It looks like Forrester found someone to replace now-former analyst Charlene Li. A whole company of them, with a familiar name.

Forrester announced its acquisition of JupiterResearch for $23 million. Forrester employs over 1,000 people, while JupiterResearch brings 82 employees to the mix.

"JupiterResearch enhances our existing role-based strategy and offerings to bring unprecedented value to Forrester’s Marketing & Strategy clients," George F. Colony, Forrester’s chairman and CEO, said in the announcement.

"As strange as it may seem, I am excited about this news," JupiterResearch president David Schatsky said in a blog post; JupiterResearch and Forrester have been competitors for some time.

"We have not always seen things the same way, and we have scoffed at times at some of Forrester’s market forecasts and bold pronouncements on the future. But Forrester has a lot of smart people, and has gotten a lot right. And they have executed their business strategy masterfully," said Schatsky.

JupiterResearch has bounced around in recent years. Alan Meckler picked up the company in 2002 for his INT Media Group, which became Jupitermedia. Four years later, MCG Capital bought JupiterResearch; a brief period followed where it was connected with Kagan Research until that business was sold in 2007.

Now JupiterResearch calls a new company, a former competitor, its master. Going back to a January 2008 article at Silicon Alley Insider, where they cited JupiterResearch’s Michael Gartenberg in claiming, cheekily, he wasn’t going to predict what was coming up this year as he already had a pretty good idea; we wonder if he saw this coming.