This isn't too cool: "E-mails claiming to come from a Xerox WorkCentre Pro photocopier have been spammed widely across the internet, containing a malicious file as an attachment."
Presumably, this is another reason you buy the third-party capture software rather than going with the bundled scanning app.
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Copanion Acquired
Remember these guys? They basically leveraged the Tesseract OCR technology and some internal software development to create a SaaS for capturing images and data of/from forms related to tax returns. Companion is focused on the professional returns market, and we estimated it did about $3 million in business during the 2010 tax season (2009 returns.) Here's a story we did on Companion last year after meeting CEO Ed Jennings at Harvey Spencer's annual Capture Conference.
Jennings was targeting something like $10 million in annual revenue for this year's tax season. We're not sure how they made out, but we did find that the company was recently sold to Drake Software - "a leading tax preparation software vendor." Strategically, the deal makes a lot of sense.
According to the press release, the "aacquisition accelerates Drake's calculated move into the SaaS space." "GruntWorx [Copanion's product brand] allows us to rapidly expand our offerings into the cutting-edge document automation technology arena. This enables us to provide tax professionals with a true end-to-end paperless tax solution and deliver extremely high accuracy rates," said John Sapp, Vice President of Strategic Development at Drake Software.
"Cutting-edge document automation technology arena," -- Like that description.
Aapparently Drake is privately held, so we couldn't find any info about how much it paid for Copanion, but we reported last year that Copanion had raised at least $16 million in venture financing, including a $10.2 million round that closed just two years ago. So, we're guessing Drake paid at least $25 million. (Does anyone have any insights into a typical multiple paid for a company just two years after taking on such a large round of financing?) If that's the case, if certainly proves out the value of a vertical focus.
Jennings was targeting something like $10 million in annual revenue for this year's tax season. We're not sure how they made out, but we did find that the company was recently sold to Drake Software - "a leading tax preparation software vendor." Strategically, the deal makes a lot of sense.
According to the press release, the "aacquisition accelerates Drake's calculated move into the SaaS space." "GruntWorx [Copanion's product brand] allows us to rapidly expand our offerings into the cutting-edge document automation technology arena. This enables us to provide tax professionals with a true end-to-end paperless tax solution and deliver extremely high accuracy rates," said John Sapp, Vice President of Strategic Development at Drake Software.
"Cutting-edge document automation technology arena," -- Like that description.
Aapparently Drake is privately held, so we couldn't find any info about how much it paid for Copanion, but we reported last year that Copanion had raised at least $16 million in venture financing, including a $10.2 million round that closed just two years ago. So, we're guessing Drake paid at least $25 million. (Does anyone have any insights into a typical multiple paid for a company just two years after taking on such a large round of financing?) If that's the case, if certainly proves out the value of a vertical focus.
Thursday, August 25, 2011
Kofax Signs $2.6 million Check Capture Deal
With the Brazilian subsidiary of one of its global banking customers.
From today's press release: "The Brazilian subsidiary will implement Kofax Capture, Kofax Transformation Modules and Kofax Monitor to automate and accelerate the processing of approximately 240 million checks it receives annually. The Kofax software will enable the customer to perform digital check scanning at the branch level, thereby removing the need to physically ship paper checks from branches to a central location for processing. Following the truncation process, the check images and data will be routed to the bank’s proprietary financial processing application."
Didn't know they were in that business, but it seems like a great deal for Kofax.
Also thought the news earlier this week was interesting that Kofax, "has entered into a new, three year $40 million revolving line of credit facility with Bank of America Merrill Lynch. The credit facility replaces the company’s prior $16 million facility with another bank." It's no secret that in the wake of the sale of its hardware distribution business, Kofax has been interested in using it close to $100 million in the bank to make an acquisition. You would think the new line of credit would further facilitate such a move. Stay tuned.
From today's press release: "The Brazilian subsidiary will implement Kofax Capture, Kofax Transformation Modules and Kofax Monitor to automate and accelerate the processing of approximately 240 million checks it receives annually. The Kofax software will enable the customer to perform digital check scanning at the branch level, thereby removing the need to physically ship paper checks from branches to a central location for processing. Following the truncation process, the check images and data will be routed to the bank’s proprietary financial processing application."
Didn't know they were in that business, but it seems like a great deal for Kofax.
Also thought the news earlier this week was interesting that Kofax, "has entered into a new, three year $40 million revolving line of credit facility with Bank of America Merrill Lynch. The credit facility replaces the company’s prior $16 million facility with another bank." It's no secret that in the wake of the sale of its hardware distribution business, Kofax has been interested in using it close to $100 million in the bank to make an acquisition. You would think the new line of credit would further facilitate such a move. Stay tuned.
