We don’t see many acquisitions these days. But here’s one: ad measurement vendor DoubleVerify is spending $125 to buy Scibids, which offers digital campaign optimization. DoubleVerify is also reported to be adding in-game advertising to the channels it measures, a good reminder that in-game advertising is growing more important.
While U.S. technology regulators are generally toothless compared with their European counterparts, they still do manage the occasional nip. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has adopted a new rule requiring public companies to report significant cybersecurity incidents within four business days. Can’t hurt.
Maybe it only seems like martech acquisitions have become more rare. Founders Advisors reports the number of deals has actually been about flat over the past two years, although deal value and valuations have definitely fallen. Meanwhile, Crunchbase says the number of U.S.-based start-ups is down 86% since 2020, with similar declines in Europe and Israel. I wonder if Crunchbase just hasn’t identified some of newest companies yet.
They didn’t call it a CDP, but Meta just launched a product to “connect your first-party data from any sources to any destination, streamlining your data handling processes and unlocking valuable insights to optimize your marketing campaigns.” The name of this miracle cure is Signals Gateway, and pricing seems to start at $30 per month. Data is hosted in Amazon Web Services and, at least in theory, Meta can’t see it.