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

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The Briefing

By Martin Peers, Jessica E. 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

Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield. Photo by Bloomberg

The Big Interview

Slack CEO Downplays Microsoft as Factor in Salesforce Deal

By Kevin McLaughlin · Dec 3, 2020 2:39pm PST

Before word of Salesforce’s planned acquisition of Slack leaked last week, investor sentiment about the workplace chat provider had decidedly soured, causing its stock to lose about a quarter of its value since Slack went public in June of last year. A big reason was competition from Microsoft, that old bogeyman for any upstart in the... Before word of Salesforce’s planned acquisition of Slack leaked last week, investor...

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg speaks remotely during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2020. Photo: Bloomberg

Facebook Splits Up Unit At Center of Contested Election Decisions

By Alex Heath · Dec 3, 2020 1:28pm PST

Facebook is breaking up its unit focused on the social network’s role in elections globally, dispersing the team of roughly 300 through a sweeping reorganization beginning this week, according to internal memos seen by The Information. Employees from Civic Integrity, who have been at the center of Facebook’s contested decisions on... Facebook is breaking up its unit focused on the social network’s role in elections...

Jill Hazelbaker. Art by Mike Sullivan.

Uber’s Image Maker Emerges as Key Power Player

By Jessica E. Lessin and Amir Efrati · Dec 3, 2020 6:00am PST · 6 comments

Minutes after Dara Khosrowshahi learned from a news report that he would be the next CEO of Uber, his phone rang. It was Uber’s head of communications, Jill Hazelbaker, who said “Welcome on board. Let’s get to work,” he recalls. Her next piece of advice was also very direct: “Get yourself a board of directors that... Minutes after Dara Khosrowshahi learned from a news report that he would be the next CEO of Uber,...

Google CEO Sundar Pichai. Photo by Bloomberg

Big Tech’s Small Budget M&A Effort: The Information’s Tech Briefing

By Martin Peers · Dec 2, 2020 5:02pm PST · 1 comment

Google CEO Sundar Pichai. Photo by Bloomberg

Big Tech’s Small Budget M&A Effort: The Information’s Tech Briefing

By Martin Peers · Dec 2, 2020 5:02pm PST · 1 comment

Big tech is in acquisition mode, despite antitrust scrutiny. It’s just that the deals aren’t for brand name companies or of any size. This week alone we’ve seen Google acquire data management firm Actifio, Facebook buy customer support service Kustomer and Amazon reportedly in talks to snap up podcasting firm Wondery. Each of... Big tech is in acquisition mode, despite antitrust scrutiny. It’s just that the deals...

Bret Taylor, president and chief product officer of Salesforce, at the company's Dreamforce conference last November. Photo by Bloomberg

Q&A

Salesforce’s Bret Taylor: Company Didn’t Overpay for Slack

By Kevin McLaughlin · Dec 2, 2020 3:35pm PST · 4 comments

Salesforce didn’t overpay for Slack, the business messaging company it agreed to acquire on Tuesday for nearly $28 billion, Bret Taylor, Salesforce’s president and chief product officer said. In an interview on Wednesday with The Information, Taylor said the price tag was well worth it considering the importance of the kinds of... Salesforce didn’t overpay for Slack, the business messaging company it agreed to acquire on...

The Information 50

What We Learned From The Information’s List of the 50 Most Promising Startups

By Amir Efrati · Dec 2, 2020 7:01am PST · 5 comments

If you’ve wondered what startups could become the Google, Microsoft or Salesforce of the 2020s or ’30s, see our inaugural list of the 50 most promising tech startups that probably aren’t yet on your radar screen. We included previously unreported financial data about the vast majority of them, which range from consumer apps and... If you’ve wondered what startups could become the Google, Microsoft or Salesforce of the...

Salesforce's Marc Benioff. Photo by Bloomberg

Salesforce Pays Up for Slack: The Information’s Tech Briefing

By Martin Peers · Dec 1, 2020 5:32pm PST

Salesforce chief Marc Benioff could never be accused of underpaying for a company, as his proposed $27.7 billion cash-and-stock purchase of Slack demonstrates. Salesforce’s price for the enterprise messaging firm is more than a 50% premium over where Slack’s stock was trading before news of the deal broke. The idea that someone... Salesforce chief Marc Benioff could never be accused of underpaying for a company, as...

