HighWire Press buys Semantico

US scholarly publishing company HighWire Press has bought Brighton-based technology and services company Semantico for an undisclosed sum.

HighWire, which was founded within the Stanford University Library in 1995, and launched a new UK office in Belfast last March, described the acquisition as a "milestone investment". It plans to keep Semantico's offices in New York and Brighton, with Semantico employees continuing to serve their current customers. Meanwhile an "integration team" will "quickly deliver benefits to customers based on complementary technologies, services and products."

A spokesperson for HighWire said there were no planned redundancies among the 60-strong Semantico staff as a result of the acquisition but "as fairly normal, some of the senior level execs are moving on to other things and Richard [Padley, Semantico chairman and founder] is one of those." A total of four senior executives, including Padley, are leaving the company.

HighWire already has products including journals platform Jcore, dynamic e-books platform for scholarly research Folio, manuscript submission and peer review tracking system BenchPress and analytical visitation tools Impact and Usage Vizors. "This acquisition will bring HighWire an increased capacity for technological innovation; a strong team that further expands its already broad publishing expertise; and a powerful combination of best-of-breed products that leverage industry best practices," the company said.

Dan Filby, HighWire c.e.o., said: "Innovation and customer-centricity are at the core of HighWire. The addition of the Semantico solution set and team enhances our ability to deliver an unparalleled mix of functionality in our product suite, serving publishers across the spectrum of the industry." Meanwhile Padley said the increased scale and capability of the combined organisations "will deliver significant value to current and future publishers."

Park Durrett, principal at Accel-KKR, which has held a majority investment in HighWire Press since 2014, said the acquisition was "a strategy next step continuing to propel HighWire as the premier solution provider in the digital publishing space."