IBM Buying Records-Management Firm In CanadaIBM Buying Records-Management Firm In Canada

IBM is buying Tarian Software, a Canadian maker of electronic records-management apps, in an effort to expand the capabilities of its content-management products. IBM execs wouldn't disclose the proposed price for the privately held Ottawa company. The two companies expect to complete the deal by year's end.

Tarian's software helps companies apply rules to electronically stored documents, such as how long they should be retained and who has access to them. It's designed for use by government agencies and companies in heavily regulated industries such as health care, financial services, and insurance. The software already meets strict electronic record-keeping requirements recently enacted by the U.S. government, says Brett MacIntyre, IBM's content management VP.

Tarian's software is already linked to IBM's portfolio of content-management apps and will be integrated with the DB2 database and other IBM data-management products, MacIntyre says. Tarian and its 30 employees will become part of IBM's data-management group.

Market-analyst firm Meta Group projects that the market for large-scale content-management technology will reach $10 billion by 2004. Tarian would be the IBM software group's sixth acquisition this year.