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Fifth FTC Commissioner Confirmed, Breaking 2-2 Partisan Divide

By
Josh Sisco
· · Source: The Information

The U.S. Senate narrowly voted on Wednesday to confirm Alavaro Bedoya to be the fifth commissioner at the Federal Trade Commission, teeing up a series of aggressive enforcement and policy moves targeting the tech sector under the direction of agency chair Lina Khan. With a new majority at the commission Khan will more easily be able to move ahead with some of her key priorities, including a...

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TikTok CEO Goes to Washington With a Ragtag Band of Allies
By Kaya Yurieff and Sylvia Varnham O'Regan · March 22, 2023 10:55 AM PDT
U.S. Representative Jamaal Bowman, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew and Governor Jared Polis. Background: TikTokers Naomi Hearts (@naomiheartsxo), Kristine Thompson (@trendycurvy), Duncan Joseph (@duncanyounot) and Grace Amaku (@grace_africa). Photos via Bloomberg, Getty and TikTok. Collage by Shane Burke.
TikTok is one of the most popular entertainment services in the U.S., used monthly by nearly half of the population. Yet as the app battles for its life, it has remarkably few allies to provide support. Even those that directly benefit from TikTok, such as music labels and creators, have mixed feelings about TikTok, largely because they say it doesn’t pay its partners enough. That’s...
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Sarah Nagy gives a demo of her startup, Seek.ai, at an AI event at the San Francisco Wine Society in January. Photography by Laura Morton
First Look startups ai
Boom Times in San Francisco’s AI Underground
By Arielle Pardes
Not even a banking crisis could chill the fever sweeping San Francisco. Last Wednesday, as the tech industry recoiled from the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, a party was scheduled at the offices of Maverick Ventures in an old army hospital in the Presidio.
Cover art and portraits by Clark Miller
The Big Read
The Instant Oral History of the Silicon Valley Bank Collapse
By Abram Brown, Annie Goldsmith, Margaux MacColl, Arielle Pardes, Nick Wingfield and Kaya Yurieff
On a cosmic level, the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank was a mere blip. The murmurs about trouble began last Wednesday, the panic spread via group texts and Twitter threads on Thursday, the bank went under on Friday, the government got its act together on Saturday, and on Sunday every current and former customer of SVB could breathe a cautious sigh of relief.
Art by Clark Miller.
Opinion startups economy
SVB Is Dead. Long Live SVB.
By Jason Pontin
We all know how it began. It started on March 9, when the run on Silicon Valley Bank made the innovation economy totter and threatened a global financial crisis.
A pedestrian passes a Silicon Valley Bank branch in San Francisco, on Monday, March 13, 2023. Photo by AP.
Exclusive startups venture capital
SVB’s $9.5 Billion Venture Unit Included Large Investments in Andreessen, Sequoia, Documents Show
By Kate Clark
As potential buyers circle the remnants of Silicon Valley Bank and its affiliates, one asset could be particularly appealing: the company’s venture capital arm.
Clockwise from top left: Julie Bornstein, Esther Crawford, Mark Hammond, Max Cutler, Kağan Sümer. Photos via Julie Bernstein, Robert Cowherd, Microsoft, Wikimedia and Kağan Sümer.
Free Agents startups
On the Market: The Founders Who Joined Microsoft, Spotify, Coinbase and Twitter
By The Information Staff
Call them acqui-fires. Several founders who took positions at the bigger tech companies that bought their startups recently lost their jobs when layoffs rolled through Silicon Valley.
Tonal’s now-shuttered Palo Alto, Calif. retail store. Photo by Getty.
Exclusive startups
Tonal’s Valuation May Fall 90% in ‘Cram-Down’ Financing
By Maria Heeter
Tonal, a fitness startup with a cadre of celebrity backers, is crunched for cash after failing to find a buyer.