EMC Corporation, a provider of information infrastructure solutions, announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire e-discovery software provider Kazeon Systems. The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of 2009, subject to customary closing conditions.

With Kazeon, EMC will be able to offer end-to-end, in-house e-discovery and litigation readiness solutions as part of the EMC SourceOne family for integrated but modular e-discovery, archiving, and compliance. Kazeon allows organizations to quickly and reliably identify, preserve, collect, process, analyze, and review information in accordance with the Electronic Discovery Reference Model framework. Core to Kazeon is its ability to handle Electronically Stored Information that resides anywhere in the enterprise environment—including content on laptops, desktops, content management repositories, Microsoft SharePoint and Exchange, Lotus Domino, e-mail archives, and file shares.

The Kazeon offering enables organizations to quickly deploy the solution, allowing for early case assessment to determine case merit and legal strategies. Kazeon's targeted collection capabilities ensure avoidance of over-collection, which often leads to high retention and review costs. In addition, Kazeon's legal hold management capability ensures no erroneous deletion of data and its metadata. Further, the Kazeon solution is capable of performing fine-grained analytics, including concept-based search and analysis, and offering a collaborative review platform for distributed reviewers.

Upon completion of the acquisition, Kazeon will become a part of EMC's Content Management and Archiving Division.