The Briefing by Martin Peers, Jessica Lessin and the team at The Information

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The Briefing

By Martin Peers, Jessica Lessin and the team at The Information

Get smarter about the day’s news in tech, media and finance by following Silicon Valley’s most-read executive newsletter.

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Recent Editions

Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian at an event in 2019. Photo by Bloomberg

Google Cloud Caps Sales Commissions as Losses Mount

By Kevin McLaughlin · Mar 22, 2021 6:01am PDT · 7 comments

Last year, Google lost $5.6 billion on its cloud computing business—real money even for one of the most wildly profitable companies on the planet. Now it’s taking a new approach that could help it stem a bit of that flood of red ink. Thomas Kurian, chief of Google’s cloud computing unit, recently reintroduced a cap on the... Last year, Google lost $5.6 billion on its cloud computing business—real money even for one...

Image from a Side video.

Coatue Invests in Real Estate Startup Side at $1 Billion Valuation

By Cory Weinberg · Mar 20, 2021 7:46pm PDT

Side, a startup that offers brokerage services and software to real estate agents, raised nearly $150 million at a valuation of $1 billion after the investment, according to a regulatory filing and two people familiar with the matter. It is the latest in a string of high-priced financings ignited by the home-buying boom. Coatue Management led... Side, a startup that offers brokerage services and software to real estate agents, raised nearly...

Preparing for a Pandemic Reset? Not So Fast.

By Jessica E. Lessin · Mar 20, 2021 7:46am PDT · 7 comments

As the U.S. vaccine rollout accelerates, companies are planning for life once we return to our offices and (eventually) our post-pandemic lives. The media, and casual conversation, are quick to turn to what will be different: Fully remote work. No commuting. The end of physical retail. The end of cities. As the U.S. vaccine rollout accelerates, companies are planning for life once we return to our...

Traders on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange earlier this month. Photo by Bloomberg.

The Briefing: Market Jitters and IPO Planning

By Martin Peers · Mar 19, 2021 5:32pm PDT

Traders on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange earlier this month. Photo by Bloomberg.

The Briefing: Market Jitters and IPO Planning

By Martin Peers · Mar 19, 2021 5:32pm PDT

What a week! The stock market seemed to be doing its best imitation of a yo-yo, with hour-by-hour gyrations that made it harder than usual to predict in the morning whether it would end the day up or down. Pity any executive who is trying to plan for a public market debut later this year: Trying to guess where the market might be in six days,... What a week! The stock market seemed to be doing its best imitation of a yo-yo, with hour-by-hour...

The Information’s 411 — Katerra’s Shaky Foundations

By Tom Dotan · Mar 19, 2021 3:30pm PDT · 1 comment

Cory and Wendy dive into the disaster that befell Katerra, the high-profile construction tech startup that nearly went bankrupt. They also explore the future of construction tech. Also, co-host Tom bids a fond farewell to the podcast we launched five years ago. Cory and Wendy dive into the disaster that befell Katerra, the high-profile construction tech...

Sea CEO Forrest Li and other top Sea executives ring the opening bell in October 2017 as Sea goes public on the New York Stock Exchange. Photo by Bloomberg.

How Singapore’s Sea Used Facebook to Become an E-Commerce Giant

By Juro Osawa and Shai Oster · Mar 19, 2021 6:01am PDT

Five years ago, Facebook was a catalyst for e-commerce across Southeast Asia, where cheap smartphones were changing consumer behavior in a region with twice the population of the U.S. On the Facebook and Instagram apps, local merchants and shoppers were able to find each other and arrange sales, sorting out payment and delivery elsewhere. It... Five years ago, Facebook was a catalyst for e-commerce across Southeast Asia, where cheap...

Kansas City Chiefs playing Tampa Bay Buccaneers during the Super Bowl last month. Photo by AP.

The Briefing: Big Entertainment’s High-Risk NFL Deals

By Martin Peers · Mar 18, 2021 5:31pm PDT

We had some big news in the streaming video world today: NFL games will be available on several streaming services in addition to existing TV networks starting in 2023, as a result of new deals between the football league, Amazon and most of the big entertainment companies. The new deals are extraordinarily expensive, costing the companies... We had some big news in the streaming video world today: NFL games will be available on several...

