Cisco is paying $270 million for Accompany, which uses AI to build profiles of business decision makers and map their connections. They’ll integrate the data with their collaboration products, most notably WebEx. The deal may be more about AI talent than data: Accompany founder Amy Chang, who sat on Cisco’s board until the purchase, will take charge of Cisco’s collaboration business. Total funding for Accompany was $40.6 million.

Sorry about that headline; I couldn’t resist. Namogoo prevents what it calls “online journey hijacking”, which is injection of unauthorized ads and content by third party services running on a brand Web site. They just raised a $15 million Series B, bringing their total raise to $28 million.

Google will pay to carry stories from Canadian news outlets under an agreement announced yesterday.  Details are sparse but the process for compliance with government’s C-18 law has been simplified to meet some Google objections.  Meta, the only other firm required to make payments under the law, has not changed its decision to block reliable news.