Seagate buys e-discovery company

Seagate Technology will add another e-discovery firm to its portfolio when it buys MetaLINCS.

Storage vendor Seagate Technology said Thursday it plans to buy MetaLINCS, an e-discovery software firm. The vendor's move follows Iron Mountain'spurchase earlier this yearof Stratify, which is also focused on e-discovery.

MetaLINCS' technology will provide Seagate Services Group with an analytics engine complementary to its existing offerings for data archiving, recovery and collection, the company said.

Seagate didn't disclose the deal's financial terms.

MetaLINCS, based in San Jose, California, was founded in 2003 and has more than 50 employees, Seagate said. Its CEO, Ramon Nunez, will be in charge of Seagate Services Group's E-Discovery unit, according to the company.

This is just the latest acquisition for Seagate in 2007. The company, which is based in Scotts Valley, California, also bought EVault, which sells online backup and archiving services to small- and medium-sized businesses.

Seagate shares were trading at US$27.47 Thursday afternoon.

Also this week, Seagate announced that a company director, James A. Davidson, hadresigned from the board on Dec. 3 to pursue other opportunities. The company said the departure was amicable.

Mark Grace, senior vice president and general manager of Seagate Services Group, said the company conducted a thorough investigation of e-discovery companies when considering which one to buy, but would not confirm whether it spoke with Stratify.

"There are dozens of companies that call themselves e-discovery," he said. "But we are particularly impressed with MetaLINCS' efforts in this area. It's extremely fresh and current technology. I want to say the best."

Grace suggested the e-discovery market's potential size is large enough for both Seagate and Iron Mountain to thrive. "We think there's some room for some good brands to come in here," he said.