IBM Corp. has sold its Coplink business, a suite of sophisticated data-analysis software for law-enforcement agencies developed at the University of Arizona, to a California-based company.
Terms of the sale to Walnut Creek-based Forensic Logic, a provider of network-search technology and cloud-based information services to law enforcement, were not disclosed.
The widely used Coplink software is a search tool that meshes police data from disparate databases, such as 911 calls and mugshot files, to help solve crimes.
Coplink was created in 1998 by Hsinchun Chen, a UA Regents professor in the Eller College of Managementβs Management Information Systems Department and head of the UAβs artificial-intelligence lab.
Knowledge Computing Corp., which Chen founded in 2000 to commercialize the Coplink technology, was acquired in 2009 by United Kingdom-based i2 Holdings Ltd. IBM acquired i2 in 2011 for a reported $500 million.
Founded in 2003, Forensic Logic is one of the fastest-growing public-safety technology providers in the country, the company said.
Bob Batty, CEO of Forensic Logic, said Coplink will be integrated into one platform with the companyβs search and analytical tools and data network.
IBM said Coplink provides public-safety software and services to more than 5,100 law-enforcement jurisdictions across the nation, with a core analysis platform and an array of software tools for investigations, operations and compliance.
The companies didnβt say how many IBM employees will be affected by the acquisition or what will happen to those workers, and that information was not immediately available, a Forensic Logic spokesman said.
At the time of the acquisition by IBM, i2 reportedly had about 100 employees in Tucson at an office at 7750 E. Broadway.
IBM does not discuss employment levels. The company had an estimated 1,300 employees at its storage-technology group at the UA Tech Park as of 2014.
