SAS Acquires Massachusetts Firm To Boost Data-Analysis Capabilities

Cary, N.C. — SAS is adding technology to improve the capabilities of its text-mining applications by acquiring a Massachusetts-based company.

In a deal announced at its annual Global Forum in San Antonio, SAS said Monday it is acquiring Teragram. The 40-person company focuses on natural language processing, or NLP.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

SAS, which has more than 10,000 employees around the world and posted more than $2 billion in revenues in 2007, rarely makes acquisitions. Teragram is the company’s seventh in eight years.

The natural language technology is designed to understand the difference between nouns and verbs, such as “tire” as a noun and “tire” as a verb in data. In the past, SAS has used a third-party service for natural language processing, according to a SAS spokesperson.

SAS will use the technology in working with clients for analysis of data such as call center notes from consumers and warranty requests.

Teragram’s technology also will be integrated into SAS’ business intelligence and mobile search products.

“The addition of Teragram’s domain expertise and NLP technology will change the landscape of the BI and analytics markets,” said SAS Chief Executive Officer Jim Goodnight. “Teragram’s technologies augment, strengthen and extend SAS’ ability to combine structured and unstructured data – not only in our text mining solution but embedded across the entire SAS Enterprise Intelligence Platform – to drive better answers faster.”

Teragram, which is based in Cambridge, Mass., will operate as a SAS company.

Teragram customers include CNN, New York Times Digital, Washington Post.com, Yahoo!, the World Bank and Forbes.com.