However you feel about Tuesday’s U.S. election results, here’s some news we can all agree is bad: Salesforce has laid off “hundreds” of employees.  It’s another strong hint that the layoffs hitting other tech sectors will apply to martech too.  On the bright side: the figure is a tiny fraction of Salesforce’s 70,000+ employees.  Compare it to Meta laying off 11,000 people or 13% of its workforce.

You might wonder why Capital One would invest $96 million investment in travel app Hopper, let alone why it’s relevant to this newsletter.  I’ll argue the deal is about Capital One gaining access to Hopper’s first-party data, which makes it a media play.  Hopper describes its goal as building a travel super-app with strong social commerce capabilities.

Google is facing another antitrust lawsuit, this time in Canada, specifically focusing on anti-competitive practices in online advertising. The Competition Tribunal has been asked to order Google to sell two of its ad tech tools, prohibit future anti-competitive practices and fine the company billions of dollars. In response, Google points to a highly competitive market offering plenty of alternatives.