BETHESDA, Md., June 19, 2014 /PRNewswire/ — Seabrook Partners LLC (“Seabrook“) (www.SeabrookPartnersLLC.com) today announced that it acted as the sole financial advisor to Applications Technology, LLC (“AppTek”) in the sale of its machine translation technology to eBay, Inc. (“eBay”). The terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

AppTek (McLean, VA) is a pioneer in natural language processing (“NLP”), including automatic speech recognition and machine translation technology. It relies on a highly-skilled team of computational linguists and software engineers to develop and deploy its solutions to both government and commercial clients. AppTek’s innovative Hybrid Machine Translation engine is a leading-edge breakthrough in language translation technology, fusing rule-based and statistical-based engines.

According to research firm, Markets and Markets, the NLP market, which also includes interactive voice response, speech analytics and dictation technologies, will grow from $3.8 billion in 2013 to $9.9 billion in 2018, representing a compound annual growth rate of 21.1 percent.

“The explosion of multi-lingual content and commerce has dramatically expanded the application of AppTek’s leading-edge technology,” says Brian Keane, Co-founder and Managing Director at Seabrook. “The rapid evolution and globalization of the media landscape has driven large technology companies to complement internal IP development with innovative technology developed by firms such as AppTek.”

Mohammad Shihadah, Co-CEO and Co-founder of AppTek stated, “We are delighted, once again, to have partnered with Seabrook Partners on a transaction. They have guided us through two previous transactions and have demonstrated the knowledge, experience and commitment we look for in an advisor.”

Bingham McCutchen LLP provided legal support to AppTek.

About Seabrook Partners LLC

Seabrook Partners LLC, based in Bethesda, MD, is an independent investment bank that provides strategic advisory services to growing middle-market corporate clients. Seabrook’s advisory services include seller and buyer mergers and acquisition services, financial restructuring services, business valuations and fairness opinions. Collectively, Seabrook’s professionals possess significant technical expertise and industry background to serve middle-market corporate clients. The firm’s principals have numerous years of financial experience at major Wall Street and boutique investment banks, as well as valuable operating experience as executives of technology operating companies, and have completed transactions in a variety of industry markets, including software, SaaS, mobile payments, IT services, telecommunications, wireless communications, Internet infrastructure and government services. Member FINRA/SIPC

SOURCE Seabrook Partners LLC