Tuesday, December 05, 2006 6:56 AM
Monica Bay, lawyer and editor-in-chief of Law Technology News, keeps an interesting list on her personal site, The Common Scold, she calls "Food Chain" (if you visit, you have to scroll down quite a ways--on right side of page). In a nutshell, she records all of the mergers and acquisitions occurring the legal technology arena. And, perhaps mirroring the significant M & A activity among U.S. law firms, there are quite a few recorded. As she is so well placed to keep tabs on this activity, I frequently check in on her site and list to see the latest.
According to Food Chain, for the most recent twenty or so acquisitions listed, big international players Reed Elsevier (Lexis, etcetera) and Thomson (West, etcetera) are, by far, the most active. There are a number of smaller companies selectively making purchases as well, but Reed and Thomson are the clear front-runners. If the respective companies have a plan to dominate the legal technology marketplace in the short to mid-term, they are well on their way. And, why not? Given how well-positioned both companies are within legal, buying up and then integrating the applications from smaller legal technology companies into existing Lexis or West product lines seems a legitimate strategic plan.
For better or worse, in this mid-term period many legal technology decisions could simply be to pick either Thomson or Reed for each product category (see also, this 2004 post, Lexis Buys Hummingbird? West Buys Interwoven? Why Not?, related to something Dennis Kennedy said a couple years ago(but which now appears to have a dead link unfortunately)). But, longer-term, as these companies expand their reach, it is equally likely that the dividing lines between the legal vertical's niche technology marketplace and the larger technology marketplace goes gray. Meaning a whole new set of competitors may arise. The two biggest in my opinion being Microsoft and Google.
I, for one, find the evolution of the legal technology marketplace more than a little interesting. And, rest assured, I will keep an eye on The Common Scold's Food Chain for the entire ride.