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

How Lyft Trading Volumes Compare to Google and Twitter IPOs

By Amir Efrati · Apr 10, 2019 11:30am PDT · 3 comments

The inquest into how Lyft stock was pressured by short-sellers immediately after its IPO is far from over. But it is clear that trading volumes in Lyft in the first week after it went public were far higher than in the IPOs of Alibaba, Google, Facebook, Snap or Twitter, suggesting the Lyft aftermath is an historical anomaly.That’s... The inquest into how Lyft stock was pressured by short-sellers immediately after its IPO is far...

Amazon's Beth Galetti, center. Photo by Amazon

Amazon’s Talent Scout Has Tech’s Toughest HR Job

By Priya Anand · Apr 10, 2019 6:30am PDT · 1 comment

Last month, Amazon’s top human resources executive, Beth Galetti, told a group of employees at a company all-hands meeting how seriously she takes Amazon’s leadership principles, a collection of 14 company proverbs with titles like “bias for action” and “have backbone; disagree and commit.” Ms. Galetti told... Last month, Amazon’s top human resources executive, Beth Galetti, told a group of employees...

Customers in Beijing used JDPay electronic payment apps on their smartphones last year to pay at a 7FRESH grocery store operated by JD.com. Photo: AP

Deep Cuts Planned at China’s JD.com

By Juro Osawa and Yunan Zhang · Apr 9, 2019 8:32am PDT · 2 comments

Chinese online retail giant JD.com is working on a substantial round of layoffs that could slash the workforce of some teams by half, according to people briefed on the matter. In total, JD.com could cut up to 8% of its 150,000-plus workforce, or more than 12,000 jobs, according to investors in the Nasdaq-listed company. While it isn’t... Chinese online retail giant JD.com is working on a substantial round of layoffs that could slash...

How Iger Broke Disney’s Netflix Addiction

By Tom Dotan and Jessica Toonkel · Apr 9, 2019 6:32am PDT · 5 comments

How Iger Broke Disney’s Netflix Addiction

By Tom Dotan and Jessica Toonkel · Apr 9, 2019 6:32am PDT · 5 comments

In the spring of 2015, Tom Staggs, who had just become Disney’s chief operating officer, held a strategy discussion with his top TV executives about the future of television. Mr. Staggs issued warnings about Disney’s licensing of TV shows to Netflix, worrying that the entertainment giant was selling Netflix “the bullets”... In the spring of 2015, Tom Staggs, who had just become Disney’s chief operating officer,...

Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri. Photo by Bloomberg.

Oracle Gains Washington Traction With ‘Magic Suitcase’ Anti-Google Campaign

By Christopher Stern · Apr 8, 2019 11:14am PDT · 1 comment

Just over a year and a half ago, Oracle lobbyists started lugging a large black suitcase through the halls of Congress. It contained a tangle of communications equipment they used to demonstrate to members of Congress and regulators the river of real-time data that flows from Android phones to Google’s advertising servers.The... Just over a year and a half ago, Oracle lobbyists started lugging a large black suitcase through...

Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi. Photo by Bloomberg

Ten Questions Uber’s IPO Investors Should Ask

By Amir Efrati · Apr 8, 2019 6:32am PDT · 7 comments

Uber, which is expected to follow its smaller U.S. rival Lyft to the public market in the next month or so, could get a valuation of $110 billion based on where Lyft is now trading. But valuing Uber will be tougher than figuring out Lyft. Uber is a bigger, more global company with a fast-growing hot-food delivery business and a costly... Uber, which is expected to follow its smaller U.S. rival Lyft to the public market in the next...

Lyft's co-founders John Zimmer and Logan Green the day the company went public. Photo by Bloomberg

Lyft’s IPO Lessons

By Martin Peers · Apr 6, 2019 7:45am PDT

Lyft’s dramatic drop through its IPO price on its second day of trading on Monday sparked a lot of chatter about Lyft’s offering and the stock’s unusual short-selling-related trading patterns. The shares recovered by Friday, finishing the week above $74, so the immediate impact of the short-selling appears to have passed. But... Lyft’s dramatic drop through its IPO price on its second day of trading on Monday sparked a...

