Lexology Parent LBR Buys Docket Navigator + CloudNine Buys ESI Analyst

It’s only been a week since the last legal tech M&A deal and here come two more. The first sees Law Business Research (LBR), of which Lexology is part, acquire US-based Docket Navigator, a litigation information platform.

While at the same time, eDiscovery technology provider CloudNine has announced the acquisition of ESI Analyst, which helps with the onboarding and management of file types connected to mobile, chat, and social media in eDiscovery projects.

In relation to the Docket Navigator deal, the US company, which started back in 2006 and is based in Texas, provides a range of litigation data, especially around IP matters. It tracks ‘every significant event in every patent infringement case in every US district court, the Court of Federal Claims, the International Trade Commission (ITC), and AIA proceedings before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB)’ among other key case data.

Meanwhile, LBR, which is a portfolio company of Levine Leichtman Capital Partners, is a growing legal intelligence platform that includes brands such as IAM, World Trademark Review and Global Competition Review, the legal information company Lexology – as noted, along with the Latin Lawyer publication, International Law Office and Who’s Who Legal.

Nick Brailey, CEO of LBR, said in a statement: ‘Law Business Research and Docket Navigator both provide data-driven, technology-enabled, subscription platforms that naturally complement each other. By combining the two businesses, our brands will be able to offer unparalleled coverage across patent and trademark litigation in the United States.

‘The acquisition brings an extremely valuable content set and additional depth of data capabilities to LBR, and supports LBR’s stated ambition of becoming a world-class, data-driven, technology-enabled information services business. Darryl and the entire Docket Navigator team have built an exceptional business, and I am very excited to get the opportunity to work together and to explore the opportunities that this combination provides.’

And, Darryl Towell, CEO of Docket Navigator, added: ‘Joining LBR positions both companies for immediate and long-term growth. LBR and Docket Navigator share a common vision and are like-minded in their core values.  LBR provides access to the operational tools and resources needed to scale Docket Navigator’s unique data sets and deep data curation expertise. Going forward, Docket Navigator will be able to accelerate investment in its platforms and enhance ongoing product evolution.’

And, going back to the eDiscovery deal, Tony Caputo, CloudNine’s Chairman and CEO, said: ‘CloudNine’s customers continue to voice their need for a single platform to defensibly process, analyse, review, and produce both modern and traditional data. And we are very excited to now provide both of these important capabilities to the market.’

ESI Analyst’s Founder and CEO, Trent Livingston, concluded: ‘We are absolutely thrilled to join the CloudNine family. Modern discovery is more than documents. It’s about telling the story. ESI Analyst’s leading standard for modern data combined with CloudNine’s longstanding and robust suite of discovery tools delivers a defensible, robust, unified platform to investigate, review and analyse both modern and traditional data.’