Name: Anatomy of an ITAD M&A Transaction: How Sage and Cascade are Joining Forces
Start: 2025-02-20T16:48:00Z
End: 2025-02-20T16:48:53.000Z
Location: BrightTALK

From IT hardware disposition and electronics recycling to data security and ESG, this channel is dedicated to exploring and discussing how IT can drive positive change while ensuring compliance with regulations and best practices. Designed for IT practitioners and managers in procurement, legal/compliance, finance, ESG, and other functions critical to building a sustainable business, the channel is hosted by David Daoud, President and Principal Analyst at Compliance Standards LLC. Compliance Standards LLC is a firm specializing in advisory services, research, and consulting.

This briefing outlines the new economic and operational realities shaping enterprise hardware strategy for the next thirty-six months. It presents evidence of a sharply bifurcated market, where unprecedented demand for AI infrastructure accelerates modernization while most organizations still operate a predominantly legacy server estate. It details the impact of sustained DRAM and NAND shortages on CapEx planning, escalating component prices, and procurement risk. The talk also examines the mounting exposure created by a large global Windows 10 footprint and the rapid shift toward premium AI PCs. Finally, it proposes a Programmatic Asset Lifecycle model, emphasizing long-term component contracting, structured refresh planning, and elevated data-governance requirements for GPU-rich systems. The objective is to recalibrate enterprise expectations and provide a practical path for executives facing high-cost, high-risk modernization decisions.

The CIO's Sustainable Brief: CapEx Reality Check: Preparing for a Split Hardware Market and Rising Component Costs

David Daoud speaks with Aaron Zepers, CEO of DMD Systems Recovery, about their recent acquisition by Tailwind Capital. We discussed how tech asset recovery is becoming critical across IT asset management, data security, compliance, and urban mining. Aaron's perspective brought fresh thinking about where the sector is headed and how companies like DMD are positioning for growth.

From Managing a Tech Hardware Disposition Company to Being Acquired by Private Equity: A Conversation with DMD CEO

In this brief, principal analyst David Daoud of Compliance Standards explains how the EU’s leading sustainability regulations have recently been delayed and narrowed in scope after industry and political pushback. Most non-EU and smaller U.S. companies will now face later and less expansive ESG reporting rules, with major deadlines pushed into 2027–2029. But while the EU aims to simplify compliance, companies must still prepare for a future where doing business with Europe means robust sustainability data and stricter standards—even as U.S. political backlash makes ESG a tougher balancing act for multinationals.

Navigating the EU–US ESG Divide: Compliance, Delay, and Divergence, and What Global Companies Should Do

In this podcast, David Daoud of Compliance Standards LLC highlights major shifts in ITAD and enterprise IT. New insights focus on the healthcare sector’s IT refresh, hyperscaler opportunities, crypto market risks, and soaring demand for refurbished systems. The report emphasizes ITAD’s role in cybersecurity, compliance, and ESG strategy as the sector enters a period of structural realignment.

Insights on the ITAD Industry, Healthcare IT Refresh, Hyperscaler Gaps, Crypto Risk, and Refurbished PC Market Boom

Research Alert: AI PCs are the tech industry’s driver of growth in the years to come, consumers today aren’t buying, literally. Meanwhile, the refurbished PC market is gaining serious ground, quietly redrawing the battle lines for OEMs, ITADs, and enterprise IT leaders alike. Latest research highlights here: https://ComplianceStandards.com/bryl

IT Asset Management: AI PCs vs. Refurbished Systems: Diverging Trajectories in a Saturated Market

What really happens after a startup gets a meeting with a pro sports team? In this episode of The Sports Tech Playbook, David Daoud of Compliance Standards invites Julien Blin of Upside Global to take us behind the scenes of the startup vetting process inside elite sports organizations. From the first pitch to live pilot programs, we break down how teams assess value, manage risk, and make buying decisions.

Discover who holds the real influence—general managers, performance directors, medical teams, data analysts, or the players themselves—and what separates startups that get multi-year deals from those that never make it past the first demo. Whether you're a founder, investor, or exec, this episode delivers the play-by-play on how to turn a meeting into a long-term partnership.

Sports Tech Series: Inside the Locker Room: How Pro Teams Vet Sports Tech Startups

With so many organizations moving to Windows 11 and building and upgrading their data centers, bringing AI into the stack, and upgrading hardware across remote offices and big data centers, old equipment is getting retired faster than ever. But here’s the thing—what happens after you unplug a server or laptop is where a lot of companies slip up. That post-use phase, known as IT asset disposition (or ITAD), is full of risk. Devices leave secure environments, end up in transit or storage, and without strict tracking or sanitization, they can get lost—or worse, end up leaking data. And if you're running distributed infrastructure or managing hyperscale environments, the stakes are even higher. This white paper is basically saying: ITAD isn’t just operations. It’s risk—and serious risk at that.

And yeah, the legal side is real. Courts are looking closely at how companies handle data when it leaves the network. There’s no one-size-fits-all rule, but if you didn’t encrypt, sanitize, or track that device properly—and can’t prove it—you're exposed. Just ask Morgan Stanley, which took a financial and reputational hit when improperly wiped servers were resold. Regulators expect you to have contracts, chain-of-custody proof, and destruction reports. If you don’t, it’s not just a policy issue—it’s liability. So for IT leaders juggling cloud platforms, remote endpoints, and racks of aging servers, it’s time to tighten the ITAD process before someone else—like a lawyer—does it for you.

In this episode, David Daoud of Compliance Standards highlights the risk related to ITAD and data center decommissioning and how courts treat them. Bob Houghton, President of Sage Sustainable IT, offers strategies on how to mitigate such risk in practical terms.

