Open Text has announced a definitive merger agreement in which a wholly owned subsidiary of Open Text will acquire Captaris. Under the terms of the agreement, Captaris shareholders will receive cash consideration of approximately U.S. $131 million in total, or $4.80 per share in exchange for their Captaris stock. The companies expect the transaction to close by the end of the calendar year.

Captaris’ software products include document and data capture solutions and management of associated processes. Open Text says the acquisition will enhance its partnership offerings by creating tighter integration with SAP and Oracle. Captaris also offers business information and delivery solutions built on the Microsoft .NET framework that integrate, process and automate the flow of content.

In other Open Text News, the company has introduced Email Lifecycle Management for Law Firms, which is engineered to manage enormous volumes of client- and matter-related e-mails. Combining Open Text’s Email Archiving for Microsoft Exchange with Open Text LegalKEY records management capabilities allows users to manage the entire life cycle of e-mails from creation to disposition.