Talk about a deal

Search and online customer interaction solutions provider iPhrase Technologies has acquired Banter Systems, developer of classification software for unstructured content and informal communications, in an all-stock transaction. iPhrase acquired all of Banter's technology assets, customers, partner relationships and employees, including Banter's Israeli-based research and development team.

iPhrase claims the unified company is now far better positioned to grow in both the enterprise search and e-service enablement market. Further, iPhrase says, the acquisition allows it to extend its natural language processing support from Web-based interactions to e-mail, chat and secure messaging. The deal will also allow the company to add automated classification capabilities and extend its partner coverage from the Web infrastructure segment into the CRM market.