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

Thomas Middleditch, who stars in HBO's "Silicon Valley." Photo by Bloomberg.

Silicon Valley’s Depression is Greatly Exaggerated

By Jessica E. Lessin · Apr 22, 2016 7:00am PDT · 5 comments

Dear Subscribers,Every week, I read a growing number of stories about doom and gloom in Silicon Valley, with irresistible headlines around bubbles “popping” and “fizzing” or whatever else bubbles do. Ailing unicorns. Dying unicorns. Unicorpses. Things getting (even) worse for Theranos. Yahoo withering on the sales vine.... Dear Subscribers,Every week, I read a growing number of stories about doom and gloom in Silicon...

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. Photo by Bloomberg.

Microsoft’s Silver Lining Is Shrinking

By Steve Nellis · Apr 21, 2016 4:39pm PDT · 1 comment

Microsoft’s earnings were bad. Revenue and profits missed analysts’ expectations. But beneath the surface, it’s even worse than it looks. A key profitability metric in Microsoft’s fight against Amazon Web Services hit the lowest point since it’s been measurable, suggesting that Microsoft’s transition to a... Microsoft’s earnings were bad. Revenue and profits missed analysts’ expectations. But...

Eddy Cue. Photo by Bloomberg.

Infighting Slows Apple’s Cloud Engineering Efforts

By Amir Efrati and Steve Nellis · Apr 21, 2016 7:02am PDT

Political infighting within Apple’s engineering ranks is holding back the company’s efforts to fix technical problems that have plagued iCloud and iTunes, say people with direct knowledge of the situation. Two engineering teams working on new internal cloud-computing infrastructure to power Apple’s Web services are in open... Political infighting within Apple’s engineering ranks is holding back the company’s...

Facebook's VP for messaging products, David Marcus. Photo by Bloomberg.

What Messenger Still Has To Fix in Mobile Shopping

By Cory Weinberg · Apr 20, 2016 7:00am PDT · 3 comments

Facebook's VP for messaging products, David Marcus. Photo by Bloomberg.

What Messenger Still Has To Fix in Mobile Shopping

By Cory Weinberg · Apr 20, 2016 7:00am PDT · 3 comments

Among the tools that Facebook released for developers at F8 last week was one that allowed Messenger users to click on a retailer like Spring and scroll through a product list while in the chat app. But to actually buy one of Spring’s products, users have to jump to a slow-to-load mobile web page. Another problem: Someone trying to buy a... Among the tools that Facebook released for developers at F8 last week was one that allowed...

Art by Ben Rosen.

Subscriber Op-Ed

Escaping the Digital Media ‘Crap Trap’

By Jim VandeHei · Apr 19, 2016 2:00pm PDT · 10 comments

Digital media companies are caught in the "crap trap," mass-producing trashy clickbait so they can claim huge audiences and often higher valuations. Here is how they fell into this lethal trap: They got into the content game to produce news or info they might be proud of, believing they could lure us to read it and maybe even pay... Digital media companies are caught in the "crap trap," mass-producing trashy clickbait...

Ben Horowitz with his wife Felicia and Oprah Winfrey, center. Photo by AP.

A16Z’s Low-Key Diversity Outreach

By Reed Albergotti · Apr 19, 2016 7:00am PDT · 1 comment

In 2011, Soldsie co-founder Chris Bennett got an email from venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz inviting him to a talk on leadership. When Mr. Bennett showed up, he was surprised that a large number of the people there shared his background: They were black and worked in the technology industry.“I was just like, whoa, this is so... In 2011, Soldsie co-founder Chris Bennett got an email from venture capital firm Andreessen...

Working in a datacenter. Photo by Flickr/Leonardo Rizzi.

