On March 5th, 2012, Lexmark International announced the acquisition of Brainware for $148 million; the company will join a Lexmark subsidiary, Perceptive Software. Perceptive is a provider of enterprise content management and business process management solutions (including imaging and workflow solutions), the company was acquired by Lexmark in 2010. Brainware is a provider of intelligent data capture and enterprise search solutions and is headquartered in Ashburn, Virginia. Over a year ago, Perceptive white-labeled Brainware’s primary solution (Distiller) due to its intelligent data extraction and capture capabilities and also because it is complementary to Perceptive’s existing solutions. As a result, prior to the acquisition the two companies already had a number of joint clients.
For Brainware clients, this acquisition can be viewed as an opportunity to have one entity manage the entire process from imaging and data capture to workflow and business process management solutions. Brainware will maintain its brand and continue to operate as a business unit within Lexmark’s Perceptive Software division. For Perceptive, the acquisition allows them to more closely align a data capture solution to the rest of their offering. Both Perceptive and Lexmark see an opportunity to expand Brainware’s intelligent capture solution to other document types, verticals and geographies something Brainware did not have the capacity to do. Lexmark is a global company with operations all over the world and a strong presence in Asia-Pacific (Apac) and Latin America (Latam), something that Brainware will certainly benefit from especially with their ability to capture data in different languages.
Lexmark is best known for being a manufacturer of printing and imaging products (including laser and inkjet printers, multifunction products, and printing supplies); the company also provides a range of services for businesses and consumers. This acquisition (and that of Perceptive) makes Lexmark one of the first managed print service providers to make a significant investment in data capture technology, significantly expanding their footprint from managed print to data capture and business process management. The data capture market is growing all over the world and a lot of the growth over the next few years is expected to come from emerging markets like LATAM and APAC, placing Lexmark in a very good position to take advantage of that in the coming years.
