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.
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.
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.
Just over half of consumers (54%) like to receive personalized messages because they show the consumers are known to the brand, plus they can be time savers. The rest (46%) find it at best unimportant, at worst creepy. Relevance far outstrips personalization when it comes to driving email opens (54% vs. 19%). Takeaway: treat each customer the way they prefer.