Xscribe to Buy Maker of Program for Scanning Legal Transcripts
Xscribe, the San Diego-based computer-aided transcription (CAT) company, will acquire the assets of Data Dynamics for $850,000 cash, according to an agreement in principle announced Tuesday.
Data Dynamics’ product, a software program called Discovery that enables attorneys to conduct computerized searches of legal transcripts, is similar to one that Xscribe tried to develop before scrapping the project last year and writing off $762,000 in related assets, chief financial officer Donald Quackenbush said Tuesday.
If the Data Dynamics acquisition meets certain performance targets over the next three years, Xscribe will pay the Gilbert, Ariz.-based company’s two shareholders, Brent Sandstrom and Richard Requarth, up to $1.65 million more and stock now worth $700,000.
Xscribe’s main products are CAT systems sold to court reporters for automatic transcription of stenography stored on computer diskettes into legal transcripts. With $32 million in sales for the fiscal year ended March 31, Xscribe is the leader in the $50-million CAT market, Quackenbush said.
Quackenbush would not disclose the revenue of Data Dynamics, which was incorporated only last summer.
Discovery is application software that is sold principally to attorneys. The leading product of its kind, Discovery enables attorneys and paralegals to do quick searches of transcript data stored on computer diskettes, such as those produced on Xscribe systems. Discovery saves attorneys the work of poring over documents to find specific references.
Data Dynamics’ 10 employees will be added to Xscribe’s nationwide payroll of 325 employees. Of that total, 180 are in San Diego and the rest are spread over 25 sales and service offices in the United States and two offices in Canada.
