On 14th September 2021, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) brought a securities fraud ruling against leading mobile app data provider App Annie and its co-founder and former CEO and Chairman Bertrand Schmitt. The SEC found that at this time the company was “engaging in deceptive practices and making material misrepresentations about how App Annie’s alternative data was derived” that violated anti-fraud provisions of Section 10(b) of the Exchange Act and Rule 10b-5 thereunder.
With an increasing number of internet users moving away from traditional internet channels like desktop computers and towards mobile-only use, app usage data can offer hugely valuable insights into consumer behaviour and company performance through a variety of key performance metrics.
As a leader in the alternative data space, we make it a priority to stay up to date with legal and compliance issues across the alternative data landscape. A recent ‘Spotlight’ paper we published called Data Privacy and Alternative Data focuses on the data privacy movement and how it has developed over the past several years. In this paper we discuss the restriction around data collection and distribution being implemented both at a state and regional level as well as a company level where “Gatekeepers” are proving to be more influential than ever. This blog provides a run-down of several of the most noteworthy pieces of legal and compliance mentions from the paper.
In the first article in our alternative data series, we discussed how private equity firms are behind public equity firms when it comes to the adoption of alternative data, and we proposed some practical steps for private equity funds looking to build a strategy for...
Over the course of a three-week period in May this year 24 buyside funds with varying levels of alternative data experience completed detailed surveys on their use of alternative data. This provided Eagle Alpha with one of the richest datasets ever collected on how...
For many PE funds, there are strong push factors driving the move to alternative data. Historically low-interest rates are pushing more investors to consider PE as a viable investment, but how does a PE firm stand out? To stand out you need to show that your data and technology approach can generate superior returns. Firms need to do something differentiated.
We have seen unprecedented growth in client interest and use of Geo-location data since the beginning of 2020, to the extent that it is now one of the most popular alternative data categories for our clients. This has not always been the case. Traditionally consumer transaction and web crawled data claimed that mantel. We are seeing elevated interest in the category from our traditional customer base in the hedge fund and asset manager industries, but also private equity funds, corporate, central banks, and government agencies. This unprecedented growth in interest has unquestionably been driven by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The recent short squeeze on hedge fund positions instigated by retail investors on Reddit has garnered many column inches over the last week. However, at Eagle Alpha, we have been helping our clients understand retail investor behaviour for some time now. This week we...
Eagle Alpha has been fielding inquiries from clients for many years on alternative datasets that either originate in China or can address investment use cases in China. In general, the queries are broad macro use cases to track the Chinese economy or datasets that can be used to monitor consumer spending trends. Within consumer spending the majority of investors have looked for information on western brands that have a large exposure to the region or have China as a significant part of their quarterly revenue growth. We have pulled together content across data strategy related to these themes but also address other datasets that investors are interested in. Any discussion on alt data involves complex legal issues and when it comes to China the issues can be particularly tricky. We will highlight relevant content on the subject.
Background Consumer transaction data is one of the most popular and widely deployed types of alternative data by investment managers. The data is also used extensively by corporates with exposure to the retail segment of the economy. Quants and discretionary managers...
