EMC Buys Captiva, Acartus

In the latest example of consolidation within the content management marketplace, EMC (Hopkinton, Mass.) acquired information capture solutions vendor Captiva Software (San Diego) and archiving and enterprise report management vendor Acartus (Fort Collins, Colo.). The acquisitions will foster greater integration among capture solutions and content management solutions, such as EMC Documentum, and constitutes a step forward toward a more complete enterprise content management solution, according to Whitney Tidmarsh, VP, content management and solutions marketing, EMC. "This is true in particular in select vertical markets where paper plays a large role, such as financial services," Tidmarsh comments.

Toby Bell, a Chicago-based research director with Gartner, sees the acquisitions as a response to market demands for end-to-end content management functionality in one suite. Captiva's front-end capture capabilities and Acartus' archiving capabilities enable EMC to offer a comprehensive solution under single management. The vendor may have faced deal-breaking demands when lacking these capabilities, Bell speculates. "IT governance may have said, 'If you don't own this technology and we can't come to you as the one throat to choke, then you're not a candidate,'" he says.

Anthony O'Donnell has covered technology in the insurance industry since 2000, when he joined the editorial staff of Insurance & Technology. As an editor and reporter for I&T and the InformationWeek Financial Services of TechWeb he has written on all areas of information ... View Full Bio