Autonomy Corporation

Infobox Company
company_name = Autonomy Corporation PLC
company_
company_type = Public (LSE|AU.)
foundation = 1996
location = Joint Head Quarters: San Francisco, USA & Cambridge, UK
key_people = Dr Michael Richard Lynch, OBE, Founder and CEO
area_served = Global
industry = Information Technology
products = Search engine for unstructured Information
market C

revenue =USD343.4 million (2007)
operating_income = USD88.6 million (2007)
net_income = USD62.5 million (2007)
num_employees = 1,300
parent =
subsid =
homepage = [http://www.autonomy.com www.autonomy.com]
footnotes =

Autonomy Corporation PLC (LSE|AU.) is an enterprise software company with joint head quarters in Cambridge, United Kingdom, and San Francisco, USA. The company uses a combination of technologies borne out of research at the University of Cambridge. It develops a variety of enterprise search and knowledge management applications using adaptive pattern recognition techniques centered on Bayesian inference (statistical inference in which evidence or observations are used to update or to newly infer the probability that a hypothesis may be true) in conjunction with traditional methods.

Autonomy is currently listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. [ [http://uk.biz.yahoo.com/10092008/323/fresnillo-inmarsat-autonomy-stagecoach-enter-ftse-100-reshuffle.html Fresnillo, Inmarsat, Autonomy, Stagecoach enter ftse 100 reshuffle] ]

History

Autonomy was founded in Cambridge, England by Dr Michael Lynch and Richard Gaunt in 1996 as a spin-off from "Cambridge Neurodynamics".

Autonomy floated in 1998 on the Easdaq exchange at a share price of approximately 30p. At the height of the "dot com bubble", the peak share price was £30. [ [http://news.zdnet.co.uk/itmanagement/0,1000000308,2101784,00.htm?r=1 "What that £10k is worth now", 31st Dec 2001, zdnet.co.uk] ]

In 2000, Autonomy acquired Softsound, a small company spun out of Cambridge University developing speech recognition software. [ [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_20000804/ai_n14338242 Autonomy boosts profits twelvefold] ]

In 2003, they acquired Virage, a software developer of video search software. [ [http://www.theregister.co.uk/2003/07/11/autonomy_swoops_on_virage/ "Autonomy swoops on Virage", 11 July 2003, The Register] ]

In June 2005, acquired etalk, a business operating in the call center software sector. [ [http://www.crm2day.com/content/t6_librarynews_1.php?news_id=114078 Autonomy to acquire etalk] ]

In December 2005 Autonomy acquired Verity, Inc., one of its main competitors, for approximately $500m. [ [http://www.iwr.co.uk/information-world-review/news/2145548/autonomy-buys-verity-500m-deal "Autonomy buys Verity", Information World Review] ]

In May 2007 after exercising an option to buy a stake of technology start up, Blinkx Inc, and combining it with its consumer division, Autonomy floated Blinkx on a valuation of $250m. [ [http://mashable.com/2007/05/22/blinkx-ipo/ Blinkx IPO goes ahead] ]

In July 2007 it acquired Zantaz, the leading email archiving and litigation support company, for $375M. [ [http://www.law.com/jsp/legaltechnology/pubArticleLT.jsp?id=1184749592567 Autonomy buys Zantaz] ]

Operations

Autonomy is a proponent in the rapidly growing area of Meaning-Based Computing (MBC). Autonomy's position as a global leader in the sector is acknowledged by analysts including Gartner Group. [http://agendabuilder.gartner.com/sym18/WebPages/VendorDetail.aspx?Vendor=34 Gartner Group: Autonomy] ] In November 2007, Autonomy Corporation was presented with an award for the best performing software company in Europe by the European Commissioner for IT. [ [http://www.truffle.com/images/cms/actu_291/PRTruffle100ENGfinal.doc.pdf Truffle 100] ]

Products

The main technology is called Intelligent Data Operating Layer (IDOL), and is to unstructured information what an RDBMS is to structured information. IDOL allows search and processing of text, audio, video, and structured information. The processing of such information by IDOL is referred to by industry analysts as the Meaning-Based Computing sector. [ [http://www.computing.co.uk/itweek/analysis/2162661/interview-meaning-computing What is meaning-based computing] ] At its core, Autonomy's technology can understand any form of unstructured information, whether text, voice, or video, and based on that understanding perform automatic operations on the information.

Customers

Autonomy also has over 300 OEM partners and more than 400 Value-added resellers and integrators, numbering among them are leading companies such as Citrix, EDS, Novell and Symantec. [ [http://www.autonomy.com/content/Customers/index.en.html autonomy.com customer list] ]

Offices

Autonomy has major offices in the US, the UK, Canada, France, Japan, Australia, Singapore, Germany and smaller offices throughout Europe and Latin America.

enior management

The Company's Board includes:
*Dr Michael Richard Lynch
*Richard Gaunt
*Sushovan Hussain
*Barry Ariko
*John McMonigall
*Richard Perle

References

External links

* [http://www.autonomy.com/ Company site]
* [http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/8.02/autonomy_pr.html "The Quest for Meaning" WIRED]
* [http://www.itweek.co.uk/itweek/analysis/2162661/interview-meaning-computing What Is Meaning-Based Computing?]
* [http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=1502 Michael Lynch On Meaning-Based Computing]
* [http://www.virage.com Virage]
* [http://www.etalk.com etalk]
* [http://www.cardiff.com Cardiff]
* [http://www.zantaz.com ZANTAZ]