OpenText

OpenText products are designed to manage corporate information and have more than 50 million users worldwide.

OpenText products can be integrated with software and hardware from other vendors and manufacturers. Also, the OpenText platform can be installed both as part of a comprehensive solution and as separate solutions to meet the specific needs of the customer.

History

2021: $860 million purchase of data protection tool developer Zix

In early November 2021, OpenText announced the purchase of software company Zix for $860 million. The deal involves the creation of a new leading platform for small and medium-sized businesses (SMB). Read more here.

2020

$830 million fine in lawsuit over profit manipulation

At the end of December 2020, it became known that OpenText Corporation will pay $830 million in American tax on the lawsuit due to manipulation of profits. The entered into agreement will close all previously opened claims for taxable profits for fiscal years 2010 and 2012.

According to the settlement, the total disputed amount is approximately $830 million as of December 31, 2020, including the proposed accrued interest at the established rates. Initially, OpenText must pay the US Internal Revenue Service approximately $290 million. The settlement also includes approximately $90 million in future taxes that OpenText must pay over the next 10 years.

OpenText to pay US tax $830 million in lawsuit over profit manipulation

OpenText expects that settlement with the tax service will lead to a tax write-off and a fine of $290 million for the second quarter of fiscal 2021 ending December 31, 2020. The company also has to pay approximately $290 million in tax in the third quarter of fiscal 2021, which will end on March 31, 2021. In connection with the concluded agreement, OpenText also expects to pay state taxes and make interest payments in the amount of $10 million to $15 million during calendar 2021.

OpenText believes that the agreement with the US tax is in the interests of all parties, since it closes all past and future issues related to this lawsuit.^[1]

Integration of Sales and Pre-Sales Services Departments of Russia, CIS and Central Europe

On July 1, 2020, OpenText launched the next fiscal year, with the beginning of which the company announced a change in the business model in Eastern Europe.

Based on the global economic situation and the company's desire to improve customer service, OpenText has merged the sales and pre-sales services departments of Russia, the CIS and Central Europe into a single division of the company. As part of these structural transformations, OpenText optimizes the operations of customer implementation and support services departments, and integrates them with strategic centers in other countries.

The CEECIS region was led by Sandra Tiskens as regional vice president. Michael Kuharski will continue to support business development in the region.

Thus, OpenText intends to continue to develop and strengthen its position in the region. OpenText is now available to customers and partners globally. OpenText still offers its solutions and products through local and global partners such as SAP and many others.

In general, these transformations give OpenText the opportunity to better respond to local requirements and market changes, as well as work more efficiently with customers, helping them achieve their goals, the company noted.

2016

OpenText buys Documentum and other EMC assets for $1.6 billion

In September 2016, OpenText announced that it had signed a final agreement with Dell EMC to purchase from the latest Enterprise Content Division (ECD), including the Documentum, InfoArchive, and Leap product families.

The transaction amount will be $1.62 billion. The revenue of the direction in 2015 amounted to $599 million. The deal is scheduled to close within 90-120 days, OpenText said in a statement.

Under the terms of the agreement, the software, related services, and division personnel will be integrated into OpenText. Through this deal, OpenText expects to expand its offering in the enterprise content management-focused product portfolio market. OpenText also expects to strengthen its vertical offerings, expand its customer base, the range of services offered and geographical coverage.

EMC plans to sell Documentum, in particular, to foreign media in April 2016.

See also OpenText buys Documentum. What do market players and customers expect from the deal?

Buying HP Software Business

In April 2016, OpenText announced the purchase of part of HP Inc.'s software business. We are talking about software related to Customer Experience Management (CEM) systems.

OpenText will pay $170 million for the following HP Inc. products:

• HP TeamSite (web content management platform);
• HP MediaBin (digital asset management tool);
• HP Qfiniti (personnel optimization solution);
• HP Explore;
• HP Aurasma (software with an emphasis on augmented reality);
• HP Optimost (a program that helps marketers create a visual overview of website users' activity - visits, purchases, general interest).

By purchasing these assets, OpenText hopes to expand its product portfolio and functionality in the areas of marketing optimization, mobile marketing, and more. In addition, the buyer expects additional proceeds from the transaction of $85-95 million.

OpenText buys part of HP Inc's software business for $170 million

It is planned to complete all formalities related to this acquisition in the second quarter of 2016. After the deal closes, about 400 HP Inc. employees will move to OpenText.

It is worth noting that as a result of the separation of HP into HP Inc. and HP Enterprise at the end of 2015, CEM products were not the last, which would be logical, given the orientation of this company to corporate IT services and equipment. These decisions were received by HP Inc., which Scott Liewehr, director of Digital Clarity Group, explained by the desire of the American manufacturer to sell them as soon as possible.

