Wolters Kluwer’s ELM Solutions, a provider of technology for enterprise management of legal matters and legal spend, has acquired CLM Matrix, a provider of contract lifecycle management (CLM) software, for $35 million.
The acquisition will enable Wolters Kluwer to offer a more comprehensive suite of solutions to address the growing needs of corporate legal operations, the company said in its first-quarter trading update.
Texas-based CLM Matrix, whose technology is build on the Microsoft Office SharePoint platform, had 2018 revenues of $3 million and has 20 employees, the update said. It was founded in 1992, according to Crunchbase. The company’s management group and employees will remain in place.
Jonah Paransky, executive vice president and general manager for Wolters Kluwer’s ELM Solutions, said that CLM Matrix will continue to be offered as a standalone product and that it will not be integrated into WK’s Passport or TyMetrix 360° products.
However, he does foresee that WK will integrate CLM Matrix features with certain WK products related to spend and matter management and clause analytics, while continuing to maintain it as a separate product.
Paransky described the market for CLM products as large and rapidly growing, driven in part by the increasing importance of legal operations professionals in corporate legal departments and their increasing involvement in contract lifecycle management.
“We want to be in a position to be a strong partner to our primary corporate legal operations customers, but also able to provide solutions to a broader market,” Paransky said.
WK’s acquisition of CLM Matrix signifies that it is not just extending the features of its current products, but entering “full bore into an adjacent and aligned market,” he said, allowing WK to better serve both enterprise and mid-market corporate customers.
Wolters Kluwer’s ELM Solutions is organized under WK’s Governance, Risk & Compliance division and operates separately from
