In a move to bolster its content management portfolio of services, IBM has purchased Green Pastures Software, a specialist in enterprise content management tools.
The privately-held firm, which is based in Oregon, provides document management software that helps businesses collaborate, edit and manage multiple documents online and in real-time.
Such documents include spreadsheets, multimedia files and computer aided design (CAD) references, which may be used in financial reports and product manuals.
Terms of the purchase were not announced. Green Pasture’s operations and 17 employees will be integrated into IBM’s
business and Green Pasture products will be available immediately from IBM, the companies said Wednesday.
The purchase helps IBM further position enterprise content management (ECM) as a segment within its DB2 Information Management portfolio. The software is geared to help customers develop and corral their business documents from creation to disposal.
Content management has become increasingly important in the last two years. After the fallout of accounting scandals of Enron and
Worldcom, and the new government regulations that followed in their wake, companies are increasingly required to improve their record-keeping assets and content management systems.
The federal requirements, which span government, financial services,
pharmaceutical and other regulated industries, are fueling acquisitions and
partnerships in the ECM space.
In October, storage systems giant EMC moved to
acquire Documentum for $1.7 billion to bulk up its
information lifecycle management (ILM) strategy for managing data creation
from its inception until it may be disposed. Open Text followed a week later
by bidding
about $250 million for IXOS Software.
IBM is well-entrenched in the ECM space, which research firm Meta Group
places in the $9 billion range. The purchase of Green Pasture marks the
third such purchase for Big Blue in the space since 2002. IBM purchased Tarian’s
records management software in November 2002 and Aptrix’s Web
content management software in July 2003.
Gartner Dataquest recently named IBM as the worldwide market share leader in
this space with 34 percent growth in new license revenue, leading other
large ECM providers such as FileNet, Interwoven
and Open Text.
