Filenet Buys Bellevue-Based Saros Software Firm

Saros Corp., a relatively unknown but fast-growing Bellevue software company that controls about a quarter of the emerging document-management market, has been bought by California-based FileNet Corp. for $102.4 million in stock.

Saros officials said no layoffs are planned and the company will maintain its Bellevue headquarters.

The company said it is continuing with a rapid expansion of its staff, which grew from about 80 to 200 in 1995.

"The plans are to stay here and to continue to grow," said Wayne Carpenter, Saros' chief executive officer and co-founder.

Carpenter and his management team will remain with the company in their current positions.

Prior to the acquisition, there had been speculation that Saros, a privately held company established in 1985, would go public with an initial public stock offering early this year.

Through its Mezzanine software program, Saros can create a large, easy-to-access digital archive of all the data files that flow through a company no matter what format they were stored in.

"This is going to be a strategic area, kind of like what Intuit turned financial management into," said Andrew Waitman, a high-tech analyst with Eagle & Partners in Toronto.