The news is so meager today that I’m tempted to amuse you with car-driving goldfish. But we are Serious People here, so instead I’ll report on the slow-motion bidding war for R.R.Donnelley. Readers of a certain age will recall when Donnelley’s printing operations made it a major force in the marketing industry. See: Ozymandias.
India-based cloud communications platform Exotel has raised a $40 million Series D, bringing total funding to $87 million. Oddly enough, Exotel doesn’t claim to provide a CDP to unify its cross-channel customer treatments. Yet.
Russia’s watchdog, Roskomnadzor said Google failed to remove more than 2,600 banned posts; and Meta failed to remove over 2,000 from its platforms. These included posts in support of dissident Alexei Navalny, and posts promoting drugs and pornography.
It’s tough to get brand safety right, but the industry keeps trying. IPG Mediabrands announced a new set of tools to find and block inappropriate ad placements, while IAS expanded its suitability measurements to include standards from the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM). Meanwhile, DoubleVerify admitted a mistake made brand safety on X/Twitter look worse than it really was in October 2023 and March 2024.