Privacy compliance company Evidon has been sold to technology company
CrownPeak, MediaPost has learned. The deal is believed to be worth an estimated $50 million.
CrownPeak, which says it offers "web content management
solutions," boasts of a client roster including including Toyota, American Express and HP.
Evidon is expected to continue to operate independently.
The deal comes six months after
Evidon sold its ad blocker, Ghostery, to the search engine and browser developer Cliqz GmbH, a German company owned by Hubert Burda Media and Mozilla.
Evidon is one of the companies that
licenses the Digital Advertising Alliance's AdChoices icon -- the centerpiece of the industry's self-regulatory privacy program. The AdChoices licenses accounted for around 45% of Evidon's current
enterprise business, CEO Scott Meyer told MediaPost earlier this year.
Evidon's business-to-business enterprise services, including helping advertisers comply with global privacy rules,
accounts for the other 55%.
News of the sale comes at a time of increased interest in so-called "reg-tech" companies -- meaning companies offering technology aimed at helping businesses to
comply with government regulations -- according to Jules Polonetsky, CEO of the industry-funded think tank Future of Privacy Forum. For instance, the UK startup Privitar -- which develops tools to
de-identify data -- recently obtained $16 million in funding.
Polonetsky says
the interest is driven by new regulations in Europe, which are fueling the need for international compliance tools. "There's been a real turn towards trying to use technology to handle and manage some
of the more complex pieces that can be built into a platform," Polonetsky says.