This newsletter generally avoids writing about rumors, but the marketing world has been buzzing loudly with speculation that Apple is going to substantially increase its ad sales programs. Most of the buzz is positive, since nothing makes marketers more excited than a new ad channel. But some observers note that Apple’s privacy rules make it hard for other companies to sell ads to Apple customers.
Vidmob analyzes the performance of advertising creative, which you might imagine would be a good business to be in. You’d be right: LinkedIn reports their headcount grew by 57% in the past year. And they just raised a $110 million Series D round, bringing total funding to $231.6 million.
Real-time data used to be rare and expensive, used mostly for advanced operational processes such as airline ticket sales. Today, 78% of tech leaders say it’s a “must-have” and 71% can tie it to revenue growth, according to this DataStax survey. Personalization is the second-most common real-time use case, after monitoring internal IT activity.
Reports emerged at the weekend that Salesforce was in advanced talks to acquire data management and integration platform Informatica. The deal would be Salesforce’s largest since acquiring Slack in 2021, and shares fell 7% Monday on the news. Informatica would add more advanced technical capabilities to the Salesforce product line.