Legal Commentary

Document Technologies Inc. has acquired Daticon EED, a Seattle-area e-discovery company. The company will now be known as "EED, a DTI company," based in Atlanta.

Effective immediately, it will act as the operating unit supporting current Daticon EED clients. John Davenport Jr., currently president and CEO of DTI, will continue in that role. The terms of the deal "are not, and will not be disclosed," said publicist Amy Juers, of Edge Legal Marketing.

DTI says it now has annual revenue of more than $130 million, including $70 million-plus from discovery services. It operates six large data centers in Atlanta, Chicago, New York, Seattle, Washington, D.C., and Norwich, Conn.  The former EDD Daticon offices in Kirkland, Wash. will be used as a regional technology center.

The acquisition dissolves the "Daticon" moniker, marking the end of a rather turbulent past. Founded in 1993, Daticon was previously based in Connecticut. It was bought in 2006 by Xiotech Corp., of Eden Prairie, Minn., after filing Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. (Xiotech bought only the assets, not the liabilities of the company, according to news reports.)

In 2000, a majority interest in Daticon was purchased by Daniel Gordon, who was later convicted for embezzling $43 million from Merrill Lynch, including money used to purchase the interest.

The EED in the name refers to the company previously known as Electronic Evidence Discovery Inc., founded in 1987 by John Jessen. "I am confident DTI will leverage this history to continue advancing the combined leadership position in the discovery service industry," he said today.