FRONTEO Acquires Essential Discovery, Inc.

NEW YORK, Nov. 06, 2016 -- FRONTEO USA, Inc. (“FRONTEO USA”), a wholly-owned direct subsidiary of FRONTEO, Inc. (“FRONTEO”) (formerly known as UBIC, Inc.) (NASDAQ:FTEO) (TSE:2158), a leading provider of global eDiscovery, managed review solutions and big data analysis services utilizing artificial intelligence technology, today announced the acquisition of managed review provider Essential Discovery, Inc. (“EDI”).

EDI is a boutique discovery firm with specialization in document review with Fortune 250 corporations and AM Law 100 clients across the United States.  With review centers in San Francisco and Las Vegas, along with pop-up capabilities across the country and internationally, EDI is a strategic fit into the expansive network that FRONTEO already has in place.

“Continued growing demand for efficient, reliable and cost effective review services in primary and secondary locations enables FRONTEO and EDI to offer clients improved engagement, better project management and streamlined processes,” says Aaron Fluss, National Managing Director at EDI. “This will help us to mitigate case risk, drive increased value to law firms and corporations, and standardize review processes based on industry-best methodologies.”

EDI’s proven ability in the national market demonstrates its ability to focus on client engagement, pre-review analysis and data reduction, as well as the review of documents, and provides deep know-how in the following areas:

• Clients Come First – EDI operates in a “client-first” manner where the customer is the top priority
• Proprietary Review Process – The “Advanced Review Team” provides a results-oriented proprietary process for efficient, reliable, cost-effective review
• Client Project Managers – Drives continuity of service and project analysis via productivity reporting
• Elite Review Team – Deep bench strength for review projects leveraging highly skilled and long-tenured attorneys, who also leverage culling techniques through early case assessment to reduce data sets
• Value-Add Service – Ability to provide additional services such as witness narratives for deposition preparation, case memorandums, and privilege log production for matters

“We expect a very smooth and fast transition of EDI resources and processes into FRONTEO,” says Andy Jimenez, CEO of FRONTEO USA, Inc. “Maintaining our focus on top and bottom-line growth is an important aspect of this acquisition, and our ability to quickly streamline operations and post-merger integration tasks for very rapid time-to-market is key.  We look forward to joining forces.”

The combination of FRONTEO and EDI will now give the market access to an additional 150 review seats for a total of approximately 1,300 permanent seats for review projects across the U.S., in both primary and secondary markets. There are also additional seats available at FRONTEO review centers internationally for cross-border projects.

All EDI staff along with its extensive roster of contract attorneys, project managers, quality controllers, and review staff will be integrated under the FRONTEO brand.

Essential Discovery, Inc. was advised by Bundy Group, a boutique investment bank, in the sale to FRONTEO.   

About FRONTEO USA, Inc.

FRONTEO USA, Inc. (“FRONTEO USA”) is a wholly- owned direct subsidiary of FRONTEO, Inc., a publicly traded global technology and services company specializing in big data, artificial intelligence, information governance, managed review, and litigation consulting for the eDiscovery market. FRONTEO USA serves Am Law 200 law firms, Fortune 500 companies and government agencies across all phases of the e-Discovery process including collection, processing, forensic investigation, hosted review, and production. FRONTEO USA provides robust English language services along with advanced specialization in Chinese, Japanese and Korean (CJK) languages. Driven by FRONTEO’s unique AI technology KIBIT™, companies are able to proactively and predictively assess fraud, data leakage and pre-crime events alongside the e-Discovery lifecycle and gain a deep understanding of their data. FRONTEO is a Relativity Best in Service Orange partner, and maintains review centers in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Houston, New York, Washington, DC, Tokyo, Seoul, Taipei City, and Manila.

For more information visit www.fronteo.com/usa.

Safe Harbor Statement

This announcement contains forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are made under the “safe harbor” provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements can be identified by terminology such as “will,” “expects,” “anticipates,” “future,” “intends,” “plans,” “believes,” “estimates” and similar statements. Among other things, the amount of data that FRONTEO expects to manage this year and the potential uses for FRONTEO’s new service in intellectual property-related litigation, contain forward-looking statements. FRONTEO may also make written or oral forward-looking statements in its reports filed with, or furnished to, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, in its annual reports to shareholders, in press releases and other written materials and in oral statements made by its officers, directors or employees to third parties. Statements that are not historical facts, including statements about FRONTEO’s beliefs and expectations, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties. A number of factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statement, including but not limited to the following: FRONTEO’s goals and strategies; FRONTEO’s expansion plans; the expected growth of the data center services market; expectations regarding demand for, and market acceptance of,  FRONTEO’s services; FRONTEO’s expectations regarding keeping and strengthening its relationships with customers; FRONTEO’s plans to invest in research and development to enhance its solution and service offerings; and general economic and business conditions in the regions where FRONTEO provides solutions and services. Further information regarding these and other risks is included in FRONTEO’s reports filed with, or furnished to the Securities and Exchange Commission. FRONTEO does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statement, except as required under applicable law. All information provided in this press release and in the attachments is as of the date of this press release, and FRONTEO undertakes no duty to update such information, except as required under applicable law.

CONTACT:

FRONTEO USA Marketing

Tel: (866) 803-7668, then dial 6

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