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

SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son. Photo by Bloomberg

SoftBank’s Global Vision Tested by China’s Uber for Trucks

By Juro Osawa · Feb 12, 2020 7:00am PST

In 2018, when SoftBank led a $1.9 billion investment in Chinese truck-hailing app Manbang, CEO Masayoshi Son urged the startup to go global, pointing to the worldwide success of his other bets, like Uber and Indian hotel chain Oyo, according to a person familiar with the matter. Two years later, Uber is struggling to cut losses and Oyo has... In 2018, when SoftBank led a $1.9 billion investment in Chinese truck-hailing app Manbang, CEO...

FTC Chairman Joseph Simons. Photo by Bloomberg

Five Takeaways From the FTC’s New Antitrust Probe

By Nick Wingfield, Christopher Stern and Ashley Gold · Feb 11, 2020 12:32pm PST · 1 comment

Much of the antitrust scrutiny on big tech companies has focused on whether their biggest acquisitions violated competition laws. Now the Federal Trade Commission, in a sweeping review of five iconic players in the industry, is looking at whether their smaller deals might have hurt competition, too. On Tuesday, the FTC said it has ordered... Much of the antitrust scrutiny on big tech companies has focused on whether their biggest...

The People With Power at ViacomCBS

By Jessica Toonkel · Feb 11, 2020 7:01am PST

When Shari Redstone merged her two TV companies, Viacom and CBS, two months ago, a top priority was overcoming years of sibling rivalry between the two companies, once part of a single firm that split apart in 2005. Over the past few weeks, she and her CEO, Bob Bakish, have taken a major step in that direction by assembling a management team... When Shari Redstone merged her two TV companies, Viacom and CBS, two months ago, a top priority...

Jigsaw CEO Jared Cohen. Photo by Bloomberg

Google Swallows Another Alphabet Unit—Jigsaw

By Nick Bastone · Feb 10, 2020 3:53pm PST · 1 comment

Jigsaw CEO Jared Cohen. Photo by Bloomberg

Google Swallows Another Alphabet Unit—Jigsaw

By Nick Bastone · Feb 10, 2020 3:53pm PST · 1 comment

Another arm of Alphabet, the holding company for Google and a collection of other businesses, has gone away. Within the past month, Alphabet quietly moved Jigsaw, a technology incubator that creates tools to curb online misinformation, harassment and other issues, under Google management, The Information has learned. It previously operated... Another arm of Alphabet, the holding company for Google and a collection of other businesses, has...

YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki. Photo by Bloomberg

YouTube in Talks to Follow Amazon and Apple Into Video Subscriptions Market

By Jessica Toonkel and Alex Heath · Feb 10, 2020 2:31pm PST · 1 comment

YouTube is sending signals that it wants to become a destination site for every part of the TV universe. The Google-owned video giant is considering giving people the ability to sign up, through YouTube, for a wide range of subscription-streaming services run by entertainment companies, according to people familiar with the situation. YouTube... YouTube is sending signals that it wants to become a destination site for every part of the TV...

Modest Proposals

The 10 Ways TikTok Will Change Social Product Design

By Sam Lessin · Feb 10, 2020 7:00am PST · 6 comments

For the last two years, I have downloaded and played with TikTok every few months to track its progress, but I never found it seriously engaging beyond the occasional Arnold Schwarzenegger video.This, however, has changed.The ByteDance-owned app has very decisively turned a corner in the last few months, and has clearly graduated to being an... For the last two years, I have downloaded and played with TikTok every few months to track its...

The New York Times and A Taste of My Own Medicine

By Jessica E. Lessin · Feb 8, 2020 7:45am PST · 1 comment

As a founder, I sometimes sit on the other side of the table and experience what it is like to have an article written about The Information. It's always a little strange. I’m used to being the one asking the questions. But it is also very illuminating and has changed, in small ways, my tactics as a journalist. So when the New... As a founder, I sometimes sit on the other side of the table and experience what it is like to...

The Information’s 411 — Self-Driving for Dollars

By Tom Dotan · Feb 7, 2020 4:01pm PST · 1 comment

The Information’s 411 — Self-Driving for Dollars

By Tom Dotan · Feb 7, 2020 4:01pm PST · 1 comment

Amir goes deep on the companies that have invested the most in self-driving car technology over the past decade. We talked about advances in self-driving technology and where it is today. A big chunk of the more than $16 billion invested has come from the top three companies, each of which has a different strategy. Amir also explains why he... Amir goes deep on the companies that have invested the most in self-driving car technology over...

Inside the Vision Fund’s Civil War: Deal Conflicts, Leak Suspicions

By Amir Efrati and Cory Weinberg · Feb 7, 2020 11:48am PST

For three years, the technology world has been riveted by the seemingly endless cash pouring out of SoftBank’s $100 billion Vision Fund into all manner of startups. The promise was to make a series of long-term bets on the potential of new services and technologies. But lately it’s become clear that at least some of the Vision... For three years, the technology world has been riveted by the seemingly endless cash pouring out...

Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian. Photo by Bloomberg

Google’s Secret Weapon for Selling Cloud: YouTube, Advertising Deals

By Nick Bastone and Kevin McLaughlin · Feb 7, 2020 7:02am PST · 2 comments

As Google seeks to give a boost to its cloud computing business—currently lagging in the No. 3 spot in the market, behind Amazon and Microsoft—it is turning to a familiar business tactic: bundling different products together. The search giant is increasingly selling cloud services in package deals with other higher-profile parts... As Google seeks to give a boost to its cloud computing business—currently lagging in the...

