Technology entrepreneur Dr. Stephen Kirkby believes the purchase of search engine specialist Funnelback by content management company Squiz will create a globally competitive company.

Dr. Kirkby – who last year sold his web optimisation company Maxamine to global technology services firm Accenture – has played a central role in the development of Funnelback Pty Ltd since he was appointed chairman of the CSIRO spinoff company in February 2006. 

Last Friday, CSIRO has announced the sale of Funnelback to Squiz.  Funnelback was developed by CSIRO and the Australian National University, originally under the name of P@nopticTM.

Dr. Kirkby said Squiz’s purchase of Funnelback would create a strong Australian player in the global market. “The merging of these two successful Australian IT companies bodes well for their clients and future prospects as they will have access to best-of-breed technology and staff,” he said.

“Combining Funnelback’s strong scientific intellectual property with Squiz’s commitment to best-of-breed service on the open source platform gives Australia a strong, globally competitive IT company.”

Funnelback’s flagship product, Funnelback Enterprise, is an integrated, high value, industrial strength search solution that searches content assets across Internet, intranet, database and shared network drives, as well as electronic document management and portal systems. It is used in some of the most demanding web environments by a broad range of customers including the Australian Securities Exchange, Oxfam, Westpac, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Australian State and Federal government departments.

Squiz is a privately owned global content management company and the authors of the MySource Matrix, an open source content management system used by governments, universities and corporations.

For media assistance or to request an interview with Steve Kirkby:

Call John Harris at Impress Media Australia on 08 8431 4000 or email jharris@impress.com.au.

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