MINNEAPOLIS--(Business Wire)--
Dolan Media Company (NYSE: DM), a leading provider of professional services and
business information to the legal, financial and real estate sectors in the
United States, said today that it acquired an 85% equity interest in
DiscoverReady, LLC, a leading provider of outsourced discovery management and
fixed-fee document review services to major companies and their counsel.
With headquarters in New York City and an office in Charlotte, N.C.,
DiscoverReady assists major corporations and their counsel in litigation and
regulatory matters by providing integrated discovery solutions that drastically
reduce legal costs while delivering high quality, defensible document review.
Its customers include leading law firms, major banks and Wall Street firms, and
Fortune 500 corporations.
Dolan Media Company Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer James P.
Dolan said that DiscoverReady will become the third business line offered by
Dolan Media`s Professional Services Division.
"This is an exciting step for us at Dolan Media because it brings a proven
management team leading a company with an innovative and exciting set of
competitive advantages," said Jim Dolan. "DiscoverReady`s focus on large
corporations, cost effective fixed-fee pricing models and recurring revenue
strategies made it a very attractive addition to our Professional Services
Division. We look forward to building on DiscoverReady`s already very strong
growth."
Co-founders James K. Wagner Jr. and Steven R. Harber will remain as chief
executive officer and president, respectively, and will continue to run the
company, reporting to Dolan Media Chief Operating Officer, Scott Pollei. Wagner,
Harber and other employees control the 15% minority ownership of DiscoverReady.
The company`s employees will be retained.
"We are very pleased to be a part of the Dolan Media family," Wagner said. "We
are excited to have such a strong foundation to support our clients, the
long-term development of our team of professionals, and the continuing growth of
our business."
Harber said the match between companies was an attractive part of the deal.
"Dolan Media is a natural fit for DiscoverReady due to its partner-driven
approach of investing in quality companies and empowering management teams to
scale rapidly and expand their business models," Harber said.
Discovery, the process by which parties use the legal system to obtain relevant
information, is expensive and time-consuming. Complex cases can involve millions
of e-mails, electronic files and paper documents that must be reviewed.
Explosive growth in legal costs is a major issue for large companies and their
law firms, and discovery often is the biggest single cost component.
DiscoverReady uses proprietary processes and tools such as its PrivBank,
PrivView, and Dynamic Data Analysis to streamline attorney document reviews and
deliver defensible results at costs that can be as much as 40% lower than
traditional methods. The company also provides technology management services.
Wagner and Harber were practicing attorneys before starting down entrepreneurial
paths that led to the formation of DiscoverReady in 2005. Both men previously
worked in legal technology fields, using their legal experience to solve
challenges faced by law firms and corporate legal departments.
Dolan Media Company is a leading provider of professional services and business
information to the legal, financial and real estate sectors. Its Professional
Services Division provides specialized services to the legal profession through
its subsidiaries, NDeX, Counsel Press and now DiscoverReady. NDeX is a leading
provider of mortgage default processing services in the United States. Counsel
Press is the nation`s largest provider of appellate services to the legal
community. The Company`s Business Information Division publishes business
journals, court and commercial media and other highly focused information
products and services, operates web sites and produces events for targeted
professional audiences in each of the 21 geographic markets that it serves
across the United States.
Dolan Media is simultaneously filing with the Securities Exchange Commission its
quarterly report on Form 10-Q. which describes this transaction in more detail
in both "Management`s Discussion and Analysis-Recent Acquisitions" and Item 5 of
Part II. The Form 10-Q is available on the SEC`s web site at www.sec.gov.
Safe Harbor Statement
This release contains forward-looking statements that reflect our current
expectations and projections about our future results, performance, prospects
and opportunities. The words "expect," "believes," "continue," "will," and
similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These
forward-looking statements are based on information currently available to us
and are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties and other factors that may
cause our actual results, performance, prospects or opportunities to be
materially different from those expressed in, or implied by, such forward
looking statements. These risks, uncertainties and other factors include, but
are not limited to, the following: we have owned and operated DiscoverReady for
a short period of time and none of our executive officers have managed or
operated a discovery management or document review services company prior to the
acquisition of DiscoveryReady; DiscoverReady`s business revenues are very
concentrated among a few customers and if these customers choose to manage their
discovery with their own staff or by engaging another provider and if we are
unable to develop new customer relationships, our operating results and the
ability to execute our growth strategy may be adversely affected; integration of
acquired businesses may place a strain on our management and internal systems,
processes and controls; the acquisition of DiscoverReady may expose us to
particular business and financial risks that include, but are not limited to:
(1) diverting management`s time, attention and resources from managing the
business; (2) incurring significant additional capital expenditures and
operating expenses to improve, coordinate or integrate managerial, operational,
financial and administrative systems; (3) failing to integrate the operations,
personnel and internal controls of DiscoverReady into our company or to manage
DiscoverReady or our growth; and (4) facing operational difficulties in new
markets or with new product and service offerings; and we incurred additional
indebtedness to close the acquisition of DiscoverReady and this additional debt
may limit our ability to pursue other acquisitions or growth strategies. Please
also see "Risk Factors" contained in Item 1A of our annual report on Form 10-K
filed with the SEC on March 12, 2009, and Item 1A of Part II of our quarterly
reports on Form 10-Q filed with the SEC on August 7, 2009 and November 6, 2009,
all available at the SEC`s web site at www.sec.gov, for a description of some of
these and other risks, uncertainties and factors that could cause our actual
results, performance, prospects or opportunities to differ materially from those
expressed in, or implied by, forward looking statements. You should not place
undue reliance on any forward-looking statements. Except as required by federal
securities law, we assume no obligation to update publicly or to revise these
forward-looking statements for any reason, or to update the reasons actual
results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking
statements, even if new information becomes available, new events occur or
circumstances change in the future.
Dolan Media Company
Haug Scharnowski, 612-801-8063
Copyright Business Wire 2009