Twitch CEO Emmett Shear. Photo by Bloomberg

Amazon Considered Selling Streaming Tech Behind Twitch

By Priya Anand and Jessica Toonkel · Feb 6, 2020 10:01am PST

Twitch hasn’t turned into the advertising powerhouse Amazon might have expected when it bought the live-streaming gaming service in 2014. But Amazon may have found a new way to generate more revenue from Twitch—by selling its live-streaming technology to other companies.Amazon has considered launching a service based on... Twitch hasn’t turned into the advertising powerhouse Amazon might have expected when it...

Sequoia Capital's Konstantine Buhler (left), Josephine Chen, Shaun Maguire and Bogomil Balkansky. Photos by Sequoia; illustration by Mike Sullivan

Sequoia Expands Seed Investing Team as Rivals Loom

By Kate Clark · Feb 6, 2020 7:01am PST · 1 comment

Sequoia Capital's Konstantine Buhler (left), Josephine Chen, Shaun Maguire and Bogomil Balkansky. Photos by Sequoia; illustration by Mike Sullivan

Sequoia Expands Seed Investing Team as Rivals Loom

By Kate Clark · Feb 6, 2020 7:01am PST · 1 comment

Sequoia Capital, already one of the most influential venture capital firms in the world, is putting more boots on the ground to make sure it doesn’t miss out on the next big early-stage startups. In an unusually large expansion of its investing team, Sequoia has hired four new partners—Bogomil Balkansky, Konstantine Buhler,... Sequoia Capital, already one of the most influential venture capital firms in the world, is...

Nikolay Storonsky, CEO of Revolut, last August. Photo by Bloomberg

Financial Figures for Fintech Firm Show Soaring Demand for Digital Banking

By Zoë Bernard · Feb 5, 2020 1:07pm PST · 1 comment

Revolut, a financial technology company based in the U.K. whose backers include DST Global, told potential investors recently it expected revenues to soar to $3.37 billion in 2022 from $279 million in expected revenue for 2019, The Information has learned. Revolut also predicted it would turn its first full-year profit in 2022. The figures... Revolut, a financial technology company based in the U.K. whose backers include DST Global, told...

WTF: Women in Tech, Media & Finance

The Woman Behind Amazon’s One-Day Delivery Program

By Priya Anand · Feb 5, 2020 11:01am PST

One of the biggest initiatives Amazon undertook last year was speeding up Prime deliveries from two days to just one. The company is spending billions on the effort, which Amazon says produced a surge of new Prime members last quarter. The person behind that initiative was Maria Renz, Amazon’s vice president of global delivery... One of the biggest initiatives Amazon undertook last year was speeding up Prime deliveries from...

Money Pit: Self-Driving Cars’ $16 Billion Cash Burn

By Amir Efrati · Feb 5, 2020 7:01am PST · 12 comments

A group of 30 companies has spent at least $16 billion on developing fully self-driving cars over the past few years—and so far they have little, if any, revenue to show for it. But billions more will likely be needed before the technology is ready for primetime.Just three companies spent half of that money—Alphabet’s Waymo,... A group of 30 companies has spent at least $16 billion on developing fully self-driving cars over...

Venture Capital’s New Normal: Outsized Checks and Unsolicited Offers

By Kate Clark · Feb 4, 2020 10:01am PST · 2 comments

Venture Capital’s New Normal: Outsized Checks and Unsolicited Offers

By Kate Clark · Feb 4, 2020 10:01am PST · 2 comments

Last year, Papaya Global, a financial services business based in New York City and Tel Aviv, pitched investors on its hopes of raising $15 million to expand the business, according to a person familiar with the situation. But after talks with venture capital firm Insight Partners, Papaya ended up raising a $45 million Series A round from a group... Last year, Papaya Global, a financial services business based in New York City and Tel Aviv,...

Why Snap Does Not Equal Twitter

By Alex Heath · Feb 4, 2020 7:01am PST

This year Twitter is expected to make 13 times as much profit as Snap. And yet right now, each company is trading on the stock market at roughly the same market capitalization: $25.5 billion. Investors are either overenthusiastic about Snap’s prospects—or too pessimistic about Twitter’s (or possibly both).The market may have it... This year Twitter is expected to make 13 times as much profit as Snap. And yet right now, each...

How YouTube and Google Cloud Compare to Rivals

By Nick Wingfield and Tom Dotan · Feb 3, 2020 4:08pm PST · 2 comments

Let this sink in: YouTube makes more money from advertising than the ABC, NBC and Fox broadcast networks—combined.That was among the revelations in an unexpectedly newsy earnings report on Monday by Alphabet, the parent company of Google, which broke out the financial performance of several of its key businesses for the first time. The... Let this sink in: YouTube makes more money from advertising than the ABC, NBC and Fox broadcast...

Casper CEO Philip Krim. Photo by Bloomberg.

Casper Pursued Private Fundraising Before IPO Filing

By Kevin Dugan · Feb 3, 2020 1:25pm PST

Direct-to-consumer mattress firm Casper was pursuing plans to privately raise up to $200 million until days before its early January filing to go public, say people familiar with the situation. The fundraising, if it had been completed, would have allowed Casper to stay private through 2020, the people said.People close to Casper say company... Direct-to-consumer mattress firm Casper was pursuing plans to privately raise up to $200 million...

The People With Power at Microsoft

By Kevin McLaughlin · Feb 3, 2020 7:01am PST

The People With Power at Microsoft

By Kevin McLaughlin · Feb 3, 2020 7:01am PST

Microsoft was once so notorious for executive infighting that a cartoon diagram of its organizational chart—showing its various divisions aiming handguns at each other—went viral. The caricature pained Satya Nadella, he has said. After taking over as CEO of Microsoft in 2014, he made it a top priority to get the company’s... Microsoft was once so notorious for executive infighting that a cartoon diagram of its...