Ovum, Informa Telecoms & Media Research Complete Merger

Ovum and Informa Telecoms & Media research (ITM) have completed of the merger of the two companies under the Ovum brand.

The merger creates the leading analyst firm for telecoms research and fourth largest technology research firm globally, providing the most comprehensive research view across the converging worlds of IT, telecoms, and media.

Since the announcement of the merger plan on April 7, 2014, the two companies have brought together all the analysts and consulting teams and combined all the content from both companies onto a new mobile-optimized, online delivery platform, delivering 34 research channels and 36 data tools.

The new company has also launched new research products: Digital Media, Music, Telecoms IT, Enterprise Technology, Enterprise Mobility, and Customer Engagement.

Over the coming weeks, Ovum will be delivering new research in convergent technology areas as a result of the merger, such as telecoms IT spending forecasts, M2M forecasts, and monetizing telco Big Data, according to a statement on its website.

Steve Hotham, previously managing director of Ovum, is now CEO of the combined company and is supported by a new management team, consisting of senior directors from both ITM Research and Ovum.

These include: Ian Charlesworth, managing director – IT Research; Tim Jennings, chief research officer, IT; Martin Hill, managing director – Telecoms, Media & Entertainment Research and Mark Newman, chief research officer, Telecoms, Media & Entertainment

Steve Hotham believes that the combination of the two companies represents a new force in the technology industry research market and commented;

“This merger combines two highly complementary businesses that together now provide our customers with superior and comprehensive research, data, and consulting services globally to meet the increased strategic challenges of the converging technology market. We do not believe any other analyst firm provides such inclusive coverage of the IT, Telecoms and Media markets as Ovum.”

The newly merged company will be an important part of Informa's Business Intelligence division which has also just announced a re-structuring and will see Patrick Martell, formerly of St Ives Group, take over as CEO.

Ovum is a leading technology research and advisory firm and the largest telecoms research business in the world.

Ovum advises leading enterprises, technology vendors, service providers, and regulators globally across the IT, telecoms, and media markets. Ovum’s wealth of market data, forecasts, and strategic guidance is relied upon in evaluating technology markets, products, and business opportunities, benchmarking performance, and setting strategy and policy.

Founded in 1985, Ovum has one of the largest, most experienced international analyst teams in the industry, with 180 analysts, each with, on average, more than 10 years’ industry experience, based across six continents.

Ovum offers a comprehensive set of deliverables across IT, media, and telecoms markets, including commercial insight, five-year forecasts, market assessments, market trackers, technology audits, surveys, and sales prospecting tools.

In 2012, Ovum was jointly named Global Analyst Firm of the Year by the Institute of Industry Analyst Relations (IIAR).