OpenText

Timothy Bray, with the University of Waterloo professors Frank Tompa and Gaston Gonnet, founded OpenText Corporation in 1991.^[11] It grew out of OpenText Systems Inc., founded in 1989. The founders spun the company off from a University of Waterloo project that developed technology to index the Oxford English Dictionary.^[12]

Key people involved later include Tom Jenkins, who joined the company as COO in 1994, and later became president and chief executive officer.^[13] John Shackleton served as president from 1998 to 2011 and as CEO from 2005 to 2011. Mark Barrenechea has been president and CEO of OpenText since 2012. Barrenechea was named Canadian Business CEO of the Year in 2015.^[14] From January 2016, Steve Murphy served as the President;^[15] however, the company eliminated the position in Q1 2017.^[16]

In October 2012, it was announced that OpenText would support the University of Waterloo Stratford Campus, by contributing both funds and in-kind services to the school.^[17]

In July 2020, OpenText partnered with cybersecurity company NINJIO. The collaboration strengthens security awareness with videos showcasing detection of phishing emails and inappropriate URLs.^[18]

In February 2024, OpenText joined the Joint Cyber Defense Collaborative (JCDC), a United States Government cybersecurity initiative. The JCDC aims to improve cybersecurity readiness for the U.S. and its international partners. OpenText announced it would be providing a range of services and insights into safeguarding sensitive information.^[19]

This article is in list format but may read better as prose. (April 2023)

OpenText has acquired several businesses over the past two decades, beginning with IXOS Software AG in 2003,^[20] followed by Artesia in 2004.^[21] Other notable acquisitions include Hummingbird Ltd. in 2006 for $489 million,^[22] Captaris Inc. in 2008 for $131 million,^[23] and Vignette Corporation in 2009 for $321 million in cash and stock.^[24]

In the early 2010s, it acquired EasyLink (2012) for $232 million^[25] and GXS Inc., which had previously acquired Inovis, integrating the latter into the OpenText Business Network, which later acquired Inovis. In 2014, OpenText purchased Cordys for $33 million^[26] and Actuate of San Mateo, California.^[27] The following year, it acquired Daegis for $13.5 million.^[28]

On September 12, 2016, OpenText further expanded its share of the enterprise content management software market by buying that division of Dell EMC, which included Documentum, for US$1.6 billion.^[29] OpenText had originally had Documentum and Hummingbird, Ltd., as its chief competitors in this space, but this acquisition brought the long-time third competitor in Documentum under one corporate roof.^[30] Also in 2016, OpenText acquired Recommind after previously engaging with the company as a strategic partner.^[31]

In 2017, OpenText acquired Guidance Software for US$240 million,^[32] and Covisint for US$103 million, which they integrated into their OpenText Business Network.^[33] In 2018, OpenText acquired Liaison Technologies for US$310 million and integrated into their OpenText ALLOY Platform.^[34]

In 2019, OpenText acquired Catalyst Repository Systems. ^[35] That same year, OpenText also acquired Carbonite Inc. (including Webroot and Mozy, which Carbonite Inc. had earlier acquired) for approximately US$1.45 billion.^[36][37] In 2020, OpenText acquired Xmedius for US$75 million.^[38]

In 2021, OpenText announced the planned acquisition of Zix Corp for US$860 million,^[39] and in November, OpenText completed the acquisition of Bricata enabling next-generation Network Detection & Response (NDR) technology to the OpenText Security and Protection Cloud.^[40]

In 2022, OpenText announced it would acquire British software firm Micro Focus in a deal valued at US$6 billion, which finalized in January 2023.^[41][42] With the acquisition, OpenText also acquired a number of companies under Micro Focus, including Borland, Compuware, HP Enterprise, and Interset.^[43][44]

OpenText's products include enterprise content management (OpenText Content Suite, OpenText Extended ECM, OpenText Documentum), Business Network, customer experience management (OpenText Customer Experience Platform), digital process automation (OpenText AppWorks), discovery (OpenText Axcelerate eDiscovery and Investigations), security (OpenText EnCase Forensic Security Suite, OpenText Carbonite and Webroot solutions, OpenText NetIQ, OpenText ArcSight, OpenText Voltage, OpenText Fortify), and AI and analytics (OpenText Magellan Product Suite).

OpenText announced cloud-native containerized versions of many of the company's software applications in April 2020.^[45]