Document Management Deals Stack Paper by Shrinking Paper Stacks

Document Management Deals Stack Paper by Shrinking Paper Stacks
Document management and the digitization of legacy record systems is a necessary transition for companies in today’s digital marketplace. Recent M&A activity in the space has reflected this trend with a spate of document management transactions earning substantial valuations over the past twelve months. Companies from every industry can improve their efficiency through the conversion of records and documents from “paper to PDF.” As such, a wide range of customers has ushered in a wide range of acquirers, leading to an increase in demand and valuations throughout the document management space.

Most recently, in May, Litera Microsystems, a document management software provider to the legal, life science, and corporate communities, was acquired by Hg Capital for $42.3 million. This transaction comes at the end of a three-year period in which the US-based Litera is said to have tripled its revenue.

Also in May, clearinghouse and global exchange and NYSE parent company, Intercontinental Exchange (NYSE:ICE), acquired records management software & SaaS company, Simplifile, for $335 million. Simplifile’s capabilities are expected to “enhance ICE’s efforts to further streamline a legacy process ripe for innovation” says Chris McEntee, President of ICE Mortgage Services.

Completed on May 7th, this year, Coupa Software (NasdaqGS:COUP), the cloud-based enterprise spend management platform provider, acquired contract management SaaS company, Exari Group, for $215 million. The contract lifecycle management provider expands Coupa’s existing capabilities in CLM to allow for management of the entire contract eco-system.

Another notable transaction came in the form of Dropbox’s (NASDAQ: DBX) purchase of E-signature & document management SaaS provider HelloSign for $230 million in January 2019. While DropBox is already a well-known player in the document management and cloud storage space, this acquisition is expected to bolster its existing product suite and help attract more enterprise users to what was initially considered mostly a consumer storage platform.