Analysys snaffles heads of rival IT&T consultancies

Stuart Corner
Thursday, 18 January 2007 06:21

IT Industry - Strategy

Analysys Mason Group, a UK based global adviser on telecoms, IT and media has persuaded the research chiefs of two major rival companies - Ovum and Telegeography - to joint its market intelligence and analysis business, Analysys Research.

Tony Lavender, formerly chief research officer at UK based Ovum, has been named as managing director of Analysys Research and Jason Kowal, previously president of TeleGeography has been named US head of Analysys Research.

Lavender had worked at Ovum since 1999 where he led a large international research and advisory team working in a £13 million+ research business focused on the telecoms, IT services and software sectors.

Kowal joined TeleGeography in 1995 and was, according to Analysys, instrumental in building the company from start-up to globally known leader in international telecoms research. During his tenure TeleGeography's revenues grew tenfold, reaching thousands of clients in over 100 countries.

Analysys Mason was formed in August 2004 when Datatec International, the global arm of Datatec, the JSE-listed networking and IT services group, acquired established UK consultancy Analysys for $US23.4 million. Mason Group was the name of Datatec's existing telecommunications consultancy which was merged into the Analysys business.

The company has over 300 staff worldwide with offices in Cambridge, Dublin, Edinburgh, London, Madrid, Manchester, Milan, Paris, Singapore and Washington DC. It has no connection with the similarly named, Beijing-based, Analysys International which undertakes research on the Chinese telecoms market.