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 — Charlie and the CFO Factory

By Tom Dotan · Nov 30, 2018 5:26pm PST

Tom talks about Mic's firesale to Bustle and what it means for digital media. Priya talks about how Amazon seeded CFOs across the tech industry. Tom talks about Mic's firesale to Bustle and what it means for digital media. Priya talks...

Bollywood actors Kareena Kapoor and Madhuri Dixit pose during a red carpet of Netflix's Mowgli world premier in Mumbai, India last Sunday. Photo by AP

To Go Global, Netflix Sends U.S. Writers to Foreign Shores

By Beejoli Shah · Nov 30, 2018 7:00am PST · 3 comments

Matt Pyken knows how to tell a story. Over a 20-year career as a writer, he has worked on broadcast TV dramas including “Empire” and “Castle,” and consulted on other shows, including “Mr. Robot.” But over the past few months he had an entirely new assignment: helping TV writers in India learn to write for a... Matt Pyken knows how to tell a story. Over a 20-year career as a writer, he has worked on...

A publicity photo from Lady Gaga's collaboration with Intel. Photo by Intel

Intel Pulls Back From In-House Ad Agency

By Aaron Tilley · Nov 29, 2018 6:34pm PST · 1 comment

In recent years, the chip giant Intel sought to burnish its brand with a series of whimsical marketing antics—from a light show at the 2018 Winter Olympics consisting of Intel drones to a collaboration with Lady Gaga, who performed at the 2016 Grammy Awards with dancing robotic arms and interactive holograms.Now Intel is sharply scaling... In recent years, the chip giant Intel sought to burnish its brand with a series of whimsical...

Art by Danielle Davis

Sidewalk Labs’ Grand Vision Meets Reality in Toronto

By Cory Weinberg · Nov 29, 2018 8:31am PST

Art by Danielle Davis

Sidewalk Labs’ Grand Vision Meets Reality in Toronto

By Cory Weinberg · Nov 29, 2018 8:31am PST

Sidewalk Labs executives were full of ambition two years ago when they pitched their parent company, Alphabet, more than 600 pages of plans for building a city neighborhood from scratch. The 2016 proposal, which Sidewalk described as preliminary, was designed to stretch the conventions of urban planning, proposing things like enclosing the newly... Sidewalk Labs executives were full of ambition two years ago when they pitched their parent...

Mic CEO Chris Altchek. Photo by Flickr/Ole Bader.

Mic’s Anticipated Sale Price Less Than $10 Million

By Tom Dotan · Nov 29, 2018 6:41am PST · 5 comments

Bustle is nearing a deal to buy millennial news site Mic for less than $10 million, according to two people familiar with the matter. That price, which hasn’t previously been reported, would be a massive discount to Mic’s last reported valuation in 2017, when it was said to have raised money at a valuation in the hundreds of millions... Bustle is nearing a deal to buy millennial news site Mic for less than $10 million, according to...

Crypto Newsletter

Bear Market Fallout; Civil Pivots

By Jon Victor · Nov 28, 2018 1:03pm PST

I hope you had a restorative Thanksgiving holiday, and that you were able to concentrate more on food and family rather than on the value of your crypto holdings. Bitcoin remains in a slump, hovering around $4,300 as of this afternoon, though it has recovered from its lows of a few days ago, when it traded at $3,600.Still, there are signs that... I hope you had a restorative Thanksgiving holiday, and that you were able to concentrate more on...

Former Amazon executives (from left) Chris Nielsen, Greg Greeley, Jason Warnick, Dave Stephenson, Allen Parker.

Amazon, the Tech Industry’s CFO Factory

By Priya Anand · Nov 28, 2018 7:00am PST · 2 comments

While technology companies have struggled to find chief financial officers, a growing number of them have started shopping for CFOs at the same place: Amazon.The Seattle-based e-commerce giant, known for its culture of bean-counting, has become a wellspring of talent for companies looking to inject more financial discipline into their ranks.... While technology companies have struggled to find chief financial officers, a growing number of...

Reversal of Fortune: Didi Chuxing on the Defensive

By Yunan Zhang · Nov 27, 2018 3:40pm PST

Reversal of Fortune: Didi Chuxing on the Defensive

By Yunan Zhang · Nov 27, 2018 3:40pm PST

Last year, when Uber was grappling with a series of controversies that led to the ouster of founder Travis Kalanick, the president of China’s ride-hailing behemoth Didi Chuxing, Jean Liu, was being touted as an executive role model. What a difference a year makes. Even as a new CEO at Uber has calmed the waters at that company, Didi has... Last year, when Uber was grappling with a series of controversies that led to the ouster of...

A Waymo van in Phoenix. Photo by Waymo

Waymo’s Cars Play It Safer After Incidents and ‘Driver Fatigue’

By Amir Efrati · Nov 27, 2018 7:01am PST · 2 comments

Waymo has only weeks to meet its self-imposed deadline to launch a public taxi service using fully automated cars by the end of 2018. And right now, that deadline looks tough for the company to meet.The Information has learned that within the past month or so, due to concerns about safety, the Alphabet company put so-called “safety... Waymo has only weeks to meet its self-imposed deadline to launch a public taxi service using...

China’s Video Craze Drives Growth for ByteDance

By Juro Osawa and Yunan Zhang · Nov 26, 2018 10:00am PST · 1 comment

China’s ByteDance, the world’s most valuable startup, had its first success with a personalized news feed, Toutiao. New data shows its short-form video app Douyin has become an even bigger hit. But there are signs that the rapid growth rate of Chinese video apps is starting to slow. And that raises a new question for ByteDance: Does... China’s ByteDance, the world’s most valuable startup, had its first success with a...

