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

Sen. Rob Portman. Photo by Bloomberg.

Tech Industry’s Hope for Tax Relief on Foreign Cash

By Steve Nellis · Aug 9, 2016 10:01am PDT · 10 comments

If Apple, Microsoft and Alphabet had their way, they’d bring back some of the tens of billions of dollars they have stuck overseas without taking a huge tax hit. The outcome of November’s election could determine whether they get their wish.With an estimated $2.5 trillion in company coffers parked offshore—much of it held by... If Apple, Microsoft and Alphabet had their way, they’d bring back some of the tens of...

Art by Jeff Greco.

Investors’ Web of Influence in Ride-Sharing Firms

By Amir Efrati · Aug 9, 2016 7:01am PDT · 1 comment

The greatest wealth creation vehicle in the internet sector in recent years, ride-sharing companies, is concentrated among relatively few investors. That means those investors could have an influence in pushing for further consolidation in the sector.About 16 investors, including hedge fund Coatue Management and China Investment Corporation, a... The greatest wealth creation vehicle in the internet sector in recent years, ride-sharing...

Jawbone CEO Hosain Rahman. Photo by Bloomberg.

Jawbone Tested Market for Buyer, Delays August Payment

By Amir Efrati and Reed Albergotti · Aug 8, 2016 12:03pm PDT · 3 comments

Jawbone, the iconic but long-troubled wearable electronics maker, in recent months has approached at least one hardware manufacturer about possibly selling itself, according to a person with knowledge of the discussion.There are other signs the company, which primarily makes bracelet-like fitness trackers, isn’t in great shape. Jawbone... Jawbone, the iconic but long-troubled wearable electronics maker, in recent months has approached...

LeEco founder Jia Yueting at an event in Beijing in April, 2015. Photo by AP.

LeEco, ‘Netflix of China,’ Comes to America with Big Promises

By Amir Efrati and Yunan Zhang · Aug 8, 2016 7:01am PDT · 5 comments

LeEco founder Jia Yueting at an event in Beijing in April, 2015. Photo by AP.

LeEco, ‘Netflix of China,’ Comes to America with Big Promises

By Amir Efrati and Yunan Zhang · Aug 8, 2016 7:01am PDT · 5 comments

If you know someone working in Silicon Valley in anything from software engineering to microchips to hardware marketing to PR, there’s a good chance that they’ve heard from a recruiter at LeEco this year. The company, often dubbed the “Netflix of China,” is aggressively adding employees to its U.S. arm based in San Jose.... If you know someone working in Silicon Valley in anything from software engineering to microchips...

The Weekly Digest

The Information You Missed This Week

By The Information Staff · Aug 6, 2016 8:01am PDT

Good Morning!Didi won the ride-sharing race in China. Now another set of races are kicking off today in Rio. Hopefully the Olympics won’t burn as much money as the Chinese ride-sharing battle. Good Morning!Didi won the ride-sharing race in China. Now another set of races are kicking off...

The Information’s 411 — Crush Them With Cash

By Steve Nellis · Aug 5, 2016 5:05pm PDT

In this week’s podcast, Amir talks about the implications for the global ride-sharing market of Didi Chuxing purchase of Uber’s Chinese operations. Yunan discusses the rude awakening that Uber’s roughly 800 employees in China got when they came to work the day of the deal. In this week’s podcast, Amir talks about the implications for the global ride-sharing...

Didi Chuxing CEO Cheng Wei. Photo by Bloomberg.

The Deeper Significance of Didi Chuxing

By Jessica E. Lessin · Aug 5, 2016 7:01am PDT · 2 comments

Didi Chuxing’s acquisition of UberChina drew plenty of headlines this week from outlets including this one. (One of my favorites is here.) Yet a piece of the story remains misunderstood: how Didi won. Reporters and other general tech observers have been quick to blame the Chinese government, which has and continues to stymie so many... Didi Chuxing’s acquisition of UberChina drew plenty of headlines this week from outlets...

Jawbone CEO Hosain Rahman. Photo by Bloomberg.

BlackRock Marks Down Jawbone Shares to Under One Cent

By Alfred Lee · Aug 4, 2016 6:24pm PDT

Jawbone CEO Hosain Rahman. Photo by Bloomberg.

BlackRock Marks Down Jawbone Shares to Under One Cent

By Alfred Lee · Aug 4, 2016 6:24pm PDT

A BlackRock fund has marked down its equity stake in Jawbone to less than a penny per share, according to a Thursday securities filing. The markdown may suggest that BlackRock lacks confidence that the company will fetch enough in a sale to pay off equity holders.The markdown disclosed in Thursday’s filing relates to a portion of an equity... A BlackRock fund has marked down its equity stake in Jawbone to less than a penny per share,...

Top Comments of the Week

By The Information Staff · Aug 4, 2016 1:57pm PDT

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

Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes. Photo by Bloomberg.

High Prices Remain Obstacle for New Web TV Services

By Tom Dotan · Aug 4, 2016 10:00am PDT · 11 comments

Hulu’s plans for launching the latest online version of pay TV moved closer to reality with Time Warner’s agreement on Wednesday to license its channels to the service. But Time Warner also showed why the new online services, which include one expected from YouTube, will find it tough to win over consumers. Despite declining numbers... Hulu’s plans for launching the latest online version of pay TV moved closer to reality with...

Uber CEO Travis Kalanick. Photo by Bloomberg.

