eLit To Merge With Texas Based Altep

March 18, 2013 -- Headquartered in Palo Alto, California, eLitigation Solutions (eLit) provides discovery processing and hosting services for mid- to large-sized corporations and law firms throughout Arizona, California and the Pacific Northwest.

With nearly twenty years’ experience in data-intensive litigation, Altep has offices throughout the southern and northeastern US, and has managed high-profile cases for some of the largest law firms and corporations in the nation.

The merger is expected to be finalized by the 29th of March, 2013. The merger promises important benefits for both firms: for eLitigation Solutions, a partnership with Altep offers increased processing and hosting capacity as well as greater redundancy across all skill sets and functional areas, while for Altep, joining with eLitigation Solutions provides an opportunity to enter into the West Coast market with a strong, experienced presence.

“Our clients stand to gain tremendous benefits from our new relationship with Altep,” said Greg Arellano, President of eLitigation Solutions, Inc. “In the coming months, we will gradually transition into the Altep family, fully adopting their name and branding by the end of the year. Going forward, we will continue to offer the same outstanding service and support our clients have come to expect from us, as well as an expanded range of capabilities to assist with complex ESI, review, production and litigation preparedness.  We’re very excited to be joining the Altep team.”

Margaret Valenzuela, Executive Vice President of Altep, Inc., noted that the management and staff of eLitigation Solutions will retain an active role in daily operations on the West Coast. “Their knowledge, experience and skill will be critical to our success in that market,” said Valenzuela. “This partnership represents the next phase in our continued evolution.”

AccessData Receives $45M Investment From Silicon Valley Bank and Sorenson Capital

TechCrunch reports, AccessData announced that it has received a $45 million investment from Sorenson Capital Partners and Silicon Valley Bank. This funding, the company says, allows it to “reduce outside ownership and add Sorenson as a strategic, long-term partner.”

The investment consists of a $20 million equity trade from Sorenson Capital and $25 million in structured debt from Silicon Valley Bank. In today’s announcement, AccessData’s CEO Tim Leehealey explains the company’s decision for this move and argues that “by consolidating our ownership and adding a strategic partner like Sorenson Capital, while strengthening our relationship with Silicon Valley Bank, AccessData is better positioning itself to take advantage of its unique place in the market.”

“By combining AccessData’s strong market position with Sorenson Capital’s proven track record of taking companies to the next level, we believe we can accelerate growth at AccessData and deliver extensive value to shareholders and customers alike,” said Ron Mika, a co-founder and Managing Director of Sorenson Capital in a prepared statement today. “This is an exciting company and a compelling opportunity. We are anxious to see where the team can take it over the coming years.”

AccessData says it currently has about 130,000 users in law enforcement, government agencies, corporations, consultancies, and law firms around the world. The company has offices in Washington D.C., New York, Houston and San Francisco, as well as in the UK and Australia.

Axiom Receives $28 Million Investment

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 6, 2013  -- Carrick Capital Partners, LLC announced the firm's investment in Axiom, a 1,000 person new model firm that helps general counsel manage their workload more effectively.  This announcement marks Carrick's first deal since closing the firm's first fund in November of 2012.  Carrick focuses on investing in companies that provide technology-enabled service offerings, business process outsourcing, transaction processing, software as a service and enterprise software.

"We seek to invest in companies that possess the right fundamentals to significantly grow their operations," explained Jim Madden .  "Axiom is a pioneer in their space and uniquely situated for rapid growth.  Our role is to leverage our business building, BPO experience and our investing acumen on Axiom's behalf."  

"Carrick Capital Partners is a perfect fit for Axiom. The team at Carrick has unique experience building transformational businesses, they're savvy investors, and most important, they have real passion for the Axiom mission," commented Mark Harris , CEO of Axiom. "Axiom is well-positioned to help the legal industry transform itself for the better, and Carrick's growth equity and know-how will play a critical role. We couldn't be happier and look forward to using the funds to invest in the commercialization of our Managed Services offering, including our delivery capability, center infrastructure, and technology."

IBM Acquiring StoredIQ

IBM (NYSE: IBM) announced last month it had entered into a definitive agreement to acquire StoredIQ Inc., a privately held company based in Austin, Texas. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

StoredIQ will advance IBM’s efforts to help clients derive value from big data and respond more efficiently to litigation and regulations, dispose of information that has outlived its purpose and lower data storage costs.  

With this agreement, IBM adds to its prior investments in Information Lifecycle Governance. The addition of StoredIQ capabilities enables clients to find and use unstructured information of value, respond more efficiently to litigation and regulatory events and lower information costs as data ages.  

IBM's Information Lifecycle Governance suite improves information economics by helping companies lower the total cost of managing data while increasing the value derived from it by:  

·        Eliminating unnecessary cost and risk with defensible disposal of unneeded data

·        Enabling businesses to realize the full value of information as it ages

·        Aligning cost to the value of information

·        Reducing information risk by automating privacy, e-discovery, and regulatory policies     

Adding StoredIQ to IBM’s Information Lifecycle Governance suite gives organizations more effective governance of the vast majority of data, including efficient electronic discovery and its timely disposal, to eliminate unnecessary data that consumes infrastructure and elevates risk. As a result, business leaders can access and analyze big data to gain insights for better decision-making. Legal teams can mitigate risk by meeting e-discovery obligations more effectively. Also, IT departments can dispose of unnecessary data and align information cost to value to take out excess costs. 

StoredIQ software provides scalable analysis and governance of disparate and distributed email as well as file shares and collaboration sites. This includes the ability to discover, analyze, monitor, retain, collect, de-duplicate and dispose of data. In addition, StoredIQ can rapidly analyze high volumes of unstructured data and automatically dispose of files and emails in compliance with regulatory requirements.

