Business Objects Acquires Inxight Software

Enterprise software maker Business Objects said it has reached an agreement to acquire Inxight Software, a Sunnyvale, Calif.-based developer of data search and discovery tools.

Business Objects said it plans to add Inxight's applications for unstructured information discovery to its business intelligence offerings. "Our customers want to use the full spectrum of available data to make the best decisions possible," said John Schwarz, CEO of Business Objects, in a statement.

Unstructured information includes e-mails, Web content, documents and other material not formatted for database searches. Roughly 80% of all corporate data is unstructured, Business Objects estimates.

Inxight applications for text analytics, federated search, and visualization will become part of the Business Objects XI platform, Business Objects said.

Inxight's customers include DaimlerChrysler, Morgan Stanley, Yahoo and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Inxight, which was born out of the Xerox PARC research center, has about 120 employees and posted revenues of more than $25 million in 2006. Financial terms of the transaction, formally disclosed Wednesday, were not disclosed.

The deal is the latest example of increasing consolidation in the software industry.

On Thursday, Germany's Software AG -- a developer of tools used to create service oriented architectures -- said U.S. regulators approved its $546 million acquisition of webMethods. Last week, Microsoft announced a deal to acquire Web advertising firm aQuantive for $6 billion.

Earlier this month, Oracle reached a $495 million agreement to acquire project lifecycle management specialist Agile Software.

Business Objects said it expects the deal to close in July 2007.