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

Five times/week

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.

By providing your email, you agree to The Information’s Privacy Policy

Recent Editions

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella this month at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Photo by Bloomberg

Microsoft’s Nadella Talks Tech Backlash, Competitors

By Nick Wingfield · Jan 31, 2019 6:31am PST · 2 comments

REDMOND, Wash.—Demolition is afoot at Microsoft headquarters. On a recent morning visit, excavators ripped apart a complex of office buildings constructed in the 1980s, part of an effort to modernize the heart of the company’s 500-acre campus over the next three years. The work was a fitting symbol for a company that began rebuilding... REDMOND, Wash.—Demolition is afoot at Microsoft headquarters. On a recent morning visit,...

Mike Sullivan

Crypto Newsletter

Crypto-Friendly Congress?

By Jon Victor · Jan 30, 2019 12:01pm PST

Here is a question on my mind this week: Where is all the institutional interest in crypto that we heard so much about in 2018? On Monday, news emerged that Jamie Selway, who was leading Blockchain’s Wall Street push, left the company after seeing low demand. And at Coinbase, the person hired to oversee the company’s institutional... Here is a question on my mind this week: Where is all the institutional interest in crypto that...

Online Shopping Offers a Bright Spot as China’s Economy Slows

By Wayne Ma · Jan 30, 2019 9:01am PST

China’s economy is expanding at its slowest pace in almost three decades, but online shopping is still growing at the country’s biggest e-commerce companies, driven by customers in smaller cities and a general shift to more buying on the internet, official and third-party data show.The data—collected from e-commerce sites... China’s economy is expanding at its slowest pace in almost three decades, but online...

Scooters belonging to Mexico's Grin. Photo: Carlos Felipe Pardo/Flickr

Latin American Scooter Startups Merge, Raise $150 Million

By Cory Weinberg · Jan 30, 2019 7:01am PST · 1 comment

Scooters belonging to Mexico's Grin. Photo: Carlos Felipe Pardo/Flickr

Latin American Scooter Startups Merge, Raise $150 Million

By Cory Weinberg · Jan 30, 2019 7:01am PST · 1 comment

Mexico City’s Grin and Sao Paulo’s Yellow, which each took in tens of millions of dollars from Silicon Valley investors to run scooter rental businesses last fall, have merged and raised $150 million in fresh capital, according to executives at both firms. The merger is the latest sign of consolidation in the electric scooter... Mexico City’s Grin and Sao Paulo’s Yellow, which each took in tens of millions of...

Smartphone app Didi Chuxing. Photo by Imaginechina via AP Images.

Didi Chuxing Mulls Layoffs

By Yunan Zhang · Jan 30, 2019 3:37am PST · 4 comments

Ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing is considering layoffs as it grapples with tighter regulations that limit its supply of drivers and cars, joining other Chinese tech companies whittling costs amidst the slowest economic growth in three decades.While plans haven’t been finalized and the figures may still change before a decision is made,... Ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing is considering layoffs as it grapples with tighter regulations...

Stripe co-founders Patrick Collison and John Collison. Photo by Bloomberg.

Stripe Raises $100 Million at $22.5 Billion Valuation

By Alfred Lee and Amir Efrati · Jan 29, 2019 4:13pm PST · 1 comment

Payments startup Stripe has raised an additional $100 million from Tiger Global Management, boosting the firm’s valuation to $22.5 billion, according to a person close to the company.The fundraising is a follow-on round to a $245 million round led by Tiger Global last year, which valued Stripe at $20 billion. The money will be used for... Payments startup Stripe has raised an additional $100 million from Tiger Global Management,...

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testifies before Congress last April. Photo by Bloomberg.

Facebook Hiring Tech Industry Critics to Staff DC Privacy Policy Team

By Ashley Gold · Jan 29, 2019 1:41pm PST

Facebook, facing an onslaught of privacy-related controversies and a growing push for regulation, has in the last month hired three high-profile tech industry critics and commentators to beef up its privacy policy team in Washington, D.C.A Facebook spokesman said the hires, who come from Access Now, a digital consumer rights group, privacy and... Facebook, facing an onslaught of privacy-related controversies and a growing push for regulation,...

Scooters Grapple With Safety After Dark

By Cory Weinberg · Jan 29, 2019 10:00am PST

Scooters Grapple With Safety After Dark

By Cory Weinberg · Jan 29, 2019 10:00am PST

Last spring, after Dallas officials raised concerns with scooter-rental firms that riding scooters at night could be dangerous, officials thought they had won a promise from Lime that it would remove scooters from the streets every evening. Now, officials say Lime, one of the two scooter companies operating in the city at the time, hasn’t... Last spring, after Dallas officials raised concerns with scooter-rental firms that riding...

VIPKid founder Cindy Mi. Photo by Bloomberg

China’s Online Tutor Startup VIPKid Is Seeking $500 Million at $6 Billion Valuation

By Yunan Zhang · Jan 29, 2019 7:46am PST

China’s online English tutor VIPKid is seeking to raise between $400 million to $500 million at a pre-money valuation of $6 billion, according to people familiar with the matter.If successful, the financing would nearly double the education startup’s value from $3.5 billion just a year ago, after it said it raised about $500 million.... China’s online English tutor VIPKid is seeking to raise between $400 million to $500...

Source: Apple filings

At Apple, a Spotlight on Services as iPhone Slows

By Nick Wingfield and Aaron Tilley · Jan 29, 2019 6:32am PST

While Apple is discouraging investors from thinking about its stalled iPhones sales, there is another business it is eager for them to pay attention to: services.When the company reports financial results later today, it will for the first time disclose the gross profit margins for Apple services—a broad category that includes AppleCare... While Apple is discouraging investors from thinking about its stalled iPhones sales, there is...

