The American Arbitration Association (AAA), which is a not-for-profit started in 1926, and its international division the International Centre for Dispute Resolution, have acquired ODR.com Inc and its parent company, Resourceful Internet Solutions Inc. (RIS). RIS also owns Mediate.com. The purchase price was not made public.
ODR.com is a leader in online dispute resolution and serves courts, universities, businesses of all sizes and governmental agencies at all levels. It is used by more than 200 dispute resolution partner organizations worldwide, including the International Monetary Fund, the International Committee of the Red Cross and NASA.
Meanwhile, Mediate.com is a leading mediation website, offering an extensive repository of dispute resolution resources. The site also provides online mediation courses through MediateUniversity.com and hosts the most widely utilized directory of global mediators.
This move bolsters the AAA-ICDR’s mission to ‘expand innovative alternative dispute resolution (ADR) options to benefit businesses, communities and practitioners worldwide’, they said.
The move is unusual for the AAA and is understood to be the first acquisition of this type that it has made.
AAA President and CEO, Bridget McCormack, said in a statement: ‘The American Arbitration Association, soon to celebrate its 100th anniversary, was founded to relieve overburdened courts by giving businesses a proven and effective alternative to resolving disputes. As technology, especially AI, is raising the bar for both quality and speed, our customers trust us to be the leader in helping them leverage these advances to achieve resolution efficiently.’
While RIS CEO, Colin Rule, added: ‘Demand for ODR is growing rapidly worldwide, and working with the AAA will keep us on the cutting edge. Our shared goal is to make ADR an accessible choice for everyone, and this alliance will enable us to achieve that goal at an unprecedented level.’