Also reflecting changing times: shipping technology vendor Pitney Bowes has completed sale of its document messaging business to private investor Platinum Equity. The $361 million deal was announced in April. The group sells high-speed personalized printing systems. Sale of martech companies to investors like Platinum Equity has become more common than purchase by strategic buyers like Interpublic Group.
Hi, it’s Jamie, the CDP Institute’s faithful Department of the Obvious Intern. Everyone else took today off but I volunteered to stay behind if they let me write the newsletter. Here are some of the obvious goodies I’ve recently collected.We’ll start with this PwC study on customer experience, which found that bad employees drive people away, not bad technology. Also, airlines have really bad service. There’s plenty of less-obvious stuff but I’ve ignored it.
There’s nothing like a good privacy breach to remind us why data privacy laws are needed. Computer security consultant Vinny Troia scanned the Internet for unprotected Elasticsearch databases and hit paydirt: 340 million records from marketing data compiler Exactis. It had lots of detailed information on U.S. consumers and business contacts, although nothing really sensitive like Social Security Number. This isn’t technically a “breach” since Exactis’ security wasn’t penetrated. They just didn’t have any.
The U.S. Senate has passed a bill that could potentially ban TikTok in the U.S. if its Chinese owner, ByteDance, does not sell its holdings within a year. The bill now goes to the President Biden, who has said he will sign it. Court challenges are likely to follow.