Some say data is the new oil, or maybe the new oil paint. Personally, I think of it as the new bacon. Whatever you call it, the folks at S&P Global think it’s worth lots: so much that they’re merging with data collector IHS Markit in an all-stock transaction valued at $44 billion. Mmmm…data.
Here’s a little stocking stuffer: Admetrics has just launched a freemium version of its Quantify automated campaign experimentation engine. Like its professional big brother, the system combines multivariate testing with Bayesian statistics and machine learning to deliver results more quickly and with less data than traditional A/B tests. And it can automatically introduce new variations as these become available, enabling continuous improvement.
It took just one day after our privacy newsletter called out Microsoft’s Productivity Score as a surveillance nightmare for Microsoft to hide individual information. Okay, lots of other people raised the same issue. Regardless, it shows increasing awareness of workplace privacy issues, especially during the pandemic.
The past year has been tough for all kinds of tech investments. This LUMA report offers an overview of martech, adtech, and content tech financial activity in public markets, private financing, and mergers and acquisitions. To summarize a mixed picture: the bleeding has stopped but growth has not yet resumed.