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

Rakuten CEO Hiroshi Mikitani at Sun Valley, Idaho, last week.

Knocking Amazon Strategy, Rakuten CEO Bets on Messaging

By Amir Efrati · Jul 14, 2014 11:13am PDT

Amazon.com has raised eyebrows by pursuing a strategy of launching smartphones, tablets and TV hardware to try to boost its shopping and video content. Hiroshi Mikitani, CEO of Japan-based Rakuten, Amazon’s e-commerce rival in Asia and elsewhere, thinks that strategy is misguided. In an exclusive interview on the sidelines of the Allen... Amazon.com has raised eyebrows by pursuing a strategy of launching smartphones, tablets and TV...

Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel. Photo by TechCrunch.

Snapchat Pushes in New Directions as Usage Soars

By Eric Newcomer · Jul 14, 2014 7:48am PDT

The ephemeral messaging application Snapchat is entering a new phase. Long known primarily as a way for teens to share pictures without the permanence and seeming omniscience of Facebook, Snapchat is quickly evolving into a sophisticated multimedia messaging system and social network with a variety of features. Celebrities and big brand... The ephemeral messaging application Snapchat is entering a new phase. Long known primarily as a...

The ‘Page Doctrine’ and the Future of Google

By Jessica E. Lessin · Jul 11, 2014 12:40pm PDT

The part of the Allen & Company Sun Valley media and technology conference that outsiders don’t see isn’t glamorous. It’s an old, generally over-air-conditioned conference room where attendees gather to hear talks closed off from the media. The topics vary from year to year, but many of the names stay the same: Michael Bloomberg, Warren... The part of the Allen & Company Sun Valley media and technology conference that outsiders don...

John Hering, CEO of mobile security company Lookout. Photo by Bloomberg.

Consumer Tech Gets Little Love in Sun Valley

By Jessica E. Lessin and Amir Efrati · Jul 11, 2014 7:47am PDT

John Hering, CEO of mobile security company Lookout. Photo by Bloomberg.

Consumer Tech Gets Little Love in Sun Valley

By Jessica E. Lessin and Amir Efrati · Jul 11, 2014 7:47am PDT

SUN VALLEY, Idaho—There’s a question buzzing around this week’s Allen & Co. media and technology conference: Where are all the new consumer technology companies? Sure, the CEOs from Google, Facebook and Twitter are in attendance as usual. But when it comes to the newly invited entrepreneurs—the ones whom Allen... SUN VALLEY, Idaho—There’s a question buzzing around this week’s Allen & Co....

IAC Chairman Barry Diller. Photo by Bloomberg.

In Sun Valley, Moguls Divided on TV Mergers

By Jessica E. Lessin · Jul 10, 2014 2:25pm PDT

SUN VALLEY, Idaho—The scuttlebutt heading into this year’s Allen & Co. media and technology conference was that the television programming industry is ripe for consolidation. Content needs scale, the theory goes, so someone will soon gobble up Time Warner, Discovery, Scripps and Viacom. The media was so primed for the story that... SUN VALLEY, Idaho—The scuttlebutt heading into this year’s Allen & Co. media and...

HomeAway CEO Brian Sharples. Photo by Bloomberg.

Bankers Eye Tech M&A Candidates

By Katie Benner · Jul 10, 2014 1:34pm PDT

Techland M&A is hot, even though the megadeal storm sweeping corporate America may not last forever. (See related story.) As deals continue apace, analysts and arbitrageurs alike want to know which companies are up for grabs. The Information’s first M&A “watch list” included cloud computing and ad-tech companies, which... Techland M&A is hot, even though the megadeal storm sweeping corporate America may not last...

Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen. Photo by Bloomberg.

Perfect Storm Boosting Megadeals May Be Short-Lived

By Katie Benner · Jul 10, 2014 7:35am PDT

With Apple’s $3 billion acquisition of Beats Electronics and huge telecom and cable company sales in the works, a megadeal storm has hit techland. But one technical ingredient that has fueled big deals may begin to dry up: ultra-low interest rates. We could already be seeing the effects of a gradual shift in the Federal... With Apple’s $3 billion acquisition of Beats Electronics and huge telecom and cable company...

Evolve Media CEO Brian Fitzgerald. Illustration by Matthew Vascellaro.

Going Big with Small Digital Publishers

By Tom Dotan · Jul 9, 2014 2:13pm PDT

Evolve Media CEO Brian Fitzgerald. Illustration by Matthew Vascellaro.

Q&A

Going Big with Small Digital Publishers

By Tom Dotan · Jul 9, 2014 2:13pm PDT

Brian Fitzgerald has the unenviable task of telling media entrepreneurs their businesses will never be hits. And then he presents them with an offer: Join us. That’s the corporate strategy for his digital media conglomerate, Evolve Media. The company was founded as Gorilla Nation Media in 2000 and had its biggest hit in 2012 when it sold its... Brian Fitzgerald has the unenviable task of telling media entrepreneurs their businesses will...

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Photo by Bloomberg.

Facebook Accelerates Off-Platform Ad Efforts

By Tom Dotan · Jul 9, 2014 8:34am PDT

Facebook’s recent acquisition of a pair of ad tech companies shows how the social networking giant hopes to tackle one of its biggest long-term challenges: using its trove of personal data to sell advertising not just on Facebook, but across the Internet. Facebook’s recent acquisition of a pair of ad tech companies shows how the social...

Media investor Peter Chernin. Photo by Bloomberg.

