Gartner, Inc. (NYSE: IT) is an information technology research and advisory firm headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut. It was known as GartnerGroup until 2001.[1]
Gartner is an information technology research and advisory company providing technology related insight. Research provided by Gartner is targeted at CIOs and senior IT leaders in industries that include government agencies, high-tech and telecom enterprises, professional services firms, and technology investors. Gartner clients include large corporations, government agencies, technology companies and the investment community. The company consists of Research, Executive Programs, Consulting and Events. Founded in 1979, Gartner has over 4,300 employees,[2] including 1,200 in R&D.[3]
Gartner uses hype cycles and magic quadrants for visualization of its market analysis results.

Gartner, Inc. is an information technology (IT) research and advisory company. The Company delivers the technology related insight necessary for its clients. The Company is a partner to over 60,000 clients in 11,601 distinct organizations. Through the resources of Gartner Research, Gartner Executive Programs, Gartner Consulting and Gartner Events, it works with every client to research, analyze and interpret the business of IT within the context of their individual role. The Company’s principal products and services are delivered through its three customer segments: Research, Consulting and Events. Research provides insight for chief information officers (CIOs), IT professionals, technology companies and the investment community through reports and briefings, access to its analysts, as well as peer networking services and membership programs designed for CIOs and other senior executives. Consulting consists primarily of consulting, measurement engagements and strategic advisory services (SAS). Events consist of various symposia, conferences and exhibitions focused on the IT industry.
The Company provides independent and objective research and analysis of the IT industry. Through its entire product portfolio, the Company’s research team provides thought leadership and insight about technology acquisition and deployment to CIOs, executives and other technology leaders and professionals.
Research
The Gartner global research product is the fundamental building block for all Gartner services and covers all IT markets, topics and industries. Its research analysts are in regular contact with both technology providers and technology users, enabling them to identify the most relevant topics in the IT marketplace and develop relevant product enhancements to meet the needs of users of its research. The Company’s research content, presented in the form of reports, briefings, updates and related tools, is delivered directly to the client’s desktop through its Website and/or product-specific portals.
The Company’s research analysts provide analysis on all aspects of technology, including hardware, software and systems, services, IT management, market data and forecasts, and vertical industry issues. Clients sign contracts that provide access to its research content for individual users over a defined period of time. The research contracts are renewed on an ongoing basis. Gartner Executive Programs consists of membership programs designed to help CIOs, senior IT executives and other business executives. An Executive Program membership offers role-based offerings and member-only communities for peer-based collaboration. Its Enterprise IT Leaders product provides a personalized service consisting of Gartner research, peer-interaction and networking. This service provides CIO direct reports with the combined value of role-specific insights from Gartner analysts, practical advice from a community of peers, and expert coaching from a leadership partner. Approximately 4,000 CIOs and senior IT executives are members of Gartner Executive Programs.
Gartner for IT Leaders provides eight role-based research offerings to assist end-user IT leaders with decision making. These products align a client’s specific job-related challenges with appropriate Gartner analysts and insight, and connect IT leaders to IT peers who share common business and technology issues. Gartner for Enterprise IT Leaders provides a series of role-based research offerings for business leaders in the technology and communications industry, including sales professionals, product and marketing management, competitive intelligence leaders and analyst relations professionals. The Industry Advisory Services address technology issues and topics with a focus on their impacts on specific vertical industries. This service is for CIOs, CTOs, and other senior IT executives.
AMR Supply Chain Leaders delivers objective, actionable insight and practices around key supply chain initiatives to help supply chain operations professionals build, manage and transform their global supply chains. It also offers sector-specific supply chain guidance for eight industries, including aerospace, automotive, consumer products, chemical and process manufacturing, healthcare and life sciences, high-tech manufacturing, industrial manufacturing, and retail. AMR Enterprise Supply Chain Leaders provides senior supply chain executives with the same in-depth insight and best practice research as Gartner for Supply Chain Leaders, plus ongoing expert coaching from an advisor and the ability to confer, collaborate and compare notes with a community of peers. Burton IT1 provides technical architects, systems analysts and engineers with the in-depth technical research, actionable insight and technical guidance. Gartner Invest delivers technology research and analysis to buy-side, venture capital and private equity investors to support the activities of investors interested in technology.
Consulting
Gartner consultants provide fact-based consulting services to help its clients use and manage IT to enable business performance. The Company delivers its consulting solutions by capitalizing on Gartner assets that are invaluable to IT decision making, including its research, which ensures that its consulting analyses and advice are based on a deep understanding of the IT environment and the business of IT; its market independence, which keeps its consultants focused on its client’s success; and its benchmarking capabilities, which provide relevant comparisons and best practices to assess and improve performance.
Gartner Consulting provides solutions aimed at IT roles and IT initiatives in various industries. It provides consulting engagements to CIO’s and IT executives, and to those professionals responsible for IT applications, enterprise architecture, go-to-market strategies, infrastructure and operations, programs and portfolio management and sourcing and vendor relationships, that are relevant to the role played by the client within the organization. The Company also provides targeted consulting services to professionals in the banking and investment services, education, energy and utilities, government, healthcare providers and high tech and telecom providers that utilize its in-depth knowledge of the demands of each industry. Finally, it provides solutions for IT Cost Optimization, Technology Modernization and IT Sourcing Optimization initiatives.
Events
Gartner symposia and conferences are gatherings of technology’s senior IT and business strategists and practitioners. Symposia and conferences give clients live access to insights developed from its research in a concentrated way. Informative sessions led by Gartner analysts are augmented with technology showcases, peer exchange, analyst one-on-one meetings, workshops and keynotes by technology’s leaders. Symposia and conferences, which are not limited to Gartner research clients, also provide participants with an opportunity to interact with business executives from technology companies worldwide. During the year ended December 31, 2010, the Company held 56 Gartner events throughout the world that attracted over 37,000 attendees. Gartner conferences attract IT and business professionals who seek knowledge about technology products and services. Gartner Symposia are conferences held in various locations worldwide for senior IT and business professionals. Symposia are combined with ITxpo, an exhibition where the latest technology products and solutions are demonstrated.
Gartner Summits focus on specific topics, technologies and industries, providing IT professionals with the solutions and networking opportunities to succeed in their job role. The Company offers Summits in applications, business intelligence and information management, business process improvement, enterprise architecture, IT infrastructure and operations, portfolio and production management, security and risk management, and sourcing and vendor relationships, among others. In addition, it offers targeted events for CIOs and IT executives.

