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

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Recent Editions

Cast members of Yahoo's cancelled original "Community." Photo by Flickr/Gage Skidmore

Yahoo Originals Department Shuttered

By Tom Dotan · Feb 18, 2016 4:41pm PST

Yahoo’s original programming division was laid off on Wednesday, including its head Ian Moffitt. The move, which happened during company-wide layoffs, is perhaps the final nail in the coffin for Yahoo’s original video ambitions. The company confirmed Mr. Moffitt’s departure but declined to elaborate.Mr. Moffitt, who was... Yahoo’s original programming division was laid off on Wednesday, including its head Ian...

Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer. Photo by Bloomberg.

The True Value of Yahoo Finance

By Amir Efrati · Feb 18, 2016 3:07pm PST · 4 comments

As potential buyers look at Yahoo’s assets, they may come to view Yahoo Finance as representing a meaningful percentage of the company’s enterprise value.Even as traffic to some of Yahoo’s core products has declined meaningfully in the past year, Yahoo Finance seems to be holding steady, internal data show. As potential buyers look at Yahoo’s assets, they may come to view Yahoo Finance as...

Airbnb co-founder Nathan Blecharczyk. Photo by Bloomberg.

What Investors Think About Private Tech’s Biggest Companies

By Alfred Lee · Feb 18, 2016 7:00am PST

Drilling down into the details of how mutual funds value their private tech investments, as we did last week, can do more than explain their writedowns. By applying some back of the envelope math to mutual fund disclosures, it’s possible to figure out what kind of revenue growth these investors expect from the private firms, among other... Drilling down into the details of how mutual funds value their private tech investments, as we...

Salesforce's Tod Nielsen. Photo by Flickr/Luke Kilpatrick.

Salesforce’s Platform Chief to Depart

By Steve Nellis · Feb 17, 2016 4:15pm PST

Salesforce's Tod Nielsen. Photo by Flickr/Luke Kilpatrick.

Salesforce’s Platform Chief to Depart

By Steve Nellis · Feb 17, 2016 4:15pm PST

Tod Nielsen, the Salesforce.com executive vice president who oversees the Heroku and Force.com app-building platforms, is leaving the company at the end of March, he confirmed.His departure could be a sign that Salesforce is rethinking its strategy towards Heroku and Force.com. Salesforce has struggled for years to harmonize the two platforms,... Tod Nielsen, the Salesforce.com executive vice president who oversees the Heroku and Force.com...

Marc Maron. Photo by Flickr/Timothy Krause.

Can Podcasting Ever Be an Industry?

By Tom Dotan · Feb 17, 2016 10:00am PST · 6 comments

The breakout success of "Serial" has helped bring new listeners to podcasts. And more importantly, it also has gotten big advertisers interested in podcasting’s audience.But this won’t necessarily transform podcasting into a true industry that can scale with its audience and growing number of shows. Instead, without more... The breakout success of "Serial" has helped bring new listeners to podcasts. And more...

Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer. Photo by Bloomberg.

The Death March of Yahoo’s Core Products

By Amir Efrati · Feb 17, 2016 7:00am PST · 8 comments

The number of people visiting Yahoo’s three most important products—Yahoo Mail, the Yahoo.com home page and Yahoo Search—on a daily basis declined meaningfully over the past year, according to confidential internal data. It’s a reminder of the deep challenges any potential buyer of Yahoo would face.Daily active users... The number of people visiting Yahoo’s three most important products—Yahoo Mail, the...

Dropbox CEO Drew Houston. Photo by Bloomberg.

The SaaS Startup Valuation Gap

By Steve Nellis · Feb 16, 2016 7:00am PST · 5 comments

In the past two weeks, the sinking prices of publicly traded subscription software stocks like LinkedIn and Box have had an interesting effect on privately held firms. All of a sudden, startup valuations that looked reasonable over the past two years look like a stratospheric premium compared with public markets. Take Domo. It helps businesses... In the past two weeks, the sinking prices of publicly traded subscription software stocks like...

