Sweepstake opens: when will Gartner Consulting go?

ARmadgeddon is launching a sweepstake to see who can best predict the date on which the sale of Gartner Consulting will be announced. The winner gets a unique ten-year collection of Gartner Symposium delegate bags (you only pay shipping).

It's clear that the ongoing speculation about the possible sale of Gartner Consulting to a private equity firm is not declining. Measured only by the web searches that are coming through this websites 'back end' at blogger.com, it's clearly a topic of rising interest and research.

Gartner's representatives, of course, deny all knowledge of any such move being considered. That seems an honest denial to us but, considering our own organizations, we must admit that spokespeople and managers are always the last people to know. If any such change were to happen, we think they would find out on a Friday afternoon telecon, just before the VC puts out its press release.

Clearly, the synergy between Gartner Consulting and the rest of the organization is already limited. In terms of growth dynamics, the consulting business is not as good as research: $100,000 of new consulting work is almost all taken up in costs; $100,000 of new research work has very little cost (other than the salesperson's cut). Gartner Consulting could function just as easily if it was able to source data from any analyst house. And we can even think of a great name for the business, whose previous owners are now selling: META Consulting.

The rising speculation will be met by frustration: there will not be new information [other than denials] until it happens. So, to help out interested parties, ARmadgeddon's sweepstake will honor the Gartner-watcher who most closely predicts the date of the sale being announced.

The rules: your participation will be anonymous; winners can chose no publicity; the winner will be the closest guess to the actual date on which Gartner announces its intention to sell Gartner Consulting or a majority part thereof; multiple winners will split the prize; not open to staff of Gartner, Silver Lake or Monitor Clipper.

Here's a tip to help your strategy: A few entries have been collected already, and half are between April 13 and May 8 2006.