November 6, 2016
(“FRONTEO USA”), a wholly-owned direct subsidiary of FRONTEO, Inc. (“FRONTEO”) (formerly known as UBIC, Inc.) (NASDAQ:FTEO) (TSE:2158), a leading provider of global eDiscovery, managed review solutions and big data analysis services utilizing artificial intelligence technology, today announced the acquisition of managed review provider Essential Discovery, Inc. (“EDI”). Bundy Group, a boutique investment bank, advised Essential Discovery, Inc. and its parent company in the sale of the business.
EDI is a boutique discovery firm with specialization in document review with Fortune 250 corporations and AM Law 100 clients across the United States. With review centers in San Francisco and Las Vegas, along with pop-up capabilities across the country and internationally, EDI is a strategic fit into the expansive network that FRONTEO already has in place. “Continued growing demand for efficient, reliable and cost-effective review services in primary and secondary locations enables FRONTEO and EDI to offer clients improved engagement, better project management and streamlined processes,” says Aaron Fluss, National Managing Director at EDI. “This will help us to mitigate case risk, drive increased value to law firms and corporations, and standardize review processes based on industry-best methodologies.” EDI’s proven ability in the national market demonstrates its ability to focus on client engagement, pre-review analysis and data reduction, as well as the review of documents, and provides deep know-how in a variety of areas of service.
“We expect a very smooth and fast transition of EDI resources and processes into FRONTEO,” says Andy Jimenez, CEO of FRONTEO USA, Inc. “Maintaining our focus on top and bottom-line growth is an important aspect of this acquisition, and our ability to quickly streamline operations and post-merger integration tasks for very rapid time-to-market is key. We look forward to joining forces.”
The combination of FRONTEO and EDI will now give the market access to an additional 150 review seats for a total of approximately 1,300 permanent seats for review projects across the U.S., in both primary and secondary markets. There are also additional seats available at FRONTEO review centers internationally for cross-border projects.
All EDI staff along with its extensive roster of contract attorneys, project managers, quality controllers, and review staff will be integrated under the FRONTEO brand.
About FRONTEO USA, Inc.
FRONTEO USA, Inc. (“FRONTEO USA”) is a wholly- owned direct subsidiary of FRONTEO, Inc., a publicly traded global technology and services company specializing in big data, artificial intelligence, information governance, managed review, and litigation consulting for the eDiscovery market. FRONTEO USA serves Am Law 200 law firms, Fortune 500 companies and government agencies across all phases of the e-Discovery process including collection, processing, forensic investigation, hosted review, and production. FRONTEO USA provides robust English language services along with advanced specialization in Chinese, Japanese and Korean (CJK) languages. Driven by FRONTEO’s unique AI technology KIBITTM, companies are able to proactively and predictively assess fraud, data leakage and pre-crime events alongside the e-Discovery lifecycle and gain a deep understanding of their data. FRONTEO is a Relativity Best in Service Orange partner, and maintains review centers in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Houston, New York, Washington, DC, Tokyo, Seoul, Taipei City, and Manila. For more information visit www.fronteo.com/usa.
About Essential Discovery, Inc.
Essential Discovery, Inc. (“EDI”) EDI is a boutique discovery firm with specialization in document review with Fortune 250 corporations and AM Law 100 clients across the United States. EDI has review centers in San Francisco and Las Vegas and has capabilities to quickly add new locations both domestically and internationally. For more information visit www.essentialdiscovery.com.
About Bundy Group
Bundy Group is a boutique investment bank with offices in Charlotte, NC and Roanoke, VA. The company specializes in representing business owners and management teams in business sales, acquisitions and capital raises for clients. The 27-year-old firm has closed over 200 transactions across a broad range of industries. For more information visit www.bundygroup.com.
