Microsoft acquires Israel-based text analysis startup Equivio

Microsoft Corp. has signed a letter of intent to buy Israel-based text analysis startup Equivio Ltd., a deal that could be worth around $200 million, according to a person familiar with the matter. The deal could still fall through. Neither Equivio nor Microsoft would comment. Equivio develops text analysis software that can group together relevant texts from large amounts of documents—including emails and other organizational social and collaboration networks—using machine learning algorithms. The algorithms generalize samples of texts marked as relevant to the issue at hand to apply the sorting logic to groups of texts, such as legal documentation. The technology is already in use by organizations providing litigation support services to law firms and corporate legal departments trying to extract relevant data, such as legal contracts, from massive amounts of documents.