Gartner Group, Inc., soon became well known for its insider's perspective on IBM and the comprehensive information that it possessed about the company's products and services. In 1983, Gartner Group was actually sued by IBM, who alleged that the consulting company had illegally revealed IBM trade secrets. The suit was later settled out of court. Gartner was quoted in Intercorp as saying that IBM was known to consistently provide Gartner Group with "enough information so we don't totally screw up, but not enough so that they are telling us what is really going on." At that time, many of Gartner Group's analysts were former employees of IBM, which may have led to the technology giant's unease at having a third party counsel its customers about its products.
Meanwhile, Gartner had been developing an addition to the company that was engaged in providing the investment community with advice and information related to the IT industry. This new brokerage and investment division was separated from Gartner Group in 1985 and became a wholly owned subsidiary called Gartner Group Securities. The following year, after seven years of steady increases in sales and earnings since its foundation, Gartner Group initiated a public offering of its stock. Within a year, the company ranked ninth on Business Week's 1987 list of "Best Small Companies and Corporations," and an overwhelming majority of the top Fortune 100 companies were part of Gartner's client list.
Just one year later, in 1988, the company was purchased for $90.3 million by the British communications firm Saatchi & Saatchi. No major changes were made within Gartner Group following the takeover, and business proceeded as usual for both entities, with Saatchi & Saatchi now acting as a holding company. Gartner Group benefited from the deal because its new owner was able to offer the still-growing company any necessary capital support, as well as help the consulting firm increase market share on an international level. Meanwhile, Saatchi & Saatchi would benefit from Gartner's in-depth knowledge of the industry, in order to make wise decisions regarding future acquisitions.
By the time the acquisition by Saatchi & Saatchi was complete, Gartner Group had expanded from the one service it had offered when founded to 13 different "Continuous Services," each of which provided in-depth analysis of different high-tech industry segments. Continuous Services were available for subscription to clients on an annual basis. Revenues for the 1988 fiscal year topped off at $40 million, which gave the company a profit of $2.3 million for the year.
Just a year later, however, Saatchi & Saatchi's bid to become a business service powerhouse took a turn for the worse. After plowing through a short-lived and perhaps overzealous acquisition phase, the advertising and communications giant suddenly found itself short of cash and began making changes to avoid being taken over itself. In late 1989, it decided to begin selling off many of the consulting firms that it had just purchased, including Gartner Group. Gideon Gartner himself made plans to repurchase his company. In an attempt to disenchant any other potential suitors, Gartner stated that he would quit in 1991 when his contract expired if he lost the bidding, hoping that the idea of Gartner Group without its founder would be unappealing to another bidder.
The 1990s and Beyond
In 1990, Gartner Group management led a leveraged buyout of the company, with assistance from Dun & Bradstreet. The new owner was listed as a group called Information Partners Capital Fund, L.P., while the company itself became Gartner Group, Inc. Holding Corp. (GHC). GHC was then merged back into Gartner Group, Inc., under new management, including a new president and CEO named Manny Fernandez. At that time, Gideon Gartner left the day-to-day operations of the company. New management restructured the ailing company, which had suffered losses during its time with Saatchi & Saatchi. Although the company registered increased revenue figures during 1991 and 1992, its books remained in the red. Gideon Gartner stayed with the company--on paper only--until 1993, when he sold his equity position and completely severed ties with the company.
In 1993, Gartner Group finally registered earnings of $6.8 million on $122.5 million in sales for the year. This boost in profitability enabled the company to go public again, listing and offering shares of its stock on the NASDAQ exchange. With offices spread throughout 20 different countries, Gartner Group continued to provide its growing client base with objective research and analysis of the IT industry. The company also began positioning itself for expansion, which it initiated with the acquisition of New Science at the end of 1993, and of Real Decisions from NYNEX Worldwide Services Group, Inc., in early 1994.
If 1994 was a successful year at Gartner, with earnings more than doubling to $15 million from sales of $169 million, then 1995 was stellar: earnings skyrocketed to $25.5 million from sales of $229.2 million. In July 1995, Gartner purchased a majority interest in Relational Courseware, Inc. (RCI), a developer of computer-based training products. RCI continued to operate as an independent company, although it now took advantage of Gartner's worldwide distribution channels and could use Gartner's extensive network of research analysts. Later that year, Gartner also expanded its holdings with the formation of Gartner Group Japan, K.K., and with the purchase of long-time IT consulting rival Dataquest. The Dataquest acquisition greatly increased Gartner's share of the IT consulting market.
In 1996, Dun & Bradstreet's (D&B) 54 percent stake in Gartner Group, Inc., was transferred to a D&B subsidiary called Cognizant Corp. The transfer of holdings, however, caused no major changes in Gartner's day-to-day operations. The consulting company continued to seek out and purchase other companies that complemented its own services, including Internet vendor Fox Industries, Italian consulting entity Nomos Ricerca, J3 Learning (a leading provider of IT training products), and Mindware Technologies. In order to accommodate its rapid expansion efforts, the company increased its base of analysts by 25 percent.
Gartner Group approached the end of the century in a position of dominance in the IT consulting industry. It was continually upgrading its product offerings and also expanding the mediums by which clients could access those services. For example, the late 1990s marked the surge in popularity and use of the Internet as a means of transferring and obtaining information, and Gartner took advantage of the trend by creating a website called &#064vantage. &#064vantage was a compilation of information about industry outlooks and research about the IT industry, in an easy-to-find and simple-to-use format. Although Gartner Group had traditionally faced very few direct competitors in its field, the end of the century drew rumors that Gideon Gartner was planning on launching his own IT consulting service. Even in the face of competition by its own founder, however, Gartner Group still possessed major advantages: years of experience and a stellar reputation among a client base that included almost all of the top companies in the world.
Principal Subsidiaries: Dataquest; Real Decisions; Gartner Group Learning; Relational Courseware, Inc.