DTI Acquires Fios

ATLANTA, GA and PORTLAND, OR—November 29, 2012—DTI, the nation’s largest independent provider of discovery services, facilities management, and knowledge process outsourcing, today announced its acquisition of Fios, Inc., a pioneering firm in electronic discovery and one of the industry’s most recognized brands. Effective immediately, the company will be known as “Fios, A DTI Company.”

Since its inception in 1999, Portland, Oregon-based Fios has advocated approaches that reduce the costs and the risks of e-discovery. This is most notably executed through the smart application of best-in-breed technologies, such as those offered by kCura, Venio, Equivio, and Content Analyst. Going forward, the company will expand on this strategy by enhancing the broader DTI organization with additional experienced project managers and operations team members, a majority of whom are Relativity Certified Administrators. In addition, the Fios acquisition will provide DTI clients with expanded product development resources and proprietary workflow applications, such as the Fios Redaction Assistant.

“We felt the opportunity to bring Fios into the DTI family was quite attractive. They have exactly what we look for—an exceptional group of high-performing employees, a respected name, strong relationships with an impressive list of AmLaw 100 and Fortune 500 corporate clients, and most importantly, similar values and corporate cultures,” said John Davenport Jr., president and CEO, DTI. “DTI will leverage this expertise to continue advancing our leadership position in the discovery services market.”

Fios is one of only six Relativity Orange Best-in-Service companies out of 140 total Premium Hosting Providers worldwide. To earn this designation, Fios had to pass evaluations and audits for technical expertise, customer service, product knowledge, and scale of operations while maintaining an established installed base exceeding 1,000 active Relativity users.

“DTI has been a market leader to watch in recent years,” said Katey Wood, an analyst at the Enterprise Strategy Group. “The company has aggressively expanded its geographic reach and built out its digital services arm to become a cross-functional asset to businesses across the country. With this most recent acquisition of Fios, the company gains a stronghold of highly distinguished Relativity talent and acumen.”

Terms of the current deal — which is DTI's third this year — were not disclosed. In September, DTI acquired legal staffing company Provius, based in Houston. In July, DTI bought computer forensics specialist Data Forté, of Los Angeles.

Elite Document Technology Acquires Dallas based Peritia Data Discovery

Dallas, Texas -- November 01, 2012

Terry Reeves, CEO of Elite Document Technology, today announced that the company has acquired Peritia Data Discovery. Peritia was formerly Litigation Solution, Inc. and has been a well-known litigation support provider in Texas since 1994. Peritia provides sophisticated technologies for electronic discovery, with an emphasis on consultative implementation for more competitive litigation support solutions.

The acquisition of Peritia positions Elite at the forefront of litigation support providers. By combining the strengths of the two companies, Elite is now one of the most comprehensive solution providers in the industry. The team at Peritia brings deep expertise in e-discovery tools and technologies. They are veterans of the litigation support industry, and they provide a consultative approach that makes discovery more affordable and efficient.

“Elite already offers a wide variety of legal support options, but adding the Peritia products takes us to a whole new level,” said Terry Reeves, owner and CEO of Elite. “We are especially excited to add Viewpoint to our product line. Our research of litigation support software has convinced us that Viewpoint is the best e-discovery technology on the market. Terry Vaughan and the team at Peritia really know industry best-practices, and they provide the best training and support for Viewpoint.”

Elite customers will also appreciate the security of the new Tier 4 data center that Peritia has for their cloud-based hosting services which is a perfect combination with Elite’s internal private cloud. By moving from desktop applications to a private cloud computing architecture, users gain access to a wider range of functions and features, and eliminate the need to constantly monitor, evaluate and purchase new software. This type of data infrastructure offers the most powerful processing resources, flexible storage capacities, high data accessibility and security features available.

“We have partnered with Elite on many projects over the years, and we have always been impressed with their level of quality and commitment to their clients,” said Terry Vaughan, owner and president of Peritia Data Discovery, who joins the Elite team as a Litigation Support Consultant. “This acquisition makes sense for all of us at both companies, but it’s the customers who will really benefit. The wider range of products and services available to law firms and corporate legal departments will streamline litigation and help reduce costs.”

Xact Data Discovery Acquirers Houston Based Flash Discovery

October 17, 2012 --Xact Data Discovery (XDD), an international leading provider of data discovery and management services to law firms, corporations and government agencies with 16 offices nationally, recently acquired Flash Discovery in Houston, Texas helping to further expand the company’s nationwide presence.  This acquisition marks the second in as many months as XDD continues its expansion endeavors in the US.

The acquisition included 100% of all business assets, personnel and current customers.   Ferdinand Andres, an owner of Flash Discovery and a long-time employee of XDD, will be responsible for the XDD Houston new office.

According to Bob Polus, Xact Data Discovery’s President and CEO, “we have a significant client base in Houston, Texas for our ESI service offerings.  With the acquisition of Flash Discovery, we can now offer local, streamlined Paper Discovery services as well.”  Polus went on to add, “we have tremendous confidence in Ferd Andres and in his passion for providing excellent customer service and work product.”

Xact Data Discovery (XDD) is an international Data Discovery and Management company providing streamlined Forensic, Processing, Hosting, Document Review, Project Management, Imaging & Coding and Paper Discovery services to law firms, corporations and government agencies.  At Xact Data Discovery, communication is everything—because clients need to know where their data is throughout the entirediscovery life cycle—as well as understand the valuable information and knowledge they can obtain from it.