CSIRO sells Funnelback search engine

CSIRO has sold its Funnelback search engine technology business to open source content management company Squiz.

Funnelback was developed by CSIRO and the Australian National University, originally under the name of P@noptic.

Dr Alex Zelinsky, director of the CSIRO ICT Centre said technology developed by CSIRO ICT scientists has successfully commercialised and is helping to grow an Australian SME business.

Funnelback’s flagship product, Funnelback Enterprise, is a search solution that searches content across Internet, intranet, database and shared network drives, as well as electronic document management and portal systems.

It is used by the Australian Securities Exchange, Oxfam, Westpac, the ABC and Australian state and federal government departments.

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

Karl Rodrigues, Investment Portfolio Manager for CSIRO says the sale of Funnelback demonstrates effective commercialisation by CSIRO.

“Funnelback have produced some really innovative technologies and Squiz is the right partner now to bring their offering to the world stage. I see this acquisition as a tremendous opportunity for both Australian companies,” Rodrigues said.

Squiz managing director and founder John-Paul Syriatowicz said the Funnelback and MySource Matrix products complement each other well.

“We have a great many customers in common so it makes sense to bring the two organisations closer together,” Syriatowicz said.

“As organisations continue their inevitable move towards browser-centric information management, powerful, integrated search will play an increasingly important role in content management.”

“I believe 2010 will herald a fundamental shift in the content management systems and search marketplace. Trying to treat them as discrete solutions simply doesn’t work.”

A CSIRO spokesperson said financial details of the sale have not yet been released.

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