Yes, Gartner Is Free To Pick Which Companies Fit In Its Magic Quadrant
from the and-which-don't dept
Whatever you might think of Gartner's research and its silly "magic quadrant" system, I don't think anyone could reasonably question that it was just Gartner's opinion. Yet, a few months ago, we wrote about a company, ZL, that was so upset that Gartner put it in its niche quadrant, rather than the desired "magic quadrant," that it sued. We didn't expect the lawsuit to get very far (similar lawsuits over how Google ranks companies have been tossed pretty quickly). And, indeed, a judge appears to have found little worthwhile in ZL's lawsuit, quickly dismissing all of the arguments, and noting that Gartner is free to have its own damn opinion, no matter how much others (or the subjects of that opinion) might disagree:"Finally, ZL argues that Gartner's representation that it provides 'highly discerning research that is objective, defensible, and credible to help [customers] do their job better' implies that its Reports contain objective assertions of fact. Gartner notes that this language appears not in the MQ Report but on its website and that the language describes Gartner's research services generally rather than the MQ Report in particular.... More to the point, the terms 'objective, defensible, and credible' do not imply the assertion of factual information. Gartner argues convincingly that even if its self-description did refer to the statements within the MQ Report, its 'sophisticated readers' -- corporate and government executives and professionals -- would not infer that Gartner's rankings were anything other than opinion."Still, the judge gave ZL an opportunity to amend the complaint, and the statement from the company indicates that it's planning to try to come up with some other ridiculous argument against Gartner. Maybe it should just focus on satisfying what its customers want, and stop worrying about what some analyst at Gartner has to say.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: magic quadrant, opinion
Companies: gartner, zl
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
heh
I never did think they knew what they were talking about
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Gartner's Research
As far as I can tell, the researchers at Gartner are over-paid whiny "thinkers", and NOT "doers". I would suspect that a large number of them haven't been on a real deployment of product in 10 years. Save your money. Do some research yourself.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
What if...?
Just curious. :-)
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Or...
...or if they really want to play with the Big Boys(tm), they should start playing Gartner's game.
You can't win if you don't play.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Not always so black and white
Gartner does indeed sell its research to sophisticated buyers who should know enough to understand the limits of their objectivity - not that they always do. (Many years back, the line was "You can't be fired for choosing IBM." Today, failed technology decisions are often defended as "That was industry best practice, Gartner said so.") Absent "actual malice" or some such concept imported from other areas of First Amendment jurisprudence, or outright fraud, they should be permitted to argue that the sky is green, if that sells their reports
But that doesn't mean *every* purveyor of "opinion" dressed up as "objective research" in *every* circumstance should be given a pass. Look at the ratings agencies like Moody's. They arguably sold their ratings to whoever would pay enough. (They would, of course, object to that characterization; but when you're being paid by the company you are rating, and many of your ratings for your biggest clients have turned out to be ... not quite accurate - it's hard to deny that there is some element of this at play.) Those bogus ratings had significant real-world effects, because they had become built in to the financial system. Funds were sold on the basis of pledges to invest only in "safe" instruments - defined by Moody's and similar ratings. There were laws on the books that referred explicitly to such ratings in determining where government funds, or regulated investments like pensions, could be put.
All of those things contributed to making Moody's ratings valuable, above and beyond any value the competitive marketplace in investment opinion might have placed on them. At some point, if you're going to be rewarded in special ways for allegedly providing something beyond "mere opinion", you should expect that a defense of "it's just my opinion" won't be acceptable.
At the moment, it seems that Moody's and friends have the law on their side - attempts to call them on their behavior don't seem to be going anywhere in court. The legal issues are something to be thrashed out by courts and lawyers - and perhaps the legislatures. But the issue of whether it's *right* for someone to gain special recognition and rewards, above and beyond that of other "opinion publishers", and then be immune from any consequences when they violate that trust - that's something else again.
-- Jerry
[ link to this | view in thread ]