Although I cannot claim to have predicted that Epiq Systems would buy Iris Data Services, it is one of those acquisitions whose logic seems entirely obvious as soon as it is reported.
Epiq has long shown inventiveness and consistency in its acquisitions, broadening the range of software and services which it offers by buying successful players, as well as by organic growth. It has also spread its eDiscovery net wider in geographic terms, not least in Canada, China and Japan.
No eDiscovery company has been more visibly successful recently than Iris Data Systems. Its managed services provide price certainty across multi-year contracts which combine the best third-party technology and Iris’s proprietary workflow, storage, security and evidence management software. The Iris Arc solution is the most recent winner of Relativity’s Best Service Provider Solution in its Innovation Awards – I wrote about them here
The growing demands for these services (and Iris itself) were specifically referred to in my recent article Electronic Discovery: the In Housers Take Charge in which I mentioned Iris as the obvious example of a provider to whom corporations would delegate eDiscovery functions.
Epiq’s announcement of the acquisition is here, with more information on the strategic and investment value of the Iris acquisition, is here.
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