British search management software house Autonomy is to acquire US-based Interwoven for $775 million.
Interwoven stockholders will receive $16.20 a share, a premium of 36.8 percent to Wednesday's closing share price of $11.84.
Autonomy will fund the acquisition through a £220 million placing, a new credit facility from Barclays and cash reserves.
The deal will create a combined customer base of over 20,000, including many financial services firms.
Autonomy says the combination of the two companies will redefine how global 2000 corporations discover, analyse and manage information and interactions. The acquisition is also expected to strengthen Autonomy's access to the worldwide legal and compliance industry.
In financial services, Interwoven's Global Capital Markets (GCM) group is central to derivatives management inside many major banks. At a time when regulators are calling for improved data management and storage and tighter risk management in bank back offices, Autonomy's technology when combined with Interwoven's GCM capability, will enable smarter compliance and investigation of distributed enterprise data.
The companies expect to achieve synergies of approximately $40 million per annum over the first year by eliminating duplication in general, administrative and marketing programmes.