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

The Information’s 411 — David Leaving and Richard Plexit

By Tom Dotan · Mar 1, 2019 1:21pm PST

Jessica Toonkel talks about the huge day at WarnerMedia where two top executives left, as new owner AT&T undertakes a restructuring. Kevin explains the reasons that companies have major cost overages with cloud providers. Jessica Toonkel talks about the huge day at WarnerMedia where two top executives left, as new...

FTC Pulls From Old Playbook, Signals Newly Aggressive Approach to Tech

By Ashley Gold · Mar 1, 2019 1:00pm PST

The Federal Trade Commission turned heads this week when it announced a new task force to review competition in the tech industry, including taking a fresh look at mergers that have already happened. In doing so, the agency was pulling from a playbook it used successfully in the early 2000s when it created a task force that reviewed, and in some... The Federal Trade Commission turned heads this week when it announced a new task force to review...

A Lyft driver hub building in Los Angeles. Photo by Bloomberg

Lyft’s IPO Filing Shows Revenue Nearly Doubled in Q4 While Loss Rose Slightly

By Amir Efrati and Martin Peers · Mar 1, 2019 9:45am PST · 1 comment

Lyft nearly doubled revenue in the fourth quarter, compared with the year-earlier period, while its net loss rose just 9% to $270 million, the ride-hailing firm revealed in a securities filing. The results suggest Lyft is getting its losses under control as it continues to grow, particularly by cutting spending on advertising. That’s a... Lyft nearly doubled revenue in the fourth quarter, compared with the year-earlier period, while...

A Luckin coffee outlet in Beijing. Photo: Bloomberg

China’s Starbucks Rival Luckin Piles Up Losses Before IPO

By Yunan Zhang · Mar 1, 2019 6:31am PST · 4 comments

A Luckin coffee outlet in Beijing. Photo: Bloomberg

China’s Starbucks Rival Luckin Piles Up Losses Before IPO

By Yunan Zhang · Mar 1, 2019 6:31am PST · 4 comments

Luckin Coffee, China’s fast-growing Starbucks rival, has one thing in common with consumer tech companies going public in the U.S.: It has racked up hefty losses ahead of its planned public listing. The coffee delivery startup estimates that it lost some $232 million in 2018, its first year of operation, on revenue of $117 million,... Luckin Coffee, China’s fast-growing Starbucks rival, has one thing in common with consumer...

Turner president David Levy. Photo by Bloomberg

Top WarnerMedia Executives, Levy and Plepler, Are Out

By Jessica Toonkel · Feb 28, 2019 2:30pm PST

Two of WarnerMedia’s highest ranking executives, Turner president David Levy and HBO CEO Richard Plepler, are leaving the company, according to two people familiar with the situation, apparent casualties of AT&T’s restructuring of the media company.Word of their exits comes days after the federal government lost its appeal... Two of WarnerMedia’s highest ranking executives, Turner president David Levy and HBO CEO...

A Drive.ai shuttle in Frisco, Texas last year. Photo by Drive.ai

Self-Driving Car Startup Drive.ai Seeks Potential Buyers

By Amir Efrati · Feb 28, 2019 1:09pm PST · 3 comments

One of the better known autonomous vehicle startups, Drive.ai, has been looking for a buyer. The firm hired investment bank Jefferies as an adviser and in recent weeks told bigger rivals it is interested in selling, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter and another briefed on the situation.Drive.ai is testing automated... One of the better known autonomous vehicle startups, Drive.ai, has been looking for a buyer. The...

Liz Gateley. Photo by AP.

Spotify Taps Lifetime Veteran to Help Build Podcasting Series

By Jessica Toonkel · Feb 28, 2019 9:41am PST

Spotify has hired Lifetime’s former programming chief Liz Gateley to help expand its podcast offerings in comedy, music, sports, news and documentaries, two people familiar with the situation said.The previously unreported hiring of Ms. Gateley follows Spotify’s acquisitions earlier this month of podcast publisher Anchor and Gimlet... Spotify has hired Lifetime’s former programming chief Liz Gateley to help expand its...

The People With Power at Apple

By Aaron Tilley and Wayne Ma · Feb 28, 2019 6:30am PST

The People With Power at Apple

By Aaron Tilley and Wayne Ma · Feb 28, 2019 6:30am PST

After shaking up the mobile industry over a decade ago, Apple is looking for a new act. With the iPhone growth machine sputtering, it is beefing up teams devoted to healthcare and internet services, including a foray into video streaming expected this year. The chart accompanying this story, which shows more than 180 of the top leaders at Apple,... After shaking up the mobile industry over a decade ago, Apple is looking for a new act. With the...

Photo by Shutterstock

Top Mobile Game Developer Playrix Looking to Sell for $3 Billion

By Wayne Ma and Juro Osawa · Feb 27, 2019 5:38pm PST

Playrix Entertainment, the Russia-based developer of some of the world’s most popular mobile games, is on the market for more than $3 billion, according to people familiar with the matter. And a number of Chinese companies, including iDreamSky Technology and FunPlus, have inquired about buying it, the people said.Playrix makes Gardenscapes... Playrix Entertainment, the Russia-based developer of some of the world’s most popular...

Mike Sullivan

Crypto Newsletter

Coinbase Branches Out

By Jon Victor · Feb 27, 2019 12:03pm PST

JPM Coin has dominated discussions about business applications of blockchain over the last two weeks, but my prediction is that we will be hearing more about crypto activity at other, smaller banks around the world this year. I’m told that a handful of banks in developing countries are working on their own versions of a stablecoin backed... JPM Coin has dominated discussions about business applications of blockchain over the last two...