In Pivot, Mesosphere Plans to Give Away Key Software

By Steve Nellis and Amir Efrati · Apr 18, 2016 7:33pm PDT · 3 comments

Mesosphere, a cloud infrastructure startup popular with developers, will start offering its flagship product for free, according to people briefed about the move. It marks a major shift in the company's business model and offers more proof of the challenges of building a business around open-source software.Mesosphere will give away the... Mesosphere, a cloud infrastructure startup popular with developers, will start offering its...

Dennis Woodside, left, and Drew Houston. Photo by Bloomberg.

Putting a Sale Price on Dropbox

By Alfred Lee and Steve Nellis · Apr 18, 2016 7:02am PDT

Dennis Woodside, left, and Drew Houston. Photo by Bloomberg.

Putting a Sale Price on Dropbox

By Alfred Lee and Steve Nellis · Apr 18, 2016 7:02am PDT

Mutual funds have marked down their stakes in Dropbox as much as 59% below the $10 billion valuation the company reached when it last raised money in 2014. But at least one fund seems to see the possibility of Dropbox being acquired for $6.8 billion, well above the implied value of recent markdowns.Securities filings last month show that, as of... Mutual funds have marked down their stakes in Dropbox as much as 59% below the $10 billion...

The Weekly Digest

The Information You Missed This Week

By The Information Staff · Apr 16, 2016 8:00am PDT

Good Morning!Relax, this is a Yahoo-free email. On that subject, we’re holding back until we have something valuable to say. But this week we had plenty of good stories on other topics. Good Morning!Relax, this is a Yahoo-free email. On that subject, we’re holding back until...

The Information’s 411 — Drunk on Bots

By Tom Dotan · Apr 15, 2016 2:06pm PDT · 4 comments

Stephen discusses the product fixes Slack needs to make. Cory, Amir and Tom reflect on F8, bots and the social media wars.You can find our RSS feed here or subscribe via iTunes and SoundCloud. Stephen discusses the product fixes Slack needs to make. Cory, Amir and Tom reflect on F8, bots...

Henry Ellenbogen, the T. Rowe Price fund manager who has spearheaded the firm's private tech investments. Photo by Bloomberg.

T. Rowe Price Marks Down Dropbox to New Low

By Alfred Lee · Apr 15, 2016 11:25am PDT

T. Rowe Price disclosed double-digit percentage markdowns of at least a dozen private tech companies on Friday, including a writedown of Dropbox to a new low. In addition, T. Rowe disclosed its first markdowns for Uber and Airbnb, by 6% each.The mutual fund manager cut the value of its Dropbox stake by 16% in the three months ending March 31,... T. Rowe Price disclosed double-digit percentage markdowns of at least a dozen private tech...

Art by Maria DeFelice.

Introducing Our Top Comments of the Week

By Jessica E. Lessin · Apr 15, 2016 7:02am PDT

Art by Maria DeFelice.

Introducing Our Top Comments of the Week

By Jessica E. Lessin · Apr 15, 2016 7:02am PDT

The Information subscribers have a lot to say, and as we’ve grown, many of you have requested we highlight the awesome comments subscribers leave on articles. Your wish is our command.Every week starting today, we’ll publish a list of our top comments as recommended by The Information reporters. We’ll link back to each... The Information subscribers have a lot to say, and as we’ve grown, many of you have...

Sidewalk Labs CEO Dan Doctoroff. Photo by AP.

Alphabet’s Sidewalk Preps Proposal for Digital District

By Jessica E. Lessin · Apr 14, 2016 2:20pm PDT · 3 comments

Alphabet’s Sidewalk Labs is nearing a big decision point in one of the company’s most ambitious projects: the possible construction of a futuristic district.Sidewalk chief Dan Doctoroff and his team plan to discuss the secret project, codenamed “Project Sidewalk”, with Alphabet CEO Larry Page in the coming weeks. If Mr.... Alphabet’s Sidewalk Labs is nearing a big decision point in one of the company’s most...

