D.C.'s Strategis Group Closes After Layoffs
Telecom Company Once Employed 150
By Nicholas Johnston
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, June 14, 2002; Page E05
Strategis Group Inc., a Washington-based telecommunications market research firm that once had more than 150 employees, closed this week, another victim of the telecom industry's continued woes.
According to former employees, Strategis had gone through a number of rounds of layoffs in recent months as demand for the company's market research and telecom consulting services diminished. The number of employees has dwindled to fewer than 50. Initially, the cuts were seen simply as an effort to weather the tough economic times, and the prospect of closing seemed distant.
"There wasn't a lot of speculation about the doors being closed until the past few months," said one former employee who asked not to be identified.
Officials at Strategis Group did not return calls seeking comment.
The group was founded in 1964 as Malarkey, Taylor and Associates, a cable television consulting firm. In 1987 the firm purchased a wireless services research firm, EMCI, and eventually renamed itself Strategis Group. In addition to its Washington headquarters, it had offices in England, Singapore and Brazil, all closed in the past year.
"It is unfortunate that the company got into this situation," said Naqi Jaffery, a former senior vice president and chief analyst who resigned from the company last fall. "Basically, the reason is, I think, the Strategis Group was not managed or run as efficiently as it could have been."
Strategis Group was owned by C7 Group Inc., a research and consulting company based in Southport, Conn., and Trident Capital, a Palo Alto, Calif., venture capital firm.
Peter Cashman, chairman and chief executive of C7 Group, did not return calls seeking comment. Venetia Kontogouris, a Trident managing director and member of C7's board of directors, was unavailable for comment.
Continuing market weakness has hurt a number of smaller local firms, from the occasional consulting and services shops, such as Strategis, to scores of network equipment start-ups and the venture capital groups that heavily funded them.
"It's definitely a sign of the times," said A. Ozgur Aytar, an analyst with Strategis.
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