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

A Google worker protest in 2018. Photo by AP

Why Tech Employees Stay

By Mark S. Luckie · Feb 2, 2021 6:01am PST · 9 comments

When any big Silicon Valley scandal breaks, the news is usually followed by a flurry of tweets and social media posts from vocal outsiders asking why tech employees don’t just leave. The companies have crossed the line of morality, they say. To stay in the employ of a company like Amazon, Facebook, Google, Reddit, Twitter, Uber or any... When any big Silicon Valley scandal breaks, the news is usually followed by a flurry of tweets...

Elon Musk. Photo by Bloomberg.

Robinhood’s GameStop Saga Ropes In Musk and Netflix: The Information’s Tech Briefing

By Martin Peers · Feb 1, 2021 5:01pm PST

There’s something strangely appropriate about the news, broken by Deadline on Monday, that Netflix is in talks to make a movie of the GameStop stock market drama. GameStop is the type of brick-and-mortar chain that internet firms like Netflix have put out of business over the past 20 years. That’s of course why the stock rally in... There’s something strangely appropriate about the news, broken by Deadline on Monday, that...

Photos by Bloomberg; Shutterstock. Illustration by Mike Sullivan

How Google Learned to Embrace Its Inner Oracle

By Kevin McLaughlin and Amir Efrati · Feb 1, 2021 6:00am PST · 1 comment

Thomas Kurian wasn’t pleased. In mid-2019, a few months after Kurian had joined Google, the internet giant’s cloud computing service suffered a series of outages, including one that took down several of Google’s own services, along with those of major customers like Snap and Spotify. Kurian—CEO of Google Cloud—and... Thomas Kurian wasn’t pleased. In mid-2019, a few months after Kurian had joined Google, the...

The Nightmare Awaiting the News Industry

By Jessica E. Lessin · Jan 30, 2021 7:45am PST · 35 comments

The Nightmare Awaiting the News Industry

By Jessica E. Lessin · Jan 30, 2021 7:45am PST · 35 comments

It was somewhere around minute 13 of watching Democratic congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez try to remove the blur of her livestream camera while streaming to nearly 300,000 people on Twitch that I got a big pit in my stomach, sat back and wondered: Is this what my future media diet will become? To rewind, while following this week’s... It was somewhere around minute 13 of watching Democratic congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez...

iPhones on display in an Apple store. Photo by Bloomberg

The Other Big Tech Power Story: The Information’s Tech Briefing

By Martin Peers · Jan 29, 2021 5:01pm PST

Put aside for a moment all the drama around Robinhood and Reddit, and think of GameStop in the same vein as DoorDash, Tesla or Snowflake—as another hugely overvalued stock that defies fundamental analysis. With that in mind, it’s worth spending a little time on the news of this week that may have longer-lasting implications than... Put aside for a moment all the drama around Robinhood and Reddit, and think of GameStop in the...

The Information’s 411 — How GameStop Disrupts ‘Consensus Reality’

By Cory Weinberg · Jan 29, 2021 1:24pm PST · 2 comments

The Information columnist and former Facebook executive Sam Lessin talks to Cory and helps us make sense of online communities, internet populism and the GameStop stock surge. Then, reporters Tom Dotan and Jessica Toonkel explain why ESPN is no longer the favorite child of parent company Disney. The Information columnist and former Facebook executive Sam Lessin talks to Cory and helps us...

Canoo's beta vehicles. Photo courtesy of Canoo

As SPACs Search for Merger Candidates, Risks for Investors Grow

By Ross Matican · Jan 29, 2021 9:00am PST · 4 comments

When Allied Esports went public by merging with a special purpose acquisition company in mid-2019, its financial statements showed its businesses had generated just $20.6 million in revenue in 2018. A company with such low revenue would have been a nonstarter for a traditional initial public offering, bankers say. But for SPAC deal makers, it... When Allied Esports went public by merging with a special purpose acquisition company in...

Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev. Photo by Bloomberg

Robinhood’s Staff Fret Over Mission After Startup Halted ‘Meme Stock’ Buying

By Kate Clark and Zoë Bernard · Jan 29, 2021 6:02am PST · 11 comments

Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev. Photo by Bloomberg

Robinhood’s Staff Fret Over Mission After Startup Halted ‘Meme Stock’ Buying

By Kate Clark and Zoë Bernard · Jan 29, 2021 6:02am PST · 11 comments

In the eyes of some employees at Robinhood, the stock trading app lost its way when it decided Thursday to halt the buying of “meme stocks” such as videogame retailer GameStop, which Robinhood customers bought in order to squeeze hedge funds that had bet that those stocks would fall. After cheering on the steep rise in shares of... In the eyes of some employees at Robinhood, the stock trading app lost its way when it decided...

Robinhood's web site. Photo by Bloomberg

Robinhood’s Hero to Zero Moment: The Information’s Tech Briefing

By Martin Peers · Jan 28, 2021 5:02pm PST · 1 comment

Talk about self-immolation. Robinhood’s decision to restrict trading in GameStop and other “meme” stocks seems guaranteed to alienate a big chunk of its user base. Who would go back to a trading platform responsible for losing them money, no matter the explanation? This also can’t bode well for its hopes of going public.... Talk about self-immolation. Robinhood’s decision to restrict trading in GameStop and other...

Jamie Bestwick flips during an event at the X Games in 2017 in Minneapolis. Photo by AP.

ESPN Looks to Sell X Games as It Deals With Streaming Pressure

By Tom Dotan and Jessica Toonkel · Jan 28, 2021 8:00am PST · 2 comments

When Jimmy Pitaro got the job of running ESPN in 2018, it was a dream come true for the lifelong sports fan. But the reality of running ESPN has been a far different story, as Pitaro has found himself presiding over a network in decline. ESPN last November laid off 300 people, about 6% of its workforce, a gut-wrenching move for what was once the... When Jimmy Pitaro got the job of running ESPN in 2018, it was a dream come true for the lifelong...

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg (l) and Apple CEO Tim Cook (r). Photo: Bloomberg

Facebook Preps Antitrust Lawsuit Against Apple

By Alex Heath and Josh Sisco · Jan 28, 2021 6:00am PST · 10 comments

A long-simmering public dispute between Facebook and Apple has neared a boiling point. With the aid of outside legal counsel, Facebook for months has been preparing an antitrust lawsuit against Apple that would allege the iPhone-maker abused its power in the smartphone market by forcing app developers to abide by App Store rules that... A long-simmering public dispute between Facebook and Apple has neared a boiling point. With the...

A GameStop store in California. Photo by Bloomberg

Where Social Media’s GameStop Surge Could Lead: The Information’s Tech Briefing

By Martin Peers · Jan 27, 2021 5:00pm PST · 2 comments

A GameStop store in California. Photo by Bloomberg

Where Social Media’s GameStop Surge Could Lead: The Information’s Tech Briefing

By Martin Peers · Jan 27, 2021 5:00pm PST · 2 comments

There’s no doubt the current stock market hysteria over GameStop and the like will come to a bloody end. The real question is whether the craziness, fueled by social media sites like Reddit and Discord and stock trading app Robinhood, leads those companies to clamp down on stock debate or trading. Media post-mortems are sure to blame those... There’s no doubt the current stock market hysteria over GameStop and the like will come to...

MainStreet CEO and co-founder Doug Ludlow. Art by Mike Sullivan

MainStreet, Which Finds Tax Credits for Startups, Valued at $500 Million

By Kate Clark · Jan 27, 2021 1:11pm PST · 2 comments

The cost cutting at startups during the pandemic shutdowns has led to a windfall for MainStreet, whose software promises to find “free money” for its clients by helping them obtain tax credits. The year-old startup has raised new funding in a round led by SignalFire that values it at $500 million, according to three people familiar... The cost cutting at startups during the pandemic shutdowns has led to a windfall for MainStreet,...

