CDP Algonomy announced a deal to buy Linear Squared, which offers AI-based retail demand planning and forecasting. It’s a good example of a vertical CDP expanding its industry-specific features. Algonomy is the renamed combination of campaign CDP Manthan and recommendation engine RichRelevance, who announced their combination in late 2019 and closed that deal in early 2021.
CDP BlueConic has sold a majority share to Vista Equity Partners, whose high-profile martech investments have included Drift, Gainsight, Marketo, and many more. No details were announced but the deal gives BlueConic resources to compete against increasingly well-funded industry leaders.
Merkle, which offers a slew of marketing services including CDP delivery, is moving deeper into operational territory with a pair of products to support contactless shopping. Scan & Go lets in-store shoppers make an online purchase via ecommerce platforms such as Shopify, Salesforce Commerce Cloud, and Adobe Commerce. UnboxIt reads QR codes on boxes to connect shoppers with instructions, customer support, loyalty programs, or I suppose anything else. The big selling point is that shoppers don’t need to download a dedicated app.
It’s deal-making time for generative AI model builders and publishers who can provide them with quality data. Germany publishing giant Axel Springer is trading access to its data for Microsoft adtech, AI, and Azure hosting solutions. Meanwhile, The Financial Times has struck a deal with OpenAI to license its content with attribution of summaries and quotes.