Boston-based IP protection firm Anaqua announced on Wednesday that it is merging with its competitor Lecorpio, a Fremont, CA-based developer of IP management software. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Both Anaqua and Lecorpio provide a software that customers can use to manage assets related to intellectual property, including patents, trademarks, searches and clearances, third-party patents and trademarks, agreements, conflicts, and IP reviews.
“Obviously, being competitors in the market, we’ve know each other for quite some time,” Bob Romeo, CEO of Anaqua, said in an interview. “With regard to the transaction itself, it’s been… over the last few months that the idea about us coming together really began to unfold.”
The newly combined company, which will have 335 employees in total (300 from Anaqua and 35 from Lecorpio), will continue to operate both brand names and support both software platforms. No changes will be made to the current Anaqua HQ in Back Bay, where 130 employees work.
In the near term, we’re going continue to support both brands.
However, there will only be one top executive. Romeo will lead the combined business, while Jay Madsen will be stepping down from his current role as Lecorpio CEO and “move on,” according to Romeo. To lead the Lecorpio team, Sunny McRae - former CTO of Lecorpio - will stay on and take a new role as Vice President and General Manager of Lecorpio.
So far, Romeo said that they will maintain the Lecorpio brand. “What we will do is we will set out to do some brand management, so the outcome has yet to be determined. But in the near term, we’re going continue to support both brands, as we have a number of customers on the Lecorpio platform,” Romeo explained.
Some of Lecorpio’s most notable customers are Adobe, Google, T-Mobile, Yahoo! and MasterCard. The merged entity will have 1,000 combined customers worldwide.
While not putting any timeframe on it, Romeo admitted that eventually, the two platforms are going to merge as well. “But in the near term, we’re continuing to support both platforms as they exist today,” Romeo repeated. “We’re not forcing anybody off any given platform.”
Over the last two years, Anaqua has acquired several patent analytics solution providers, including AcclaimIP and IdeaPoint. In 2013, the company raised $25 million from Bessmer Venture Partners.
Featured image: Sunny McRae (left) andBob Romeo (right). Photo courtesy of Anaqua.
