Gartner posts double-digit declines in revenue and profit

Research sales fell 7% to $184m while consulting revenue dropped 27% to $69m. Events were the hardest hit of the agency’s revenue streams – down 67% to $16.7m – as Gartner cut the number of conferences, summits and symposiums it holds in the period from 25 last year to 14 this year.

Operating income was down 35% to $30.7m while net income declined 43% to $17m.

CEO Eugene Hall said business performance was in line with expectations. “Many of our key metrics showed sequential improvement,” he said. “As compared to the first quarter, we increased new business in research, added significantly more new client enterprises, improved salesforce productivity and saw improvement in the trends that drive wallet retention.”

Looking forward, Hall added: “We expect contract value to grow sequentially in the second half of the year, primarily in the fourth quarter, and we expect to quickly resume revenue and earnings growth once global economic activity returns to more normal levels.”