Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Forrester cuts 50 jobs

By Mass High Tech staff

Business and technology research firm Forrester Research Inc. plans to eliminate approximately 50 jobs to better handle the current economy, officials said.

The cuts will be spread across departments and locations worldwide, and add up to an estimated 5 percent of its workforce. Cambridge-based Forrester (Nasdaq: FORR) says that the cuts should result in pretax expenses of approximately $2.5 million to $3 million in the first quarter of 2009, mostly due to cash severance and related benefits costs. According to officials, the company also is evaluating facilities-related costs.

“Forrester has lived through tough economic times before,” said George F. Colony, Forrester’s chairman of the board and chief executive officer and a Mass High Tech All-Star in 1998, in a statement.

After the 2001 dot-com bust, Forrester laid off a total of 237 analysts. As of Jan. 1, 2008, Forrester had 903 workers, including 336 research staff and 308 sales personnel, according to the Boston Business Journal.