Photo: AP

Google’s Ad Sales From China Are Booming

By Yunan Zhang and Juro Osawa · Feb 27, 2019 6:31am PST

Google hasn't decided whether to return to China with a search engine and other tools that will meet censors’ demands, but the internet giant already has built a fast-growing business there. Google saw a huge upsurge in revenue from China last year, powered by a wave of Chinese tech companies buying ads outside China to promote... Google hasn't decided whether to return to China with a search engine and other tools that...

Introducing The Information’s Tech Investigations Tracker

By The Information Staff · Feb 26, 2019 12:58pm PST · 1 comment

Introducing The Information’s Tech Investigations Tracker

By The Information Staff · Feb 26, 2019 12:58pm PST · 1 comment

The tech industry, including household names like Facebook, Alphabet’s Google and Apple, is attracting more public scrutiny from governments and regulators, both in the U.S. and Europe. Facebook is the highest-profile example right now. It is facing at least half a dozen inquiries, largely thanks to the controversy over Cambridge... The tech industry, including household names like Facebook, Alphabet’s Google and Apple, is...

VMware's Pat Gelsinger, left, and Microsoft's Satya Nadella. Photos by Bloomberg.

Microsoft and VMware Working on Cloud Partnership

By Kevin McLaughlin · Feb 26, 2019 6:30am PST

Microsoft and VMware were once fierce rivals in the software business. But even as hostilities ceased in recent years, their business customers couldn’t use VMware’s most popular product inside Microsoft’s cloud computing service without a lot of technical work. That could be about to change. The two companies are jointly... Microsoft and VMware were once fierce rivals in the software business. But even as hostilities...

Photo by Bloomberg

Lyft Kicks Off Price War With Uber Ahead of IPOs

By Amir Efrati · Feb 25, 2019 4:56pm PST · 38 comments

As Uber and Lyft prepare to go public, both companies are reviving an old and costly tactic to boost market share: discounts.Lyft, which is likely to be first to hit the public market, sharply ramped up discounts for riders in recent weeks, according to people close to both companies. The discounts covered as many as a third of its trips,... As Uber and Lyft prepare to go public, both companies are reviving an old and costly tactic to...

Art by Sam Lessin

Modest Proposals

ISAs and the Future of Securitization

By Sam Lessin · Feb 25, 2019 9:32am PST · 6 comments

Finance is fundamentally an exercise in pricing risk, and pricing risk is in large part a function of the cost of information.Given this reality, it is somewhat surprising that in the last few decades the internet has not more fundamentally revolutionized how individuals and businesses broadly access capital. Finance is fundamentally an exercise in pricing risk, and pricing risk is in large part a...

As AWS Use Soars, Companies Surprised by Cloud Bills

By Amir Efrati and Kevin McLaughlin · Feb 25, 2019 6:32am PST · 9 comments

As AWS Use Soars, Companies Surprised by Cloud Bills

By Amir Efrati and Kevin McLaughlin · Feb 25, 2019 6:32am PST · 9 comments

Pinterest executives got a surprise during last year’s holiday season. Consumers were spending so much time using the online scrapbook that Pinterest’s computing bills on Amazon Web Services—the internet retailer’s cloud offering—had shot past their expectations. Pinterest, which had paid in advance for AWS’s... Pinterest executives got a surprise during last year’s holiday season. Consumers were...

My Spring Tech Outlook: Media, IPOs and More

By Jessica E. Lessin · Feb 24, 2019 10:30am PST

This April, Apple is expected to launch a new streaming video service, some gazillion years since it began discussing internally whether to launch such a service. So, it’s a big moment. But since so much of the content has leaked, expect the details, as written about several times by our team, to underwhelm.Don’t miss the bigger... This April, Apple is expected to launch a new streaming video service, some gazillion years since...

The Information’s 411 — Privacy in the Swamp

By Tom Dotan · Feb 22, 2019 2:26pm PST · 1 comment

Ashley talks about how members of Congress are struggling to devise a new privacy protection law. Amir dives into Cruise, GM's self-driving technology division. Ashley talks about how members of Congress are struggling to devise a new privacy protection law....

Sen. Richard Blumenthal. Photo by Bloomberg

Federal Privacy Law Sees Rare Bipartisan Effort, but Hurdles Persist

By Ashley Gold · Feb 22, 2019 6:30am PST · 1 comment

About once a week over the past few months, aides for a bipartisan group of four Senate lawmakers have huddled in Capitol Hill offices to discuss what data privacy legislation in the U.S. should look like. They have a long way to go. One area of debate, said people close to the negotiations, is defining what consumer privacy means.Disagreement... About once a week over the past few months, aides for a bipartisan group of four Senate lawmakers...

Cloudfare CEO Matthew Prince. Photo by Cloudflare

Cloudflare, an IPO Contender, Doesn’t Want to Play Content Cop

By Sarah Kuranda · Feb 21, 2019 10:00am PST · 3 comments

Cloudfare CEO Matthew Prince. Photo by Cloudflare

The Big Interview

Cloudflare, an IPO Contender, Doesn’t Want to Play Content Cop

By Sarah Kuranda · Feb 21, 2019 10:00am PST · 3 comments

When Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince decided to take steps that knocked a neo-Nazi website off the internet in 2017, he was painted as an online censor. Even he referred to his own actions as “dangerous” in a blog post. Now the same thing that gives Cloudflare the clout to decide who can stay on the internet—its services for... When Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince decided to take steps that knocked a neo-Nazi website off the...