Publicis Groupe Acquires Marketing Technology Company Yieldify
Publicis Groupe, the French multinational ad agency and public relations firm that is also one of the world’s largest marketing and communications companies by revenue, is acquiring Yieldify, the British marketing technology company that specializes in personalizing consumer website experiences.
Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed, but Yieldify will become part of Epsilon, the data-driven marketing company acquired by Publicis in July 2019, and whose platform became the heart of the Publicis Groupe’s organization and today powers its creative, media, and technology operations.
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Yieldify provides end-to-end personalization based on comprehensive audience targeting, and its customer journey analytics help in the discovery of personalization opportunities and in-depth testing to identify winning experiences. By becoming part of Epsilon, Yieldify will help expand Epsilon’s presence in the mid-market, even as Yieldify will continue to retain its name and organization as it is integrated into Epsilon over time, Publicis executives state.
Yieldify customers include cosmetics company L’Oreal and athletic shoes and apparel manufacturer New Balance. The London-based agency has regional offices in New York, Sydney, and Singapore.
Telus International Completes Acquisition of Digital Consultancy Firm WillowTree
Telus International has completed its acquisition of WillowTree, the Charlottesville, Virginia-based digital product provider and consultancy. With its key front-end design and build competencies, WillowTree will enhance Telus International’s suite of end-to-end capabilities across the full CX value chain, Telus officials say. The combined teams will have plenty of opportunities to accelerate the digital transformation of Telus and support key product development across its business, most notably within the health industry, and the agriculture and consumer goods sectors.
The acquisition is the 10th since 2005 for Vancouver, Canada-based Telus, which has been adding new high-value capabilities, diversifying its client base, and broadening the company’s geographic footprint to meet the increasingly complex needs of its clients. To date, Telus encompasses a multilingual team of more than 70,000 members, a global AI community of more than one million trained annotators, and 69 delivery centers and digital design studios located in 30 countries across North, Central, and South America, Europe, and Asia.
The addition of WillowTree’s more than 50 new marquee brands will expand Telus International’s client base across key industry verticals, including tech and games; communications and media; eCommerce and fintech; banking, financial services, and insurance; consumer goods; healthcare and life sciences; and travel and hospitality.
Related Article: New CX Research from ASAPP, eGain, Telus, Qualtrics, and Forrester
Telus International designs, builds, and delivers next-generation digital solutions to enhance the CX for global and disruptive brands. The company’s services support the full lifecycle of its clients’ digital transformation journeys, enabling them to more quickly embrace next-generation digital technologies to deliver better business outcomes.
Alchemer Acquires Fellow Feedback Technology Firm Apptentive
Alchemer, the provider of experience management and enterprise feedback technology headquartered in Louisville, Colorado, is acquiring Seattle-based mobile feedback technology firm Apptentive. The acquisition will provide Alchemer customers with a more in-depth method of collecting feedback from mobile customers, while giving Apptentive customers access to survey and workflow functionality across communication channels and within platforms such as Salesforce, Microsoft Teams, and Slack.
Apptentive enables companies to measure shifts in customer emotion and gather actionable feedback across mobile customer journeys, providing customers with the ability to reach consumers and employees within their mobile experience. Alchemer, on the other hand, helps businesses collect, analyze, and leverage customer and employee feedback with the goal of driving better engagement, retention, and user experience.
Alchemer and Apptentive will offer their combined set of solutions to customers effective immediately, and will soon launch new, integrated solutions for the market, both companies say.
Bridgepointe Technologies Acquires CX Provider PPT Solutions
Tech advisory firm Bridgepointe Technologies has acquired PPT Solutions, the provider of client-centric, performance-based CX and contact center consulting solutions. The addition of Tulsa, Oklahoma-based PPT Solutions will enable Bridgepointe to expand its technology advisory services and provide clients with a wide range of CX-related services, including contact center technologies, business process outsourcing (BPO), AI and robotic process automation, and managed services, Bridgepoint executives say.
Headquartered in Chicago, Bridgepointe helps mid-market and enterprise companies traverse the gap between tech investments and business results. It works with companies to save time by shortening the procurement process to drive time to value with tech investments.
PPT Solutions and its team of 50 employees will operate as a Bridgepointe company effective immediately, Bridgepointe says, with Dennis Weikle and Kris Kramer, the company’s top executives, appointed to continue leading the overall CX organization.
Rokt Announces Secondary Transaction, Increasing Valuation to $2.4 Billion
Rokt, the e-commerce technology company that uses machine learning (ML) to make transactions more relevant to shoppers, was the recipient recently of a secondary investment that increased the valuation of Rokt to $2.4 billion, less than 12 months after the company had raised $325 million in a Series E fundraising round. The transaction was led by global technology investor Square Peg and independent asset manager Wellington Management.
“We’re thrilled to have the opportunity to further invest in Rokt, a business that offers its clients extraordinarily high revenue retention,” says Paul Bassat, co-founder and partner of Square Peg, which operates from offices in Australia, Singapore, and Israel. “The company’s continuing success and profitability are a testament to the strength of its core business and impressive leadership team,” Bassat adds.
Prakhar Singh, principal at Philadelphia-headquartered Wellington Management, says his firm is proud of its investment in Rokt and is excited to see the company prepare for its initial public offering. “Rokt has continued on its rapid growth trajectory despite industry headwinds and, we believe is well positioned to thrive amid ongoing market challenges,” Singh notes.
Rokt announced multiple significant new partnerships in 2022, including with Uber and AMC Theatres. The company continues to hire for roles across its business globally, and has plans to open a second North American product development center on the West Coast in the US in 2023.
Author Information
Alex is responsible for writing about trends and changes that are impacting the customer experience market. He had served as Principal Editor at Village Intelligence, a Los Angeles-based consultancy on technology impacting healthcare and healthcare-related industries. Alex was also Associate Director for Content Management at Omdia and Informa Tech, where he produced white papers, executive summaries, market insights, blogs, and other key content assets. His areas of coverage spanned the sectors grouped under the technology vertical, including semiconductors, smart technologies, enterprise & IT, media, displays, mobile, power, healthcare, China research, industrial and IoT, automotive, and transformative technologies.
At IHS Markit, he was Managing Editor of the company’s flagship IHS Quarterly, covering aerospace & defense, economics & country risk, chemicals, oil & gas, and other IHS verticals. He was Principal Editor of analyst output at iSuppli Corp. and Managing Editor of Market Watch, a fortnightly newsletter highlighting significant analyst report findings for pitching to the media. He started his career in writing as an Editor-Reporter for The Associated Press.
