Former Nike CFO Bob Falcone‘s investment fund has bought Gartner’s 70-strong custom research business, along with some strong relationships with firms like HP, Microsoft and Intel.
The Portland, Oregon, business had recently changed its name from Gartner Custom Research to GCR Custom Research. Customer research is a growth market, and Falcone plans to use GCR has a platform on which to build a larger, full-service, research firm. He expects to double the business within a year through acquisitions.
GCR is the continuity of Griggs-Anderson Research, which Gartner had bought in 1998. It has a strength in assessing customer adoption rates with new solutions: something that Forrester and GfK are also strong in.
There’s a release about the purchase here. The release explains “Gartner remains in a strategic relationship with GCR through an eight-year custom research outsource contract.”
