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Tungsten Automation

American intelligent automation software provider From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Tungsten Automation, formerly Kofax Inc., is an Irvine, California-based intelligent automation software provider. Founded in 1985, the company's software allows businesses to automate and improve business workflows by simplifying the handling of data and documents.[2]

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From 2017 to 2022, the company was an independent portfolio company owned by private equity firm Thoma Bravo.[3] In 2022, Clearlake Capital and TA Associates completed their acquisition of the company.[4]

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History

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Tungsten Automation was founded in 1985 as Kofax Image Products by engineers Dean Hough and David Silver, who worked together at document processing company FileNet.[5] Silver became the company's chief executive officer and president.[6] The company initially focused on making personal computer circuit boards to convert them into image-processing machines, and its first products were released in 1989.[5]

In the 1990s, the company continued to develop its core image processing technology.[7]

In October 1997, the company went public on the Nasdaq market.[8]

In July 1999, the company announced it would be purchased by UK-based holding company DICOM Group in a reported US$75 million cash deal, with the intent to pair Kofax Image Products, Inc.’s digital capture technology with DICOM Group's distribution services in Europe.[7]

In July 2000, CEO and President Silver stepped down and was succeeded by Arnold von Büren, former deputy chief executive officer of Dicom.[6]

In 2002, Rick Murphy was named CEO of Kofax, and von Büren was promoted to CEO of Dicom Group.[9]

In April 2003, Kofax acquired Mohomine Inc., an automated text classification and extraction developer.[10]

In December 2005, Dicom Group / Kofax Inc. appointed Rob Klatell as CEO of Dicom.[11]

In November 2007, then CEO Rob Klatell was replaced by Reynolds Bish, former CEO of Captiva Software, now part of OpenText.[9]

In January 2008, the company renamed Kofax Image Products, Inc. and Dicom Group as Kofax Inc.[12]

In May 2011, Kofax Inc. announced the acquisition of Atalasoft Inc., an image software company whose primary product was a document imaging toolkit named dotImage.[13] In December, Kofax Inc.’s US$48 million bid to purchase London IT company Singularity was accepted.[14] This acquisition enabled business process management (BPM) and case management software to exist through public or private SaaS (software as a service) platforms.[15]

In the summer of 2013, Kofax added robotic process automation (RPA) developer Kapow Software (now: Kofax RPA). In December, Kofax Inc. was added to the Nasdaq Stock Market as (KFX).[16]

In September 2014, Kofax acquired Softpro, an e-signature and signature verification software company in Stuttgart, Germany, as a separate entity.[17]

In March 2015, Kofax Inc. purchased Aia Holding, a customer communications management company in The Netherlands, in a US$19.5 million cash deal.[18] Also in March, the company introduced Mobile ID, image validation software for capturing proof-of-identity documents required for secure processes such as opening bank accounts.[18]

On March 24, 2015, Lexmark International, Inc. and Kofax Inc. entered into a merger agreement. Lexmark acquired outstanding shares of Kofax Inc. for US$11 per share, or approximately US$1 billion.[19][20] After the acquisition closed, Kofax Inc. combined with Perceptive Software, a subsidiary of Lexmark, to form an expanded business content and management software unit of their parent company.[20] Kofax Inc. ended the 2015 fiscal year with US$297 million in revenue.[20]

In the spring of 2016, Lexmark and its subsidiaries were acquired by an investment consortium led by Apex Technology Co. and PAG Asia Capital. The purchase was valued at US$3.6 billion.[21]

In July 2017, private equity and growth capital firm Thoma Bravo acquired Lexmark's Enterprise Software business which consisted of three entities: Kofax, ReadSoft, and Perceptive Software.[22] Following this, Kofax and ReadSoft combined into a single, newly independent Thoma Bravo portfolio company.[22]

In November 2018, Kofax announced it was acquiring the Document Imaging Division of Nuance Communications.[23] By means of this acquisition, Kofax gained Nuance's Power PDF, PaperPort document management and OmniPage optical character recognition software applications.

In May 2019, Kofax acquired Top Image Systems (NASDAQ:TISA)(TIS).[24]

In June 2021, Kofax announced the acquisition of PSIGEN Software, Inc., a provider of document capture, content management and workflow automation software and solutions.[25] In August, the company announced the acquisition of cloud-based print management system provider Printix.net.[26]

In July 2022, Clearlake Capital and TA Associates completed their acquisition of the company from Thoma Bravo.[27]

On January 16, 2024, Kofax was renamed to Tungsten Automation.[28]

On July 1, 2025, Peter Hantman was appointed to CEO.[29]

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Products

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Tungsten Automation develops intelligent automation software for businesses, for applications ranging from print management, to process automation and document/pdf management.[23] Its products are grouped into four categories: Intelligent Automation Platform; Finance & Accounting; Capture & Print; and Desktop Productivity.

The company's Intelligent Automation Platform supports digital workflows and includes the following components:

  • TotalAgility, a workflow orchestration software within the Intelligent Automation Platform that includes low-code, document intelligence, process orchestration, and connected systems capabilities to improve business processes[30]
  • RPA, robotic process automation software that allows code-free automation of labor-intensive, multi-step tasks across systems and data sources[31]
  • SignDoc, e-signature software that verifies electronic signatures for document workflows[32]

The company's Finance & Accounting group develops an Accounts Payable (AP) Automation Platform which includes the following:

  • AP Agility, artificial intelligence-enabled accounts payable software, used to simplify internal business processes[33]
  • AP Essentials (formerly ReadSoft Online) invoice processing software that automatically captures and validates invoice data from multiple formats[34]
  • Invoice Portal, an online portal for electronic invoicing[citation needed]

The company's Capture & Print business area develops software to support print-centric business processes, including the following:

  • ControlSuite, print management, capture and document security software[35]
  • AutoStore, software for automated and compliant document capture[36]
  • Capture, software for processing and integrating content directly into a business's workflow from any location[36][37]

The company's Desktop Productivity software includes a variety of software for managing documents. Desktop Productivity products include:

  • Power PDF, software for creating, converting, editing, sharing and e-signing PDF files.[38]
  • PaperPort, software for scanning, storing and managing documents
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Operations

Tungsten Automation is headquartered in Irvine, California.[2] As of 2024, it had approximately 2,200 employees in 32 countries around the world.[1] Specialized industries include healthcare, insurance, transportation & logistics, government, finance & accounting and business process management. Customers and partners include Xerox, HP Inc., Canon Inc., Samsung, Visa Inc. and The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi.[23][39][40]

References

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