Autonomy proposes to acquire Interwoven

This morning Autonomy announced that they will acquire California-based interwoven for $16.20 a share, a nice premium over last night's close at $11.84. The deal, expected to close Q2-2009, is subject to the vote of shareholders of both companies. This comes after Interwoven announced that they expected to their most recent quarter pretty much met their previous guidance.

It sounds like a great move. Autonomy continues its evolution from a search leader into compliance leader. Interwoven has been on a buying spree itself over the last several years, and offers solutions in many different areas including Digital Asset Management, eDiscovery/Legal, records management and even enterprise search.

Since FAST's acquisition by Microsoft a year ago, we've wondered if Autonomy would be an interesting target for acquisition by someone like Oracle or even by Google; but it looks like Mike Lynch would rather grow the old-fashioned way - by top line growth and by acquiring companies whose products support and extend their business.