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

Our Top Comments of the Week

By The Information Staff · May 6, 2016 11:42am PDT

Here are this week’s top comments as selected by our reporters and editors. Here are this week’s top comments as selected by our reporters and editors.

Tim Cook, left, Eddy Cue, Les Moonves and Joe Ianniello of CBS. Photo by Bloomberg.

The Wrong Way to Do ‘Skinny Bundles’

By Jessica E. Lessin · May 6, 2016 7:01am PDT · 2 comments

It’s been a surprisingly good few weeks for “old media.” While tech high fliers like Alphabet and Apple missed analysts’ earnings expectations, Comcast, CBS and Time Warner beat them. The television business is proving more resilient than investors and the press are giving it credit for. It’s been a surprisingly good few weeks for “old media.” While tech high fliers...

Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom. Photo by Bloomberg.

Sports Networks Want Instagram to Install Video Fence

By Cory Weinberg · May 5, 2016 7:00am PDT

Instagram’s efforts to become a hub for user-generated and professional videos have hit a snag: its lack of a fence. Instagram doesn’t have so-called “geofencing” capability, allowing it to cordon off the videos posted on the app for viewing only by users in particular countries. That is stopping some sports broadcasters... Instagram’s efforts to become a hub for user-generated and professional videos have hit a...

Mashable founder Pete Cashmore. Photo by Flickr/Josh Hallett.

Mashable’s Costly Path to Video

By Tom Dotan · May 4, 2016 12:58pm PDT · 10 comments

Mashable founder Pete Cashmore. Photo by Flickr/Josh Hallett.

Mashable’s Costly Path to Video

By Tom Dotan · May 4, 2016 12:58pm PDT · 10 comments

As this week’s Newfront digital video ad presentations in New York highlight, most news sites have been building up video production in the past couple of years. It’s a way to tap the $70 billion in TV ad dollars some think could switch to digital in the coming years. But as sites are discovering, video is also hugely expensive to... As this week’s Newfront digital video ad presentations in New York highlight, most news...

Janus' Brad Slingerlend, left, and Denny Fish. Photo by Steve Nellis.

Q&A

Mutual Fund Janus Makes Bear Case on Private Tech

By Steve Nellis and Martin Peers · May 4, 2016 7:02am PDT · 3 comments

Startup valuations have skyrocketed in recent years, with big influxes of cash from mutual funds like Fidelity and T. Rowe Price fueling the rise. So it’s easy to think that mutual funds must be falling over themselves to get a stake in startups.Not so for the Janus Global Technology Fund, a $2.5 billion fund that will turn 18 this year.... Startup valuations have skyrocketed in recent years, with big influxes of cash from mutual funds...

An Uber ad on a taxi. Photo by Flickr/Alper Cugun.

Uber Bolsters its Marketing Ranks

By Amir Efrati · May 3, 2016 12:40pm PDT · 5 comments

Uber has hired its first vice president of growth marketing, Kellyn Kenny, signaling that it may be stepping up its marketing war against Lyft.Ms. Kenny, whose appointment was confirmed by the company, was most recently a top “brand strategist” at Capital One, the credit card and financial services firm. Prior to that, she worked on... Uber has hired its first vice president of growth marketing, Kellyn Kenny, signaling that it may...

Art by Matt Vascellaro.

The Big Interview

Salesforce’s Developer Strategy: Target the Non-Coders

By Steve Nellis · May 3, 2016 10:01am PDT

Salesforce.com’s new platform chief, Adam Seligman, has a novel idea. He wants to turn 100 million business analysts and digital marketing executives into “developers” who’ll use Salesforce’s app-building tools.The technology he’s pitching is called Lightning, a part of Salesforce’s Force.com service.... Salesforce.com’s new platform chief, Adam Seligman, has a novel idea. He wants to turn 100...

Source: ChannelMeter

Facebook Videos Live Fast, Die Young

By Tom Dotan and Peter Schulz · May 3, 2016 7:01am PDT · 4 comments

Source: ChannelMeter

Facebook Videos Live Fast, Die Young

By Tom Dotan and Peter Schulz · May 3, 2016 7:01am PDT · 4 comments

While YouTube and Facebook have established themselves as major hubs for mobile video, the lifespan of content on each platform is markedly different. Put in astronomical terms, a Facebook video is a brief supernova, peaking early and then quickly fading out; a YouTube video is more like a cooling star that emits a small flash of light then... While YouTube and Facebook have established themselves as major hubs for mobile video, the...

Larry Ellison. Photo by Bloomberg.

In the Cloud, Oracle Shops the Discount Aisle

By Steve Nellis · May 2, 2016 12:02pm PDT

With two deals in two weeks, Oracle seems to have kicked off the cloud software deal-making spree that The Information and others have predicted for a year. It’s easy to see why: Oracle is getting much-needed cloud revenue at historically low prices in industries where it already has a foothold it can leverage. A quick sift through... With two deals in two weeks, Oracle seems to have kicked off the cloud software deal-making spree...

Mike Clayville. Art by Matt Vascellaro.

Amazon Web Services’ Revenue Wrangler

By Steve Nellis · May 2, 2016 7:01am PDT · 1 comment

General Electric spent more than a year negotiating with Amazon Web Services before moving big chunks of its computing work there. During that time, AWS’ chief of enterprise sales, Mike Clayville, got everyone from AWS CEO Andy Jassy to other customers to answer GE’s questions about AWS’ security and reliability.By making GE... General Electric spent more than a year negotiating with Amazon Web Services before moving big...

