Verity to buy Cardiff

Verity Inc., which develops search and classification software, is expanding its reach to include content capture, e-forms and business process automation with its planned acquisition of Cardiff Software Inc.

Officials at the companies announced Monday their agreement for Verity to acquire Cardiff. The transaction will be for about $50 million in cash. Both companies sell products to agencies. Some of Cardiff's major customers include the Justice and Energy departments, the U.S. Army and California's state government.

"The addition of Cardiff's products, people and partners brings Verity the ability to enable enterprises to optimize their dynamic information assets, capturing the value of interaction between documents and the business processes they represent," said Anthony Bettencourt, Verity's president and chief executive officer, in a statement. "We view the ability to market Verity products into Cardiff's installed base and Cardiff's products into Verity's, to be a tremendous opportunity to cross-sell."

Dennis Clerke, Cardiff's president and chief executive officer, described his company's acquisition as "a unique and natural combination."