What happened
Shares of DocuSign (DOCU -0.61%) have gained today, up by 3% as of 12:30 p.m. EDT, after the company announced yesterday that it was acquiring Liveoak Technologies. The deal will help DocuSign expand into online notary services.
So what
DocuSign already had an existing partnership with Liveoak where the flagship DocuSign eSignature service was integrated with Liveoak's agreement-collaboration platform.
DocuSign eSignature. Image source: DocuSign.
DocuSign has scooped up the smaller company for $38 million in an all-stock deal and will leverage the acquisition to accelerate the launch of DocuSign Notary, a new offering within the tech company's broader Agreement Cloud suite of services. DocuSign will utilize audio-visual technology to complete notarial services even when the signer and notary public are in different locations.
In a statement, DocuSign COO Scott Olrich said:
DocuSign is practically synonymous with the electronic completion of agreements from almost anywhere, on almost any device. But there is an important class of high-value agreements that require the live participation of a notary or other representative. With this acquisition, we intend to bring the DocuSign experience to those agreements, too -- so signers and those assisting can get business done no matter where they are.
Now what
DocuSign Notary is expected to launch with early-access availability later this summer, allowing users to complete notarized transactions over video. The new service will add on to DocuSign's current eNotary offering. DocuSign will continue to offer Liveoak's platform for other-use cases that require in-person interactions.
