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Gartner acquires smaller rival Meta

Research company says the $162 million buy will help spur growth.

Martin LaMonica Former Staff writer, CNET News
Martin LaMonica is a senior writer covering green tech and cutting-edge technologies. He joined CNET in 2002 to cover enterprise IT and Web development and was previously executive editor of IT publication InfoWorld.
Martin LaMonica
Information technology research firm Gartner on Monday said it will acquire fellow research outfit Meta Group for $162 million in cash in an effort to spur growth.

In a statement, the companies said combining their respective research and sales operations will allow Gartner to grow its future revenue. Gartner also said the company expects to gain some "operational efficiency" in the merger because of the complementary nature of the two companies. Gartner said the acquisition will be accretive to the company's financials in 2005. Gartner last year had revenue of $858 million and profit of $18 million. In 2003, Meta Group had revenues of $122 million and lost $4 million.