OVERALL
Beta: 1.30
Market Cap (Mil.): $3,743.54
Shares Outstanding (Mil.): 119.87
Annual Dividend: --
Yield (%): --
FINANCIALS
IT Industry Sector
P/E (TTM): 39.68 20.47 18.99
EPS (TTM): 13.91 -- --
ROI: 24.33 21.48 16.05
ROE: 64.28 23.54 17.71


Statistics:
Public Company
Incorporated: 1979
Employees: 2,150
Sales: $394.7 million (1996)
Stock Exchanges: NASDAQ
SICs: 7375 Information Retrieval Services; 7372 Prepackaged Software; 8732 Commercial Nonphysical Research

Name Age Since Current Position
Smith, James 70 2004 Independent Chairman of the Board
Hall, Eugene 54 2004 Chief Executive Officer, Director
Lafond, Christopher 45 2003 Chief Financial Officer, Executive Vice President
Hrelic, Darko 54 2007 Senior Vice President, Chief Information Officer
Schwartz, Lewis 60 2001 Senior Vice President, General Counsel, Corporate Secretary
Godfrey, David 40 2010 Senior Vice President - Global Sales
Kranich, Robin 40 2008 Senior Vice President - Human Resources
Kutnick, Dale 61 2007 Senior Vice President - Executive Programs
Sondergaard, Peter 46 2004 Senior Vice President - Research
Davis, Kendall 42 2008 Senior Vice President - End User Programs
Dawkins, Alwyn 45 2008 Senior Vice President - Gartner Events
Yoo, Michael 42 2008 Senior Vice President - High Tech & Telecom Programs
Waern, Per Anders 49 2008 Senior Vice President - Gartner Consulting
Grabe, William 72 1993 Independent Director
Pagliuca, Stephen 56 2010 Independent Director
Fuchs, Anne 63 1999 Independent Director
Bingle, Michael 39 2004 Independent Director
Ubben, Jeffrey 49 2004 Independent Director
Bressler, Richard 53 2006 Independent Director
Fradin, Russell 55 2007 Independent Director
Dykstra, Karen 52 2007 Independent Director

Address:
P.O. Box 10212
56 Top Gallant Road
Stamford, Connecticut 06904-2212
U.S.A.
 
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