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

Sandeep Mathrani, shown in 2010. Photo: Bloomberg

WeWork’s Next CEO Is a Mall Turnaround Expert

By Cory Weinberg · Feb 1, 2020 3:49pm PST

In 2010, Sandeep Mathrani took over as chief executive of mall owner General Growth Properties, which had just filed for the largest-ever real estate bankruptcy. Mathrani raised billions of dollars to recapitalize the company, spun off struggling malls and eventually sold the firm for $15 billion. WeWork, another troubled real estate firm... In 2010, Sandeep Mathrani took over as chief executive of mall owner General Growth Properties,...

Entrepreneurs from The 19th, TrueHoop and the New Consumer

Some Good News for News

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

This week we hosted our third annual bootcamp for news entrepreneurs in San Francisco, and it has prompted a lot of reflection.Friday morning, we caught up with our full class of founders from previous The Information Accelerator classes. You can read about them all here. This week we hosted our third annual bootcamp for news entrepreneurs in San Francisco, and it has...

The Information’s 411 — Facebook and the Republocrats

By Tom Dotan · Jan 31, 2020 3:24pm PST

Chris Stern joins to discuss the relationship between Facebook and both political parties. In the last few years the Republicans have emerged as the company's closest allies in DC, while the Democrats have ramped up their harsh rhetoric against it. It's partly an ideological divide, as some Republicans have embraced the mindset that... Chris Stern joins to discuss the relationship between Facebook and both political parties. In the...

An airport official in Thailand talking to people flying to Wuhan this week. Photo by AP

Huawei, Xiaomi Research Hubs Paralyzed by Virus Outbreak

By Juro Osawa and Yunan Zhang · Jan 31, 2020 10:06am PST

An airport official in Thailand talking to people flying to Wuhan this week. Photo by AP

Huawei, Xiaomi Research Hubs Paralyzed by Virus Outbreak

By Juro Osawa and Yunan Zhang · Jan 31, 2020 10:06am PST

Huawei’s leafy campus in Wuhan, a research center built for 8,000 workers, is usually bustling with engineers developing everything from laptops and smart TVs to optical chips. But now, the company’s sleek, modern buildings are almost empty. Wuhan, a manufacturing center 500 miles from Shanghai, has become the epicenter of the... Huawei’s leafy campus in Wuhan, a research center built for 8,000 workers, is usually...

The Most and Least Tech-Friendly Presidential Candidates

By Christopher Stern, Ashley Gold and Mike Sullivan · Jan 31, 2020 7:01am PST · 3 comments

When it comes to Democratic candidates for president, big tech has fixated on the danger posed by Elizabeth Warren, who has pushed hardest for a breakup of the tech giants. But what the industry doesn’t seem to realize is that when you consider a broad range of issues, Midwestern senator Amy Klobuchar is even less friendly to tech.... When it comes to Democratic candidates for president, big tech has fixated on the danger posed by...

Subscriber Video Call

‘Hit a Ceiling’: Facebook Earnings Breakdown

By The Information Staff · Jan 30, 2020 3:47pm PST

On Thursday, our team walked through our takeaways from Facebook's latest earnings report, which has sent shares of the company falling. Alex, Tom, Martin and Jessica also discussed Facebook's new Watch video strategy, how the company is prepping for regulatory fights and more. On Thursday, our team walked through our takeaways from Facebook's latest earnings report,...

Illustration by J. Claeys

Startups to Watch

These Real Estate Startups Hope to Do Good and Make Money

By Cory Weinberg · Jan 30, 2020 7:00am PST · 1 comment

Companies profiting from buying, selling or leasing cheap real estate are sometimes tagged as flippers, loan sharks or slumlords. Now, venture-backed startups are jumping into the market, claiming they can clean up unseemly parts of the industry while using software-driven financial and property management services to make money.We profile four... Companies profiting from buying, selling or leasing cheap real estate are sometimes tagged as...