Zach Perret, CEO and co-founder of Plaid, speaks during the Silicon Slopes Tech Summit in Salt Lake City in 2020.

Altimeter to Lead Plaid Deal After Scrapped Visa Merger

By Kate Clark, Berber Jin and Josh Sisco · Mar 18, 2021 5:11pm PDT

Zach Perret, CEO and co-founder of Plaid, speaks during the Silicon Slopes Tech Summit in Salt Lake City in 2020.

Altimeter to Lead Plaid Deal After Scrapped Visa Merger

By Kate Clark, Berber Jin and Josh Sisco · Mar 18, 2021 5:11pm PDT

Plaid, the financial technology startup whose planned sale to Visa fell apart in January, is raising about $600 million in a funding round that could value it at between $10 billion to $15 billion, according to four people close to the company. Altimeter Capital, a hedge fund turned VC firm that has bought stakes in some of Silicon... Plaid, the financial technology startup whose planned sale to Visa fell apart in January, is...

A prototype of Facebook’s neural interface wristband. Image: Facebook

TI Reality Check: Facebook’s Ambitions for AR Interfaces

By Mathew Olson · Mar 18, 2021 11:29am PDT · 1 comment

Earlier this week, Facebook gave journalists a glimpse of the progress that the company’s researchers have made toward developing a neural interface for AR glasses, a method of controlling software based on reading nerve impulses via the wrist. The technology builds off the work developed by CTRL-labs, a company Facebook acquired for $1... Earlier this week, Facebook gave journalists a glimpse of the progress that the company’s...

Instacart CEO Apoorva Mehta. Photo by Bloomberg.

Instacart Eyes Fourth-Quarter Public Listing, International Expansion

By Alex Heath and Amir Efrati · Mar 18, 2021 10:27am PDT

Grocery-delivery app Instacart has been among the biggest beneficiaries of Americans being stuck at home during the pandemic. But its executives don’t want future buyers of its stock to worry about what happens when that ends. The company, which hopes to become a major challenger to Amazon by selling a wide variety of products from retail... Grocery-delivery app Instacart has been among the biggest beneficiaries of Americans being stuck...

Zoom, Amazon Hired at Fastest Clip During Pandemic

By Nick Wingfield · Mar 18, 2021 6:00am PDT · 1 comment

Early last year, before the pandemic flipped the world upside down, you could have fit the entire global workforce of Zoom Video Communications on about 45 charter buses. By the end of January this year, though, it would have taken 79 buses to hold all of the videoconferencing provider’s employees, thanks to a whopping headcount increase... Early last year, before the pandemic flipped the world upside down, you could have fit the entire...

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. Photo by Bloomberg

The Briefing: The Challenge Facing Amazon M.D.

By Martin Peers · Mar 17, 2021 5:02pm PDT

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. Photo by Bloomberg

The Briefing: The Challenge Facing Amazon M.D.

By Martin Peers · Mar 17, 2021 5:02pm PDT

It’s getting harder to think of any aspect of American life that Amazon isn’t now trying to serve. The company ticked the health care box on Wednesday by unveiling Amazon Care, an on-demand health care business, designed as a service companies can offer their employees. Amazon’s description of the service makes it sound like a... It’s getting harder to think of any aspect of American life that Amazon isn’t now...

Vive Facial Tracker. Image: HTC

TI Reality Check: Why Duct Tape Is Still a Leading VR Accessory

By Mathew Olson · Mar 17, 2021 11:22am PDT

I’ve been seeing a lot of excitement from VR enthusiasts over HTC’s new Vive Facial Tracker. At $130, the price won’t scare away people who have already dropped thousands of dollars on VR gear. And the tracker offers users the kind of face-tracking features—namely, a way to have more expressive avatars in online social... I’ve been seeing a lot of excitement from VR enthusiasts over HTC’s new Vive Facial...

