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BigHand, a leading provider of productivity software to the legal market, is to acquire DW Reporting (‘DWR’), a fast growing provider of best in class legal Business Intelligence and matter pricing for the legal sector. Financial details of the acquisition were not disclosed.
Founded in 2013 and headquartered in London with an office in Canada, DWR provides software products to help legal clients streamline their reporting and KPI monitoring as well as provide effective pricing and resource management. These are provided via two products: Quantum, a financial BI solution with intuitive self-service, role based dashboards and reporting environment, and Evaluate, a matter pricing, budgeting and tracking solution.
Ian Churchill, CEO of BigHand, said: “We want to be the industry’s most supportive technology partner when it comes to helping law firms transition to newer and more business oriented ways of working. Today’s acquisition accelerates our product strategy, especially in North America. It also brings new capabilities and revenue streams to our business as we increase the range of solutions available to our clients. I’m delighted to welcome Dan, and the whole DWR team into the BigHand family”.
Dan Wales, Managing Director of DWR, said: “This acquisition means that we are in an even stronger position to work with our customers in the fast emerging and growing part of the legal technology market. Apart from its extensive global client base and established infrastructure, BigHand has a great reputation and a culture very similar to ours. I know the two teams will work well together and I’m hugely excited by the opportunity for the combined businesses.”
James Kippenberger, BigHand Managing Director, Product Strategy & Innovation, commented: “Our customers tell us they want more data to make better decisions and to operate more efficiently. With DWR, we are now able to offer a full suite of data-rich solutions and unique visibility across a firm covering both fee earners and support staff. Law firms want to improve financial performance and achieve operational excellence. BigHand can now offer them both.”
DWR’s addressable market across the US and the UK is valued at $250 million per annum.
Debt for the transaction was provided by RBS and Barings. Advisers involved in the transaction were: Ropes & Gray (legal), Marlborough Partners (debt advisory), EY (financial & tax).
About BigHand
BigHand (bighand.com) offers a full suite of document production tools, including BigHand Create, a Microsoft Office 2016 and Windows 10-compatible template management software, BigHand Hyperstyles, a set of document formatting and styling tools, BigHand DocID, a document stamping and identification tool, and BigHand Scrub, a metadata management and removal solution.
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