Jessica Biel speaks at the premiere of Facebook Watch's "Limetown" last September. Photo by AP

Facebook Cuts Back on Original Programming for Watch Video

By Tom Dotan and Jessica Toonkel · Jan 29, 2020 10:09am PST

Jessica Biel speaks at the premiere of Facebook Watch's "Limetown" last September. Photo by AP

Facebook Cuts Back on Original Programming for Watch Video

By Tom Dotan and Jessica Toonkel · Jan 29, 2020 10:09am PST

Facebook is refining the programming strategy for its Facebook Watch video service, pulling back on expensive original shows and sports rights.Facebook continues to increase its programming budget for Watch—it will rise to around $1.4 billion this year, from the company’s initial $1 billion budget in 2017, according to a person... Facebook is refining the programming strategy for its Facebook Watch video service, pulling back...

Apple CEO Tim Cook at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, this month. Photo by Bloomberg

Apple Ends AI Startup’s Work on ‘Project Maven’ After Acquisition

By Nick Wingfield and Ashley Gold · Jan 29, 2020 7:00am PST

Big technology companies like Microsoft, Amazon and Google have jockeyed to secure lucrative contracts supplying their products and services to the military. Apple, though, has shown less interest in the market. And when it recently bought a startup that was working on a controversial Pentagon project, Apple ended that company’s work on... Big technology companies like Microsoft, Amazon and Google have jockeyed to secure lucrative...

Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian. Photo by Bloomberg

Google Developing New ‘Unified’ Communications App for Businesses

By Kevin McLaughlin · Jan 28, 2020 1:05pm PST · 9 comments

Google is working on a mobile application for businesses that brings together the functions of several standalone apps the company already offers, including Gmail and its online storage service Drive. The move could help it compete more effectively with application suites from Microsoft and others, according to two people who have used the... Google is working on a mobile application for businesses that brings together the functions of...

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg at a congressional hearing last year. Facebook's U.S. public policy vice president Kevin Martin is sitting behind him. Photo by Bloomberg

As Facebook Wins Republican Friends, Democrats Turn Hostile

By Christopher Stern · Jan 28, 2020 7:02am PST · 1 comment

Despite the steady drumbeat of criticism targeting Facebook, the social media giant has its defenders in Washington. They just happen to be Republicans.When Democratic Rep. Jan Schakowsky of Illinois opened a congressional hearing on Jan. 8 by slamming Facebook’s new policy on deepfakes as “wholly inadequate,” for example,... Despite the steady drumbeat of criticism targeting Facebook, the social media giant has its...

Attorney General Bill Barr. Photo by Bloomberg

DOJ Setting Up Interviews With Facebook Rivals in Antitrust Probe

By Alex Heath and Ashley Gold · Jan 27, 2020 3:08pm PST

Attorney General Bill Barr. Photo by Bloomberg

DOJ Setting Up Interviews With Facebook Rivals in Antitrust Probe

By Alex Heath and Ashley Gold · Jan 27, 2020 3:08pm PST

The U.S. Department of Justice’s antitrust investigation into Facebook is heating up.The agency is arranging interviews with social media company executives to learn their views about the competitive landscape of the industry, along with their perspectives on and relationship to Facebook, according to an email from the Justice Department... The U.S. Department of Justice’s antitrust investigation into Facebook is heating up.The...

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testifying before Congress last October. Photo by Bloomberg

Facebook Is Already Paying a Regulatory Tax—in Its Stock Price

By Martin Peers · Jan 27, 2020 10:00am PST · 1 comment

Washington’s antitrust investigations into big tech are probably years away from finishing. But already Facebook, at least, appears to be getting hit by a “regulatory tax” of at least $160 billion—on its stock price.The social networking giant is trading at the lowest valuation, relative to its earnings growth rate, of... Washington’s antitrust investigations into big tech are probably years away from finishing....