The People to Watch Inside Disney’s Video Streaming Group

By Tom Dotan and Beejoli Shah · Jan 28, 2019 11:34am PST

Walt Disney Co.’s ambitious plans to reinvent itself for the streaming era has brought with it an equally ambitious rethinking of how the company runs.At the heart of the changes is the newly created direct-to-consumer and international division, which will house Disney’s new streaming services—ESPN+, which has already... Walt Disney Co.’s ambitious plans to reinvent itself for the streaming era has brought with...

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos. Art by Mike Sullivan

Amazon Changes Tack on Video Offering, as Apple Joins Market

By Jessica Toonkel · Jan 28, 2019 7:00am PST · 2 comments

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos. Art by Mike Sullivan

Amazon Changes Tack on Video Offering, as Apple Joins Market

By Jessica Toonkel · Jan 28, 2019 7:00am PST · 2 comments

Amazon looked intent on becoming a powerful player in the streaming video market by allowing people to sign up for a wide variety of services through their Prime Video accounts—so much so that Apple, Roku and potentially Facebook are now copying the company’s approach. But even as competition increases, Amazon is scaling back its... Amazon looked intent on becoming a powerful player in the streaming video market by allowing...

Tech Playing Defense at Davos

By Jessica E. Lessin · Jan 26, 2019 6:30pm PST

Towards the end of 2018, as Facebook, Google, Twitter, Tesla and others were trying to put major scandals behind them, tech executives started talking privately about setting a new tone in 2019. This was the year companies would start talking about great new products and innovation again, going on the offensive rather than the defensive. If so,... Towards the end of 2018, as Facebook, Google, Twitter, Tesla and others were trying to put major...

The Information’s 411 — All That Jass

By Tom Dotan · Jan 25, 2019 2:05pm PST

Kevin talks about his profile of AWS's CEO Andy Jassy. Kevin talks about his profile of AWS's CEO Andy Jassy.

Retrieving a package from an Amazon locker. Photo by Bloomberg.

Amazon Exploring New Programs to Improve Deliveries

By Priya Anand and Aaron Tilley · Jan 25, 2019 7:02am PST · 3 comments

First, Amazon asked homeowners to let delivery drivers drop packages inside their homes while they were gone. Now it has a plan to get them to shop more by locking up orders outside their houses—and tossing in free Alexa devices.Amazon has been quietly working with apartment buildings on a bundle of services to attract new customers and... First, Amazon asked homeowners to let delivery drivers drop packages inside their homes while...

McAfee CEO Chris Young. Photo by Bloomberg

McAfee Lays Off Hundreds, Senior Executives Depart

By Sarah Kuranda · Jan 24, 2019 11:03am PST

McAfee CEO Chris Young. Photo by Bloomberg

McAfee Lays Off Hundreds, Senior Executives Depart

By Sarah Kuranda · Jan 24, 2019 11:03am PST

McAfee has laid off around 200 employees in the past two weeks, about 4% of its workforce, and eliminated hundreds more open positions, several people familiar with the matter said. At the same time, several senior sales executives, including Bill McAlister, senior vice president of sales for the Americas, have left.The job cuts are the latest... McAfee has laid off around 200 employees in the past two weeks, about 4% of its workforce, and...

Time Warner's then CEO Jeff Bewkes, in the foreground, with AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson at a congressional hearing in December 2016. Photo by Bloomberg

How Time Warner Shareholders Lost M&A’s Game of Thrones

By Martin Peers · Jan 24, 2019 10:01am PST · 1 comment

When big company mergers go south, it’s usually the buyer who has regrets. But in the case of AT&T’s $81 billion purchase of Time Warner, it is the sellers who are now likely to be feeling remorseful.Time Warner shareholders received a price for their stock 6.5% below what was announced, thanks to a blunder made by Time Warner... When big company mergers go south, it’s usually the buyer who has regrets. But in the case...

Scooters’ Worst Enemies: Wintry Weather, Vandals

By Cory Weinberg · Jan 24, 2019 7:01am PST · 2 comments

The two leaders in electric scooter rentals, Bird and Lime, saw significant declines in ridership in November and December—the first wintry months they’ve had to navigate with large fleets, new data show. The drops put a year-end chill on months of rapid expansion and showed how seasonal the scooter business is likely to be, which... The two leaders in electric scooter rentals, Bird and Lime, saw significant declines in ridership...

Mike Sullivan

Crypto Newsletter

TZero Hopes for Liftoff

By Jon Victor · Jan 23, 2019 1:05pm PST

Ethereum developers are regrouping this week after researchers discovered a security flaw in the code of a planned upgrade. The long-awaited fork, known as “Constantinople,” will now take place in late February. While the discovery of the vulnerability raised alarms, it highlights the role of a new type of business that cropped up... Ethereum developers are regrouping this week after researchers discovered a security flaw in the...

Photo by Bloomberg; photo illustration by Mike Sullivan

Amazon’s Cloud King: Inside the World of Andy Jassy

By Kevin McLaughlin · Jan 23, 2019 7:02am PST · 1 comment

Photo by Bloomberg; photo illustration by Mike Sullivan

Amazon’s Cloud King: Inside the World of Andy Jassy

By Kevin McLaughlin · Jan 23, 2019 7:02am PST · 1 comment

In 2017, Luke Larson was in the middle of dinner with nearly a dozen Microsoft officials at El Gaucho, a steak restaurant in Seattle, when he received an awkward visit at the table from Andy Jassy, the chief executive officer of Amazon Web Services, the cloud computing arm of the internet retailer. A year earlier, Mr. Larson’s company,... In 2017, Luke Larson was in the middle of dinner with nearly a dozen Microsoft officials at El...