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Research Outline

Prepared for Sherrell D. | Delivered July 22, 2020

Research Acquisitions

Goals

To determine the research acquisitions McKinsey, Gartner, Westlaw, CB Insights, and other top companies in this vertical have made in the last two years. After identifying the research acquisitions, determine the year of acquisition, type of research the company carried out, the cost of the acquisition, relevant sources discussing the acquisition, the reason they were acquired, and how they were to be leveraged by the parent company. This information will be used to evaluate potential partnerships for a company.

Early Findings

McKinsey

  • McKinsey has announced four acquisitions in the last five years; Orpheus GmbH in February 2020, Very Day in November 2016, Quantum Black in December 2015, and Lunar in May 2015. None of the acquired companies fall within the definition of a research company.

Gartner

  • Gartner has announced eight acquisitions in the last five years; Topo in October 2019, L2 in March 2017, Corporate Executive Board in January 2017, Machina Research in November 2016, SCM World in June 2016, Capterra in September 2015, Nubera eBusiness in July 2015, and GetApp in July 2015. Of the acquired companies L2 and Machina Research fall within the definition of a research company.
  • L2 is a "digital innovation company providing research, curated events and targeted consulting engagements for brands." The acquisition is currently pending, but a price of $134.2 million has been agreed upon.
  • Machina Research is "the world's leading provider of strategic advice on the newly emerging M2M, IoT and Big Data markets." The price Machina Research was acquired for was $4.5 million. Machina Research is now a subsidiary of Gartner.

Other Companies in this Vertical

Summary

  • In our first hour of research, we identified that neither Gartner nor McKinsey acquired a research company in the last two years. Given the lack of results, we expanded our search to the last five years, and identified two research companies acquired by Gartner, the date the acquisition was announced, and the price the companies were acquired for. Given the lack of results falling within the last two years, we suggest that the criteria is expanded to the last five years for all of the companies.
  • This information is readily available in the public domain. The information is also available for the other companies identified above.
  • We have also identified other top companies/competitors in this vertical.