Nic Peters On Why The Cookie Matters; Fetchback Fetches $40 Million Dollars

Nic Peters, Managing Director at Improve Digital, penned a piece yesterday for Imedia on why the cookie still matters. The post tackles the upcoming (and hated!) cookie directive, and the effect it will have on the digital media industry in Europe. Peters finds it hard to believe that the much maligned cookie is seen as such a threat to user privacy when more intrusive forms of offline data collection get a free pass by European regulators. She points to the example of loyalty cards, which collects, harvests and consumers' personal data. These activities rarely attracts the furore that anonymous pixeling does because loyalty cards offset data collection with discounted products. Is it a communication issue? Is the online advertising sector not showing legislators the value of the cookie? Peters argues that the industry needs to do a number of things to give the cookie the "threat-free reputation enjoyed by offline data-collection methods": first, improve the communication and understanding of how the cookie benefits the consumer; second, the industry needs to be more transparent about how it collects and uses data; and finally, use the cookie data to deliver better user experience. Nic briefly touched on the mess Phorm caused with its questionable data collection methods. But can we all applaud Phorm for doing a fine job of muddying the waters with legislators, privacy advocates and consumers. [Imedia]

And so it begins. The great M&A frenzy of 2010. It was announced yesterday that GSI Commerce acquired retargeting specialist Fetchback for a reported $40 million dollars. GSI Commerce powers the platform for many large online retailers, and looks likely integrate Fetchback's retargeting capabilities into its offering. Fetchback's technology is very much based around the cookie, although like most retargeting companies it has its own "special sauce" (usually the following: drop cookie on user at source; buy as much inventory on exchanges and other platforms to find user and serve retargeted ad) This is a good earn out for all those involved given that the company only raised about $1 million dollars. It does suggest that the M&A activity is about to kick off. Who is next in the great M&A show? [Techcrunch]