Forrester Research has acquired SiriusDecisions, a B2B research advisory firm, for $245 million in cash. While Forrester works with business and technology leaders in retail, financial services, health care, energy and utilities to build “customer-obsessed” strategies, SiriusDecisions focuses on optimizing marketing, sales and product operations in high tech and manufacturing companies.
With the acquisition, the value of Forrester’s client market approximately doubles, from $20 billion to $40 billion, while SiriusDecisions expands beyond its B2B roots. Adding operational expertise to Forrester’s strategy-focused expertise can drive new business, renewal rates and the ability to enrich existing contracts with additional services. Additionally, the move is designed to help Forrester reach more CMOs and aid their “change agenda.”
“CMOs and marketing teams now have a broader remit for growth and that’s different from allocating resources to advertising,” said Victor Milligan, CMO of Forrester in a conference call. “As CMOs broaden their outlook for growth both in terms of acquisition and enrichment we do see them making more monies available for these kinds of offerings.”
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Forrester has 3,500 accounts compared to 1,400 accounts for SiriusDecisions, but there are only 278 overlapping accounts between the two companies. The acquisition thus represents a major opportunity to cross-sell the companies’ services to new clients, giving them broader access to research and advisory content, data and tools. Additionally, Forrester can accelerate its international growth plans by widening the distribution of SiriusDecisions products in the EMEA and APAC regions.
Forrester’s position in the retail, health care and financial services sectors provides natural areas of expansion for SiriusDecisions, which presently only targets B2B CMOs, B2B Chief Strategy Officers and B2B Product Heads. Under Forrester, the SiriusDecisions platform, methodologies, data and best practices tools can expand to new roles in customer experience and IT.
“Digitally-savvy customers are changing the rules of business, creating extraordinary opportunity for companies that adapt and existential threat to those that don’t,” said George Colony, Chairman and CEO of Forrester in a statement. “The combined company creates a robust platform to help our clients not only navigate these rough waters but thrive in the age of the customer.”
SiriusDecisions will remain a distinct brand within the Forrester Group, and no management changes are expected as a result of the acquisition.
Forrester said the deal is expected to add $100 million in revenue for 2019 and add $0.10 to $0.20 per share in earnings, and that the purchase is expected to close in January 2019. Forrester earlier this year acquired FeedbackNow and Glimpzit to build out its customer experience cloud.
