Brief

Below is a collection of every Brief article by The Information.
Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff. Photo by Bloomberg.
Brief

Key Analytics Duo Leaves Salesforce

By Steve Nellis · Apr 2, 2016 9:59am PDT
A pair of startup founders that helped Salesforce.com build out its analytics cloud have left the company, Salesforce confirmed.Vijay Chakravarthy and Ryan Lange co-founded EdgeSpring, a business intelligence service for slicing and dicing data into custom reports that Salesforce purchased in 2013. EdgeSpring formed a key part of... A pair of startup founders that helped Salesforce.com build out its analytics cloud have left the...
Art by Matt Vascellaro.
Brief

Comcast Makes Key Hire for Mobile Phone Service

By Amir Efrati · Jan 6, 2016 11:42am PST
Comcast has hired an executive from Sprint to help with a key part of its planned new mobile phone service, dealing with smartphone manufacturers.Doug Kaufman, who joined Comcast in November, had been responsible for buying millions of devices each year that would then be sold to Sprint’s customers. He’s expected to help Comcast... Comcast has hired an executive from Sprint to help with a key part of its planned new mobile...
Nutanix Granted ‘Ratchet’ to VC Investors
Brief

Nutanix Granted ‘Ratchet’ to VC Investors

By Alfred Lee · Dec 23, 2015 10:58am PST
Investors have been watching tech IPOs with an eye on what kind of protections late-stage backers are getting. Both Box and Square, for example, revealed they granted “ratchets” promising more shares if the IPO price fell below a certain point.Now, yet another highly valued tech company is going public with such protections. Nutanix,... Investors have been watching tech IPOs with an eye on what kind of protections late-stage backers...
NetSuite CEO Zach Nelson. Photo by Bloomberg.
NetSuite Marketing Execs to Depart
By Steve Nellis · Dec 3, 2015 11:44am PST
NetSuite CEO Zach Nelson. Photo by Bloomberg.
Brief

NetSuite Marketing Execs to Depart

By Steve Nellis · Dec 3, 2015 11:44am PST
Three marketing executives at subscription software firm NetSuite are leaving after a year or less on the job, according to people briefed on the matter.Chief Marketing Officer Fred Studer, Chief Creative Officer Morgan Norman and Vice President of Global Marketing Gladys Lau all joined the company in the past year, from Microsoft, Zuora and... Three marketing executives at subscription software firm NetSuite are leaving after a year or...
Photo by Flickr/Ann Oro.
Brief

SolarCity’s Holiday Grinching

By Tom Dotan · Dec 2, 2015 10:53am PST
Holiday parties have long been a good indicator of which companies are cutting costs and this year is no exception. We reported today how Jawbone has downgraded its annual event to a floor of its office building. Now there’s news that SolarCity has also pared back its company-wide holiday celebration in San Francisco into a smaller... Holiday parties have long been a good indicator of which companies are cutting costs and this...
Brief

Law360 Founder May Start Rival to WSJ

By Reed Albergotti and Tom Dotan · Nov 24, 2015 1:10pm PST
Marius Meland, co-founder and CEO of legal news site Law360, may take on The Wall Street Journal as his next act. Mr. Meland is contemplating launching a new subscription-news publication to directly compete with the WSJ. His thinking is still in its early stages but it’s known he recently tried to acquire the domain Memo.com, which is... Marius Meland, co-founder and CEO of legal news site Law360, may take on The Wall Street Journal...
Square's opening trading day on the New York Stock Exchange. Photo by AP.
Brief

VC Winnings on Square’s First Trading Day

By Alfred Lee · Nov 19, 2015 2:00pm PST
Square’s pre-IPO investors scored paper returns after the first day of trading, but some are doing better than others.The biggest winner was Khosla Ventures, whose $30 million stake across three rounds was worth $660 million after closing, filings say. Sequoia’s $15 million Series B-2 investment was worth $206 million, while Kleiner... Square’s pre-IPO investors scored paper returns after the first day of trading, but some...
Square board member Ruth Simmons. Photo by Bloomberg.
Square’s Price Pop Good News for Employees
By Alfred Lee · Nov 19, 2015 8:35am PST
Square board member Ruth Simmons. Photo by Bloomberg.
Brief

Square’s Price Pop Good News for Employees

By Alfred Lee · Nov 19, 2015 8:35am PST
Square employees are breathing easier–for now–after the payment company’s IPO pop this morning. Square’s IPO pricing at $9 a share Wednesday night put 37% of all options underwater, according to filings. But with the stock trading above $13 by late morning eastern time, about half of those underwater options were back in... Square employees are breathing easier–for now–after the payment company’s IPO...
Tony Fadell. Photo by Bloomberg
Brief

Google Glass Successor Dumps Some Glass

By Jessica E. Lessin · Nov 16, 2015 11:26am PST
So much for the screen. We’ve learned that Google's revamped Google Glass project, dubbed Project Aura, is working on a wearable with a screen—and at least one without.People tell us there have been three versions of the head-mounted device in development, although the three may be consolidated into two. One version, targeted at... So much for the screen. We’ve learned that Google's revamped Google Glass project,...
King Digital chief Riccardo Zacconi. Photo by Bloomberg.
Brief

Will Candy Crush Melt In Activision’s Mouth?

By Tom Dotan · Nov 3, 2015 11:38am PST · 1 comment
What is Activision really buying in its recent $5.9 billion acquisition of Candy Crush maker King Digital? Profit. Last year the company produced $575 million in net income.Assuming profits stayed that high, it would take Activision 12 years to recoup the purchase price. But King’s profits have been trending downward in recent quarters, as... What is Activision really buying in its recent $5.9 billion acquisition of Candy Crush maker King...
Discovery Borrowing More To Boost Buybacks
Brief

Discovery Borrowing More To Boost Buybacks

By Martin Peers · Nov 3, 2015 10:43am PST
Here’s a development of interest for anyone watching media companies’ slavish interest in stock buybacks. Standard & Poor’s cut Discovery Communications’ credit rating, and Moody’s indicated it was considering doing the same, after the company said it was willing to increase its debt-to-earnings ratios higher... Here’s a development of interest for anyone watching media companies’ slavish...
No Deal Between Microsoft, Mesosphere
No Deal Between Microsoft, Mesosphere
By Amir Efrati and Steve Nellis · Oct 28, 2015 9:26am PDT
No Deal Between Microsoft, Mesosphere
Brief

No Deal Between Microsoft, Mesosphere

By Amir Efrati and Steve Nellis · Oct 28, 2015 9:26am PDT
Mesosphere and Microsoft couldn’t come to terms over a potential buyout of the cloud infrastructure startup, said people briefed on the recent discussions.Microsoft this summer made an offer of around $150 million for Mesosphere, these people said, but the startup wanted more. It looked for alternative bidders willing to pay more than... Mesosphere and Microsoft couldn’t come to terms over a potential buyout of the cloud...
New Tuber at YouTube
Brief

New Tuber at YouTube

By Amir Efrati · Oct 27, 2015 1:32pm PDT
In what some “Tubers” describe as a controversial move, YouTube chief Susan Wojcicki has hired former eBay executive Matthew Mengerink to lead the Google unit’s engineers. The role was previously held by Venkat Panchapakesan, who died in May.The question now is whether John Harding, the longest-serving eng executive at YouTube,... In what some “Tubers” describe as a controversial move, YouTube chief Susan Wojcicki...