Autonomy purchases Sarbox IT firm Zantaz

Autonomy makes another foray into the US market with purchase of email search and archive provider, as new Sarbox regulation looms

Kevin Reed, Accountancy Age 04 Jul 2007

FTSE250 search technology business Autonomy has purchased a US business specialising in tools that help deal with Sarbox compliance and other types of regulation.

Autonomy has paid $375m (£186m) for Zantaz, which provides email search and archiving services for large businesses. The market is expected to expand, with US federal rules of civil procedure recently changing to require companies to submit information to courts within 90 days, reports the FT .

Autonomy chief executive Mike Lynch said: 'With the federal rules change coming in at the beginning of the year, we could see that archiving would become a big market. Regulatory requests to companies used to happen once in a blue moon; now they are happening daily.'

Autonomy itself quit its US listing several years ago due to the onerous cost burden of meeting Sarbox compliance.