OpenText announced Thursday it has acquired e-discovery company Catalyst Repository Systems for $75 million in an all-cash deal. In a press release, the company noted that Catalyst will be integrated into OpenText's Discovery Solutions.

Representatives from OpenText and Catalyst were not available to comment on the acquisition by publication time. However, in a blog post discussing the acquisition, Opentext CEO and CTO Mark Barrenechea said that by purchasing Catalyst, OpenText will broaden its customer base and exposure in the global legal market and expand the scope of its capabilities.

“The Catalyst Insight product line complements our current e-discovery portfolio: Additional functionality includes multi-matter document support, legal hold and hold order management and subject matter expertise in e-discovery managed services,” Barrenechea said.

He added, “Catalyst brings 20 years of proven success with top corporations and legal firms to the OpenText Legal portfolio, including localized knowledge, language and expertise in Asia.”

The acquisition of Catalyst comes less than a year after OpenText changed its approach to how it develops and sells its legal products. In August 2018, the company moved to have its various legal product teams to work closer together, and established a single point for all legal clients.

Adam Kuhn, senior product marketing manager of discovery at OpenText, told Legaltech News that the move to streamline internal operations represented a “refined focus on legal… and a reflection of the company's desires to not only serve the legal market, but invest in legal solutions.”

The Catalyst acquisition is the latest in a string of purchases by OpenText that have expanded its portfolio and reach over the past few years. In June 2016, the company acquired e-discovery software provider Recommind for $163 million, while a little more than year later in September 2017 also purchased e-discovery company Guidance Software.

Like Catalyst, the brands and technology of both Guidance and Recommind were fully integrated into OpenText.

OpenText's acquisition of Catalyst also comes at a time when a host of M&A activity is redefining the e-discovery market. Catalyst itself had purchased Totaldiscovery in April 2018, a company which it had previously partnered with in a bid to cover the full EDRM.

And though 2019 is only little more than a month old, it has already seen a number of e-discovery acquisitions. In early January, for instance, Epiq acquired Garretson Resolution Group (GRG), which specializes in mass tort, class action and other high volume legal dispute resolutions services.

Just a week later, managed legal service company Driven acquired e-discovery provider Omnivere, while two days later, e-discovery services firm HaystackID announced it had acquired eTERA Consulting. In the last week of January, Elevate also purchased fellow managed legal services company Yerra Solutions, its fourth acquisition over the past four months.