Comic: Verizon Waxing

There is a powerful undercurrent of disaffection and outright anger from the American populace toward US sporting institutions right now. But this isn’t just about logos cluttering the playing field. Sports leagues and teams are making decisions that sacrifice player safety and the enjoyment of their own fans in various bids for marketing revenue.

People Inc.’s referral traffic from Google search is down 70% over the past two years, and by 26% in Q3 alone. But its digital revenue is still growing, albeit slowly.

On Tuesday, Chord, a six-year-old commerce tech startup, acquired Zenlytic, an AI startup with an anthropomorphized data analyst agent named “Zoë,” for $5 million.

If you ask the executive leadership of Affle and Perion why the two companies are merging, the answer you’ll get is “synergies.”

A combo of Tubi, sports and political ads powered Fox’s growth this last quarter, even as Fox News lost viewers and the Roku deal awaits DOJ clearance.

It’s fall, and M&A is in the air. Two acquisitions happened this week: Stagwell bought Freestar, and DoorDash bought Instacart.