Open Text has finalised its acquisition of ECM provider Hummingbird and immediately commenced product re-branding

October 4, 2006: Open Text has finalised its acquisition of ECM provider Hummingbird and immediately commenced product re-branding

Hummingbird had originally turned aside an approach from Symphony Technology Group. In accepting the offer from Open Text, the Canadian based software provider will merge in to its once archrival and fellow ECM provider to create a single entity in the ECM space.

An immediate change to the branding of Hummingbird solutions commenced once the acquisition was finalised. While products relating to Hummingbird’s Red Dot Solutions have been left alone, their ECM suite has been rebranded as Livelink ECM – eDocs. A complete overhaul of Hummingbird’s website has also taken effect immediately.

Open Text was an original, minor shareholder of Hummingbird and is said to have finalised the deal with an additional $US489 million.

The acquisition involving two of the largest ECM providers in the world is set to strengthen Open Text’s dominance in the market. Yet there is a distinct overlap in some of the merged products. Most notably, the similarities of Hummingbird Enterprise, Hummingbird R/KYV and Open Text Livelink - ECM.

Open Text is expected to make further announcements in the next two weeks and release its future product plans at its Livelink Global User conference, in Arizona, US in November.

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