You knew that “citizen CDP builder” was going to happen. Sure enough, Y42 says “anyone feeling comfortable with Excel” can ingest, unify, and analyze enterprise data without writing a line of code. Color me skeptical but they just raised a $31 million Series A to make it happen.
I hope someone at Merkle’s Merkury group is paid for the number of alliances they sign, because that person is getting one fat bonus this year. Merkury’s latest partner is Yahoo (until recently Verizon Media), which will their link their ConnectID with Merkury IDs. Merkle clients will be able to build custom audiences using individual-level Merkury IDs and then activate them through Yahoo’s demand side platform.
Customer service system vendor Zendesk has agreed to buy Momentive Global, the owner of SurveyMonkey. The all-stock deal is valued at close to $4 billion, or roughly ten times Momentive revenue. Zendesk describes the merger as creating a “customer intelligence company” because it “connects what customers say and do, with how they think and feel.” Interesting way to look at it.
Procrastinators of the world can throw a party whenever they get around to it: Google has once more pushed back complete third-party cookie deprecation. The new target is “early next year.” Reasons for the delay include concerns expressed by U.K. data regulator Information Commissioner’s Office, an ongoing inquiry by the U.K. Competition and Markets Authority, and widespread discontent in the advertising ecosystem.