CDP Institute

Yesterday was pretty busy for a Monday, Dear Reader. The big headline is confirmation of Intuit’s rumored purchase of MailChimp. Price was about $12 billion, a somewhat modest 12x earnings if Forbes’ information is correct. The deal furthers Intuit’s goal of becoming a growth platform for small business.

The other big news was credit bureau TransUnion’s deal to buy consumer data collector Neustar for $3.1 billion.  The price is just modestly above the $2.9 billion that Golden Gate Capital paid for Neustar in 2017, and roughly 5x Neustar’s $575 million revenue.   Apparently, the data business isn’t as attractive as it once seemed.

Apple hit the news today when it issued an urgent security patch to block a flaw that was being exploited by spyware company NSO. But marketers may be more interested in new options for managing push notifications in IOS 15. Users will be able to block personal messages while at work, and work messages when away from the office. We’ll see how many actually do that.

In case you spent the weekend in a cave or otherwise cut off from world news: a US district court judge on Friday ordered Apple to let companies in the App Store accept payments outside of Apple’s in-app purchase system, which charges a 30% commission.   The change could cut billions of dollars from Apple profits.  The decision is sure to be appealed but it’s still a rare victory for the rebels against Big Tech.

Microsoft is relatively benign as Big Tech overlords go, but don’t imagine it’s any less interested in grabbing your data.  Its latest gambit is to purchase TakeLessons, a web marketplace for online and in-person classes.  TakeLessons offers mostly consumer-oriented subjects, which expands Microsoft’s reach beyond the business-oriented classes it already offers on LinkedIn Lessons.