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

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.

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 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 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 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

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

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 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.

Q&A

Playing the Long Game on Big Industries and Deep Tech

By Jessica 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

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

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...

Fab.com CEO Jason Goldberg. Photo by Bloomberg.

Sector Spotlight: ‘Flash Sales’ Retailers Look to Regain Their Mojo

By Tom Dotan · Jun 30, 2014 8:04am PDT

Fab.com CEO Jason Goldberg. Photo by Bloomberg.

Sector Spotlight: ‘Flash Sales’ Retailers Look to Regain Their Mojo

By Tom Dotan · Jun 30, 2014 8:04am PDT

Flash sales sites continue to look troubled, with heavily funded outfits like Fab and One Kings Lane shedding employees. The model, in which sites hold regular sales of items such as clothing, shoes and furniture from particular vendors for a limited period of time, is criticized as too expensive and a relic of an era when discount... Flash sales sites continue to look troubled, with heavily funded outfits like Fab and One...

The Real Price of Tech M&A Deals

By Jessica Lessin · Jun 27, 2014 10:49am PDT

A few months ago, I wrote about how private company valuations aren’t always what they appear to be. Of course, the same can be said of acquisition prices. When it comes to deal prices, technology executives and bankers often say something like this: “You basically just make up the number you want reported and separately... A few months ago, I wrote about how private company valuations aren’t always what...

Trulia CEO Pete Flint. Photo by Bloomberg.

Beyond Email: The Push Notification Comes of Age

By Eric Newcomer · Jun 26, 2014 1:14pm PDT

The little messages that are constantly buzzing your smartphone—push notifications—are getting a makeover, one that’s poised to make the sometimes-annoying notices a critical utility for a wide range of mobile marketing efforts. Google and Apple are giving push notifications a much bigger role as they introduce new... The little messages that are constantly buzzing your smartphone—push...

Photo by Shutterstock.

With Secret Contracts, Employees Skirt Bans on Share Sales

By Katie Benner · Jun 26, 2014 7:54am PDT

Companies like Uber, Airbnb and Dropbox are known for keeping a tight rein on employee stock, essentially prohibiting private share sales of the type that were quite popular among pre-IPO companies just a few years ago. Some say the clampdown is unfair to employees. Others say it’s a prudent way to keep a handle on ownership and prevent... Companies like Uber, Airbnb and Dropbox are known for keeping a tight rein on employee stock,...

Sonos CEO John MacFarlane. Illustration by Matthew Vascellaro. Photo by Associated Press.

Online Music Business Only Just Getting Started

By Jessica Lessin · Jun 25, 2014 9:15am PDT

Sonos CEO John MacFarlane. Illustration by Matthew Vascellaro. Photo by Associated Press.

Q&A

Online Music Business Only Just Getting Started

By Jessica Lessin · Jun 25, 2014 9:15am PDT

John MacFarlane is a man in the middle of the music industry. As the CEO of Sonos, which has been making home speakers for about a decade, he has watched as the music business has wrestled with change—from the fights over digital rights management and piracy to the current debates over business models, compensation for labels and artists, and... John MacFarlane is a man in the middle of the music industry. As the CEO of Sonos, which has been...