M&A Update: NetDocuments, Brightflag And Smarsh | LPI

There has been a flurry of merger and acquisitions, see below for recent announcements.

NetDocuments acquires Afterpattern the document automation toolkit

The leading cloud-based document service and comprehensive content platform, NetDocuments announce its acquisition of Afterpattern, the toolkit to automate legal documents and workflow for law firms, courts or any legal aid. Afterpattern is designed to allow lawyers and legal support workers to focus on more complex problems by automating legal processes e.g. app builder, template editor, securing a cloud-based database, and build web portals. Furthermore, it enables a more affordable, easy-to-use and timely legal service for clients while enhancing productivity using the Afterpattern app.

“As we continue our journey to help legal professionals do their best work, we are always looking for new technology that will accelerate this path forward. Adding Afterpattern to the NetDocuments platform is a prime example,” stated Josh Baxter, NetDocuments CEO.

“One of the things we hear consistently is that lawyers and their teams need to build more automation into their legal workflows –– from making requests to capturing data, to generating complex sets of documents. When I saw the sophistication and capabilities of the Afterpattern legal practice automations, I knew this is what many of our customers are looking for today.”

The co-Founder and Design Lead of Afterpattern highlights that NetDocuments is the perfect environment for Afterpattern’s automation builder. “Almost every legal workflow includes a document or email, so what better place to build those automations than the leading secure, cloud-based document management system.”

Source: NetDocuments

Brightflag acquires Joinder for end-to-end legal operations solution

The AI-powered legal operations platform, Brightflag, acquires Joinder, the system of record that legal professionals at more than 1,000 organisations use to securely track activities, collaborate with colleagues and store work assets. Joinder will be renamed Brightflag Workspace, which allows task management, sharing of calendars, document collaboration and storage, communication all in one space that is highly secured and protected. 

"The feedback from Joinder users unanimously matched our own first impression: It's the most intuitive and impressive collaboration platform designed for legal professionals we've ever seen," said Ian Nolan, Brightflag CEO and Co-Founder. "We're excited to empower corporate legal departments with a best-in-class product that addresses an additional set of legal operations requirements and we're thrilled to be gaining a group of exceptionally talented colleagues in the process."

"Brightflag shares our view of what legal innovation should look like and has a proven record of delivering secure, cloud-based solutions that are easy to adopt and use," said Don Keller, Joinder CEO and Co-Founder. "That fundamental alignment will enable us to quickly integrate our complementary strengths and provide a comprehensive solution that modern legal professionals can trust in the most demanding scenarios."

Source: Brightflag

Smarsh acquires Digital Safe product portfolio from Micro Focus

Smarsh, the leading electronic communications archiving solution provider is to acquire Digital Safe archiving and risk management portfolio, along with the complementary offerings of Social Media Governance, Supervisor and eDiscovery in early 2022. 

Through the acquisition of Digital Safe, it is to accelerate the global expansion strategy, by broadening its customer base, technology and building a team of experts, which all contribute to strengthening Smarsh's position. 

“We’re excited to welcome Digital Safe archiving customers and employees to the Smarsh family,” said Brian Cramer, Smarsh CEO. “Existing mutual customers will benefit from this union through greater continuity in their communications infrastructure and communications data strategy. This acquisition also enables Smarsh to better serve our cross-border financial services customers and to expand our footprint in other heavily regulated industries.”

“This is a strong, strategic move that enables greater global innovation and growth for both Digital Safe and the Smarsh customer base,” said Scott Richards, Senior VP and GM of Information Management and Governance at Micro Focus. “Smarsh has built its growth and reputation through electronic communications archiving and compliance, with continued innovation in artificial intelligence and cloud deployability. This focus will serve Digital Safe customers well, who will be able to leverage Smarsh capture capabilities on day one to deliver new content sources to their existing Digital Safe environments.”

Source: Smarsh

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