Startups to Watch

These Startups Want to Revolutionize Health Care, Gaming and Transportation

By The Information Staff · Nov 26, 2018 7:00am PST

It isn't unusual for big company employees to spot ways to improve on products or internal operations. That can lead to startup ideas, as we have found with a couple of the firms profiled in our latest installment of Startups to Watch. One is a firm founded by a former Apple employee attempting to improve manufacturing automation. Another... It isn't unusual for big company employees to spot ways to improve on products or internal...

Time for a New Type of Tech CEO?

By Jessica E. Lessin · Nov 24, 2018 9:12am PST · 6 comments

Time for a New Type of Tech CEO?

By Jessica E. Lessin · Nov 24, 2018 9:12am PST · 6 comments

It’s been a tough month for tech’s most powerful CEOs, capping a tough year. For Mark Zuckerberg, Sundar Pichai, Elon Musk, Evan Spiegel and even Jeff Bezos, 2018 brought intense media attention, crises of investor confidence and a drumbeat of regulatory scrutiny like nothing in recent history.But you know who had a pretty good year?... It’s been a tough month for tech’s most powerful CEOs, capping a tough year. For Mark...

The Information’s 411 — Believing, On a Jet Plane

By Tom Dotan · Nov 23, 2018 1:32pm PST

Cory hosts this week and talks to Tom about Snap and how Evan Spiegel's longterm vision for the company is running up against its near-term realities. Aaron talks about how Apple is thinking about widening distribution for its TV service. Cory hosts this week and talks to Tom about Snap and how Evan Spiegel's longterm vision for...

A Pony.ai car. Photo by AP

China’s Autonomous Driving Startups Join the Billion-Dollar Club

By Yunan Zhang · Nov 23, 2018 7:01am PST

In the race to develop autonomous cars, Silicon Valley companies like Alphabet’s Waymo are far ahead. But a wave of Chinese startups are raising of hundreds of millions of dollars to try to catch up. And these companies, including Pony.ai, Roadstar.ai, WeRide.ai and Momenta, have an edge: Their U.S. competitors may be shut out of the... In the race to develop autonomous cars, Silicon Valley companies like Alphabet’s Waymo are...

An Amazon Web Services event in San Francisco last year. Photo by Bloomberg

AWS to Expand Security Offerings With Threat-Hunting Tool

By Kevin McLaughlin, Sarah Kuranda and Amir Efrati · Nov 21, 2018 3:53pm PST

Amazon’s cloud unit is working on two new services to help customers identify security threats, as the company steps up its use of artificial intelligence to protect customers’ applications and data, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter and two people briefed on the cloud unit’s plans. Both of the new... Amazon’s cloud unit is working on two new services to help customers identify security...

Mike Sullivan

Crypto Exchanges Face Disclosure Conundrum

By Jon Victor · Nov 21, 2018 1:14pm PST

Mike Sullivan

Crypto Newsletter

Crypto Exchanges Face Disclosure Conundrum

By Jon Victor · Nov 21, 2018 1:14pm PST

As tech stocks slide, crypto prices continue their downward march: The price of bitcoin briefly fell as low as $4,100 on Tuesday, a far cry from the $6,500 level it had been trading at just a few weeks ago. Meanwhile, the Justice Department is investigating whether bitcoin’s rise last year was fueled partly by market manipulation, and the... As tech stocks slide, crypto prices continue their downward march: The price of bitcoin briefly...

Apple's TV streaming box. Photo by Bloomberg

Apple Considered New Connected TV ‘Dongle’

By Aaron Tilley and Jessica Toonkel · Nov 21, 2018 12:24pm PST

To get more viewers for its upcoming TV streaming service, Apple has contemplated going downmarket on its TV hardware. The tech giant has had internal discussions about introducing a low-priced streaming “dongle” that people could plug into the back of their TV sets, similar to Amazon’s Fire Stick or Google’s Chromecast,... To get more viewers for its upcoming TV streaming service, Apple has contemplated going...

Image: Shutterstock

Tech’s New Bidding War: Niche Software Firms

By Alfred Lee · Nov 21, 2018 7:02am PST · 2 comments

Bidding wars are breaking out over tech companies that once were easily overlooked: tiny software firms that service entities like hospital pharmacies and sawmills.The companies are growing too slowly in niche markets to be attractive to venture capital. But investors are competing to buy the firms, betting they can boost growth and that... Bidding wars are breaking out over tech companies that once were easily overlooked: tiny software...

Apple's HomePod features the company's Siri virtual assistant. Photo by Bloomberg

Apple Acquires AI Device Startup Silk Labs

By Aaron Tilley · Nov 20, 2018 4:30pm PST · 1 comment

Apple has quietly acquired a startup, Silk Labs, that specializes in making artificial intelligence software lightweight enough to fit onto consumer hardware like cameras, another sign of its growing ambitions around AI and smart home devices. The acquisition, which hasn’t been reported before, occurred earlier this year, according to a... Apple has quietly acquired a startup, Silk Labs, that specializes in making artificial...

Ctrip CEO Jane Jie Sun

Trade War, Slowing Economy Test China’s Biggest Travel Site

By Shai Oster · Nov 20, 2018 7:01am PST

Ctrip CEO Jane Jie Sun

The Big Interview

Trade War, Slowing Economy Test China’s Biggest Travel Site

By Shai Oster · Nov 20, 2018 7:01am PST

Ctrip.com, China’s biggest travel and hotel booking website, is getting pummeled by investors. After forecasting earlier this month that profits could fall to zero next quarter and warning it couldn’t predict next year because of the slowing pace of economic growth amid a trade war, shares of the New York–listed stock fell 19%.... Ctrip.com, China’s biggest travel and hotel booking website, is getting pummeled by...