The Information’s 411 — Snapchat Is Fun Again

By Tom Dotan · Apr 5, 2019 4:20pm PDT · 1 comment

The Information’s 411 — Snapchat Is Fun Again

By Tom Dotan · Apr 5, 2019 4:20pm PDT · 1 comment

Beejoli joins to talk about Snap's new products and new image, how Disney is approaching original content for its new streaming service and the Hollywood standoff between TV writers and agencies. Beejoli joins to talk about Snap's new products and new image, how Disney is approaching...

Lyft's co founders John Zimmer and Logan Green after the company's IPO last Friday. Photo by Bloomberg.

Lyft Threatened Morgan Stanley With Legal Action Over Short-Selling Trades

By Martin Peers and Jessica Lessin · Apr 5, 2019 12:38pm PDT · 3 comments

Lyft threatened Morgan Stanley with legal action earlier this week, demanding in a letter the investment bank stop marketing a short-selling product that the ride-hailing firm believed was disrupting trading in its stock, according to four people familiar with the situation.The letter, sent on April 2, cited an article in the New York Post ... Lyft threatened Morgan Stanley with legal action earlier this week, demanding in a letter the...

Amazon Web Services CEO Andy Jassy at a conference in March. Photo by Bloomberg

Demand Soaring for Amazon AI Services? Not So Fast

By Kevin McLaughlin and Amir Efrati · Apr 5, 2019 6:32am PDT · 2 comments

Big cloud computing providers have said customers are clamoring for their artificial intelligence services, which help companies with everything from translating text into speech to automatically recognizing images to fraud detection. Just this week, an investment analyst raised his share price target for Amazon, the dominant player in cloud... Big cloud computing providers have said customers are clamoring for their artificial intelligence...

Atlassian's Jay Simons. Photo by Atlassian

The Big Interview

Atlassian, a Software Outlier, Grows Up

By Kevin McLaughlin · Apr 4, 2019 10:30am PDT

Atlassian isn’t your typical cloud software maker. The company started in Australia, a country that hasn’t produced many globally recognized hits in the tech business. And it found success for its products, which enable teams inside companies to work collaboratively on complex projects, by mostly avoiding the pushy sales and... Atlassian isn’t your typical cloud software maker. The company started in Australia, a...

The People Behind ByteDance’s App Factory

By Yunan Zhang · Apr 4, 2019 6:30am PDT · 3 comments

The People Behind ByteDance’s App Factory

By Yunan Zhang · Apr 4, 2019 6:30am PDT · 3 comments

To grow fast in China, apparently, you’ve also got to get big.ByteDance, the Chinese company behind TikTok, the viral short video app that has taken the world’s teenagers by storm, has gone on a massive hiring spree in the past year. Its headcount has roughly doubled to 40,000—more than Facebook, which had 35,600 at Dec.... To grow fast in China, apparently, you’ve also got to get big.ByteDance, the Chinese...

Mike Sullivan

Crypto Newsletter

The Race to Become Crypto’s ‘Red Hat’

By Jon Victor · Apr 3, 2019 1:00pm PDT · 1 comment

If you’re reading this, you probably already know that bitcoin is on a roll this week, jumping about 25% since Monday. But since the price could go back down in a few hours, let’s focus on two important trends that appear here to stay: the competition to become the “Red Hat” of crypto, and how staking is changing the... If you’re reading this, you probably already know that bitcoin is on a roll this week,...

