Another acquisition: content creation service Verblio has purchased Automagical, a system that uses AI to create videos based on blog posts. Verblio will add human editing and charge $85 per video. You may recall that Vimeo recently bought Magisto, another AI-based video generator.
We rarely write about systems for small business marketing, Dear Reader, because you don’t seem very interested and there are so many players with so little impact. But it’s a slow news day so let’s note that DirectLync recently launched an all-in-one digital marketing platform that it promises will “shake up small business marketing” and save users over 14 hours a month in managing their data. Users get contact management, email marketing, social media management, Web CMS, and reporting and insights for as little as $20 per month.
Finally, a massive study from Mozilla on the health of the Internet. It reports growing focus on all our favorite worries – privacy, AI, and big tech – and adds Internet censorship and biometric abuse to the mix. Mozilla says the worrying is good because it may lead to improvements. Worth reading.
Salesforce has reversed course on its bid to acquire data management and integration platform Informatica a source has told Reuters. Informatica itself said that it is not in talks to be acquired. Salesforce stocks rose on this latest news while Informatica’s fell.