Thursday, July 31, 2008

The Forrester/Jupiter Rivalry Ends

Making pronouncements about the potential of the Internet was still a growth industry back in 1997. Back then, Forrester Research and Jupiter Research were cut-throat rivals. Forrester was even basing part of its analysts' pay packages on how many times they were quoted in the press. From a Wired piece I wrote about the two companies:

    ... "A very critical way we market is through the media," says Forrester president George F. Colony, a charismatic 44-year-old who founded the company in 1983. "Quotes help us sell."

    No one understands that better than Adam Schoenfeld, a VP at Jupiter Communications in Manhattan. The scrappy, fast-growing Jupiter is Forrester's closest competitor in the consumer research market, with a projected $10 million in annual revenue, and Schoenfeld is Jupiter's one-man quote-spewing jihad. He averages 1.25 mentions a month in the Times - more than any one of the competition's pundits. "I keep my eye on a couple of my favorite Forrester analysts," the 33-year-old Schoenfeld acknowledges with a grin, "just to make sure I'm getting quoted more than them."


(Interestingly, Shoenfeld seems to have become a professional poker player since I last spoke to him.)

Now, Forrester, which has long since eclipsed its rival, is buying Jupiter for $23 million.

Here's the official press release.

Labels: , ,

1 Comments:

Anonymous Carter Lusher said...

Forrester buying Jupiter is a smart move for a number of reasons (e.g., getting smart analysts with reputations, adding sales reps with rolodexes, and adding clients to cross-sell).

The hard part will be the integration of the two companies. I went through a lot of acquisitions at Gartner and observed a lot more as an observer of the analysts and each one was tough. It will be interesting to see whether this acquisition ends up being winner or dud.

Carter Lusher
Strategist
SageCircle - the experts on the IT industry analysts and analyst relations best practices
www.SageCircle.wordpress.com

August 4, 2008 11:33 AM  

Post a Comment

Links to this post:

Create a Link

<< Home