By Barry Eitel

SAN FRANCISCO

Microsoft acquired Equivio, a builder of “machine learning” technologies, the company announced Tuesday.

Equivio sells text analysis software that recognizes and compiles documents, like emails, relevant to a user’s needs, such as legal or compliance documentation.

Microsoft’s plan is to utilize Equivio’s eDiscover analysis software to boost its Office 365 productivity suite.

“Businesses and governments around the world generate enormous volumes of data every day,” wrote Rajesh Jha, Microsoft’s corporate vice president of Outlook and Office 365, in a blog post announcing the acquisition. “Sifting through that data to find what is relevant to a legal or compliance matter is costly and time consuming.”

With the volume of data mounting to new heights, traditional methods of parsing it – such as manually searching through email attachments – struggle to keep pace.

Equivio’s software enables users to quickly explore vast, unorganized sets of data and documents. In order to accomplish this, the programming actually “learns” from the user. Using text samples deemed relevant to an issue – like legal contracts ­­– the software searches and organizes groups of texts out of a mass of data. 

“Users train the system to identify documents relevant to a particular subject, such as a legal case or investigation,” Jha continued. “This iterative process is more accurate and cost effective than keyword searches and manual review of vast quantities of documents.”

Hundreds of law firms and corporations already use the software built by Israel-based Equivio, Jha noted, as well as several U.S. government agencies.

Microsoft claimed it is not making any changes to Equivio’s current lineup of products. Office 365 already includes some similar features, but Jha contends that rolling Equivio’s algorithms into the service will make it far more robust, especially for business users. 

Neither Microsoft nor Equivio have revealed the specifics of the deal, however, a source cited by The Wall Street Journal in October claimed Microsoft was willing to pay $200 million for the text analysis company.