Enterprise software provider OpenText has agreed to acquire US-based application and data management software developer Liaison Technologies for about $310m, allowing corporates including pharmaceutical firm Merck & Co to exit.
Founded in 2001, Liaison produces software that helps a base of more than 4,000 enterprise customers integrate their business applications and manage data.
The company’s Alloy platform also includes a cloud-based monitoring and visualisation tool for business and transaction activity called Lens, and a data mapping and translation system dubbed Contivo which Merck uses in all its clinical trials.
OpenText plans to add the company’s technology to its own integration offering, particularly for customers in the life sciences and healthcare sector.
Liaison had raised $90m pre-acquisition, including two $30m investments by Merck’s Global Health Innovation Fund in 2012 and 2015, and $15m supplied by professional services firm Accenture in 2014 in connection with a partnership agreement.
Other Liaison backers include logistics firm UPS’s Strategic Enterprise Fund, growth equity firm Verdane Capital and venture capital firm Forté Ventures, though none of them have disclosed precisely when they invested.
