: transactions to combine, sell or acquire companies.
- Sell-side
- The sale of all or part of a company. The seller prepares a file that prospective buyers review.
- Fundraising
- A transaction in which a company opens its capital to investors to finance growth.
- Audience
- The group of recipients a document is published to. Siloing audiences means a guest sees only what concerns them.
- Publishing
- Moving a document from internal to visible for an audience. Moving a file is not enough to publish it.
- Siloing
- Strict separation of access: each person reads only the folders and documents allowed for their role and group.
- Watermark
- A marking applied to viewed documents to deter leaks. Rempart applies it on supported formats.
- NDA
- A non-disclosure agreement a recipient accepts before accessing the file. It can be versioned and bound to a fingerprint.
- Closing index
- A numbered document that captures all the files at the close of a transaction and serves as proof of its state.
- Audit log
- A timestamped record of recorded views and downloads, exportable as proof of the process.
- Q&A
- The questions-and-answers area of the data room, where buyers' requests and the seller's answers are logged.
- White label
- A deployment where the data room carries the boutique's identity (name, logo, domain), the underlying tool staying invisible.
- RLS
- Row-level security: the PostgreSQL database mechanism that enforces access rights at the row level, not only in the interface.
To see these notions at work, read the M&A data room guide or compare with a shared drive.