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.
Walled gardens don’t need to struggle with audience measurement because they already know who sees what. NBCUniversal is taking advantage of that omniscience by launching NBCUnified, which integrates first-party data on 150 million individuals and 80 million households collected through movies, video, ecommerce, subscriptions, theme parks, and heaven knows what else. The data is enhanced with third party information and made available for ad targeting.
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.
It’s tough to get brand safety right, but the industry keeps trying. IPG Mediabrands announced a new set of tools to find and block inappropriate ad placements, while IAS expanded its suitability measurements to include standards from the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM). Meanwhile, DoubleVerify admitted a mistake made brand safety on X/Twitter look worse than it really was in October 2023 and March 2024.