Today's news: What California's Proposition 24 means for Facebook and Google, Mark Penn shopped around Stagwell Group for more than a year, and inside General Mills' e-commerce strategy.
California voters passed Proposition 24, a ballot measure that expands the state's existing privacy laws and scales back the amount of data that big tech companies are allowed to collect on people.
The effort came immediately after Penn became CEO of holding company MDC Partners and began trying to reduce that company's debt, which stood at more than $1 billion in 2019. Since then, MDC and Stagwell agreed to merge and create what would be the eighth-largest ad holding company with revenues of around $2 billion.
The main reason investors passed on Stagwell was Penn's asking price of more than $1 billion, the people familiar with the matter said.
General Mills is adapting content on its websites for brands like Betty Crocker based on consumer data and trends. When use of appliances like air fryers and grills rose in recent months, the sites responded with content teaching people how to make crescent rolls and pizza using them, for instance.
General Mills' ad budgets are also shifting from big-reach channels like TV to e-commerce channels like Walmart and Kroger.