The Weekly Digest

The Information You Missed This Week

By The Information Staff · Apr 30, 2016 8:02am PDT

Good morning!Investment bankers are having their day in the sun, thanks to a spate of deals this week (Rovi-TiVo, AbbVie-Stemcentrx, Comcast-DreamWorks Animation, etc.). All this before Yahoo’s auction wraps up. But there’s plenty else going on in tech. Check out these stories. Good morning!Investment bankers are having their day in the sun, thanks to a spate of deals this...

The Information’s 411 — Infosphere

By Tom Dotan · Apr 29, 2016 12:48pm PDT

The Information’s 411 — Infosphere

By Tom Dotan · Apr 29, 2016 12:48pm PDT

Sam argues that most TV shows should be edited way down. Cory discusses WhatsApp's revenue-generating plans and Tom explains why HBO might be in trouble.You can find our RSS feed here or subscribe via iTunes and SoundCloud. Sam argues that most TV shows should be edited way down. Cory discusses WhatsApp's...

Our Top Comments of the Week

By The Information Staff · Apr 29, 2016 10:42am PDT

Here are this week’s top comments as selected by our reporters and editors. Here are this week’s top comments as selected by our reporters and editors.

Stemcentrx and the New Startup Dispersion

By Jessica E. Lessin · Apr 29, 2016 7:02am PDT

Yesterday was an M&A bonanza with some $50 billion in deals announced, led by pharma and rounded out by Comcast’s acquisition of DreamWorks Animation. But the deal that caught my eye the most was the sale of Stemcentrx, a South San Francisco startup trying to eliminate cancer, to AbbVie for $6.2 billion in upfront cash and stock and as... Yesterday was an M&A bonanza with some $50 billion in deals announced, led by pharma and...

Jeff Bezos. Photo by Bloomberg.

Why Stalled AWS Margins Should Worry Cloud Investors

By Steve Nellis · Apr 28, 2016 4:23pm PDT · 1 comment

Amazon’s first quarter showed a solid profit on better-than-expected revenue. But there was a dim spot: Operating margins for the company’s fast-growing cloud computing segment, Amazon Web Services, fell slightly to 27.9% from the previous quarter. It’s beginning to look like that’s the industry norm for cloud computing.... Amazon’s first quarter showed a solid profit on better-than-expected revenue. But there was...

Source: The Information Subscriber Survey

Subscribers Shy Away From Original Sharing

By Peter Schulz and Cory Weinberg · Apr 28, 2016 10:01am PDT · 3 comments

Source: The Information Subscriber Survey

Subscriber Survey

Subscribers Shy Away From Original Sharing

By Peter Schulz and Cory Weinberg · Apr 28, 2016 10:01am PDT · 3 comments

Nearly two-thirds of The Information subscribers responding to our latest subscriber survey say they share fewer personal posts to Facebook than they did a couple years ago. Only 8.8% said they shared more.The findings are in line with The Information’s report this month that the company is struggling to reverse a double-digit decline in... Nearly two-thirds of The Information subscribers responding to our latest subscriber survey say...

Reddit co-founder and CEO Steve Huffman. Photo by Bloomberg.

Reddit’s Ad Push: Two Steps Forward, One Back

By Amir Efrati · Apr 28, 2016 7:01am PDT

Reddit’s ad business is beginning to take off, though not as quickly as some at the company had hoped.The online news aggregator and discussion forum recently projected internally that it would boost revenue to more than $20 million this year, from single-digit millions last year, according to one person with direct knowledge of the... Reddit’s ad business is beginning to take off, though not as quickly as some at the company...

WhatsApp CEO Jan Koum. Photo by Bloomberg.

How WhatsApp Will Tiptoe Into Business

By Cory Weinberg and Amir Efrati · Apr 27, 2016 10:01am PDT · 2 comments

WhatsApp is planning later this year to offer banks, airlines and other businesses the ability to send one-way messages to customers, people familiar with the plans said. It will be WhatsApp’s first official move to lure businesses onto the messaging app.WhatsApp has said it would soon start testing business accounts, but it’s now... WhatsApp is planning later this year to offer banks, airlines and other businesses the ability to...

Game of Thrones star Peter Dinklage. Photo by AP.

Why HBO May Lose Video Throne

By Tom Dotan · Apr 27, 2016 7:01am PDT · 3 comments

This past Sunday, as HBO premiered the latest season of “Game of Thrones,” the network once again could bask in the show’s success. It should enjoy the moment. Given how much the TV environment has changed, it may not come again.“Game of Thrones,” now in its sixth season, is currently on track to end in two more... This past Sunday, as HBO premiered the latest season of “Game of Thrones,” the...

Source: Apptentive

Spam or High Value: The App Choice

By Cory Weinberg and Peter Schulz · Apr 26, 2016 10:01am PDT

Source: Apptentive

Spam or High Value: The App Choice

By Cory Weinberg and Peter Schulz · Apr 26, 2016 10:01am PDT

People respond to messages from shopping apps far more often than those from banks, news or food apps, new data shows. That suggests banks, news media and food apps need to make their messages more useful. It also might mean they should be selective about what they send to avoid annoying potential customers with too many messages. People respond to messages from shopping apps far more often than those from banks, news or food...