Open Text acquires Metastorm

Open Text, a content management company, completed its acquisition of Baltimore-based Metastorm for $182 million, reports Baltimore Sun.

Metastorm provides business process management (BPM) software to government and commercial clients globally. Open Text says it plans to integrate Metastorm's process management software solutions into its own content management software offerings to customers. Open Text has more than 100 million users in 114 countries.

According to Business Journal, Metastorm will retain its brand name and Web site, and the report states no jobs have been cut so far.

The publication says, the acquisition means an end to previous ambitions Metastorm held to become publicly traded as an independent company. OpenText is publicly traded in both the US and Canada. Metastorm had filed to go public in 2008 but cancelled those plans when the recession hit.

According to the company, a public offering was still not in the cards because of continued weakness in the stock market, but Metastorm was also not actively seeking buyers when the deal was struck.

According to Gartner, the BPM market was valued at $1.9 billion in 2009, growing 15% that year.

PR Newswire says many processes involve content and thus require content management. With Metastorm, OpenText can now address any type of business process, whether the focus is content-centricity or process centricity.

According to the publication, OpenText's strategy is to add to existing solutions with new, uniquely powerful case management solutions used in areas such as customer on-boarding or claims processing, where the effective delivery of knowledge and content are a critical part of the overall business process.