It’s barely one year since Meta closed its $1 billion acquisition of the Kustomer CRM platform, which had been delayed since 2020 due to regulatory reviews. But Meta’s fortunes have changed since then and, like a family that bought a boat they couldn’t afford, they’ve now sold it back to the original owners for a fraction of what they paid. They did keep a minority stake.
Meta has its own AI news, including release of open source text-to-speech and speech-to-text models support more than 1,100 languages. But mostly they’ve trying get their business in order. They took another step in that direction yesterday by selling GIPHY, which they bought for $400 million in 2020 but couldn’t keep due to anti-trust issues. Buyer was Shutterstock, which paid $53 million.
Knowing who to trust is trickier than ever, and don’t get me started on fake news from blue checks at Twitter. The folks at LinkedIn are considerably more sensible. They’ve expanded their employment verification feature to job postings, ensuring that listings are made by someone who actually works at the company they claim.
It’s all surveys today, Dear Reader. Marigold reports that consumers are eager for personalized content, with 79% saying they’re likely to engage with a personalized email tailored to their interests. Sadly, 33% feel their needs are unmet by current brand messages. Discounts and coupons (95%) top the list of what they want in exchange for personal data, followed closely by loyalty rewards at 94%. Content is last at 61%.