Kraft-Heinz Made A Bid For Unilever; YuMe's 2016 Revenue Decreased

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CPGiants

The world’s largest food manufacturers are trying to swallow each other whole. After reportedly making a bid for Mondelez late last year, Kraft-Heinz offered $143 billion for CPG giant Unilever on Friday (which is roughly Unilever’s market cap, though, oddly, Kraft-Heinz is the smaller company). Unilever rejected the bid. “Still, that is not expected to end the matter,” reports The New York Times. “Pressed by growing competition from upstarts and changing consumer habits, food and consumer-goods giants will have little choice but to seek deals.” More.

YuMe’s Ongoing Restructure

Video ad platform YuMe’s total 2016 revenue decreased 7% to $160.4 million YoY amid a “cost reduction” effort that began last November. With five-year CEO Jayant Kadambi out (Tremor Video’s CEO also exited recently) and YuMe general counsel Paul Porrini in, YuMe said it exceeded earning expectations in Q4 and closed out the year with a total of $21.2 million in programmatic revenue. This time last year, YuMe had no material programmatic revenue. Like other video platforms, YuMe sees connected TV as a growing opportunity and noted significant improvement in its gross margins (52.7%) as proof. More.

Pritchard Effect

Publishers are heeding Pritchard’s call for a healthier supply chain [AdExchanger coverage]. Publisher trade org Digital Content Next is pitching media companies, and not intermediaries, as a cleaning solution for cruddy inventory. “We have heard your calls for human, viewable, third-party accredited inventory,” Kint wrote. “We have heard your calls for brand safety. We want to assure you that our trusted, market-leading brands will continue to engage in meaningful ways to promote and protect your trusted brands.” Read it.

Know Thyself

Facebook quietly added a feature that lets users see which advertisers have access to their personal information. The change came about after a Swiss mathematician, Paul-Olivier Dehaye, pressed legislators to make Facebook turn over specific marketers with his data. The social giant made the fix before the issue could enter arbitration (and the EU now has a track record of punishing arbitration for Silicon Valley giants), reports Kevin Collier at Vocativ. Collier pulled his own data and found 52 brands had his contact information, in many cases with little rhyme or reason. More.

But Wait, There’s More!