Fireworks this week aren't limited to 4th of July celebrations—they also take the form of e-discovery M&A as the market continues to consolidate.

Xact Data Discovery (XDD) announced today the acquisition of QDiscovery, looking to expand its discovery services in the U.S. Midwest and east coast. Through the deal, QDiscovery will now operate under the XDD brand, and its e-discovery, forensics, managed review and consulting services will be integrated into XDD's similar preexisting services.

Financial details of the transaction have not been made public.

Connecticut-based QDiscovery also operates offices in offices in Chicago, Indianapolis, Boston, D.C., Houston, Minneapolis and Phoenix, while Kansas-based XDD has offices in 16 U.S. locations and two in India. The increased scale that comes with combining the operations of these two companies was a major driver behind the deal, noted XDD president and CEO Bob Polus in a press release.

“As we continue to explore, expand and scale business operations within key markets nationwide, merging forces with QDiscovery further strengthens our presence in the Midwest and on the east coast,” Polus said. “Congruent with XDD's culture, the QDiscovery team thrives on providing exemplary client service, making it a natural fit for our company as we continue to scale our e-discovery, forensics and managed review services.”

Similar to other companies in the e-discovery industry, an influx of private capital may be behind XDD's expansion. Private equity firm JLL Partners acquired XDD in early 2018, in a deal that represented JLL's first venture into e-discovery. At that time, Polus told Legaltech News that the deal would expand XDD's customer base “with law firms and corporations in tier-1 and tier-2 markets nationwide, with an ongoing emphasis on training and education for customers and staff.” He had also noted that XDD would “continue to expand our merger and acquisition strategy nationwide in multiple markets for the foreseeable future.”

XDD is certainly no stranger to M&A, having acquired QUiVX's e-discovery service in early 2019 in a bid to expand geographically to the western U.S. Even before the JLL funding, the company also previously acquired F1 Discovery and Orange Legal Technologies in 2016.

QDiscovery had also been growing in recent days, focusing particularly on mobile discovery with the introduction of its QPrivAlert and QMobile Insight platforms. The company had also been on the acquiring end of M&A recently itself, having acquired northeast U.S. e-discovery provider Evidox last November.

QDiscovery CEO David Barrett noted in a press release, “Joining forces with XDD further empowers our joint vision to provide exemplary service to clients. Similar to QDiscovery's culture, XDD's people, strategy and grit are laser-focused on doing whatever it takes to exceed customer expectations. Joining the XDD family is a natural fit for our company as we strive to expand market share together nationwide.”

Legaltech News has reached out to XDD and QDiscovery for more information and will update as it becomes known.