On February 7, 2012, Guidance Software announced it has signed a definitive agreement
to acquire CaseCentral, a privately held e-discovery leader for Cloud-based attorney review and production software for corporations,
government agencies, and law firms.
This acquisition will extend Guidance Software’s market leadership in e-discovery by
delivering a complete solution meeting the e-discovery needs of corporations and government agencies. The combined product portfolio
will deliver increased efficiency and automation, as well as lower risk for e-discovery activities, spanning from legal hold to
identification, collection, preservation, processing, first pass review, and, now with CaseCentral’s market leading
software-as-a-service (SaaS) offering, best-in-class early case assessment (ECA), review and production capabilities.
So what does this mean to you? For customers of our computer forensics and
Cyber security solutions – whether Tableau, EnCase Forensic, EnCase Enterprise, or EnCase Cybersecurity – there will be no change;
we will continue to support your needs and develop the world’s best computer forensics and Cyber security solutions.
For customers of EnCase eDiscovery, however, the combination of Guidance Software with CaseCentral will provide immediate
as well as long-term benefits to you, by empowering you to:
- Address the complete e-discovery process, including attorney review and production,
and gain end-to-end visibility and oversight of the process so that you can effectively mitigate risk and reduce costs.
- Standardize your e-discovery processes and drive down the risk, time and cost of e-discovery
with best-in-class capabilities such as Collected Data Reuse and centralized, multi-matter legal repository. These capabilities,
among many others, add value by automating searches, reducing over-collection of ESI, lowering spoliation risk, re-using
attorney work product where appropriate, and avoiding inadvertent production of confidential or privileged client data.
- Deploy software intelligently, with EnCase eDiscovery delivering legal hold, collection and
processing functions on-premises – close to the sources of data and the data custodians – and CaseCentral delivering the
ECA, review and production functions as SaaS in the Cloud, so that your geographically dispersed inside and outside counsel
can efficiently review collected documents without needing any special equipment or software other than a web browser and
internet connectivity.
- Rapidly and efficiently leverage the scalability and elasticity of the Cloud for e-discovery
projects.
So, “what’s next?” you may ask. To start with, you should not expect any disruption
whatsoever of your on-going interaction with us. You will continue to receive support and service from us, as normal. In other
words, it is business as usual. Further, as our integration with CaseCentral progresses, we will be keeping you apprised of our
plans and availability of new offerings and solutions through regular communications – please visit
http://www.guidancesoftware.com/ediscovery-acquisition-casecentral.htm for more information on this transaction as
well as regular updates on our integration progress. Please continue to reach out to your existing Guidance sales
and services representatives if you have any questions.
The combined organization will be the largest pure-play e-discovery software company,
with nearly 500 total employees, ready to provide you with the best products and service. I am personally excited about this
acquisition as it underscores our continued commitment to providing you with the most advanced and powerful solutions for your
e-discovery needs, and allows us to further expand our partnership with each one of you.
The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions and is expected to close in
the first quarter of 2012. Until the deal closes, each company will continue to operate independently.
Thank you for your continued support,
Victor Limongelli
President & CEO