Rude Awakening for Uber’s China Employees

By Yunan Zhang and Amir Efrati · Aug 4, 2016 7:00am PDT · 2 comments

Talk that Uber was selling its China business to Didi Chuxing had circulated internally at Uber for a couple of weeks before it was announced on Monday. For many of UberChina’s 800 employees, though, confirmation came in a more jarring way. When they got to work on Monday, they couldn’t get access to their Uber email and other Uber... Talk that Uber was selling its China business to Didi Chuxing had circulated internally at Uber...

Source: The Information Subscriber Survey

Favorite Tools: Subscribers Rate Dropbox, Slack, Gmail

By Steve Nellis and Peter Schulz · Aug 3, 2016 10:05am PDT

Source: The Information Subscriber Survey

Subscriber Survey

Favorite Tools: Subscribers Rate Dropbox, Slack, Gmail

By Steve Nellis and Peter Schulz · Aug 3, 2016 10:05am PDT

Slack, Gmail, Google Drive and Dropbox all fared well in our survey of the tools subscribers use at work. Box, Basecamp and services from Apple did not.The breakdowns by category are below. Bigger companies tended to dominate core services like email. Newer segments, like project management, were more fragmented. Slack, Gmail, Google Drive and Dropbox all fared well in our survey of the tools subscribers use...

Snapchat co-founders Evan Spiegel and Bobby Murphy. Photo by AP.

Snapchat Deal Shows High Cost of SPVs

By Alfred Lee and Yunan Zhang · Aug 3, 2016 7:01am PDT · 4 comments

Small individual investors have more access to the hottest private tech firms nowadays, thanks to the growing popularity of special purpose vehicles raised to invest in a single company. But the fees are high, particularly when investors buy through one SPV investing in another SPV.One Snapchat case illustrates the example. At some point in the... Small individual investors have more access to the hottest private tech firms nowadays, thanks to...

Grab CEO Anthony Tan. Photo by Bloomberg.

Uber Now Poised to Grab More of Southeast Asia

By Amir Efrati · Aug 2, 2016 10:00am PDT · 2 comments

Now that Uber is shifting its focus away from China to other overseas markets, one region where it may have a better shot at overcoming a local incumbent is southeast Asia, say people involved with the company. In countries like Singapore, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia and Malaysia, Uber is going up against the early... Now that Uber is shifting its focus away from China to other overseas markets, one region where...

Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel. Picture by Flickr/TechCrunch.

Snapchat Explores New Scannable Ads

By Tom Dotan and Amir Efrati · Aug 2, 2016 9:06am PDT · 8 comments

Snapchat is working on a new type of ad that would allow people to use their smartphone cameras to unlock special sponsored content in the app. The feature lets people scan an image or barcode on a poster or a website, which later gives them a special deal on a product, according to two people briefed on the company’s ad strategy.The ad... Snapchat is working on a new type of ad that would allow people to use their smartphone cameras...

Art by Sam Lessin.

Why the Bonus Culture Will Spread

By Sam Lessin · Aug 2, 2016 7:02am PDT · 3 comments

Art by Sam Lessin.

Modest Proposals

Why the Bonus Culture Will Spread

By Sam Lessin · Aug 2, 2016 7:02am PDT · 3 comments

We are currently living through an explosion of measurement technology. Once only athletes, salespeople and investment bankers could be managed by metrics of their performance. But increasingly everyone is, as technology opens up deeper access to performance data. It makes us all better, but it also clearly leads to greater inequality. That will... We are currently living through an explosion of measurement technology. Once only athletes,...

Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg. Photo by Bloomberg.

How Facebook Can Keep Gaining Ad Share

By Cory Weinberg · Aug 1, 2016 1:49pm PDT · 1 comment

Last week’s stream of tech earnings news was a reminder of just how much growth rates are diverging between strong and weak. Facebook has cemented itself as a sure bet to win against Twitter, LinkedIn and Yahoo in the fight for digital display ad dollars. Facebook’s not-so-secret weapon? It dominates the fight for... Last week’s stream of tech earnings news was a reminder of just how much growth rates...

Didi founder Cheng Wei. Photo by Didi.

Didi’s Founder Presides Over Unruly Investor Group

By Zara Zhang · Aug 1, 2016 10:53am PDT · 1 comment

If anyone needs supervoting shares to keep control of their company, it looks to be Didi Chuxing founder Cheng Wei.Didi’s purchase of UberChina is just the latest in a series of mergers that Mr. Cheng has undertaken to create a $35 billion ride-sharing giant in China. That string of deals has created a potent mix of investors in the... If anyone needs supervoting shares to keep control of their company, it looks to be Didi Chuxing...

Uber CEO Travis Kalanick at a World Economic Forum meeting in China in late June. Photo by Bloomberg.

Uber Admits Defeat in China, Can Fight Harder Elsewhere

By Amir Efrati and Yunan Zhang · Jul 31, 2016 10:37pm PDT · 6 comments

Uber CEO Travis Kalanick got second place.The transportation giant is to sell its operations in China to bigger rival Didi Chuxing, setting up an unusual structure in which Didi will operate Uber’s brand in the country, according to people briefed on the deal. Uber CEO Travis Kalanick got second place.The transportation giant is to sell its operations in...

The Information You Missed This Week

By The Information Staff · Jul 30, 2016 8:01am PDT

The Weekly Digest

The Information You Missed This Week

By The Information Staff · Jul 30, 2016 8:01am PDT

Good Morning!The rich tech firms keep getting richer, judging from the past week’s earnings reports from Alphabet, Amazon and Facebook. And let’s not forget the bankers and lawyers on the mounting number of acquisitions. Good Morning!The rich tech firms keep getting richer, judging from the past week’s earnings...