$300,000: The cost of an 'independent' analyst

It's long been rumoured that some apparently independent analysts are less than impartial when it comes to writing about the vendors who pay for their reports.

But it's rare to find anyone in the industry to speak publicly on this. However, silicon.com spoke to a few people who were prepared to discuss the issue.

Pete Stauvers, former marketing operations manager at Viatel, was responsible for buying reports and representing his firm to analysts.

He told silicon.com: "I felt that in an unwritten sense we could strong-arm some of the suppliers of market research. I can remember changing and, particularly, repressing things. We might ask: 'Could you leave any mention of ATM [asynchronous transfer mode] out of this research?" and they'd say 'Well, we can't leave it out here, it would look stupid, but we can leave it out on page 16'".

For the full article, which includes the tale of how $300,000 forced one analyst house to contradict something it had written in an earlier report, see Analysing the analysts: Can independence be bought? http://www.silicon.com/a43699