Big Blue has written a cheque by the document capture software maker Datacap.

Datacap's technology allows customers to quickly extract information from unstructured formats, such as tax returns, invoices and claim forms, saving time and money over manual processes.

IBM owns similar capabilities via its FileNet acquisition, but said that it wants to make Datacap's software "the foundation" of its document capture plans. It said that companies and government organizations are facing an ever-increasing amount of unstructured data as well as regulatory pressure to improve records management..

Datacap has 200 customers including the Virginia Department of Taxation and health-care provider Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona. A buy out was pretty likely and it's well worth noting that IBM and Datacap are long-time partners in the war against Oracle, Open Text and EMC.