EMC To Pay $275M For Document Imaging ISV Captiva

EMC Software on Thursday said it pay about $275 million in cash for Captiva Software, a leading vendor in the document-management space.

Captiva's product line includes a variety of applications for enterprise-class forms processing, data capture, invoice processing, e-mail image processing and scanning. The San Diego-based vendor also targets the medical imaging market.

The latest acquisition extends EMC's information lifecycle management (ILM) strategy -- combining with the content management technology it acquired with Documentum to automate both the input and management of documents, said Whitney Tidmarsh, EMC's vice president of solutions marketing.

"Over the last two years, EMC started to focus on solutions for financial and healthcare customers," she said. "As we moved more and more into this space, Captiva has become a natural fit."

About 60 percent of Captiva's sales are direct, but Tidmarsh said EMC sees the channel playing an important role in the future. When EMC bought Documentum, that company had a small indirect business, but Tidmarsh said more Documentum sales now move through the channel. That's especially true for software handling online electronic collaboration and for records management.

Captiva customers include Prudential Financial, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Discover Financial Services, Bank of America and the federal government.

The deal is expected to close late this year or early next year.