Google’s much-criticized Privacy Sandbox had some good news yesterday when Microsoft said it would add preliminary support for the Privacy Sandbox APIs across Microsoft Advertising products. Microsoft Edge has also introduced an Ad Selection API allowing advertisers to select and deliver relevant ads to users without relying on third-party cookies.

Rejecting shareholder demands that it divest Segment, Twilio announced a plan to continue selling it as a stand-alone product, integrate it more closely with its other offerings, increase growth, and cut costs.  New layoffs are almost sure to follow, on top of a 25% company-wide staff reduction in the past two years.   The company reports that Segment lost $72 million in 2023, despite 7% revenue growth to $295 million.

Martech keeps taking larger bites out of marketing budgets: 17.3% last year, 19.9% this year, 23.5% next year, and 30.9% five years from now, according to the latest CMO Survey. This despite barely more than half (56.4%) of current tools being used and nearly half (48.8%) of the survey respondents reporting worse-than-expected results. Oddly enough, marketers rate selecting marketing technologies as the thing they do best.