Autonomy to acquire Interwoven in $775M deal

22.01.2009
U.K. enterprise search and e-discovery vendor Autonomy has entered an agreement to buy Interwoven, maker of content management software, in a deal valued at about US$775 million, the companies said Thursday.

The deal is expected to close in the second quarter. Combined, the two vendors will have more than 20,000 customers, and will constitute "the largest company dedicated to the legal information management industry," according to a statement.

Autonomy sees a growing market for e-discovery due to increased litigation and recent regulatory changes, which have "heightened the need to capture and understand information," such as employee communications, the companies said.

Forrester Research has said e-discovery spending will grow to more than $4.8 billion by 2011, up from $1.4 billion in 2006.

Meanwhile, Interwoven's software is in use at 1,200 top law firms and supports 100,000 Web sites, extranets and intranets, according to a statement.

One industry observer and Autonomy shareholder praised the pending acquisition.

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