It may take a while for BigTech to realize that global regulators are not as deferential as they used to be.  Adobe just learned that the hard way – with a tuition of $1 billion in termination fees – when it agreed with Figma to abandon their proposed merger.  “Thousands of hours spent with regulators around the world” couldn’t convince authorities that their product design products are not competitive, and never could be.

Acquisitions by software vendors are often strategic, but don’t underestimate the allure of simple financial gain.  Analytics software vendor Alteryx, which has been a public company since 2017, has agreed to sell itself to private equity investors Clearlake Capital Group and Insight Partners.  The deal is valued at $4.4 billion, a 29.1% premium over the company’s closing share price last Friday.

CX management platform Sprinklr is introducing “digital twins.” Not your average chatbot, a Sprinklr digital twin is more like an AI-powered employee, able to plan actions, create workflows and make decisions, but at speed and at scale. They are said to be more easily trained than chatbots and can operate within brand policies and guardrails.