Fast snaps up Retrievalware

Fast Search & Transfer continues its push into the government market with detailed Convera plans

Enterprise search specialist Fast Search & Transfer accelerated announced plans to accelerate its push into the government market today with the acquisition of a vertical-specific search platform from rival Convera.

Under the deal, which is expected to close before the end of June, Fast has agreed to pay $23m for Convera's RetrievalWare business unit and software suite.

Bjorn Olstad, CTO at Fast, said that RetrievalWare had a strong presence in the government and intelligence agency market, particularly in the US, and would help extend Fast's access to these lucrative markets.

He also argued that integrating RetrievalWare with Fast's search platform would enhance the suite's search capabilities. "RetrievalWare has been built around a number of component modules that have been tailored with domain expertise for specific sector, such as intelligence agencies," he explained. " We will consolidate those specific components on the Fast platform."

Peter Bauert, senior vice president of corporate development at Fast said that the company would also continue to support existing RetrievalWare customers, partners and resellers worldwide. "We are beginning our outreach effort to these organisations, and we anticipate much excitement in the government sector as a result of this agreement," he said.

Convera, meanwhile, said that it would now focus on developing its vertical search tool for specialist publishers. To support this strategy the company also announced that it is to license Fast's Ad Momentum contextual advertising and monetization suite, which it plans to integrated with its hosted vertical search solution and its Publisher Control Panel in order to enhance publishers' ability to directly manage the search experience for their professional communities and pursue search-based revenues for their Web sites.