Friday, August 19, 2011
Document Boss on HP Acquisition of Autonomy
Thought they did a fairly good job on this:
Few highlights from it:
Price: "$10.3B, (HP's) largest technology acquisition to date. This reflects premium valuations of 8.3 x Revenue; 16.5x of EBITDA, and 26.8x of P/E, all based upon 2012 consensus estimates for Autonomy results. As a public company, this reflects an approximate 60% premium over today’s share price and, in excess of a 50% premium, over average share price in 2011."
Key Effects:
Valuations will continue to hold and increase in the (ECM) sector. Larger companies will continue to pay enhanced multiples for companies they truly desire. This fact will be positive for all sector companies as they pursue exit strategies."
"While consolidation persists, the sector will continue to expand! In every major deal, key people will leave. In many cases, they will eventually start new companies aimed at solving highly specific business problems. We see this trend continuing; perhaps a new “replace Autonomy” market will emerge."
Don't mean to plagerize, but I think they did a great job discussing some of the stuff related to this partifular move.
Few highlights from it:
Price: "$10.3B, (HP's) largest technology acquisition to date. This reflects premium valuations of 8.3 x Revenue; 16.5x of EBITDA, and 26.8x of P/E, all based upon 2012 consensus estimates for Autonomy results. As a public company, this reflects an approximate 60% premium over today’s share price and, in excess of a 50% premium, over average share price in 2011."
Key Effects:
Valuations will continue to hold and increase in the (ECM) sector. Larger companies will continue to pay enhanced multiples for companies they truly desire. This fact will be positive for all sector companies as they pursue exit strategies."
"While consolidation persists, the sector will continue to expand! In every major deal, key people will leave. In many cases, they will eventually start new companies aimed at solving highly specific business problems. We see this trend continuing; perhaps a new “replace Autonomy” market will emerge."
Don't mean to plagerize, but I think they did a great job discussing some of the stuff related to this partifular move.
Tuesday, August 09, 2011
AnyDoc and Image Integration Systems Advance Partnership
Document capture specialist AnyDoc has announced announced a partnership with Image Integration Systems (IIS). IIS is a document imaging and workflow specialist that has traditionally focused on image-enabling J.D. Edwards environments and recently picked up some venture funding to help it expand into the Oracle market.
According to the press release, "To complement this solution, IIS leverages the advanced data capture of AnyDoc®INVOICE™ as the intelligent “on ramp” to integrated AP automation."
According to the press release, "To complement this solution, IIS leverages the advanced data capture of AnyDoc®INVOICE™ as the intelligent “on ramp” to integrated AP automation."
Wednesday, August 03, 2011
Dilbert on Mobile Computer
Check out today's, Aug. 3, Dilbert. Reminds me of a lot of the conversations I've been having recently about mobile computers.
TIS Posts Strong Half -Year
With Kofax apparently struggling a bit in the second quarter, Top Image Systems, a competitor of theirs in the capture market (albeit a much smaller organization, but clearly focused on the same space) delivered exceptionally strong second-quarter and half-year numbers this morning. TIS reported six-month 2011 revenue of $14.2 million - representing close to 40% growth over the previous year. TIS also reported income of close to $2 million, more than double its total from the 2010 first half.
TIS CEO Ido Schecther commented (in the press release), "We continued to successfully implement our growth strategy by focusing on our banking platform and digital mailroom solutions along with our channel partner program. Significant projects awarded this quarter included a partnership with Konica Minolta Spain, the recently announced selection of Digital Mailroom by leading UK financial outsourcing firm HML, and a joint win with Williams Lea at a major German bank.
"This quarter we saw progress in new growth geographies such as the US, UK and Asia Pacific, in addition to our traditional stronghold in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The debenture activity that the Company recently executed was another step in the Company’s program to reduce its debt. As a result, we are maintaining our guidance for revenue of 20% - 25% and, considering efficiencies in our operations, are increasing our guidance for profitability from our prior range of 17% - 23% to 40% - 60% for the year.”
TIS CEO Ido Schecther commented (in the press release), "We continued to successfully implement our growth strategy by focusing on our banking platform and digital mailroom solutions along with our channel partner program. Significant projects awarded this quarter included a partnership with Konica Minolta Spain, the recently announced selection of Digital Mailroom by leading UK financial outsourcing firm HML, and a joint win with Williams Lea at a major German bank.
"This quarter we saw progress in new growth geographies such as the US, UK and Asia Pacific, in addition to our traditional stronghold in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The debenture activity that the Company recently executed was another step in the Company’s program to reduce its debt. As a result, we are maintaining our guidance for revenue of 20% - 25% and, considering efficiencies in our operations, are increasing our guidance for profitability from our prior range of 17% - 23% to 40% - 60% for the year.”
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
