Verizon has decided to retain all of its consumer data, and has been telling its partners that they will now no longer have access to their data. Verizon bought AOL this summer and recently acquired Millennial Media. After AOL took over management from Microsoft's display advertising operations, this created a close partnership between the major internet properties. The deal also gives Microsoft more leverage in negotiations with content providers like Netflix about how much data it can collect on consumers.
Verizon has decided to retain all of its consumer data, and has been telling its partners that they will now no longer have access to their data. Verizon bought AOL this summer and recently acquired Millennial Media. After AOL took over management from Microsoft's display advertising operations, this created a close partnership between the major internet properties. These acquisitions have given Verizon a full line up of ad tech properties, meaning it is now a potential rival to Facebook and Google in terms of delivering targeted ads to mobile devices, desktops and digital video.