Documentum Inc, the Pleasanton, California-based provider of document management software, has paid $36.5m to acquire privately held Relevance Technologies Inc. A San Francisco-based company that claims to be developing a range of what it calls intelligent content mining technology for unstructured information. The deal is part of Documentum’s strategy to reinvent itself as a provider of more than just electronic document management. The company is one of many trying to add the title of knowledge management to its existing product offerings. Knowledge management is the new catch phrase for applications which try to impose structure upon unstructured information sources like the World Wide Web or other forms of electronic documents. As opposed to conventional data mining techniques which work with rigidly structured data sources. This acquisition accelerates our evolution from document management solutions to knowledge chain management solutions, said Documentum CEO Jeffrey Miller.
