By: Leonardo Neri

Some time ago, the Uber case became known for how the impact of Privacy & Data Protection can directly impact a huge mergers and acquisitions (M&A) operation.

Uber had been valued on the market at the time at 70 billion dollars, and Softbank wanted to acquire it.

However, Uber suffered huge reputational damage due to the exposure of its customer data in 2017, with around 57 million individuals being leaked.

As a result, there was a revaluation of the company's asset values, which fell sharply, falling from an initial 70 billion dollars to almost 40 billion dollars.

In other words, the values practically fell by half, which made the operation that was being negotiated unfeasible. This event demonstrates how important it is today to monitor the issue of Privacy in companies and, consequently, in the implementation of M&A operations.