IT Asset and Datacenter Decommissioning at Scale: Legal, Security, and Operational Imperatives

How is Hitachi Digital Services embedding sustainability into its core strategy? In this briefing, I break down how HDS is approaching ESG—not as a side initiative, but as part of its digital infrastructure work. From energy efficiency to emissions tracking and EV optimization, the company’s efforts show real engineering depth. But gaps remain—especially in measurable ESG targets. This is a grounded look at where HDS stands today and where it could go next.

#Sustainability #DigitalTransformation #ESG #Hitachi #ITInfrastructure #HitachiDS #EnergyEfficiency #CircularEconomy #SmartGrid #EnterpriseIT #ClimateTech #GreenTech #CorporateSustainability #ITAD #DataGovernance #ResponsibleBusiness #TechStrategy #DigitalInnovation

Hitachi DS Sustainability Brief: Sustainability in Practice

In this Corporate Sustainability Brief series, I share my personal assessment of Samsung Electronics following a thought-provoking session I moderated at REMA 2025 with Daniel Araujo and Jenni Chun, two of Samsung’s key sustainability leaders, reflecting on both the wins and the work ahead for Samsung’s sustainability roadmap.  

#SamsungESG #sustainability  #CorporateResponsibility #NetZero #CircularEconomy #REMA2025  @SamsungElectronics

Samsung Electronics Sustainability Brief: A Review by Compliance Standards' David Daoud

In this inaugural episode, we delve into the escalating trade tensions and their impact on the sports technology industry. With recent tariff implementations affecting imports from key manufacturing hubs like China and Vietnam, the ripple effects are being felt across the supply chain. But what about the very niche markets like sports tech? Julien Blin offers his expert analysis on how these developments.

Impact of Trade Tariffs on Sports Tech, with David Daoud and Julien Blin

In this episode, I speak with reporter Colin Staub of Resource Recycling on what he has been covering, including his take on the US trade tariffs.

Weekly Chat on the Tariffs, PC and ITAD industries and more. This week, with Colin Staub of Resource Recycling

In this session, we analyze how the rise of AI-powered computing devices is quietly transforming the data security landscape in enterprise IT. As systems increasingly integrate neural processing units (NPUs) and embedded AI agents, they also introduce new data retention risks—ones that often bypass traditional sanitization methods. We examined nine commercial AI PCs and workstations released in 2025, including models from HP, Lenovo, Dell, and NVIDIA, and explored how local inference, cached context, and identity-linked AI features complicate decommissioning and IT asset disposition (ITAD).

We explain why next-gen systems don’t just compute—they interpret and remember, even after shutdown. This evolution demands a new approach to security, data mapping, and end-of-life compliance, especially for IT departments, CISOs, and ITAD providers. If you manage enterprise devices or secure data during the disposal process, this is a must-watch.

The AI-PCs and the New Data Security Risks: What Companies Should Know About Threats and Mitigations

Last year, not too many people spoke about trade tariffs. We heard about the potential for trade tariffs during election campaigning, but they were not fully backed into analyst forecast. After three years of negative growth, the PC industry could now face a fourth year of negative growth with new headwinds that could reduce the positive impact of the existing drivers and strengthen the inhibiting factors. While this is not good for the PC industry, that could be an opportunity for the ITAD sector, but not without some challenges too.

Tech Markets: Impact of Chinese Tariffs  on PC and ITAD Sectors

Today I am going out of my comfort zone. I had a conversation with my friend, Sports Tech Analyst Julien Blin and decided to hit the 'record' button. Sports tech is fascinating because it is a sector dominated by a plethora of niche players and tons of startups. Here's the talk from someone who advises teams and leagues on technologies from wearables and AR/VR to tracking and sport medicine.

The Business of Sports Technology: An Inside Look

Global IT spending likely to surpass $5 trillion, per Gartner. What are the big trends and what about IT Asset Disposition in all of this?  What we tell investors, enterprise decision makers and the ITAD industry.

Huge IT Spending this Year

At Compliance Standards we have been observing the rise of a different group of security professionals within large companies who have been working to impose new standards for their organization’s IT asset disposition and recycling practices.   Large organizations are now giving more responsibility or oversight on ITAD to the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) and to Risk & Compliance teams, essentially elevating the ITAD risk to above and beyond the traditional immediate stakeholders of IT and procurement.  This trend is good news for enterprises because it is a recognition that ITAD security is crucial.  It is both good and bad news for ITAD companies. On the one hand elevating ITAD security is an opportunity to broaden the ITAD stakeholders in the enterprise and could help strengthen ITAD as a critical function. It is bad, because compliance will cost money.

In this podcast, David Daoud of Compliance Standards speaks to Security Management expert and Head of Compliance at Compliance Standards, Louis Van Der Westhuizen, on topics related to these new standards, in articular ISO 27001 and SOC 2.

Risk Management: How CISOs, Risk & Compliance Teams are Pushing for New Security & Risk Management Standards

Efforts are underway by Microsoft and its PC partners to replace Windows 10 with Windows 11. However, Windows 10 is Still the Dominant PC Operating System (OS)

Windows 10 is Still the Dominant PC Operating System (OS)

In this episode of the Sustainable IT Insights Podcast, host and Compliance Standards Analyst, David Daoud, discusses with Sage Sustainable Electronics' CEO Bob Houghton and Cascade Asset Management's CEO Neil Peters-Michaud the details of their companies' merger. This discussion addresses issues of integration, the factors leading to the transaction, the implications on the companies, clients and ITAD market and so many other issues.

Anatomy of an ITAD M&A Transaction: How Sage and Cascade are Joining Forces

ITAD

IT Asset Management

IT asset disposition

data security

Compliance

recycling

technology management

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Anatomy of an ITAD M&A Transaction: How Sage and Cascade are Joining Forces

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Sustainable IT Insights with David Daoud