Deep Data FusionData, machine learning and analytics releases

AI & Data · Week of Oct 26, 2026

Affle's Perion deal and open-source OCR: the week in AI & Data

Two deals and an open-source OCR release led a mixed week, alongside index moves, AI infrastructure plans in Kazakhstan and routine corporate notices.

· Deep Data Fusion newsroom

The largest item of the week was a deal: Affle says its subsidiary has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Perion Network for US$ 11.70 per share in cash, an implied equity value of ~US$ 420 million. On the product side, ModelBest and OpenBMB released the MiniCPM-OCR series as open-source models aimed at high-volume document digitization. Freedom Holding Corp. says it is advancing a $2 billion Sovereign AI Hub in Kazakhstan, with a first public GPU cloud planned for 2027.

There was no single common thread beyond those items. The rest of the releases were capital-markets and corporate notices: S&P Dow Jones Indices said Okta will join the S&P 500, Palo Alto Networks advised stockholders to reject a mini-tender offer, and Arrive AI scheduled its Q3 results. Omnicom reported an analyst recognition, and QuidelOrtho published a podcast episode on AI and informatics in labs.

  1. Affle

    Affle to acquire Perion, to scale its CPCU business across Developed markets

    Affle says its subsidiary Affle 3iL Ltd. signed a definitive agreement on Nov. 1, 2026 to acquire Perion Network Limited for US$ 11.70 per share in cash, an implied equity value of ~US$ 420 million, funded by committed bank financing with CitiBank and available cash. Affle says the deal, which includes a go-shop period, is expected to close in early 2027 subject to regulatory and Perion shareholder approval, and that Perion had no financial debt and ~US$ 228 million in cash as of September 30th, 2026.

  2. ModelBest

    ModelBest and OpenBMB Open-Source MiniCPM-OCR Series, Delivering High-Performance Document Parsing and AI-Powered Quality Control

    ModelBest and OpenBMB released MiniCPM-OCR 1.0 (1.3B), a document parsing model, and MiniCPM-OCR Jev (2B), which assigns confidence scores to OCR output, as open-source models on GitHub, Hugging Face and ModelScope. The companies say Jev can be added to existing OCR workflows without replacing the OCR engine, and the models support vLLM, SGLang, llama.cpp and Ollama with Day-0 adaptation for AMD, Arm, Houmo AI, Intel and NVIDIA hardware.

  3. Omnicom Group Inc.

    Omnicom Named a Leader in IDC MarketScape: Worldwide AI-Enabled Adobe Professional Services 2026 Vendor Assessment

    Omnicom says it was named a Leader in the IDC MarketScape: Worldwide AI-Enabled Adobe Professional Services 2026 Vendor Assessment (doc #US54114626, October 2026). The announcement is relevant to buyers evaluating service providers for AI-enabled Adobe deployments.

  4. Palo Alto Networks, Inc.

    Palo Alto Networks Recommends Stockholders Reject Mini-Tender Offer by Tutanota LLC

    Palo Alto Networks says it received notice of an unsolicited mini-tender offer from Tutanota LLC to purchase up to 250,000 shares and recommends that stockholders reject it. The notice matters chiefly to PANW stockholders who may be approached with the offer.

  5. Freedom Holding Corp.

    Freedom Holding Corp. Advances AI Infrastructure Development in Kazakhstan

    Freedom Holding Corp. says it is advancing AI infrastructure plans in Kazakhstan, including a $2 billion Sovereign AI Hub. The company says the country's first public GPU cloud is planned for 2027.

  6. S&P Dow Jones Indices

    Okta Set to Join S&P 500; Others to Join S&P MidCap 400 and S&P SmallCap 600

    S&P Dow Jones Indices says S&P MidCap 400 constituent Okta Inc. will replace Kenvue Inc. in the S&P 500, effective prior to the opening of trading on Wednesday, November 4. Other changes to the S&P MidCap 400 and S&P SmallCap 600 take effect at the same time.

  7. Arrive AI Inc.

    Arrive AI to Report Q3 2026 Results and Host Webcast on November 13

    Arrive AI says it will report Q3 2026 results and host a webcast on November 13. The company says the live event will review quarterly results and recent business developments.

  8. QuidelOrtho Corporation

    Transforming Data Into Actionable Insights in the Lab

    QuidelOrtho released episode 62 of its Science Bytes podcast, covering best practices in AI and informatics for laboratory operations. The episode is aimed at lab professionals looking at how data tools can make operations smoother.

This roundup is written with AI assistance from the press releases listed above, using only what they state. The releases are the companies' own announcements, not Deep Data Fusion reporting.