Acquisition Strengthens Iron Mountain Digital's eDiscovery and Investigation Services
BOSTON and MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Oct 31, 2007 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX News Network/ -- Iron
Mountain Incorporated (NYSE: IRM), the global leader in information protection
and storage services, today announced the signing of a definitive agreement to
acquire Stratify, Inc. for approximately $158 million in cash. Stratify, a
leader in advanced electronic discovery services for the legal market, offers
in-depth discovery and data investigation solutions for AmLaw 200 law firms
and leading Fortune 500 corporations. With this acquisition, Iron Mountain
augments its suite of eDiscovery services, providing businesses with a
complete, end-to-end Discovery Services solution that efficiently manages
paper and digital information for discovery and data investigations,
compliance and associated records management, and litigation matters.
"With today's increased litigation and regulatory investigations,
businesses are facing significant pains associated with the growing cost and
complexity of discovery across tremendous volumes of discoverable
information," said John Clancy, president of Iron Mountain Digital, the
technology arm of Iron Mountain. "In order to help meet our customers' needs
in this area, we began an exhaustive search for the leading provider of
electronic discovery and investigation services. We formed a partnership with
Stratify that has since evolved into a natural extension of the Iron Mountain
Digital portfolio."
Clancy continued, "Stratify provides the most intuitive, advanced and
efficient electronic discovery and data investigation services on the market
today. By combining Stratify's advanced electronic discovery and investigation
capabilities with Iron Mountain's data protection and records management
solutions, we're providing our customers with the ability to meet their
discovery requirements better, faster and more cost-effectively."
As the risks and volume of litigation and regulatory investigations
continue to grow, so do the complexities associated with managing the
exponential growth of information. In acquiring Stratify, Iron Mountain
expands its core data protection and management capabilities by integrating
Stratify's advanced service offerings that address discovery issues for both
paper and digital records. The acquisition enables Iron Mountain to directly
help businesses minimize the risks of eDiscovery by simplifying the electronic
discovery process to facilitate a secure chain of custody, increasing the
accuracy and consistency of review, and enabling attorneys to easily identify
and protect privileged documents during review.
"The electronic discovery process puts a tremendous strain on
organizations, particularly for legal, compliance and IT departments, due to
the huge volumes of information that must be searched and the demanding
deadlines of the legal system," noted Brian Babineau, senior analyst of
Enterprise Strategy Group. "This acquisition is a logical step for Iron
Mountain, a service provider already known for cost-efficient information
storage and management solutions. Our research shows that nearly 40% of North
American corporate counsels expect electronic discovery spending to remain
flat next year. The only way this is feasible is for organizations to work
with partners like Iron Mountain that provide a single point of control that
dramatically increases the speed at which data is retrieved, restored,
organized, indexed and ready for review."
As a division of Iron Mountain Digital, Stratify will continue to provide
its market-leading electronic discovery services and software to AmLaw 200,
Fortune 500 and other firms for investigative, regulatory and litigation
matters, augmented by Iron Mountain's scale and distribution. In addition,
Iron Mountain customers will now be able to maximize their investment in Iron
Mountain Digital's storage and data protection solutions by leveraging the
capabilities of Stratify's solution integrated as a value-added service.
The Stratify Legal Discovery(TM) service enables organizations to drive
down the Total Cost of Review by providing in-house and outside counsel with a
comprehensive, easy-to-use, high-productivity review and analysis solution.
Stratify has consistently pioneered new electronic discovery capabilities
including concept-based review, near-duplicate detection and visual email
analytics that enable customers to achieve review rates that are significantly
higher than in-house systems and other online review systems. The Stratify
Legal Discovery service provides attorneys a single review application for
scanned paper and native electronic documents, securely managing documents
through the entire discovery lifecycle. Stratify's complete feature support
for European and complex, multi-byte languages such as Chinese, Japanese and
Korean removes all barriers to in-depth eDiscovery for corporations active in
today's expanding global economy.
"Joining the Iron Mountain Digital family represents the next evolutionary
development for Stratify's electronic discovery and information management
solutions and business," said Ramana Venkata, CEO and founder of Stratify.
"Integrating our advanced electronic discovery and data investigation
capabilities with the industry leading data protection and records management
provider is critically important to cater to the critical needs of customers
who face increasing regulatory and legal discovery obligations and rapidly
rising costs. With Stratify, Iron Mountain is now the only company that can
collect, protect and store an organization's information, consolidate matter-
specific information from external parties, and deliver high-productivity
results through people, process and unique underlying technology to handle
investigations and discovery requirements quickly and cost-effectively."
The acquisition is subject to regulatory review and customary closing
conditions and is expected to close by the end of the year. Additional
information regarding this transaction will be provided during the Company's
third quarter earnings call scheduled for 11:00AM ET today.
About Stratify, Inc.
Stratify is one of the largest electronic discovery solution providers and
serves many of the AmLaw 200 and leading Fortune 500 corporations. Founded in
September 1999, Stratify is a privately held company that has received funding
from Mobius Venture Capital and In-Q-Tel, the strategic investment firm of the
U.S. Intelligence Community. Stratify is headquartered in Mountain View,
California. For more information about Stratify, please visit
www.stratify.com.
About Iron Mountain Digital
Iron Mountain Digital is the world's leading provider of software- and
storage-as-a service solutions for backup and archiving. The technology arm of
Iron Mountain Incorporated offers a comprehensive suite of data protection and
archiving solutions to thousands of companies around the world, directly and
through a world-wide network of channel partners. Iron Mountain Digital is
based in Southborough, Mass. with European headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany.
About Iron Mountain
Iron Mountain Incorporated (NYSE: IRM) helps organizations around the
world reduce the costs and risks associated with information protection and
storage. The Company offers comprehensive records management and data
protection solutions, along with the expertise and experience to address
complex information challenges such as rising storage costs, litigation,
regulatory compliance and disaster recovery. Founded in 1951, Iron Mountain is
a trusted partner to more than 100,000 corporate clients throughout North
America, Europe, Latin American and Asia Pacific. For more information, visit
the Company's Web site at www.ironmountain.com.
Stratify is a registered trademark and Stratify Legal Discovery is a
trademark of Stratify, Inc.
Investor Relations Contact:
Stephen Golden
Vice President, Investor Relations
sgolden@ironmountain.com
(617) 535-4799
Media Contact:
Laura Sudnik
Senior Public Relations Manager
laura.sudnik@ironmountain.com
(508) 808-7528
SOURCE Iron Mountain Incorporated