Paytm CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma. Photo: Bloomberg

Once-Dominant Paytm Stalls in India

By Juro Osawa · Jan 27, 2020 7:00am PST · 4 comments

Last July, at a SoftBank conference in Tokyo, CEO Masayoshi Son brought on stage Vijay Shekhar Sharma, the founder of Indian startup Paytm. Son described Paytm as the “uncontested No. 1” payment service in India. SoftBank had invested $1.4 billion in the startup, helping to fuel India’s mobile payment boom a few years... Last July, at a SoftBank conference in Tokyo, CEO Masayoshi Son brought on stage Vijay Shekhar...

Jeff Bezos. Photo by Bloomberg

Jeff Bezos and the Real Cost of the Washington Post

By Nick Wingfield · Jan 25, 2020 7:46am PST

This week’s blockbuster revelations about the possible role of Saudi Arabia’s crown prince in the hacking of Jeff Bezos’ phone was a literal eye-popper of a story. It raised so many troubling questions about technology, politics and business. For me though, it was a moment for reflection on a tangential story: how differently... This week’s blockbuster revelations about the possible role of Saudi Arabia’s crown...

A Galvanize workspace. Photo by Shutterstock

Coding Bootcamp Galvanize Agrees to $165 Million Acquisition

By Kate Clark · Jan 24, 2020 6:21pm PST

A Galvanize workspace. Photo by Shutterstock

Coding Bootcamp Galvanize Agrees to $165 Million Acquisition

By Kate Clark · Jan 24, 2020 6:21pm PST

A wave of consolidation in the education technology market appears set to continue this year. K12 Inc., a publicly-traded education company, has agreed to acquire Galvanize, a provider of coding bootcamps and co-working spaces across eight locations in the U.S., for $165 million in cash, according to an email addressed to Galvanize... A wave of consolidation in the education technology market appears set to continue this...

The Information’s 411 — Initial Private Offering

By Tom Dotan · Jan 24, 2020 3:25pm PST

This week we took a behind-the-scenes look at IPOs, and how companies try to get banks to become clients in order to win the account. Kevin Dugan and Priya explained the story of ZScaler, which tried to get a collection of customers in the banking syndicate that underwrites the IPO. It’s not an uncommon occurrence these days. And it raises... This week we took a behind-the-scenes look at IPOs, and how companies try to get banks to become...

Subscriber Video Call

2030’s Big Business: Tech or Something Else?

By The Information Staff · Jan 24, 2020 1:35pm PST · 1 comment

On Friday morning, O’Reilly Media founder Tim O’Reilly and Sam Lessin, co-founder of Fin and a partner at Slow Ventures, hosted a live conference call to discuss the next decade in tech. They began by following up on Lessin’s 2030 predictions. While there were some areas of agreement, the two columnists, investors and... On Friday morning, O’Reilly Media founder Tim O’Reilly and Sam Lessin, co-founder of...

Larry Ingrassia. Photo by Vicki Ingrassia

Q&A

The Secret to Success in the Direct-to-Consumer Market

By Priya Anand · Jan 24, 2020 7:00am PST · 5 comments

When mattress maker Casper filed paperwork to go public earlier this month, it said it had lost $92 million in 2018 and was on track to lose more than that in 2019. But that’s not how direct-to-consumer startups have to operate, according to the author of a new book on the industry. He says at least two of Casper’s mattress startup... When mattress maker Casper filed paperwork to go public earlier this month, it said it had lost...

Lambda School CEO Austen Allred. Photo courtesy of Lambda; Illustration by Mike Sullivan

Lambda School’s Growing Pains: Big Buzz, Student Complaints

By Kate Clark · Jan 23, 2020 10:51am PST · 6 comments

Lambda School CEO Austen Allred. Photo courtesy of Lambda; Illustration by Mike Sullivan

Lambda School’s Growing Pains: Big Buzz, Student Complaints

By Kate Clark · Jan 23, 2020 10:51am PST · 6 comments

Silicon Valley has no shortage of companies promising to disrupt higher education with technology. The buzziest of them all may be Lambda School, a company that provides free coding courses in exchange for a cut of its students’ future incomes.The online school has won a following among high-profile investors, who see Lambda as a way to... Silicon Valley has no shortage of companies promising to disrupt higher education with...