Illustration by Jesús Escudero

The Underside of Silicon Valley’s Co-Founder Mantra

By Tracy Chou · Dec 1, 2020 9:02am PST · 11 comments

Illustration by Jesús Escudero

The Underside of Silicon Valley’s Co-Founder Mantra

By Tracy Chou · Dec 1, 2020 9:02am PST · 11 comments

It was both maddening and somehow unsurprising to see that only 2.1% of VC dollars so far this year have gone to all-female teams. The number had crawled up to 2.7% in 2019, but in the throes of pandemic uncertainty, investment capital for female founders slipped back to a three-year low. The laments are loud—but the attempt to solve a... It was both maddening and somehow unsurprising to see that only 2.1% of VC dollars so far this...

Isobel Tollenaar (bottom left), Naomi Brauner and Colin Burns. Photos provided by Tollenaar, Brauner and Burns

Many Gen Zers Loathe Amazon—but Can’t Quit It

By Paris Martineau · Dec 1, 2020 6:02am PST · 18 comments

Like most of her friends, Isobel Tollenaar isn’t a fan of Amazon. “I definitely find it to be an uncomfortably powerful and gross company,” said Tollenaar, 23, who graduated from college just last year and currently works at a nonprofit in the Chicago area. “It has its fingers in way too many pies, and I find it to be... Like most of her friends, Isobel Tollenaar isn’t a fan of Amazon. “I definitely find...

Slack's top executives the day the company went public. Photo by Bloomberg.

Salesforce Nears Slack Deal: The Information’s Tech Briefing

By Martin Peers · Nov 30, 2020 5:01pm PST

Salesforce appears to be closing in on its latest acquisition target, Slack. A deal may be announced Tuesday afternoon, CNBC reported today, with Salesforce paying a premium to Slack’s current price. That suggests Salesforce could pay more than $23 billion, the enterprise value of Slack implied by its closing price on Monday of $42.88. ... Salesforce appears to be closing in on its latest acquisition target, Slack. A deal may be...

A DraftKings kiosk at Gillette stadium in Massachusetts. Photo by AP

SPAC Merger Class of 2020 Is Trading Better Than 2019

By Ross Matican · Nov 30, 2020 9:01am PST · 1 comment

Special purpose acquisition companies are the hottest investment phenomenon of the year. But they’re not a surefire way to make money, as many lose value after they merge with operating businesses. The good news is that the SPACs that have completed mergers this year are trading better than last year’s crop, according to new data. ... Special purpose acquisition companies are the hottest investment phenomenon of the year. But...

Workers at an Amazon fulfillment center in the U.K. sit behind partition screens in a break room in October. Photo by Bloomberg

Amazon Drops Pandemic Test to Track Warehouse Workers Through Wi-Fi

By Mark Di Stefano · Nov 30, 2020 6:01am PST

Workers at an Amazon fulfillment center in the U.K. sit behind partition screens in a break room in October. Photo by Bloomberg

Amazon Drops Pandemic Test to Track Warehouse Workers Through Wi-Fi

By Mark Di Stefano · Nov 30, 2020 6:01am PST

Amazon has promised to spend billions of dollars this year on safety precautions to protect the workers in its warehouse facilities from the coronavirus pandemic. But it has quietly abandoned a test of one such safety measure that involved tracking the location of warehouse workers through their personal cell phones, The Information has learned.... Amazon has promised to spend billions of dollars this year on safety precautions to protect the...

Poshmark co-founder Tracy Sun. Photo by Bloomberg.

The Not-Amazons: Wish, Poshmark and the Race for Retail’s Soul

By Laura Mandaro · Nov 28, 2020 7:46am PST

To say 2020 has thrown retail shopping into upheaval would be a gross understatement. HP Inc. provided the latest reminder this week when it disclosed an 18% jump in unit sales of its consumer printers, an almost retro device that, along with e-bikes, virtual reality headsets and food delivery, people have discovered they want to have while... To say 2020 has thrown retail shopping into upheaval would be a gross understatement. HP Inc....

