Yes, we know most of you have heard this news by now. But we spoke with Terry Waters, CEO of Yankee Group, and Chris Hill, CMO of 451 Group, and got an exclusive perspective.
The facts
The 451 Group, the corporate parent of 451 Research and Uptime Institute, acquired 40-year old communications research, data and advisory firm Yankee Group from private equity firm Alta Communications. For debt. Yankee Group was founded in 1970 by Howard Anderson and was among the first market research firms to focus exclusively on the communications industry.
Alta has owned Yankee Group since 2005, and in 2010 committed a $10 million investment to expand the company’s research team. Alta reportedly hasn’t raised funds since 2003 and has been trying to sell its remaining holdings. The 451 Group has bought a collection of distressed research firms. It typically combines them under the 451 Research brand. However, like 451 Research and Uptime, Yankee Group will operate as an independent subsidiary of 451 Group.
Yankee Group CEO Terry Waters will continue to run the company, which will operate as a unit of 451 Group. And all 27 Yankee Group employees and its affiliates will retain their positions.
“The go to market brands are 451 Research, Uptime and Yankee. There is no change with respect to strategy or branding,” said Chris Hill, Chief Marketing Officer of 451 Group.
“We are selling to different buying centers within the operators and other customers. There is really not an overlap in services. We each have our own sales teams and they will just refer sales to each other for now. Future selling strategies may change, but we don’t know that at this point,” said Terry Waters, CEO of Yankee Group.
My perspective
Yankee Group is a good complement to 451 Research, the practice areas of which include: CloudScape, Datacenter Technologies, Eco-Efficient IT, Enterprise Security, Internet Infrastructure Services, Infrastructure Computing for Enterprise, Information Management, and Multi-Tenant Datacenter, and Uptime Institute, which is focused on data centers. As many of you know, Yankee Group CEO Terry Waters has spent his tenure refocusing the firm on mobility.
As Chris Hill said, “we can now offer clients consulting on demand through servicing through supply.”
The MAPS platform is a strong asset for Yankee and therefore now for 451 Research teams. Revisions in the Affiliate Program may also result in sales success for Yankee in 2013.
It remains to be seen whether the sales strategy will work.