EMC acquires compliance software vendor Archer

Apparently EMC Corp. didn't get everything it wanted for Christmas. It kicked off the new year by acquiring Archer Technologies for its Archer SmartSuite Framework governance, risk and compliance software. The terms of the agreement, which are expected to conclude in the first quarter, were not disclosed.

Neither EMC nor Archer responded to inquiries by press time, but according to an article [1] in Archer's hometown newspaper, "CEO Jon Darbyshire said he thought the company had gone about as far as it could go on its own and needed help gaining the market presence it would need to survive." The company had more than $30 million in revenue last year, an increase from $23 million in revenue the year before.

The nine-year-old company has 138 employees, most of whom, including Darbyshire, are expected to stay. In fact, he expects up to 100 employees to be added in the next year, the newspaper said.

Archer is currently used by about 6 million enterprises, but only by 25 percent of Fortune 100 companies, including EMC itself. EMC products are widely used in the Fortune 100. EMC reportedly spent two years evaluating the market before deciding upon Archer.

Archer will be part of EMC's RSA Security division, where EMC indicated it would be coupled with RSA's data loss prevention, security information and event management products. EMC acquired RSA Security in 2006. EMC also suggested it would integrate the Archer software with EMC Ionix, which is intended to help users automate IT configuration change and compliance across physical and virtual server, network and storage environments. The Archer software will also be used by EMC's Consulting division, the company said.

For more information:
- see the press release [2]

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