# Acquired portfolio subsidiaries: a mandate screen | SourceX

Canonical: https://refer.sourcex.si/guides/when-a-corporate-portfolio-company-is-an-acquired-subsidiary
Last updated: 2026-11-05

Ask who owns the company today before asking anything else. While the corporate holds only a stake, the company's own CEO decides. Once a purchase closes, whether the buyer is your parent, an outside group or another portfolio company, the acquirer's CEO decides, and the company joins that buyer's group, which the program counts as one referred company: the USD 50,000 floor applies once and the 12-month Repeat Window runs across the group. If your own parent is the buyer, the venture team stops being an outside introducer: the decision sits with your own CEO, and the idea usually travels inside the group.

Strategic ownership never stands in for that decision. Even when the parent owns every share, the venture team, the business unit and the integration office cannot open a licensing discussion on the company's behalf; under the program that call belongs to the acquirer's CEO.

## Who bought it matters more than the fact of a sale

A corporate venture portfolio ends up in more hands than a fund's does. Some companies stay independent, some are bought by the corporate itself, some by outside groups, some by other companies in the same portfolio, and a few are sold on again later. SourceX's screening page gives two rules that apply to all of them: once a company is acquired, the acquirer's CEO decides for it, and for the reward the whole group, parent and subsidiaries alike, counts as a single referred company, so the USD 50,000 floor applies once across the group and the 12-month Repeat Window runs from the group's first qualifying Closing.

Your finance colleagues may describe ownership in graded terms. U.S. securities rules, for example, define a subsidiary by control, as "an affiliate controlled by such person directly, or indirectly through one or more intermediaries", and a majority-owned subsidiary as one "more than 50 percent of whose outstanding voting shares is owned by its parent and/or the parent's other majority-owned subsidiaries." Those words help you describe a stake accurately. They are not SourceX's rules: its published terms set no ownership threshold at all. For anything short of an outright purchase, such as a majority stake or a joint venture, ask SourceX rather than borrowing a definition from an annual report.

## The ownership-specific mandate screen

Six states, each answered in the same five columns. Date the ownership check, because a portfolio company can move between rows in a single quarter.

| Ownership today | Who decides | The venture team's role | One referred company, counted across | Earlier contact to expect SourceX to weigh | First move |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Minority stake, company independent | The company's CEO | The colleague the CEO knows may ask, once | The company, plus any group it already belongs to | The company's own | One opt-in ask through the relationship owner |
| 2. Your parent has signed to buy it, not closed | The company's CEO, as the target | Step back; what the deal team learns stays in the deal | Unchanged until closing | The company's own | Nothing through the buyer's side; the CEO may act alone |
| 3. Your parent has closed the purchase | Your parent's CEO, as the acquirer | A colleague inside the group, not an outside introducer | Your whole corporate group, one floor and one Repeat Window | Contact by any company in your group | Compliance first; the group may apply directly |
| 4. An outside buyer has closed the purchase | The outside buyer's CEO | Usually no path; what you learned as an investor stays confidential | The buyer's group | Contact by any company in the buyer's group | Only through someone who knows the buyer's CEO |
| 5. Another of your portfolio companies bought it | The acquiring company's CEO | May ask that CEO through its relationship owner | The acquirer's group | The acquirer's and the target's | One ask covering the combined business |
| 6. Your parent is selling it on | Until closing, whoever decides for it today; afterwards, the new owner's CEO | Wait until the new owner is known | Not set out in the terms for a company leaving a group | Possibly both groups | Pause, and ask SourceX if a licensing talk straddles the sale |

**The program's checks do not change with ownership.** A subsidiary faces the same tests as any company: a full-time workforce that peaked at 50 or more with contractors left out, a long run of its own operating records, the right to license that material, and a deciding CEO who says yes. What ownership changes is who answers each check. Whose headcount and records SourceX counts for a subsidiary is assessed in its review; do not assume the group's size carries a small subsidiary, or the reverse.

**Earlier contact is the column most often skipped.** Section 3 of the terms treats any earlier application, relationship, lead, account or email between SourceX and the company as a duplicate. Inside a group, nobody has published how one company's contact affects a sister company's credit, and the sample Channel Partner Agreement says competing claims are reviewed against dated evidence. SourceX decides those cases in duplicate review, so ask the group about its contact before anyone introduces the subsidiary.

**Method note.** The screen applies SourceX's screening page and program terms, both read on 2026-10-27, and treats closing as the moment the decision passes to the acquirer's CEO. It does not measure demand, record quality or payout, it leaves every unsettled group question to SourceX, and it has not been tested against completed acquisitions; no outcome figures are published. The months around a deal are covered phase by phase in [the referral questions to ask after an acquisition](/guides/the-referral-questions-to-ask-after-an-acquisition).

## When the buyer is your own parent

Row 3 is the one corporate venture teams meet most often and handle least clearly. Four things change on the closing date.

**The decision reaches your own CEO.** The company's founder may still run it day to day, but the acquirer's CEO now decides for it. The founder is the natural person to raise the idea internally, because they know the records; your CEO says yes or no.

**The introduction may not be the right tool.** Once the company is inside your group, the group can apply to SourceX itself. A referral adds a partner to a conversation the group could hold alone, and the published terms say nothing about an employee or a corporate unit introducing its own group. Ask compliance and SourceX in writing before anyone registers, and treat "nobody registers" as a normal answer.