Coming Soon: The Incredible Shrinking Video Bundle

By Jessica E. Lessin and Amir Efrati · Jul 8, 2014 8:26am PDT

Years after tech prognosticators said Web video would kill the cable bundle, the traditional subscription television service is proving resilient. U.S. paid television subscribers actually increased by a few hundred thousand in the first quarter of the 2014 compared to the first quarter of 2013. Rather than wrecking the bundle,... Years after tech prognosticators said Web video would kill the cable bundle, the traditional...

Apple Maps Engineer Moving to Uber

By Jessica E. Lessin · Jul 8, 2014 7:39am PDT

Uber has poached Chris Blumenberg, a senior engineering manager who worked on Apple Maps, according to three people familiar with the move. Blumenberg was one of the first engineers to work on the iPhone software and was a senior leader on Apple’s iOS team. Apple Maps has had some turnover since its very buggy launch in 2012.... Uber has poached Chris Blumenberg, a senior engineering manager who worked on Apple Maps,...

Box CEO Aaron Levie. Photo by Bloomberg.

Box’s Cash Burn Continues as New Funding Lands

By Katie Benner · Jul 7, 2014 6:26pm PDT

Box CEO Aaron Levie. Photo by Bloomberg.

Box’s Cash Burn Continues as New Funding Lands

By Katie Benner · Jul 7, 2014 6:26pm PDT

For investors interested in the much-anticipated public offering of cloud-storage firm Box, the company’s amended financial filings aren’t pretty, painting a picture of a company that’s burning through money as fast as ever. Investors staunchly stand by Box. The company was forced to delay its IPO this spring due to... For investors interested in the much-anticipated public offering of cloud-storage firm Box,...

YouTube chief Susan Wojcicki. Photo by TechCrunch.

YouTube Revenue Lags Forecasts as Competition Mounts

By Amir Efrati · Jul 7, 2014 8:33am PDT

In the fall of 2012, then-YouTube CEO Salar Kamangar and his lieutenants set an audacious goal: increase the collective “watch time” for YouTube videos by an order of magnitude, to a billion hours per day, by the end of 2016. That would represent about 20% of all the time people spend watching television. The billion-hour target, employees were... In the fall of 2012, then-YouTube CEO Salar Kamangar and his lieutenants set an audacious goal:...

Reckoning with the Backlash Against Tech

By Jessica E. Lessin · Jul 3, 2014 1:29pm PDT

I have been thinking a lot lately about the undercurrent of distrust people outside the technology business have for Silicon Valley—and how that animosity is becoming one of the biggest risk factors for the tech industry. Headlines about San Francisco gentrification protests, coverage about techies being out of touch with... I have been thinking a lot lately about the undercurrent of distrust people outside the...

The new Salesforce building in downtown San Francisco. Photo by Jane Goldman.

A High-Stakes Race for San Francisco Office Space

By Eric Newcomer · Jul 3, 2014 8:09am PDT

Anyone who has tried to rent an apartment in San Francisco knows that demand is outstripping supply. Now, imagine you’re one of about 15 companies looking for a 100,000 square foot or larger office space, competing for one of about eight locations on the market. Anyone who has tried to rent an apartment in San Francisco knows that demand is outstripping...

Joe Lonsdale. Illustration by Matthew Vascellaro.

Playing the Long Game on Big Industries and Deep Tech

By Jessica E. Lessin · Jul 2, 2014 12:28pm PDT

Joe Lonsdale. Illustration by Matthew Vascellaro.

Q&A

Playing the Long Game on Big Industries and Deep Tech

By Jessica E. Lessin · Jul 2, 2014 12:28pm PDT

At a time when consumer apps can generate instant buzz and skyrocket to millions of users rapidly, Joe Lonsdale likes businesses with much higher barriers to entry—and gestation periods. The 31-year-old, who co-founded the big data company Palantir in 2004, is on a mission to take on incumbents in areas like finance, government and... At a time when consumer apps can generate instant buzz and skyrocket to millions of users...

Andreas Bovens of Opera Software. (Credit: Opera)

New Browser Feature Portends Big Shift in Web Communications

By Amir Efrati · Jul 2, 2014 10:02am PDT

New software that’s being incorporated into Web browsers is poised to shake up the world of Internet communications, making it cheap and easy to set up video conferences, send messages and access Web pages while bypassing phone networks and online services such as Skype. Championed by Google, the technology known as WebRTC (which... New software that’s being incorporated into Web browsers is poised to shake up the world of...

By Matt Vascellaro · Jul 1, 2014 3:23pm PDT

Chris Campbell, CEO of Review Trackers. Courtesy Photo.

Series A Investment Rounds Reach New Heights

By Eric Newcomer · Jul 1, 2014 1:54pm PDT

A boom in giant late-stage funding rounds and a surge in angel investing may be the topics of the moment in startup finance circles, but a look at fresh data shows that another type of venture investment is also growing fast: the traditional Series A round. Venture firms invested $2.5 billion in Series A deals in the second quarter of 2014,... A boom in giant late-stage funding rounds and a surge in angel investing may be the topics of the...

Photo by Associated Press.

Big Online Crowds for World Cup, But No Way to Count

By Tom Dotan · Jul 1, 2014 8:13am PDT

Photo by Associated Press.

Big Online Crowds for World Cup, But No Way to Count

By Tom Dotan · Jul 1, 2014 8:13am PDT

ESPN is touting “record” numbers for online viewership of the World Cup soccer matches—but the absence of independent ratings, which advertisers typically demand, and the comparatively modest overall size of the Internet audience are indicators of just how far streaming TV still has to go to become a... ESPN is touting “record” numbers for online viewership of the World Cup soccer...