CDP Institute

Yesterday was pretty busy for a Monday, Dear Reader. The big headline is confirmation of Intuit’s rumored purchase of MailChimp. Price was about $12 billion, a somewhat modest 12x earnings if Forbes’ information is correct. The deal furthers Intuit’s goal of becoming a growth platform for small business.

The other big news was credit bureau TransUnion’s deal to buy consumer data collector Neustar for $3.1 billion.  The price is just modestly above the $2.9 billion that Golden Gate Capital paid for Neustar in 2017, and roughly 5x Neustar’s $575 million revenue.   Apparently, the data business isn’t as attractive as it once seemed.

Apple hit the news today when it issued an urgent security patch to block a flaw that was being exploited by spyware company NSO. But marketers may be more interested in new options for managing push notifications in IOS 15. Users will be able to block personal messages while at work, and work messages when away from the office. We’ll see how many actually do that.

In case you spent the weekend in a cave or otherwise cut off from world news: a US district court judge on Friday ordered Apple to let companies in the App Store accept payments outside of Apple’s in-app purchase system, which charges a 30% commission.   The change could cut billions of dollars from Apple profits.  The decision is sure to be appealed but it’s still a rare victory for the rebels against Big Tech.

Microsoft is relatively benign as Big Tech overlords go, but don’t imagine it’s any less interested in grabbing your data.  Its latest gambit is to purchase TakeLessons, a web marketplace for online and in-person classes.  TakeLessons offers mostly consumer-oriented subjects, which expands Microsoft’s reach beyond the business-oriented classes it already offers on LinkedIn Lessons.

If taking a cooking class from Microsoft sounds a little strange, try wrapping your head around getting restaurant reviews from JPMorgan Chase bank.  The financial services giant just bought The Infatuation, a “restaurant discovery platform” whose properties include the once-popular Zagat guide.  The intent is apparently to offer new benefits and experiences to credit card customers.  Data gathering, ecommerce, and advertising revenue are probably on the menu as well.

We’re all about integration today, Dear Reader.  B2B data company ZoomInfo has purchased data quality and orchestration company RingLead, which will let ZoomInfo create unified profiles that combine a company’s own data with ZoomInfo information.  They’re not (yet) building the persistent database that marks a true CDP, but they are certainly providing tools to construct one.

Newly reborn Yahoo, which emerged Alien-like from the belly of Verizon, has announced new partnerships for its ConnectID cookieless identity solution.  Additions include media measurement companies IRI and NCSolutions and CDP mParticle, which will push segments to the Yahoo DSP.  Records will be matched against the ConnectID identity graph of 148 million logged-in users, 240 million unique profiles, and over 400 million unique devices.

Retail messaging platform Wunderkind has integrated with Salesforce Marketing Cloud’s Journey Builder.  The relationship will give Salesforce users more precise control over triggered Web and email messages.  Wunderkind’s super powers come in part from its purchase of CDP SmarterHQ last November.

Researchers MarketsandMarkets have issued their latest CDP industry report, which puts 2021 revenue at $3.5 billion and projects growth to $15.3 billion by 2026, a 34.6% annual increase.  They include professional services in addition to software and SaaS revenues, their list of CDPs is a bit odd, and I have doubts about their methodology.  Still, if you have a spare $5,650, some of their observations seem reasonable.

Privacy-focused CDP Zeotap has raised $11 million in a second extension to its July 2020 Series C, which now totals $71 million.  Like other vendors, Zeotap is taking advantage of a favorable fund-raising environment.  Total funding is now $90 million.

Acquia has agreed to purchase Widen, which offers cloud-native digital asset management and product information management software.  The deal extends Acquia’s digital experience platform beyond web content management, which is largely text-focused.   As you surely know, Acquia has a marketing cloud that includes the former Agilone CDP.