SDL acquires machine translation company Language Weaver

SDL, a translation company that’s publicly-traded on the London stock exchange, announced today that it has agreed to acquire Language Weaver for $42.5 million in cash.

In the press release, SDL chief executive Mark Lancaster emphasized the rapidly growing amount of content on the Web and estimated that in five years, 30 percent of all translated content will be at least partly machine-translated. So Language Weaver, which Lancaster describes as “the best-in-class machine translation technology available in the world today,” can expand and improve SDL’s products in this area.

The company already has several customers in common with SDL, including Adobe, Dell, Intel, and Siemens. Language Weaver’s customers also include travel site Trip Advisor. It will operate as a business unit in SDL, led by its current CEO, Mark Tapling.

Los Angeles-based Language Weaver’s investors include Palisades Ventures, Tech Coast Angels, the Athenaeum Fund, and In-Q-Tel, the venture firm affiliated with the Central Intelligence Agency.