The Information’s 411 — I Left My Startup in San Francisco

By Cory Weinberg and Tom Dotan · Nov 27, 2020 11:35am PST

Cory talks to Scott Wiener, a member of the California state senate, about housing, the pandemic and the future of the tech industry in San Francisco. We wrote this week about the CEOs of Dropbox, Brex and Splunk leaving the city permanently. Wiener isn't sure the trend will last. "There have been a lot of speculative predictions that... Cory talks to Scott Wiener, a member of the California state senate, about housing, the pandemic...

Still images from The Crown (left), Bordertown, The Boys, Devs and Homeland. Photos provided by Netflix, Amazon, FX and Showtime

The Information’s Guide to 10 Must-Stream TV Shows

By The Information Staff · Nov 27, 2020 9:02am PST · 10 comments

The holiday season is a great time to curl up on the couch and immerse yourself in a streaming television show—and that is triply true when a pandemic has fouled up travel and most other opportunities for entertainment. The Information’s editorial staff reflected on some of their favorite offerings on Netflix, Amazon and other... The holiday season is a great time to curl up on the couch and immerse yourself in a streaming...

Illustration by Jesse Howe

Facebook Has a Recipe For Better Social Media. Why Isn’t The Company Using It?

By Robert Lindsay · Nov 27, 2020 6:00am PST · 11 comments

Illustration by Jesse Howe

Facebook Has a Recipe For Better Social Media. Why Isn’t The Company Using It?

By Robert Lindsay · Nov 27, 2020 6:00am PST · 11 comments

A New York Times article this week about the struggles within Facebook to get a handle on disinformation after the election illuminates a fascinating idea: surveying users to generate training data for artificial intelligence algorithms. As the Times reported: The company had surveyed users about whether certain posts they had seen were... A New York Times article this week about the struggles within Facebook to get a handle on...

Salesforce chief Marc Benioff. Photo by Bloomberg.

Salesforce Goes After Slack: The Information’s Tech Briefing

By Martin Peers · Nov 25, 2020 5:01pm PST

Just in time for the holidays, we have a possible big enterprise software merger. Salesforce’s interest in buying Slack, first reported by the Wall Street Journal, shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone. We even predicted Salesforce could be a bidder for the workplace messaging service last January, along with several other companies... Just in time for the holidays, we have a possible big enterprise software merger....

Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield (left) and Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff. Photos by Bloomberg

Slack Deal Could Fulfill Salesforce Chief’s Decade-Old Vision

By Kevin McLaughlin · Nov 25, 2020 2:27pm PST · 1 comment

Salesforce co-founder and CEO Marc Benioff has long had a vision of replacing email with new forms of collaboration software, though his attempts to build that future have mostly fizzled. Now it appears that Benioff might be on the verge of buying his way to that future, through a possible acquisition of Slack Technologies. A Salesforce... Salesforce co-founder and CEO Marc Benioff has long had a vision of replacing email with new...

Axel Springer's Lars Kahl. Photo by Axel Springer

Q&A

Insider’s Parent Axel Springer Wants to Help Drive US Media Mergers

By Mark Di Stefano · Nov 25, 2020 9:01am PST · 1 comment

Axel Springer, the German owner of Business Insider, is ready to take part in a second wave of consolidation in the U.S. digital media market, according to the company’s U.S.-based head of news and media investments, Lars Kahl. Backed by its big new shareholder, private equity giant KKR, Axel Springer wants to spend 2021 on an expansion... Axel Springer, the German owner of Business Insider, is ready to take part in a second wave of...

Gene Kimmelman. Photo: Bloomberg

The Biden Adviser Who Brawls With Big Tech

By Christopher Stern · Nov 25, 2020 6:01am PST · 3 comments

Gene Kimmelman. Photo: Bloomberg

The Biden Adviser Who Brawls With Big Tech

By Christopher Stern · Nov 25, 2020 6:01am PST · 3 comments

Gene Kimmelman, the consumer advocate preparing the incoming Biden administration to take over antitrust enforcement at the Justice Department, has been exasperating lawmakers, regulators and even his peers in the public interest community for more than 35 years. In the late 1980s, Rep. Rick Boucher, a Virginia Democrat, grew so frustrated over... Gene Kimmelman, the consumer advocate preparing the incoming Biden administration to take over...