As the festive season ramps up, perhaps we should think of corporate acquisitions as a B2B self-gift.  In that light, a pair of private equity firms have treated themselves to SALESmanago, a Poland-based but globally-sold CDP and marketing automation platform.  They claim 2,500 clients, which are mostly small businesses but include some big enterprises.  Price is undisclosed but over $100 million.

Martech keeps taking larger bites out of marketing budgets: 17.3% last year, 19.9% this year, 23.5% next year, and 30.9% five years from now, according to the latest CMO Survey. This despite barely more than half (56.4%) of current tools being used and nearly half (48.8%) of the survey respondents reporting worse-than-expected results. Oddly enough, marketers rate selecting marketing technologies as the thing they do best.