EMC acquires Captiva for $275 million

EMC said Thursday it agreed to acquire Captiva Software, whose products let customers turn paper documents into digital data, for $275 million.

The Hopkinton, Mass.-based company agreed to pay $22.25 per share for Captiva, which amounts to about $275 million once Captiva's cash is factored out, EMC said Thursday. Captiva's stock closed at $18.30 Thursday, but in after-hours trading, it increased $3.45, or 19 percent, to $21.75.

The move continues EMC's transformation from a storage hardware specialist into an information management company. San Diego-based Captiva sells software that can extract information from forms, documents and reports, then export the data to computer systems for processing and storage.

Earlier acquisitions in the same vein in 2003 include Documentum, which lets customers manage large numbers of digital documents; Legato, which sells backup software; and Astrum Software, whose software governs which individuals or groups may access particular files.

A bit further afield, EMC also acquired VMware, a company that has increasingly focused on controlling how work is juggled across groups of servers.

The latest deal requires approval of regulators and Captiva shareholders.

EMC also plans to take a charge of $15 million to $20 million for in-process research and development, the company said. Excluding the charge, EMC expects the acquisition to be neutral to earnings per share for the first full year.

wizardry....

I guess those defense contracts are good for something... acquisitions.. how about Xerox while your at it.. maybe you could go acquire FedEx and Kinkos...

no no no... acquire the US postal service

I wonder what a stamp would cost then...

[Yukimi Konomi]

great old school game. Blade Cuisinart, Werdna...

A classic.

And EMC is making good strides in this market, one should wonder when they would make an attractive merger target with a HP or IBM, or, godforbid, Dell...