The Reuters news agency has acquired the Israeli startup ClearForest, it will be announcing on Monday, for $25 million.

Its shareholders can't be too happy about this exit, as - according to IVC Online - the startup has received $32.5 million in investment. One shareholder estimated that it's received $25 million to date, but in either case, profits for shareholders would seem to be nonexistent.

Naturally, investors who entered at later financing rounds probably did better.

Its Israeli shareholders include Walden, Plenus, Greylock and Kadima Hi-tech. Foreign investors include ABS Ventures, Booz Allen Hamilton, Dow Venture Capital, HarbourVest and JPMorgan.

ClearForest, founded in 1998, developed technology to analyst, read and understand large amounts of content originating from diverse documents. Reuters is one of the clients for its technology, which tags content by the principles of artificial intelligence.

Earlier this year the startup laid off 10 people, and it wasn't its first round of dismissals. In July 2005, it fired eight from its Israeli development center in what it termed "organizational change". In 2001, it fired 27 a month after raising $12 million.