A Chinese employee shows a wafer containing Huaxintong Semiconductor Technology's StarDragon chip. Photo by AP

Qualcomm’s China Venture Shows Risks of Beijing’s Tech Ambition

By Aaron Tilley, Wayne Ma and Juro Osawa · Apr 3, 2019 7:32am PDT

A joint venture between Qualcomm and the government of a rural Chinese province to make server chips appears to have stalled. And with it, a symbol of China’s push to boost its homegrown industries could instead spotlight the perils of letting bureaucrats pick technology winners.Chinese government officials showcased Huaxintong... A joint venture between Qualcomm and the government of a rural Chinese province to make server...

Ren Zhengfei, founder and chief executive officer of Huawei Technologies. Photo by Bloomberg.

Facing U.S. Pushback, Huawei Aims to Triple Its Consumer Electronics Business to $150 Billion

By Juro Osawa · Apr 3, 2019 5:40am PDT

Huawei’s fight against Samsung and Apple is about to get even fiercer. The Chinese tech giant wants to more than triple its consumer electronics sales to $150 billion in four years, according to an internal speech last week by its founder. As Huawei’s other big business of selling infrastructure for wireless networks... Huawei’s fight against Samsung and Apple is about to get even fiercer. The Chinese tech...

Elizabeth Olsen in 2018. Photo by AP.

As Disney Plans Streaming Launch, Speed and Marketing Are Key

By Beejoli Shah · Apr 2, 2019 10:01am PDT

Elizabeth Olsen in 2018. Photo by AP.

As Disney Plans Streaming Launch, Speed and Marketing Are Key

By Beejoli Shah · Apr 2, 2019 10:01am PDT

In Hollywood, television writers’ rooms are normally seen as sacrosanct creative spaces that are off-limits to business executives. But when writers for the three Marvel Studio TV shows destined for Disney’s new streaming service gather to brainstorm, Marvel Studios production vice president Nate Moore and other executives are often... In Hollywood, television writers’ rooms are normally seen as sacrosanct creative spaces...

Shopify CEO and co-founder Tobias Lütke. Photo by Bloomberg

Microsoft Considers Creating a Shopify Competitor

By Priya Anand · Apr 2, 2019 6:31am PDT · 1 comment

Shopify may be the most important e-commerce company the average shopper has never heard of, powering the websites of many e-commerce services and brands like Red Bull, Budweiser and Allbirds. Now Microsoft is considering trying to grab some of the market, a top Microsoft executive says.Microsoft, which already provides cloud computing services... Shopify may be the most important e-commerce company the average shopper has never heard of,...

Modest Proposals

What Will Happen to the Social Wealth of Instagram Influencers as They Age?

By Sam Lessin · Apr 1, 2019 10:17am PDT · 10 comments

Instagram has driven what can only be categorized as an explosion of social wealth for the largest celebrities and influencers over the last few years.For generations, celebrities essentially were products sold through a large and complicated media and entertainment ecosystem, and their message and longevity was managed by the production... Instagram has driven what can only be categorized as an explosion of social wealth for the...

Taobao's web site. Photo by Bloomberg

Alibaba’s Ad Shift Shows Path for Amazon

By Juro Osawa · Apr 1, 2019 6:31am PDT · 1 comment

For a look at how Amazon could develop its ad business, it’s worth paying attention to what China’s Alibaba is doing.Alibaba is China’s biggest digital advertising platform, thanks to search ads it sells to merchants promoting their items on its Taobao marketplace. Now, Alibaba is testing new types of ads that are designed to... For a look at how Amazon could develop its ad business, it’s worth paying attention to what...

The Apple Brand and Its Hidden Messages

By Jessica Lessin · Mar 30, 2019 10:16am PDT

The Apple Brand and Its Hidden Messages

By Jessica Lessin · Mar 30, 2019 10:16am PDT

Long before Friday’s Lyft IPO mania, we were all talking about Apple’s big Monday media event, which I watched from afar.Maybe it was because we already knew what was coming. Or that Apple wasn’t ready to share many details.But the thing I can't get out of my head about Apple’s big media news this week has nothing to... Long before Friday’s Lyft IPO mania, we were all talking about Apple’s big Monday...