Perth-based WiseTime, which also has offices in the UK and US, has ‘entered into a definitive agreement to join Anaqua’, the IP management platform, in an unusual combination of intellectual property and time capture software.
WiseTime’s CEO, Thomas Haines, who started the company in 2012 and then took it global, said: ‘Over 10 years ago, leveraging our experience as practising patent attorneys, we founded WiseTime to help drive efficiency within legal operations. Today we see even greater opportunity ahead with an organisation that shares our same vision.’
The WiseTime team, including Haines, will join Anaqua, and will continue its current operations in Perth, Australia, the company said.
Now, you may ask: IP management and time capture tech for lawyers, what’s the link? This is what Haines said: ‘Our technology is an ideal complement to the breadth and depth of Anaqua’s solutions. Anaqua will continue to enhance our flagship autonomous time capture tool as a standalone offering, in addition to investing in additional features and functionality to complement Anaqua’s two IP management software solutions, AQX and PATTSY WAVE.’
And this is what Bob Romeo, CEO of Anaqua, had to say about the deal: ‘We are excited to welcome the WiseTime team to Anaqua and to continue to invest in, and enhance, WiseTime’s existing and future solutions for the long-term.
‘From the outset, we immediately saw the alignment between WiseTime’s mission and that of Anaqua. The mission remains unchanged and our combined strength to continue delivering market-leading solutions is unmatched.’
Is this a big deal? Not massive, as WiseTime only lists 17 employees on LinkedIn, whereas Anaqua, which is based in Boston and started back in 2004, has around 380 staff. What stands out is the combination of time-keeping tech with an IP platform.
WiseTime has plenty of integrations – as is essential for such software – with many other companies, including Clio, for example. By joining an IP platform they are combining their broader range of clients with another company’s client base that is focused on a specific practice area – however there may be significant overlap and also room for increased synergies.
Whether this means Anaqua is now going to further diversify into other legal tech areas remains to be seen, it could simply be about helping to bolster a platform for IP lawyers. But it could also signify a broader diversification into new segments of the market, thereby allowing Anaqua to grow much larger in scale across the legal sector.