What, you’ve already forgotten the blockbuster flick based on portions of J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy? OK, you’re forgiven: It’s been awhile and if you have daughters, your household, like mine, is probably aglow with Twilight these days.

Mark Mortensen was just named Senior Analyst at Analysys Mason, a firm that has now made two high-profile acquisitions in less than a year. First, as reported here and blogged here, Analysys Mason acquired OSS Observer. Now it has snagged Mortensen, and these moves combined constitute a blockbuster of sorts in the communications “theatre.”

Most recently Mortensen served as SVP marketing and product management at VPIsystems, where as analyzed here, he introduced integrated capacity & network planning to the market; as adjunct faculty member at UMass Lowell; and as president, Mortensen Consulting Group LLC, where he has been consulting to communications software and hardware companies. Yet he is best known for his previous achievements at some of the preeminent hardware and software companies in the communications market.

People often talk about building a rock-solid foundation in business and life. Mortensen’s career redefines the term. Building on an educational background that includes Yale and USC, for the better part of two decades he held positions including department head, director and the coolest job title I’ve heard of in ages–management systems chief scientist–at remote outposts you may have heard of such as AT&T, AT&T Bell Laboratories and Lucent (yes, when it was still just Lucent). I first encountered Mark in his role as CMO and senior VP product management at Granite Systems. At the time I was helping put CommTech on the map and eventually be acquired by ADC Telecommunications, and helping Visionael raise millions in venture capital to live to fight another day, but what I was really doing was helping those companies compete with Granite, and Mark. At Granite he was responsible for all marketing, product management, acquisition and partnering activities, and it seemed as if every other day you’d learn of some new alliance, product innovation, speaking engagement or lucrative contract win by Granite. “Do you believe that Mortensen? He’s at it again,” we’d say, while secretly wishing he was “at it again” for us.

Working harder and smarter than the competition paid off for Granite when long-running market leader Telcordia acquired it and Mortensen earned another you-don’t-see-that-every-day title, VP elementive strategy & realization, at Telcordia. There he was responsible for overall product strategy at a pivotal moment in the company’s storied history, putting a little Xng in the giant’s step as it evolved its technology (and mindset) to manage next-generation networks.

Assembling so much talent under one brand makes Analysys Mason a leader in research & analysis of the OSS/BSS market and perhaps, especially given Mortensen’s background, communications networking and services as well. One thing is for certain: Analysys Mason sure can pick ‘em.