Bird and Lime scooters in downtown San Jose, Calif. Photo: Bloomberg

After Tough Year, SPACs Tempt Bird, Lime

By Cory Weinberg · Jan 27, 2021 6:00am PST

Dogged by questions of financial viability and then a pandemic that crippled demand for scooter rentals, Bird and Lime are taking steps to repair the damage. Bird is finalizing a deal to raise more than $100 million in convertible debt, led by existing investors Sequoia Capital and Valor Equity Partners, people familiar with the matter said. The... Dogged by questions of financial viability and then a pandemic that crippled demand for scooter...

Verizon technicians installing fiber optic cable in New York. Photo by Bloomberg

Internet Outages, Verizon and Value: The Information’s Tech Briefing

By Martin Peers · Jan 26, 2021 5:03pm PST

If you’re on the East Coast, you might have experienced the internet outage this morning that played havoc with Zoom calls, Gmail and other everyday working tools. Unlike previous outages, this wasn’t caused by a cloud provider like AWS or a specific application like Slack but by Verizon, which owned up to a “fiber cut”... If you’re on the East Coast, you might have experienced the internet outage this morning...

Art by Sam Lessin

Equity Financing for Influencers

By Sam Lessin · Jan 26, 2021 9:01am PST · 19 comments

Art by Sam Lessin

Modest Proposals

Equity Financing for Influencers

By Sam Lessin · Jan 26, 2021 9:01am PST · 19 comments

The most valuable brands of the future are going to be people rather than companies. The shift in that direction is starting to happen right under our noses. Take the case of Elon Musk. You can’t assess Tesla’s $800 billion market capitalization against any sort of realistic view of its financial prospects. The stock isn’t... The most valuable brands of the future are going to be people rather than companies. The shift in...

Art by Mike Sullivan.

ByteDance’s Revenue More Than Doubled in 2020

By Juro Osawa and Yunan Zhang · Jan 26, 2021 6:01am PST · 2 comments

You might have thought TikTok’s owner ByteDance had a tough year in 2020, what with President Trump trying to ban TikTok and India actually taking that step. But none of that mattered to ByteDance’s actual business, which grew like gangbusters. ByteDance’s revenue last year more than doubled to about $37 billion, people with... You might have thought TikTok’s owner ByteDance had a tough year in 2020, what with...

Photo by Bloomberg

The Clubhouse Investment Boom: The Information’s Tech Briefing

By Martin Peers · Jan 25, 2021 5:00pm PST

Just when you think the stock market excesses couldn’t get any crazier, along comes GameStop. In the space of a few hours today the stock, which was trading at $20 two weeks ago, more than doubled to a high of $159 before collapsing back to $76.79. Like a lot of other stocks bouncing around like a yo-yo lately—video-streaming service... Just when you think the stock market excesses couldn’t get any crazier, along comes...

San Francisco in the 1850s. Images courtesy of the Library of Congress

What Today’s Tech Leaders Can Learn From 1850s San Francisco

By Robert Lindsay · Jan 25, 2021 9:02am PST · 9 comments

A tent city in SOMA. Hundreds of people dying of infectious disease. Out-of-control crime on the streets and corruption in City Hall. Let’s talk about San Francisco…in the 1850s. Immediately after the Gold Rush, San Francisco became the home of thousands of destitute, out-of-work miners. Poverty was rampant, cholera was endemic, and... A tent city in SOMA. Hundreds of people dying of infectious disease. Out-of-control crime on the...

A truck next to an Amazon delivery station in New Jersey in October. Photo by Bloomberg

Amazon Expands Secretive Trucking Program

By Paris Martineau · Jan 25, 2021 6:00am PST · 2 comments

A truck next to an Amazon delivery station in New Jersey in October. Photo by Bloomberg

Amazon Expands Secretive Trucking Program

By Paris Martineau · Jan 25, 2021 6:00am PST · 2 comments

Amazon’s effort to exert control over the trucking of goods to its customers is moving quickly. In a little over a year, more than 130 small trucking companies around the globe have agreed to transport freight exclusively for Amazon, The Information has learned. Those companies have leased over 1,100 Amazon-branded tractors, the cab units... Amazon’s effort to exert control over the trucking of goods to its customers is moving...