Eric Eichmann Is New Criteo CEO; VC Changes

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Leadership Change At Criteo

Eric Eichmann, once Criteo’s COO and president, is now its CEO. JB Rudelle, once its CEO and chairman, is now its executive chairman. “This evolution comes at the right time for Criteo”, Rudelle said in a statement. “As we head towards the end of 2015, I am very excited about the momentum of our business and confident about the outlook we provided on November 4, 2015.” Criteo’s future initiatives include the development of a cross-device identity matching product as well as email personalization. Read Criteo’s statement.

Fallen Angels

VCs aren’t just giving money out the way they used to, according to an article by CNBC’s Ari Levy. “It’s been surprising to see how quickly valuation expectations are recalibrating,” says Next World Capital partner Craig Hanson.”Rounds will be harder to raise, valuation multiples will be lower and, in many cases, companies will have to demonstrate metrics that back up the big projections they promised before.” Bain Capital managing director Ajay Agarwal says, “The world of perpetual up rounds is over … That’s forcing companies that are much younger to think about cash and profitability in ways they haven’t had to.” George Zachary, partner at Charles River, says that nowadays, “At every board meeting, we’re reviewing burn rates.” Read it here.

D Is For Data – And Drama

Democratic politics erupted last week when it was revealed that Senator Bernie Sanders’ aides had accessed proprietary data from Hillary Clinton’s campaign. The DNC then cut off the Sanders campaign from accessing voter data. The campaign filed a breach of contract lawsuit against the DNC, which remains active even after the organization restored Sanders’ access to the voter files. The legal feud shows how vital voter data is in modern campaigning. The lawsuit claims that, without the vote files, “The damage to the campaign’s political viability, as a result of being unable to communicate with constituents and voters, is far more severe and incapable of measurement.” The breach also highlights the potential dangers when firewalls fail. In a statement, Sanders said Clinton’s data was compromised “because the DNC and its vendor failed to to protect it.” Regardless of this narrative, the senator apologized for the breach during the Democratic debate Saturday. More at The NYT.

The Mighty Amazon

According to a Bloomberg report, Amazon accounts for more online sales than the combined total of the next 21 largest retailers – including Walmart, Target, Best Buy, Macy’s, Home Depot, Nordstrom, Costco, you get the point – and is actually widening that lead. A CNBC ecommerce article notes that major Amazon tech and delivery-fulfillment investments were criticized for “the drain on profitability (they) caused.” But now Amazon “is seeing the payoff on those investments.” Amazon has been a friend to cargo companies like UPS and FedEx, but the ecommerce beast’s next meal may be the entire shipping segment of the supply chain. The airfreight trade pub Cargo Facts broke the news that Amazon is considering its own fleet and air logistics operation.

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