New York: Ghostery announced that it has relaunched as Evidon, Inc. and sold its popular Ghostery consumer browser extension and mobile apps to German Cliqz GmbH in an all-cash deal. The transaction, which has now closed, focuses Evidon, Inc. 100% on its industry-leading Digital Governance solutions for Business, while Ghostery will be integrated with Cliqz’s user-centric approach to privacy in browsing and search.
Cliqz, which is owned by Mozilla and Hubert Burda Media, offers privacy-focused browsers and browser extensions with an innovative quick-search functionality for Windows, Mac, Linux, Android and iOS. Cliqz will manage the Ghostery consumer browser extension and mobile apps to ensure the product retains its position as a leading consumer privacy solution.
Ghostery’s B2B Digital Governance solutions will reassume the company’s original Evidon brand, which focuses on monitoring and consent solutions for over 500 leading brands across the world. Evidon’s Marketing Cloud Management solutions, led by Evidon Trackermap®, have revolutionised Digital Governance through its patent-pending technology that delivers a real-time, 360° view of any company’s digital marketing supply chain to identify vulnerabilities and opportunities to drive additional ROI. Evidon’s patented Consent Solutions are the industry standard for compliance with Ad Choices, the EU’s ePrivacy Directive (“Cookie Law”) and other regulations and industry programs globally, in particular the EUs General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”). As part of the transaction, Evidon will retain aggregated data about trackers that are contributed anonymously and voluntarily by Ghostery users. This ensures no change to the services currently provided by Evidon to its enterprise clients.
Scott Meyer, CEO & Co-Founder of Evidon said. “With the rapidly increasing corporate demand for Digital Governance solutions, this transaction with Cliqz is well-timed. The EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in particular has catalysed the need for Digital Governance and clients are approaching us with an increasing set of demands. This deal will ensure that clients retain access to Ghostery data about trackers, and enable Evidon to focus exclusively on the significantly growing B2B market.” Meyer added: “Cliqz is the perfect home for Ghostery and consumers will continue to enjoy an enhanced online experience delivered by the Cliqz-Ghostery combination.”
“Ghostery perfectly complements Cliqz,” said Jean-Paul Schmetz, the founder of Cliqz. “Just as ours, the Ghostery brand stands for privacy. In these times of heightened government monitoring around the world and increasing commercialisation of private data by the advertising industry, we believe that there’s a growing demand for privacy-protecting browser and search technologies offering real alternatives to the providers that currently dominate the market.”
Bonnie Yeomans, VP, Assistant General Counsel and Privacy Officer from CA Technologies, commented: “In an increasingly regulated environment it is critical for businesses to understand how their audience’s data is used. Transparency has also never been more vital, and it’s great that Ghostery will continue its work in empowering consumers to understand and control how their data is used. Businesses will be able to lean on Evidon to ensure they are complying with regulations and making a positive contribution to the digital ecosystem.”
About Evidon
Evidon is a global technology company focused on simplifying the complex world of Digital Governance. As companies add more technology to maximise the return on their digital investment, building consumer trust has become ever more important. Fulfilling this promise requires organisations to have a comprehensive approach to govern data collection across their sites, apps and ads while complying with global regulations. The world’s leading brands rely on Evidon to empower their Digital Governance success across millions of web pages and apps that drive billions of online revenue.
Founded in 2009, Evidon is headquartered in New York City with offices in Sandy, Utah and London. The company is backed by Warburg Pincus, LLC, the global private equity fund. Learn more at @evidon_inc and www.evidon.com.
About Ghostery
Ghostery offers a free browser extension and mobile browser that make browsing the internet cleaner, faster, and safer. Ghostery detects and blocks tracking technologies on the websites you visit to speed up page loads, eliminate clutter, and protect your data and privacy. It also keeps you informed on what companies are tracking you and gives you the tools you need to determine what to block and when.
Ghostery was created in 2008 and is based in New York City. Cliqz GmbH, a German-based company headquartered in Munich, Germany and backed by Mozilla and Hubert Burda Media acquired Ghostery from Evidon, Inc. in 2017. Ghostery continues to innovate and evolve its products to provide the most effective tool in building a more private internet that puts the needs of users first.
Ghostery’s privacy-protection is available for free download for Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Edge, and Opera as well as for Android and iOS.
About Cliqz
The mission of the German startup Cliqz is to redesign the Internet for the user by combining the power of data, browser, and search. In Munich, more than 100 experts from over 30 countries develop browsers and browser extensions with integrated search engines to bring users to their destination in the most direct way while protecting their privacy.
Jean-Paul Schmetz founded Cliqz GmbH in 2008. Since May 2013, Cliqz GmbH has been majority-owned by Hubert Burda Media, one of Europe’s leading media corporations. In August 2016, Mozilla joined as a strategic minority investor. With Cliqz for Firefox launched in June 2014, the concept of searching quickly via the browser gained traction fast with 900,000 daily active users in just a few months. The Cliqz browser for Mac and Windows with integrated anti-tracking launched in March 2016, quickly followed by apps for iOS and Android.