**The floor becomes the group's floor.** Every company in your corporate group now counts as one referred company: the USD 50,000 floor applies once, to the group's first qualifying transaction, and a later qualifying transaction first agreed within 12 months of that first Closing, including a sister company's, pays 15% with no floor.

| Licensing event (Illustrative) | Actual Supplier Payout | Reward under the 2026 terms |
|---|---|---|
| The acquired company licenses first | $240,000 | $62,000, the greater of USD 50,000 plus 5% and 15% |
| A sister company licenses within 12 months of that Closing | $200,000 | $30,000, 15% with no floor on a repeat |

The table shows only how a group uses the floor once and how a later license falls in the Repeat Window; there is no cap on the total. Whether a sister company's later license is credited to the same partner, another partner or nobody is decided by SourceX, not by the arithmetic. The [subsidiary reward guide](/guides/subsidiary-referral-reward-cap) covers other group shapes, and [subsidiaries in referral attribution](/guides/how-to-handle-multiple-subsidiaries-in-referral-attribution) covers the credit side.

**Records start to mix.** Integration moves systems into group platforms. Records the acquired company created and records the parent created can end up side by side, and SourceX assesses rights and ownership in its review. Let the company describe its own records before integration blurs them.

## What the venture team learned stays where it was learned

A board seat, information rights and pre-deal diligence each gave the venture team knowledge about the company, under confidentiality. After the parent buys the company, it is tempting to treat all of it as group knowledge. Do not shortcut the company's own description: the people who run the records describe them, at metadata level, and nobody forwards board packs or diligence files. In rows 2, 4 and 6, the same knowledge belongs to a relationship that has ended or is ending, and it travels nowhere.

## Sign-offs once the company sits inside your group

| Step | Who | What it settles |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Raise the idea | The acquired company's leadership | That records exist and are worth a conversation |
| 2. Partner question | Group compliance | Whether anyone in the group may register for a group company, or nobody |
| 3. Decide | Your parent's CEO | Whether the group discusses licensing these records |
| 4. Apply | The company itself | Starts SourceX's review |
| 5. Review | SourceX | Fit, rights, earlier group contact and any credit question |

Who in the venture unit carries step 1 for the team is an ownership question of its own, answered in [who owns the introduction in a corporate venture unit](/guides/who-owns-the-introduction-in-a-corporate-venture-unit).

## Three portfolio companies through the screen (Illustrative)

Illustrative. Invented companies; each case shows how the screen routes, not any outcome.

**A. Row 3: a 180-person industrial software company the parent bought last spring.** The founder still runs it and wants to explore licensing its support history. Your CEO decides. Compliance says no employee or unit may take a reward for a group company, so nobody registers: the founder raises it with your CEO, and if your CEO agrees, the company applies itself.

**B. Row 4: a 260-person freight broker bought by an outside logistics group.** Nobody in the venture unit knows the buyer's CEO, and the broker's founder left at closing. The row closes. What the unit learned through its board seat stays confidential, and the [former portfolio company checklist](/guides/can-a-former-portfolio-company-still-be-referred) explains when such a path can reopen.

**C. Row 5: a 95-person inspection firm acquired by a 400-person facilities group, also in the portfolio.** The facilities group's CEO now decides for both businesses, and they count as one referred company for the floor and the Repeat Window. The colleague who knows that CEO asks once, about the combined business, after checking that neither company has been in touch with SourceX.

## A first pass over the whole portfolio

Tag every portfolio company with its row and the date checked. Count the rows. For row 1 and row 5 companies, run opt-in asks through relationship owners; for row 3, hold one conversation with compliance that covers every acquired company at once; leave rows 2, 4 and 6 alone. After 60 days, record how many CEOs said yes, how many asks were stopped because ownership had changed since the last check, and any CEO or founder who was unsure who decides. SourceX has not published acceptance or conversion rates for corporate portfolios, so these counts stay internal.

## Where the screen can mislead

- **Stale ownership.** Deals close faster than registers update. A row checked last quarter may be wrong today.
- **Partial control.** Majority stakes, joint ventures and minority stakes with special rights sit outside the six rows; ask SourceX.
- **Group duplicates.** A sister company's earlier talks with SourceX can change the picture, and only SourceX's duplicate review settles it.
- **Corporate policy.** Your parent's rules on employees taking outside payments may close the partner question entirely.
- **Rights after integration.** Merged systems can blur whose records are whose, and SourceX's review may narrow the scope.
- **Demand.** Whether a subsidiary's records match a current program is assessed in review; a clean row is not a forecast.

The deal team's view of acquired businesses and carve-outs is on the [corporate development page](/for/corporate-development-data-licensing-referral); the wider set of partner guides is in the [guides library](/guides).

## Next step

> **Refer a company. No cap on rewards.** Default reward on a company's first qualifying transaction: the greater of $50,000 plus 5% and 15% of Actual Supplier Payout, with no cap; further qualifying transactions first agreed within 12 months of the first Closing pay 15%. Eligibility and payment conditions apply, including the USD 100,000 Minimum Transaction, and a signed Schedule A or addendum can differ. A lead, meeting or signature alone does not trigger payment.

When the screen puts a company in row 1 or row 5 and its deciding CEO wants the conversation, [register as a partner](/register), compare the company as it is owned today with [who qualifies](/who-qualifies), and keep a copy of the [program terms](/terms) with your dated ownership check.

Tracking which portfolio companies became subsidiaries is referral housekeeping; whether SourceX itself merits investment is a different question, and investor materials can be requested through the [SourceX investor overview](https://sourcex.si/investors).

This article is for information only and is not an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy securities. Any offering by SourceX is made only to verified accredited investors through its offering documents.

## Sources

- https://refer.sourcex.si/terms
- https://refer.sourcex.si/who-qualifies
- https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-17/chapter-II/part-210/subject-group-ECFR8bf2a0f20b6a007/section-210.1-02
- https://sourcex.si/documents/partner/SourceX_Channel_Partner_Agreement_Sample.pdf
- https://sourcex.si/investors