Lexalytics and Infonic Go Beyond Sentiment and Get Hitched
August 14, 2008
I learned about Lexalytics when I was researching Fast Search & Technology. Fast Search introduced when I was writing the Enterprise Search Report a function that would report on the sentiment in documents or email. The idea is particularly important in customer support. A flow of email that turns sour can be identified by sentiment analysis software. Fast Search’s approach was interesting to me because it was able to use Fast Search’s alert feature.
Founded in 2000, Infonic here is a publicly traded company (previously named Corpora plc). Infonic is listed on the UK’s AiM Stock Exchange as LON:IFNC. The company offers geo-replication and document management solutions. The firm also develops text analytics and sentiment technology. The firm’s Geo-Replicator software uses data compression and synchronization technology to replicate data between servers and laptops and server to server. The firm’s Document Manager software permits scanning, search, and retrieval of processed content. The company’s text analytics software product is called Sentiment.
At the end of July 2008, the two companies announced that the sentiment units would be merged. The new unit will be based in the UK and named Lexalytics Limited. I profiled the company in my new study for the Gilbane Group here. Lexalytics software performs entity extraction, sentiment analysis, document summarization and thematic extraction. Information about Lexalytics is here.
According to the two companies,
The rationale behind combining the businesses is to pool the expertise and complementary products of the parties in this specialist area and to drive joint growth in sales, utilizing Infonic’s global sales capabilities.
The new company has a value estimated at $40 million. Jeff Caitlin, founder of Lexalytics, will be the managing director of the new company.
Sentiment analysis is moving to the mainstream. The addled goose wishes the new sentimental outfits good luck. Oh, one final point: watch for more consolidation in the text analytics space. The market is a frosty place for some search and content processing vendors at this time.
Stephen Arnold, August 14, 2008
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7 Responses to “Lexalytics and Infonic Go Beyond Sentiment and Get Hitched”
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[…] ScottGu I learned about Lexalytics when I was researching Fast Search & Technology. Fast Search introduced when I was writing the Enterprise Search Report a function that would report on the sentiment in documents or email. The idea is particularly important in customer support. A flow of email that turns sour … […]
Stephen, the only people who value the combined entity at $40 million are the folks at Infonic. See my blog article at http://intelligententerprise.com/blog/archives/2008/08/lexalytics_and.html .
Infonic’s market capitalization, post-merger-announcement, accounting for all publicly disclosed anticipated revenue, is around $23 million. How is it that a company that owns 70% of a spin-off claimed to be valued at $40 million — i.e., Infonic’s share is $28 million — can be worth only $23 million? Is the value of Infonic’s other business divisions, which produce the majority of revenue, minus $5 million?
This deal appears to be a good thing from a technical and business point of view, but the valuation is questionable.
Seth Grimes,
Thanks for the update. Per my editorial policy, most of the information in this Web log is old or information that will not be in my for fee studies. I hope most of my two or three readers head to your Web log for the timely stuff. They won’t get it here as a matter of policy.
Stephen Arnold, August 14, 2008 9 01 pm Central time
[…] one. A third option is to perform a non-cash merger. I wrote about the Lexalytics-Infonic tie up here. This might work for some vendors, conference companies, and “dead tree” publishers. […]
[…] this content-centric conference more than a decade ago. Beyond Search has articles about Lexalytics here and […]
Here’s more on this story: Infonic Reloaded, or the Liberation of Lexalytics
http://www.intelligententerprise.com/blog/archives/2009/02/infonic_reloade.html
[…] companies. That firm seems to have found a niche in customer support. The jury is still out on the Lexalytics / Infonic deal’s […]