It is important to understand that OpenText is financially constructive in its search for smart technologies, "comments Tony Byrne, director of Real Story Group, a consulting firm. - The company has a deployment strategy: buying old tools to maintain revenue flows that, while not always large, are very profitable almost all the time.[2]

2012: Investment in Business Transformation

In 2012, OpenText announced its intentions to invest $2 billion in transforming its operations over the next five years.

2011: Metastorm Purchase

February 2011: OpenText, which previously specialized in enterprise content management software, announced the acquisition of Metastorm for $182 million. Thus, OpenText has the technologies developed by Metastorm for managing business processes, as well as tools for system design and analysis of business processes. Metastorm products are used by such well-known companies as CIT Group, Hewlett-Packard, Qualcomm, as well as the University of St. de Paul and the US Air Force.

2004-2010

Since 2004, Gartner has positioned OpenText among the leaders of the "magic quadrant" in the field of ECM.

In 2006, Hummingbird was acquired by Open Text, and the Hummingbird Enterprise product line complemented the original Open Text product line under the new name eDOCS Suite.

In May 2009, OpenText bought its direct competitor Vignette for $310 million.

In February 2010, OpenText bought Nstein Technologies, which was engaged in content management systems (the deal amounted to $35 million)

October 2010: OpenText bought communication software developer StreamServe for $71 million.

The 1990th

In the early 90s, three professors at the Canadian University of Waterloo conducted research related to indexing the Oxford English Dictionary. In 1991, they created OpenText, and a few years later they used the experience gained when creating one of the popular search engines in the past, which competed on equal terms with AltaVista.

Since 1995, the OpenText engine has been used by Yahoo! At the same time, the first company focused on document management was acquired, and already in 1996 IDC announced the company as the leader in electronic document management on the Internet.

Since 1999, a whole bunch of companies have been acquired, one way or another related to ECM, but with an emphasis on form. The most significant acquisitions include IXOS AG and Hummingbird.

Business in Russia

2025: Recognition of an undesirable organization in Russia

On January 16, 2025, the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation announced that the Canadian software developer OpenText Corporation was recognized as an undesirable organization in Russia. It is said that this IT company works closely with the US security forces.

According to the Prosecutor General's Office, OpenText is involved in the information and technical support of the propaganda campaign against Russia launched by the West. In addition, it is emphasized that OpenText is a contractor of the US Department of Defense: the company supplies the Pentagon with specialized software to distinguish access and identify users of computer networks.

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Фото: WSJ

At the same time, Micro Focus International, a division of OpenText located in Britain, according to the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation, provides Ukrainian law enforcement agencies with the cyber defense software and services necessary for collecting data to strike at Russian troops and infrastructure. In 2023, OpenText announced the provision of services to the Ukrainian energy company Ukrenergo after the BlackEnergy cyber attack. And in 2024, the Russian Foreign Ministry introduced personal sanctions against five Micro Focus employees in connection with the supply of software and cybersecurity services to Ukrainian law enforcement agencies.

The Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation decided to recognize its [OpenText] activities as undesirable on the territory of the Russian Federation, - said in the notification of the department.

Undesirable means a foreign or international non-governmental organization whose activities may pose a threat to the foundations of the constitutional system of the Russian Federation, the country's defense capability or the security of the state. Such organizations are prohibited from operating on the territory of the Russian Federation, and administrative and criminal penalties are provided for violating this ban.^[3]

2012: Agreement with ATI

On May 14, 2012, the Russian integrator ATI announced the conclusion of a cooperation agreement with one of the world's largest developers of ECM systems (Enterprise Content Management) - OpenText. Its software allows you to create a single storage and provides access to current versions of various text and graphic documents. As an authorized partner, iT will provide customers with storage optimization and management solutions for structured and unstructured content that interact with leading ERP systems.

Services related to the integration of ERP systems with ECM products OpenText will provide the competence center of business applications "iT." We are talking about optimizing the processes of coordinating documents, managing organizational and administrative, incoming and outgoing documents, processing financial documents, organizing an archive of financial, personnel, design and estimate and other documentation.

According to Elena Gutseva, Deputy General Director of iT for Business Applications, the new agreement will open up a promising direction for working with content within ERP systems, in particular, SAP solutions. The integration of ERP and ECM systems into a single whole can improve the manageability and transparency of business processes. It is definitely of interest to companies that are engaged in the development and unification, increasing functionality and transferring their own IP to new platforms. "Also an interesting area for us is the promotion of special mobile ECM applications OpenText," adds Ms. Gutseva.

ATI portfolio was supplemented by:

• content management systems (BPM, CMS) OpenText Auto-Classification and OpenText Social Communities,
• electronic document managementOpenText ECM Suite, OpenText Livelink ECM - eDOCS, OpenText Tempo,
• office applications OpenText RightFax, OpenText Social Workplace and
• DSS SAP Archiving, SAP Document Access.

Notes