Provo's AccessData acquires Portland legal software company

AccessData, a digital forensics provider based in Provo with offices also in London and Germany, has been acquired by Portland-based legal software provider Exterro for a reported “nine figures.”

“With AccessData’s forensic investigation capabilities and broad customer base spanning corporations and government and law enforcement agencies across the globe, Exterro will now play a critical role in addressing some of the world’s more pressing civil challenges including government investigations, freedom of information requisitions along with criminal matters such as the elimination of child pornography and forced sexual trafficking,” said a statement accompanying the announcement.

“Converging market forces in digital forensics and incident response (DFIR), e-discovery, privacy and information governance are the driving factors behind this acquisition. To effectively address these critical challenges requires the ability to identify, preserve, analyze and present data in a contextual manner, quickly and inexpensively. It also requires a consistent, defensible process,” said Bobby Balachandran, CEO of Exterro. “Ensuring the integrity of the data supply chain is of the utmost importance. With the acquisition of AccessData, Exterro combines all of these capabilities in a single, integrated platform to give organizations a holistic framework for addressing their governance, risk management and compliance (GRC) challenges and obligations.”
“This is an exciting day for AccessData customers. As the leading legal GRC technology provider, Exterro offers a portfolio that perfectly complements our own innovations,” said Ken Naumann, CEO at AccessData. “The acquisition will bring tremendous new value to our users, helping them strengthen and defensibly accelerate end-to-end forensic investigations and e-discovery. Exterro shares our deep commitment to FTK and is dedicating significant resources and investment to drive additional innovation throughout the combined product lines, with the common goal of taking customer satisfaction to new heights while ensuring the highest level of data integrity.”

Exterro will retain AccessData’s entire management team, Naumann said. The Utah company’s 150 employees will “play a significant role” in the combined business as AccessData’s products will be fully integrated into Exterro’s e-discovery and legal GRC solutions.