In line with its strategy to further penetrate the market of medium and large-sized law firms and in-house legal departments in Germany, Wolters Kluwer acquired the legal software company AnNoText GmbH. AnNoText, based in Dueren, near Cologne, services the German market with hardware and workflow software, covering both practice management and legal expert tools. With a market share of 20 percent the company is Germany's second largest player in the market of workflow management software for law offices. AnNoText realized annual sales of more than EUR 10 million and employs 90 people. Financial details of the deal will not be disclosed.
The main strategic objective of Wolters Kluwer is to become the German leader in providing integrated solutions of content and expert tools to its legal customers. The acquisition of AnNoText will provide Wolters Kluwer with a good opportunity to make considerable progress towards achieving this goal and leverage its competitive edge.
'AnNoText fits perfectly in our German portfolio and will strengthen our innovative power in Germany', says Jean-Marc Detailleur, member of the Executive Board of Wolters Kluwer responsible for Legal, Tax & Business Europe. 'AnNoText is a strong brand in Germany with a high reputation among medium and large-sized law offices, and has a reputation as a high-end professional software provider.'
'The company will fortify our German products with additional software know-how and enable Wolters Kluwer Deutschland to link its content to AnNoText's workflow software and by doing so develop new products', he added. 'I am convinced that this deal will empower our German operations to improve customer loyalty and gain additional market share by providing the customers with comprehensive practice-proven problem solutions.'
Employees, their representative bodies, and unions have been informed and the consultation procedures will commence shortly.
Note for the editor:
Wolters Kluwer is a multinational information services company with annual revenues of more than EUR 3.8 billion, employing 20,000 people in Europe, North America, and Asia Pacific. The company's core activities are Legal, Tax & Business, Health, and Education.
The Wolters Kluwer shares are quoted on the Euronext Amsterdam. Preliminary results will be announced in January 2003. The financial results for the year 2002 will be announced on March 11, 2003.