The UK's Information Commissioner Elizabeth Denham has announced that Facebook will be fined £500k, the maximum amount possible but not much more than one millionth of the firm's Market Cap, for its part in the recent Cambridge Analytica data breach. More.

Enterprise data and analytics company Acxiom Corporation has confirmed it is to sell its Marketing Solutions business (AMS) to marcoms giant Interpublic Group for $2.3 billion in cash. More.

IQVIA - formerly QuintilesIMS - has launched a suite of 'Virtual Research Solutions', which use technology and advanced analytics to radically rethink patient experience research for both clinical and health outcomes purposes. More.

Big data firm IBM Watson is laying off a significant number of staff in its Health division - reports suggest between 50 and 70 percent of employees, with a concentration in recently acquired companies. However IBM itself says the cuts affect 'a small percentage of the unit's global workforce'. More.

UK-based software company Digital Taxonomy has launched Codeit Professional, a tool designed 'to massively increase the quality and speed of coding unstructured text and other data', from survey verbatims to social media comments and text from VoC programmes. More.

At the instigation of US research body the Insights Association, representatives of the country's business community have written to the leaders of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees in support of additional funding for the 2020 Census. More.

UK-based data firm Cambridge Analytica has declared bankruptcy and is shutting down, amid claims that it illegally harvested data from more than 87 million Facebook profiles to target users with political ads. Media reports suggest that the firm could re-emerge under a new name. More.

Quebec-based big data insight and analysis specialist Coveo has received $100m from tech investment firm Elliott Management, in exchange for a 27% stake in the company. More.

Chris Havemann, the co-founder and former CEO of Research Now, has joined mobile research tech firm RealityMine as its new Chief Exec. The firm has also received a 'significant' follow on investment from Kennet Partners and other shareholders. More.

Ipsos is to invest around £3m in British video analytics firm Big Sofa Technologies, which will expand its sales and marketing functions - particularly in the US - and speed up the development of new kinds of analysis that link consumer context and behaviour. More.