Forrester To Acquire B2B Sales Research Firm, SiriusDecisions

Creates a robust platform guiding companies to drive growth in the age of the customer

Today, Forrester has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire SiriusDecisions, a leading business-to-business research and advisory firm, for $245 million in cash, subject to adjustment. The combination of Forrester and SiriusDecisions creates an innovative strategy and operations platform that can help business and technology leaders make the far-reaching changes needed to adapt to a customer-led, disruption-rich market while maximizing performance every day.

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The transaction is expected to close in January 2019 and is subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions, including applicable regulatory filings.

“Today’s announcement was driven by our clients,” said George F. Colony, Forrester’s chairman and chief executive officer.

George added, “Empowered customers and the disruptive power of technology are forcing business and technology leaders to take decisive action and make deep-rooted changes while delivering quarterly results. The combined value of Forrester’s strategic and SiriusDecisions’ operational capabilities will help our clients change and grow in tumultuous times.”

“We’re excited about joining forces with Forrester,” said John Neeson, SiriusDecisions’ co-founder and co-CEO. John added, “Allying with Forrester changes the game for our clients and accelerates our growth across industries, regions, and business functions. Beyond the powerful synergies of our two firms what will make this work is our shared passion for our clients’ success,” added Rich Eldh, SiriusDecisions’ co-founder and co-CEO.

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Forrester works with business and technology leaders to build customer-obsessed strategies. SiriusDecisions focuses on optimizing marketing, sales, and product operations. CMOs of business-to-business companies operate “The Sirius Way” — a methodology grounded in fact-based best practices that has become the standard across industries, including high tech and advanced manufacturing. Together, Forrester and SiriusDecisions will enable companies to know what they should do, why they should do it, and how to do it.

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This deal opens up a number of opportunities for Forrester expansion:

1) Cross-selling services. Forrester and SiriusDecisions client bases will benefit from broader access to research and advisory content, data, and tools.

2) Accelerating international growth plans. Forrester’s global sales force and channels will widen the distribution of SiriusDecisions’ products in EMEA and APAC.

3) Expanding SiriusDecisions’ platform, methodologies, data, and best-practices tools to new roles. Forrester will extend the SiriusDecisions platform beyond marketing, sales, and product to roles in IT and customer experience.

4) Expanding SiriusDecisions to new vertical markets. Forrester’s growing penetration in industries such as financial services, retail, healthcare, energy and utilities serve as natural areas of expansion for “The Sirius Way.”

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With the SiriusDecisions acquisition, Forrester’s addressable market in the strategy of $20 billion approximately doubles to $40 billion with the addition of operations. Adding operational expertise to Forrester’s strategy expertise will drive new business, renewal rates, and the ability to enrich existing contracts with additional services.

“The addition of SiriusDecisions is expected to add approximately $100 million to Forrester’s revenue in 2019 on a pro forma basis and is expected to be $0.10 to $0.20 accretive to our 2019 pro forma EPS,” said Michael Doyle, Forrester’s chief financial officer.

Michael added, “Additional financial information will be provided during our call today and with the investor presentation that is posted on our website.”

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The transaction is expected to close in January 2019 and is subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions, including applicable regulatory filings. The transaction is expected to be funded through a combination of cash on hand and up to $175 million of fully committed debt financing to be provided by JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. and a syndicate of other lenders.

William Blair & Company, L.L.C. is serving as exclusive financial advisor to Forrester, and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP is serving as legal counsel. Centerview Partners LLC is serving as exclusive financial advisor to SiriusDecisions, and DLA Piper is serving as legal counsel.

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“Digitally-savvy customers are changing the rules of business, creating (an) extraordinary opportunity for companies that adapt and existential threat to those that don’t,” said Mr. Colony. “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.”

Currently, SiriusDecisions helps business-to-business companies worldwide by delivering the actionable intelligence, transformative frameworks and expert guidance that equip executives to modernize and elevate sales, marketing and product performance. Management teams make more informed business decisions through access to our industry analysts, best practice research, benchmark data, peer networks, events and continuous learning courses. SiriusDecisions is based in Wilton, CT with offices in Austin, London, San Francisco, Singapore, Toronto and Waltham, MA.

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