Parag Agrawal, Twitter’s chief technology officer. Photo provided by Twitter

The Big Interview

Twitter CTO: ‘We Need to Do Better’

By Kevin McLaughlin · Mar 17, 2021 6:01am PDT · 1 comment

For a tech company, Twitter has often had a surprisingly difficult relationship with technology. Twitter outages were once so common that the Fail Whale—the marine mammal–themed error message its users received when Twitter went down—became fodder for countless tech industry jokes. More recently, the company’s convoluted... For a tech company, Twitter has often had a surprisingly difficult relationship with technology....

BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti. Photo by Bloomberg.

The Briefing: What BuzzFeed and Vice SPAC Talks Show

By Martin Peers · Mar 16, 2021 5:01pm PDT · 1 comment

It turns out SPAC deals aren’t a surefire way to riches for every company executive. That’s one takeaway from our report this morning that neither BuzzFeed nor Vice Media are likely to recapture their 2016-17 era peak valuations when they merge with a special purpose acquisition company to go public. Instead, shareholders in both... It turns out SPAC deals aren’t a surefire way to riches for every company executive....

Stripe-Like Valuation Jumps Are Becoming More Common

By Berber Jin · Mar 16, 2021 1:09pm PDT

Stripe-Like Valuation Jumps Are Becoming More Common

By Berber Jin · Mar 16, 2021 1:09pm PDT

Stripe’s funding round was breathtaking for its size and price of $95 billion, amounting to 2.6 times its valuation less than a year ago. But it wasn’t unique. The valuations of the six U.S. startups with the biggest increases over the last year averaged 3.6 times higher than their prior round, according to data compiled for The... Stripe’s funding round was breathtaking for its size and price of $95 billion, amounting to...

An Ikea mobile AR app for furniture shopping. Photo from Ikea

TI Reality Check: Mobile AR Isn’t Just a Stepping Stone

By Mathew Olson · Mar 16, 2021 11:15am PDT

Welcome back! I have a feeling the topic won’t come up too often in this newsletter, but let’s take a moment to talk about AR and non-fungible tokens or NFTs—the new fad sweeping cryptocurrency circles and the art collector world (for more on the broader NFT craze, read The Information’s Sam Lessin on the capital and... Welcome back! I have a feeling the topic won’t come up too often in this newsletter, but...

Signage for Bumble's IPO at the Nasdaq market in February. Photo by Bloomberg.

After Bumble’s Stock Pop, Chinese Dating App Soul Seeks Billion-Dollar IPO

By Yunan Zhang · Mar 16, 2021 10:49am PDT · 1 comment

A Chinese dating and social chat app called Soul is preparing for an initial public offering likely to value the company at $1 billion or more, riding a wave of interest after the recent success of U.S. dating app Bumble and a rush of Chinese startups tapping red-hot capital markets. Soul, which masks users’ profile pictures and matches... A Chinese dating and social chat app called Soul is preparing for an initial public offering...

Vice CEO Nancy Dubuc. Photo by Bloomberg

Vice, BuzzFeed Facing Valuation Cuts in SPAC Deals

By Jessica Toonkel · Mar 16, 2021 6:01am PDT · 2 comments

Media firms such as Vice and BuzzFeed are likely to go public by merging with special purpose acquisition companies in the next few months—but unlike SPAC deals in bubbly industries like electric vehicles, the deals are likely to be done at valuations below what the media firms have fetched in the past. Vice Media is in talks with at least... Media firms such as Vice and BuzzFeed are likely to go public by merging with special purpose...

Netflix Co-CEO Reed Hastings. Photo by Bloomberg.

The Briefing: Netflix Wins Oscar Nominations, Loses Wall Street

By Martin Peers · Mar 15, 2021 5:31pm PDT · 2 comments

Netflix Co-CEO Reed Hastings. Photo by Bloomberg.

The Briefing: Netflix Wins Oscar Nominations, Loses Wall Street

By Martin Peers · Mar 15, 2021 5:31pm PDT · 2 comments

This year’s Academy Awards ceremony on April 25 will air on Disney’s ABC network, as it has for many years. But it could well be Netflix’s show, judging by the 35 award nominations received by Netflix movies Monday morning, including 10 for “Mank.” Not only does Netflix dominate the streaming side of television,... This year’s Academy Awards ceremony on April 25 will air on Disney’s ABC network, as...