Acquisition of Article One Partners

UK
10/3/2017 12:00:01 AM
RWS Holdings plc ("RWS), the world's leading provider of intellectual property ("IP") support services (patent translations, international patent filing solutions and searches) and a leading provider of life sciences and commercial language services, today announces the acquisition of Article One Partners, LLC ("AOP"), a cutting-edge IP information business based in the United States, for a cash consideration of US$8 million ("the Acquisition"). AOP's online crowdsourcing platform links its clients to a community of over 42,000 researchers, across more than 170 countries, to provide them with access to IP intelligence that informs their litigation, licensing, patent enforcement and IP acquisition strategy decisions. The platform is able to match AOP's clients' requirements with researchers in the right technical field and geography. AOP has a track record of delivering critical litigation citations to its strong client base, which includes blue chip corporations such as Philips. The acquisition will be highly complementary to RWS's existing Patent Information business and PatBase offering, whilst reinforcing the Group's focus on providing innovative technology solutions to its clients. In particular the acquisition will strengthen the US presence of RWS's Patent Information division while expanding cross-selling opportunities across the existing client base. In addition, the support of RWS's IP sales team in the US, Europe and Asia will bring AOP's services to a wider market. AOP achieved revenues of US$3.7 million for the year ended 31 December 2016 and is expected to be earnings neutral in RWS's 2018 financial year, as the benefits from RWS's sales team and back office synergies are realised. Andrew Brode, Chairman of RWS, commented: "The acquisition of AOP is a natural fit to accelerate the development of our growing Patent Information division and will provide clients with a complementary, online resource to aid their intellectual property research needs. "We see a number of opportunities for the business to benefit from RWS's scale and global presence, particularly given our established sales team's ability to offer clients the fuller range of intellectual property services across multiple geographies, so we are excited about the potential for this additional service going forward." For further information contact: RWS Holdings plc Andrew Brode, Chairman    01753 480200 Richard Thompson, Chief Executive Officer    01753 480200 MHP Communications Katie Hunt / Simon Hockridge   0203 128 8794 Numis Stuart Skinner / Kevin Cruickshank (Nominated Adviser)   0207 260 1000 Michael Burke (Corporate Broker) About RWS RWS is the world's leading provider of patent translations and one of the leading players in the provision of intellectual property support services and a market leader in life sciences translations and linguistic validation as well as a high level specialist language service provider in other technical areas, providing for the diverse needs of a blue-chip multinational client base from Europe, North America and Asia.  RWS is based in the UK, with offices in Europe, the USA (New York, Hartford, Broomfield, San Francisco, Boston and Chicago), China, Japan and Australia, and is listed on AIM, the London Stock Exchange regulated market (RWS.L). For further information, please visit:  www.rws.com. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
Get in touch

About RWS

RWS Holdings plc is a unique, world-leading provider of technology-enabled language, content and intellectual property services. Through content transformation and multilingual data analysis, our combination of AI-enabled technology and human expertise helps our clients to grow by ensuring they are understood anywhere, in any language.


Our purpose is unlocking global understanding. By combining cultural understanding, client understanding and technical understanding, our services and technology assist our clients to acquire and retain customers, deliver engaging user experiences, maintain compliance and gain actionable insights into their data and content.


Over the past 20 years we’ve been evolving our own AI solutions as well as helping clients to explore, build and use multilingual AI applications. With 40+ AI-related patents and more than 100 peer-reviewed papers, we have the experience and expertise to support clients on their AI journey.


We work with over 80% of the world’s top 100 brands, more than three-quarters of Fortune’s 20 ‘Most Admired Companies’ and almost all of the top pharmaceutical companies, investment banks, law firms and patent filers. Our client base spans Europe, Asia Pacific, Africa and North and South America. Our 65+ global locations across five continents service clients in the automotive, chemical, financial, legal, medical, pharmaceutical, technology and telecommunications sectors.


Founded in 1958, RWS is headquartered in the UK and publicly listed on AIM, the London Stock Exchange regulated market (RWS.L). 


For further information, please visit: www.rws.com.


© 2024 All rights reserved. Information contained herein is deemed confidential and the proprietary information of RWS Group*.
*RWS Group shall mean RWS Holdings plc for and on behalf of its affiliates and subsidiaries.