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451 Buys Yankee Group
In the US, technology researcher the Yankee Group is to be acquired from private equity firm Alta Communications by The 451 Group, parent of 451 Research and Uptime Institute.
 Yankee was founded in 1970 by Howard Anderson and has since focused on research and advisory services covering emerging IT and communications technologies, business models and user trends - today it boasts 'more analysts covering the mobility market than any other analyst firm', and its core service is proprietary research and analytics on the attitudes and behavior of mobile users.
The Group was bought for $73m by Reuters in 2000, then sold to Decision Matrix Group in 2004 and the following year changed hands again when it was taken over by former Forrester MD Emily Nagle Green, backed by Boston-based Alta. Terms of the latest acquisitions including today's have not been disclosed.
Following the buy, Yankee Group will operate as an independent division of The 451 Group. Terry Waters, Yankee's CEO since 2010, will continue in the role, now reporting to The 451 Group's Chairman and CEO, Martin V. McCarthy.
McCarthy, who will also serve as Yankee Group Chairman, says the buy 'supports the Group's operating philosophy of long-term, sustainable, profitable, global growth' and comments: 'We are delighted to welcome the Yankee Group team to join me and the 200+ current professionals here at The 451 Group... Mobility is a huge driver of innovation in business and technology markets globally. Its impact in the evolving enterprise and broader consumer IT marketplaces will fundamentally shape the future expansion and strategy of Digital Infrastructure. With Yankee Group, we see an exciting opportunity to significantly extend The 451 Group's focus on the evolution of Digital Infrastructure.'
Waters described joining 451 as 'an important milestone in the evolution of Yankee Group', explaining: 'The support and resources of The 451 Group as a strategic owner will enable Yankee Group to deepen our focus on key themes driving the mobile ecosystem - including mobile money, mobile and connected devices, mobile applications and cloud, mobile broadband and mobile leadership - and to dramatically expand our new Mobile Advisory and Planning Services (MAPS) platform.' The MAPS product family was launched just 3 months ago and brings a combination of the firm's market research and daily and weekly reviews of 'hot issues driving the mobile ecosystem' to desktops and tablets.
The 451 Group is headquartered in New York, with offices in London, Sao Paulo, Dubai, Singapore and Moscow as well as a number of US hubs. The 451 Research subsidiary offers syndicated research and data focused on enterprise IT innovation, while Uptime Institute offers certification, education and professional services for the global datacenter and emerging Digital Infrastructure industry.
Web sites: www.yankeegroup.com , www.altagroup.com and www.the451group.com .
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