Equivio, an Israeli company that handles text analysis, is in line to be acquired by Microsoft, according to reports from Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal. Microsoft is supposed to be signing a letter of intent, and the agreement between the two companies could be finalized within a matter of weeks.
According to the Journal, Equivio, which makes software that uses machine learning to analyze legal and business documents, will be purchased for $200 million, though Bloomberg said that Microsoft will end up paying less than that. Other bidders for the company may crop up as well, and a deal between the two parties could still fall through.
Still, the acquisition makes sense for Microsoft, which is making a big push to use machine learning in more of its products. Earlier this year, the company launched a service through Microsoft Azure that’s designed to make it easier for people who aren’t data scientists to take advantage of machine learning. Interestingly, this news comes a couple days after the unveiling of Textio, a text-analysis startup founded by two Microsoft alumni.
A representative for Microsoft declined to comment on the reports.
