An Apple ( AAPL ) software update aimed at improving consumer privacy by impeding targeted advertising on Thursday scorched shares in Criteo ( CRTO ), a French advertising company.
Criteo fell 22.8% to close at 24.42 on the stock market today . Criteo on Thursday lowered its 2018 revenue outlook because of the potential impact of Apple's consumer privacy initiative.
Apple in September tweaked its Safari mobile web browser to block targeted ads as well as auto-playing video ads from some websites.
Criteo embeds browser cookies - tiny files that let websites recognize users and their preferences when they return to a site - serving many of the top U.S. retail and travel sites. Analysts say Criteo tried to work around Apple's policy but Apple updated its iOS software late Wednesday, reinforcing the consumer privacy features.
"Unfortunately, iOS 11.2 has erased the effectiveness of Criteo's 'HSTS' solution it had implemented during the (December) quarter to help mitigate the impact of Apple's Intelligent Tracking Prevention (ITP) software," said Ralph Schackart, a William Blair analyst, in a report.
Criteo management told analysts that it's working on a new solution to ease the impact of Apple's actions. If a fix isn't found, Criteo said its 2018 revenue, excluding traffic acquisition costs, could potentially be 22% lower vs. the 9% to 13% lower guidance it gave when reporting third-quarter earnings on Nov. 1.
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The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
