Experton’s purchase by ISG is an excellent move, if it can hold on to the Experton team. The Analyst Value Survey shows that it fills a substantial gap in ISG’s services, giving it a major advisor to ICT suppliers in EMEA. Experton also has strong relationships with some major European enterprises (especially in Germany). Other analyst firms can be expected to move fast to benefit from disruption at Experton, especially PAC, 451 Research, Current Analysis and Crisp Research.
Yesterday manager magazin reported the takeover of Munich-based Experton by ISG, a US advisory firm, almost ten years to the day after Luis Praxmarer joined the firm. Praxmarer and others had been leaders of META Group in Germany before that firm’s purchase by Gartner.
My quick take on the purchase:
- The owners perhaps took the first reasonable offer, but Everest, Hackett and Alsbridge could also have benefitted from this aquisition
- ISG isn’t a strong research leader on cloud, mobile, security, virtualisation, etc
- Experton is also vendor-centred in term of users but probably have more diverse income.
- ISG wins access to some outstanding, very high value, demand-side organisations, including large German enterprises
- It fills a gap for ISG very well: core technbology insight and better coverage across EMEA
[…] Experton’s purchase by ISG, which also acquired Saugatuck, Compass and TPI, is just one more example of the ongoing analyst cycle. While mergers and acquisitions are ongoing so is the formation of new firms. […]