Vertical consolidation: Infillion and Taboola buy into data

Infillion is buying Foursquare for its location panel to pair with Catalina's purchase data, while Taboola has offered up to £27m for Dianomi to own premium finance ad supply, and 33Across rebranded as WealthStage.

The crux

As programmatic commoditises, the value is consolidating into specialised data and vertical supply, and the buyers are paying for depth, not reach.

Sell-side read

Publishers with strong first-party data in a valuable vertical are the scarce asset in these deals, which means vertical focus and data quality are now a valuation driver, not just an editorial choice.

Watch

Whether Taboola-Dianomi closes before year end and whether Infillion keeps Foursquare's data available to third parties or makes it exclusive.