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For the past several years, Asia has represented one of the largest growing markets for e-discovery services. The increase in demand, though, has led to some issues with e-discovery software providers, both in translating East Asian languages for e-discovery tools, as well as complying with local discovery and data protection regulations.

Legal services company Epiq, one of the largest e-discovery companies in the industry, is tackling this issue through a method that is becoming increasingly common: M&A. On June 1, Epiq announced its acquisition of Tokyo-based Soliton Systems' e-discovery business, formerly known as Ji2. Financial details for the transaction have not been announced.

Soliton Systems is primarily known for its IT security, video communication and eco-device businesses. In e-discovery, however, it is known for its patented, proprietary technology that optimizes Japanese character set processing. While Epiq has been able to process such characters since launching in Japan in 2013, Caroline Woodman, Epiq's managing director in Asia, said Soliton's technology will “augment our existing solutions.”

“This technology has been proven in the market—it's been used and developed by Ji2 over many years and projects,” Woodman told Legaltech News. “The technology was not the only reason for the acquisition, but we believe it is strong technology that will bring benefit to our Japanese clients, so it made sense to bring it on board.”

Indeed, ingesting and processing Asian language characters has traditionally been a barrier to many U.S. service providers' e-discovery technologies. Woodman identified such as among “the biggest pain points” in Japanese e-discovery, describing it as “emblematic of the wider differences in the Asian market and the challenges they can present” in various stages of the discovery process.

“By adding depth of local knowledge and expertise with the global scale and capability of Epiq, we believe we can help local Japanese clients as well as multinational clients with operations or data in Japan in a more efficient and effective way,” she said. “That includes having Japanese-speaking subject matter experts on the ground, broadening the e-discovery solutions available to Japanese clients, and having a global support structure that can cover clients' matters 24/7.”

In addition, Epiq will be bringing on board Soliton's e-discovery experts within Japan, growing a stable of international e-discovery managers that has only grown since the company formerly known as Epiq Systems was purchased by fellow e-discovery company DTI in 2016.

The move isn't Epiq's first into the Japanese market. The company began offering e-discovery services there in 2013, later providing court reporting services to global companies operating in the country. Regarding Epiq's prior relationship with Soliton, Woodman said members of Epiq's Japan team previously worked for the acquired company, and that there has been “contact between the businesses over the years.”

2018 has been a banner year for e-discovery M&A thus far. Among the deals in recent months are Catalyst's acquisition of TotalDiscovery, CloudNine's acquisition of the LexisNexis E-Discovery Suite, and the merger of Consilio and Advanced Discovery.