Captiva captured by EMC. $275m takeover signals consolidation in document capture and ECM sector.

Byline: Kim Thomas.

EMC Documentum, the enterprise content management (ECM) and storage behemoth, is to acquire Captiva, a provider of document capture software, for $275m. A definitive agreement has been signed between the two companies.

"This acquisition allows EMC Documentum to gain access to the customer accounts of competitors that have Captiva systems installed," said John Richardson, capture market analyst at Strategy Partners.

Information professionals can expect to be targeted, he said. "EMC Documentum has traditionally been very strong in maximising opportunities for cross-selling."

Richardson added that the acquisition posed "significant" problems for IBM and Hummingbird, because most of their customers would be using either Captiva or Kofax systems. "This puts pressure on the other content management companies to sort out their document capture strategy," he said.

Pointing to the fact that Kofax's owner, ...