Gartner Group Inc, the self-styled world’s leading authority on information technology, has announced that its GartnerE initiative to refocus itself on e-commerce and related issues has obliged it to cut 175 jobs, some 5% of its worldwide workforce. The Stamford, Connecticut market researcher said it will take a one-time charge in the fourth quarter of fiscal 1999 to cover costs related to this plan, and to a special incentive scheme designed to retain key personnel, amounting to between $19m and $22m. Further charges related to these actions will be taken in the first and second quarters of 2000, amounting to between $5m and $7m, and $11m and $13m respectively. The company says it will now re-jig its hiring strategy to recruit e-commerce experts and their ilk.
