McDonald's Bites on Big Data With $300 Million Acquisition

An anonymous reader shares a report: Mention McDonald's to someone today, and they're more likely to think about Big Mac than Big Data. But that could soon change: The fast-food giant has embraced machine learning, in a fittingly super-sized way. McDonald's is set to announce that it has reached an agreement to acquire Dynamic Yield, a startup based in Tel Aviv that provides retailers with algorithmically driven "decision logic" technology. When you add an item to an online shopping cart, it's the tech that nudges you about what other customers bought as well. Dynamic Yield reportedly had been recently valued in the hundreds of millions of dollars; people familiar with the details of the McDonald's offer put it at over $300 million. That would make it the company's largest purchase since it acquired Boston Market in 1999.

Would like a pie with that?

[thechemic]

Would like a pie with that? We already predicted that you don't.

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[No Longer an AC]

Finally, George Clinton may get an answer to that age old question, "Do Fries Go With That Shake?:" [youtube.com]

Baby, can I cut your cake?
Oh can I have it my way?
Don't I deserve a break today?

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[stealth_finger]

People who bought a burger usually also bought fries and a drink. These are the kinds of insights really worth the big bucks.

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[nukenerd]

That almost sounds sensible. The way I find it works on shopping websites is that if I show interest in eg a garden fountain, it tells me that the last person who looked at that garden fountain also looked at frying pans. Why TF should I care what other people looked at?

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[chromaexcursion]

Actually, when they bought them it was a good buy. And is still working. They bought well after the chapter 11.

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[nukenerd]

Boston Market was such a good acquisition

Other people who bought Boston Market also bought this garden chair. Can I add it to your basket?

Mc big data

[Major_Disorder]

We know you want fries with that...

Would you like Fries with that

[chromaexcursion]

The previous post had it wrong.

Hamburgers don't matter...

[Real Data Collection]

McDonald's is a real estate company that owns more land than the Vatican.

People still eat McDonalds?

[Rick Schumann]

Seriously, do people still eat that garbage? It's food-substitute at best.

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[Anonymous Coward]

These "gosh I live under a rock and can't believe that anyone buys products from a 100B+ company" posts aren't clever

Yes

[hcs_$reboot]

Rank Location Number of McDonald's
1 US 14,146
2 Japan 2,975
3 China 2,391
4 Germany 1,470
5 Canada 1,450
6 France 1,419
7 UK 1,274

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[Mister Transistor]

Yeah, they're pretty rank, alright...

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[mjwx]

Rank Location Number of McDonald's
1 US 14,146
2 Japan 2,975
3 China 2,391
4 Germany 1,470
5 Canada 1,450
6 France 1,419
7 UK 1,274

France has more McDonalds than the UK... We mustn't allow an Obesity Gap. Deep fry that pie immediately.

As required by the UK Ministry of Being British I must now point out that the above is hyperbole, at no point should a pie be fried, deep or otherwise and should be served with a real ale appropriate to the pies flavour.

As required by the UK Ministry of Sarcastic Pragmatism, I have no doubt the McPie will be a thing.

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[No Longer an AC]

I'm such a hipster that I stopped bragging about quitting eating Big Macs before it was cool to stop bragging about not eating Big Macs.

But let's face it, McDonald's is the closest thing humans have ever come to a machine where you could just demand food and they would give you whatever you wanted almost instantly.

FISH! [youtube.com]

And we haven't advanced any further on the evolutionary scale than Cat! And Trout a la creme is just a fancy name for Filet-O-Fish.

They never showed it that I can recall, but you have to kn

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[mlw4428]

I think, in general, the food itself isn't all that bad. It's the people who order a triple quarter pounder, a large fry, a gallon of coke, 2 dessert pies, a sundae, and then work a desk job and couch surf while repeating the same meal for supper who have problems. There's nothing inherently "fake" about any of their products.

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[Rick Schumann]

If you actually think McDonalds is 'good', then you have no taste.

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[Rick Schumann]

AC didn't say it was 'mediocre' or 'bad' either; merely posting the comment at all implies he thinks it's 'good' somehow. Shut up.

Correlation

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

Funny how well the set of hateful nefarious big corporations and the set of companies that get into big data seem to intersect.

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Menu Size is the bigger problem

[packrat0x]

Money for analytics, but not one dime to make the menu smaller.

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[coofercat]

That's okay, you'll be able to write apps to perform McQueries, using the McQL Mc-Language to get to the McData that makes up the McMenu, which is McPersonalised to each Mcregion they sell in. You'll be able to run your McApp on a McCloud, using Filet-o-serverless technologies to deliver McContent at the McEdge. We're headed to the Internet of McThings.

I'm an old fart, but I don't understand McDs. A few years back I had a BigMac - the sauce was nice, but every other item in the meal lacked the flavour it's

300 Million?

[kingbilly]

Is 300 million a price anchored in reality? I have seen free modules and plugins for eCommerce sites to show recommendations in the cart. Is it the technology itself (the lines of code) that is with 300 million, or does Dynamic Yield have a trove of data, which is what is really being purchased here?