COGNITIVE EVALUATION OF ACQUISITION CANDIDATES

An embodiment includes initiating a search engine to conduct a first search of a data resource for information associated with an acquisition candidate using search criteria provided via a user interface. The embodiment receives a first search result from the search engine comprising an information dataset associated with the acquisition candidate. The embodiment generates a candidate rating for the acquisition candidate indicative of a performance metric for the acquisition candidate relative to another acquisition candidate. The embodiment initiates the search engine to conduct a second search of the data resource using search criteria extracted from the information dataset. The embodiment receives a second search result from the search engine comprising due-diligence data. The embodiment calculates an updated candidate rating for the acquisition candidate based on the cognitive analysis of the due-diligence data and uses the updated rating to provide a recommendation regarding the acquisition candidate.