How often do you find yourself saying, I wish I had more apps to talk to? Apparently, often enough that the folks at Native Voice have just raised $14 million for an app that listens for you to call other apps, and wakes them when summoned. It’s a dream come true, if your dream happens to be The Brave Little Toaster.
Here’s a sign of the times: Salesforce has confirmed it is no longer selling its Audience Studio DMP, which started as its $700 million Krux acquisition in 2016. Current users will be supported but the company expects third-party audiences to be loaded into its CDP in the future, and first-party audiences to be pushed to Facebook, Google, Amazon and other closed ad platforms via Advertising Studio.
Privacy-focused browser Brave has also been listening to consumers, with their permission of course. They found that 70% of survey respondents find it creepy when they see online ads related to previous Web searches, and 81% would reward brands that gave them more control over how many ads they see. Brave also ran a test that found ads served in an opt-in environment had a positive impact, but I didn’t see results compared with ads in a conventional environment.
CDP and marketing cloud vendor Zeta Global announced an agreement to purchase LiveIntent, which helps companies do email-based advertising. The deal will let Zeta expand its identity graph, enter the publisher monetization business, and accelerate its mobile and retail media products. Zeta will pay $77.5 million in cash and $172.5 million in common stock, with potential for additional payments based on performance.