German tech giant SAP has bolstered its GDPR compliance services with the $350m (£260m) acquisition of identity management firm Gigya, which offers companies a platform to manage their customers’ details.
Gigya was founded in 2006 in Tel Aviv but is now headquartered in California with offices in London, Paris, Hamburg, New York and Sydney, and about 300 staff.
The platform, which has about 1.3 billion customer identities, collects usage data, but also records customers’ opt-in and consent settings, which, as a key requirement under the new EU data protection regime, significantly boosts SAP’s offering in the growing GDPR software market.
SAP will also get access to Gigya’s 700 customers, which include big brands like Coca-Cola, Beiersdorf, L’Oréal, Asos, KLM, Toyota and Danone.
The company said it wants to be the first organisation that offers a cloud-based data platform on which companies can profile and convert new customers, and collect data on consumer choices in a way that is “in line with regulations”.
Gigya’s platform will be folded into SAP’s Hybris e-commerce platform, which the company bought in 2013.
SAP Hybris president and co-founder Carsten Thoma said: “Gigya brings a wealth of skills and expertise that will significantly enhance the SAP Hybris Profile solution and allow us to take leadership of the emerging customer identity and access management market. Consumer trust is the main currency to succeed for customer-driven organizations. This is what Gigya is known and recognised for.”
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