technology M&A

Earlier this week, e-discovery service provider Business Intelligence Associates, Inc. (BIA) announced the acquisition of U.S. Legal Support Inc.'s (USLS) e-discovery and computer forensics division.

Through the acquisition, “roughly 15” USLS e-discovery and computer forensics professionals will join BIA under the acquiring company's name, Brian Schrader, CEO and co-founder of BIA, told LTN. Among them are project managers, data technicians and computer experts. No new executives will be joining BIA through the acquisition. BIA also will bring in USLS technology, workflows and customer service professionals.

USLS will remain its own company, focusing mainly on court reporting, record retrieval and trial services. Schrader said the acquisition brings BIA new clients as well. Prior, the company's client base was mainly comprised of corporate clients. For USLS, “almost all their business is law firms,” he said.

Schrader said that “to a certain extent,” BIA is moving to take a bigger stake in the rapidly consolidating e-discovery industry.

“I'm not going to try to be the next LDiscovery or DTI who does massive roll-ups, partly because it's not our corporate mission just to get big, which I think is a lot of the stuff behind [consolidation],” he said. “I think there's hundreds, if not thousands, of providers out there, because it's so fragmented. We'll continue to look at other companies out there as they come along.”

As for upcoming acquisitions, he noted that he's “had conversations with people considering putting their e-discovery businesses up on the market,” no concrete decisions or considerations have been made. However, he added, BIA won't likely start seriously considering opportunities until the first quarter.

BIA wants to acquire “as long as it makes sense,” he added. “We're not going for acquisitions for acquisitions' sake.”

The acquisition of USLS's divisions isn't BIA's first organizational shift in the past 12 months. In January 2017, the company brought on Scott Hammer as VP of technology, along with a senior project manager and two national account directors. In December 2016, meanwhile, BIA began licensing Veritone Legal's AI platform for audio and video analysis in e-discovery and compliance efforts.

But these shifts are reflective of new tools BIA has already developed in-house to capture a wider array of the EDRM. In 2011, BIA released its subscription service TotalDiscovery.com Legal Hold, which allowed users to manage a legal hold life cycle through an internet browser-based dashboard. And in 2013, the company released Data Extractor, a tool for channel partners reselling the cloud-based TotalDiscovery software to give customers the ability to use their choice of processing tools.

USLS could not be reached for comment.