Nashik, India. Photo by Bloomberg.

The Best Argument Against an Internet ‘On Ramp’

By Amir Efrati · Feb 15, 2016 7:00am PST · 2 comments

Nashik, India. Photo by Bloomberg.

The Best Argument Against an Internet ‘On Ramp’

By Amir Efrati · Feb 15, 2016 7:00am PST · 2 comments

India’s rejection of Facebook’s “Free Basics” mobile app and other similar services last week mystified some prominent tech entrepreneurs and investors in the U.S. These people tend to believe that access to free Internet services, even if it’s a limited subset of the broader Web, is better than having no Internet... India’s rejection of Facebook’s “Free Basics” mobile app and other...

The Information You Missed

By The Information Staff · Feb 13, 2016 8:00am PST

Happy Presidents’ Day Weekend! We’ll jump right into the stories of the week, which covered a lot of ground. NEWSMutual funds use various methods to analyze the value of private tech companies and Alfred has the details. They include the revenue growth assumptions investors are using for companies like Uber and Palantir. Inside... Happy Presidents’ Day Weekend! We’ll jump right into the stories of the week,...

The Information's 411

The Information’s 411 — Hype Smoothie

By Tom Dotan · Feb 12, 2016 1:49pm PST

Compared to a few years ago, there’s a lot more skepticism today within the tech and finance worlds around startups. All those concerns came to a head this week in a pair of stories we did that touched on themes we’ve been following closely.The first was Alfred’s deep dive into the methods mutual funds and other public market... Compared to a few years ago, there’s a lot more skepticism today within the tech and...

Goldman Sachs President and COO Gary Cohn in San Francisco this week. Photo by Bloomberg.

What’s Going on With the Economy?

By Jessica E. Lessin · Feb 12, 2016 7:00am PST · 3 comments

Dear Subscribers,The market rout continues—worsens, even. And the tech sector is taking its punches. So the questions on my mind this week were how bad is it, how long are we going to be here and what signposts should we follow?I picked the brain of Goldman Sachs President Gary Cohn on these topics Tuesday, a day before Fed head... Dear Subscribers,The market rout continues—worsens, even. And the tech sector is taking its...

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. Photo by Bloomberg.

Why Twitter is Hard to Buy

By Amir Efrati · Feb 11, 2016 3:17pm PST · 2 comments

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. Photo by Bloomberg.

Why Twitter is Hard to Buy

By Amir Efrati · Feb 11, 2016 3:17pm PST · 2 comments

Twitter shares fell 4.5% today following a disappointing fourth-quarter earnings announcement on Wednesday. Wall Street is valuing the company at a little more than $6 billion, excluding its cash reserves. That’s five times less than it was worth a year ago. That’s why Twitter has drawn some interest from private equity firms and... Twitter shares fell 4.5% today following a disappointing fourth-quarter earnings announcement on...

Travis Kalanick, CEO of Uber, whose shares have been valued differently by different mutual funds. Photo by Bloomberg.

Inside How Mutual Funds Value Private Tech

By Alfred Lee · Feb 11, 2016 7:00am PST · 1 comment

The sudden and sizable valuation markdowns of high-flying private companies like Snapchat, Dropbox and Zenefits by mutual fund investors has been one of the biggest stories in tech, sowing fears that the market is deflating. They’ve also caused consternation among founders, who have had to defend their companies’ earlier valuations... The sudden and sizable valuation markdowns of high-flying private companies like Snapchat,...

Ted Livingston, Kik’s co-founder and CEO. Art by Matt Vascellaro.

The Big Interview

Kik and the Coming Bot ‘Gold Rush’

By Cory Weinberg · Feb 10, 2016 10:30am PST · 5 comments

Eighteen months ago, teen-centric messaging app Kik partnered with companies like Vans and Comedy Central so that they could pay to blast out promotions about products or videos. It was Kik’s early foray into bots, as brands could ask questions or send canned responses depending on what keywords people used in messages.The idea flopped,... Eighteen months ago, teen-centric messaging app Kik partnered with companies like Vans and Comedy...

Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel speaks to journalist Ken Auletta. Photo by Larry Busacca/Getty Image.

Snapchat’s Push Against Branded Content

By Tom Dotan · Feb 10, 2016 7:01am PST · 6 comments

Last summer, when Bacardi wanted to do a social media campaign for its liqueur brand St-Germain, the company first turned to Snapchat.Bacardi’s media agency, Possible Worldwide, presented the idea of a series of Live Stories videos in the style of a peep show that featured “New Girl” actress Hannah Simone interacting with... Last summer, when Bacardi wanted to do a social media campaign for its liqueur brand St-Germain,...

Source: Company Filings

Amazon’s Exploding Employee Base

By Steve Nellis and Peter Schulz · Feb 9, 2016 11:12am PST

Source: Company Filings

Amazon’s Exploding Employee Base

By Steve Nellis and Peter Schulz · Feb 9, 2016 11:12am PST

Amazon often gets lumped in with other big tech companies like Google, Apple or Microsoft. But there’s one way it diverges from its peers: Its workforce is exploding, growing by 50 percent over the past year to nearly double the size of its nearest headcount competitor, Microsoft. (See accompanying chart.)More people are buying more stuff... Amazon often gets lumped in with other big tech companies like Google, Apple or Microsoft. But...

Honest Co. co-founder Jessica Alba. Photo by Bloomberg.

Private Tech Database

Honest Company’s Investor ‘Ratchets’

By Alfred Lee · Feb 9, 2016 7:02am PST

The Honest Company is reportedly preparing for an initial public offering in the face of a tumultuous public market. But even if the IPO struggles, many of the retailer’s investors would be cushioned against losses. That’s because they have so-called “ratchet” protections that grant them more shares to make up for drops... The Honest Company is reportedly preparing for an initial public offering in the face of a...

Former Zenefits CEO Parker Conrad at The Information Subscriber Summit in San Francisco in October.

A Lesson for Founders from Parker Conrad

By Jessica E. Lessin · Feb 8, 2016 7:12pm PST · 10 comments

Silicon Valley is rattled tonight by the sudden resignation of Zenefits CEO Parker Conrad, an outspoken, rough-around-the-edges founder who had been under attack from multiple corners. The company, which racked up a $4.5 billion valuation by helping small businesses handle benefits and insurance, had missed its revenue projections and gotten... Silicon Valley is rattled tonight by the sudden resignation of Zenefits CEO Parker Conrad, an...

Graphic by Sam Lessin.

Modest Proposals

Why Startups Are Doomed, Part Two

By Sam Lessin · Feb 8, 2016 10:01am PST · 13 comments

Jessica’s Friday column “End of Tech Startups” argued that today’s big technology companies are nimble, smart, and well run—and that until there is another fundamental technology disruption, the window of opportunity for startups is limited to more traditional markets with less competitive players.I agree with... Jessica’s Friday column “End of Tech Startups” argued that today’s big...

Google office photo by Bloomberg.

Startup Recruiting Woes Benefit Big Tech

By Reed Albergotti and Cory Weinberg · Feb 8, 2016 7:01am PST · 5 comments

Google office photo by Bloomberg.

Startup Recruiting Woes Benefit Big Tech

By Reed Albergotti and Cory Weinberg · Feb 8, 2016 7:01am PST · 5 comments

After spending her entire career at tech startups, Jennifer Maiorana took a sabbatical during much of last year. When the 34-year-old returned, the outlook for private tech companies had changed.She considered re-joining Dstillery, an ad tech company where she had worked in sales, but the public markets foreshadowed a bumpy road ahead for... After spending her entire career at tech startups, Jennifer Maiorana took a sabbatical during...