Ironically, Autonomy Robs Meridio of its Autonomy

By Angela Natividad (@Luckthelady) Oct 30, 2007

No one's safe from the M&A bug. UK firm Autonomy has just agreed to purchase Belfast-based Meridio for US$ 40.8 million.

Meridio is a global provider of enterprise document and records management software. Earlier this month, it updated its proprietary offering for easier integration with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) and MS Exchange.

Not a bad relationship for its new parent company to inherit.

But that's not all Autonomy's getting. According to Silicon Republic, Autonomy also acquires a hearty serving of “US Department of Defence (DoD) approved software [and] security cleared sales and engineering staff, enabling further penetration into that lucrative market.”

Not a bad exchange.

The combination is expected to yield a fairly comprehensive archiving, eDiscovery and certified records management solution on one platform.

That all sounds nice. But how many of you like the sound of eating at a place that sells doughnuts, pizza and Chinese food? I've done it. It's not nice.

But Autonomy likes rolling dice. Over the summer it purchased US-based eDiscovery competitor ZANTAZ for US$ 375 million in cold, hard (i.e. neither warm nor soft) cash.

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