The $3.1 billion deal on AdExchanger’s radar this week? TransUnion’s acquisition of Neustar.
The deal brings together an identity resolution company with a credit reporting agency. But why is identity being tied together through these two companies? And should this raise privacy red flags?
To answer those questions, we bring on former Neustar executive Steven Wolfe Pereira, who reflects on his time in the ad tech and identity space. He emphasizes Neustar’s ties to national security projects – and caller ID. The company has a long track record and operates with a strict approach to data confidentiality. Silicon Valley startups, on the other hand, often have the opposite reputation (think Uber’s God mode in its early days).
But marketers watching the deal shouldn’t expect transformative product changes just yet – that same strict approach to data, plus the fact that these are two established companies, means that full integration will likely be years in the making.
In the second half of The Big Story, we discuss the judge’s ruling in the lawsuit brought by Epic Games against Apple. It’s absolutely a victory for Apple, Pereira says. As CEO of Encantos, a kid-focused storytelling company about to launch an app, though, he pays more attention to Apple’s policy change earlier this month around “reader apps” that resulted from a lawsuit by Japan’s Fair Trade Commission.
Those apps will now be allowed to make external purchases free of app store commissions, a victory for apps in that category. At the end of the episode, we also go over Apple’s latest privacy features, which go into effect Monday with the iOS 15 rollout.