Facebook and Twitter Pressure Partners Over Snapchat

By Amir Efrati and Cory Weinberg · Apr 14, 2016 7:01am PDT · 1 comment

Earlier this year, The Huffington Post got a polite but pointed request from Twitter: Stop using The Huffington Post’s personalized Snapchat logo as its Twitter profile image, according to a person briefed on the situation.In response, HuffPo reduced how often it used the logo on Twitter—which makes it easier for people to find the... Earlier this year, The Huffington Post got a polite but pointed request from Twitter: Stop using...

Facebook's VP of messaging products, David Marcus. Photo by Bloomberg.

Why M Matters to Messenger

By Cory Weinberg · Apr 13, 2016 2:11pm PDT · 1 comment

Facebook executives didn’t talk much on the F8 developer conference stage in the past day about its under-construction virtual assistant, “M,” which lives inside Messenger and is available only to a limited number of people. But M will be crucial for Facebook to achieve its goal of usurping Apple’s app store as a gateway... Facebook executives didn’t talk much on the F8 developer conference stage in the past day...

GoPro CEO Nick Woodman. Photo by Bloomberg.

Apple Designer Jumps to GoPro

By Jessica E. Lessin and Reed Albergotti · Apr 13, 2016 7:28am PDT

GoPro CEO Nick Woodman. Photo by Bloomberg.

Apple Designer Jumps to GoPro

By Jessica E. Lessin and Reed Albergotti · Apr 13, 2016 7:28am PDT

A member of Apple's elite industrial design team, Danny Coster, is jumping ship, joining GoPro to head up a new hardware design group there.Mr. Coster worked for Apple since the early 1990s, including on products like the iPhone and the iPad wireless design. A member of Apple's elite industrial design team, Danny Coster, is jumping ship, joining...

Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield. Photo by Bloomberg.

Why Slack Needs a Product Fix

By Steve Nellis · Apr 13, 2016 7:02am PDT · 6 comments

Slack’s recent $200 million fundraising, at a 36% higher valuation than a year ago, is a reminder that investors remain big believers in the fast-growing chat app. Slack not only aims to win the niche of chat. It also wants to be the main way that people communicate with each other and with the various software systems that make up a... Slack’s recent $200 million fundraising, at a 36% higher valuation than a year ago, is a...

Evan Spiegel. Photo by Flickr/TechCrunch.

How Emojis Became A Weapon in Messaging Wars

By Tom Dotan · Apr 12, 2016 7:02am PDT

When Kleiner Perkins led an $8 million B round for Bitstrips in 2014, partners saw it as a fairly small bet on an app with some momentum. They certainly didn’t anticipate that what is now a maker of goofy, personalized emojis would get swept up in an arms race among social networks for messaging supremacy.But that’s what happened... When Kleiner Perkins led an $8 million B round for Bitstrips in 2014, partners saw it as a fairly...

Art by Sam Lessin.

Modest Proposals

The Coming End of Capitalism

By Sam Lessin · Apr 11, 2016 10:02am PDT · 5 comments

In the last few months there has been a resurgence of post-capitalist chatter flying around the valley. John Battelle, for instance, posted a widely shared note about “the reinvention of capitalism” after technology. At the same time, there’s been a dinner-time revival of the old conversation about the inevitable need for a... In the last few months there has been a resurgence of post-capitalist chatter flying around the...

Stan Chudnovsky. Photo by Flickr/Christopher Michel.

Messenger’s Growth Maestro

By Cory Weinberg · Apr 11, 2016 7:02am PDT

Stan Chudnovsky. Photo by Flickr/Christopher Michel.

Messenger’s Growth Maestro

By Cory Weinberg · Apr 11, 2016 7:02am PDT

Stan Chudnovsky never took English language classes after he moved to the United States from Russia more than two decades ago. When he stepped into the top engineering role at an early social networking startup called Tickle in 2000, his vocabulary was limited and he was prone to mixing metaphors, which his co-workers dubbed... Stan Chudnovsky never took English language classes after he moved to the United States from...