The Information

ByteDance founder Zhang Yiming. Photo by Getty

ByteDance Plans Share Buyback for TikTok Employees Later This Year

By Kaya Yurieff and Cory Weinberg · Jul 11, 2023 2:00pm PDT

TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, plans a share buyback for U.S. employees later this year, according to an email sent to current and former employees. The share sale could indicate that the company isn’t planning to go public anytime soon. Word of the buyback came the same day that ByteDance told employees it was... TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, plans a share buyback for U.S. employees later this...

Andrew Bosworth, chief technology officer of Meta Platforms, speaks during an online event last October. Photo by Getty Images

Meta Tech Chief’s Power Grows, Despite Missteps

By Sylvia Varnham O'Regan · Jul 10, 2023 6:00am PDT · 12 comments

Mark Zuckerberg and his longtime lieutenant, Andrew Bosworth, were at odds. It was mid-2019 and the two men held a series of discussions about Meta Platforms’ plans to build futuristic eyeglasses, part of Zuckerberg’s ambitions to control the hardware underpinnings of the next wave of technology. Bosworth—the imposing 6-foot,... Mark Zuckerberg and his longtime lieutenant, Andrew Bosworth, were at odds. It was mid-2019 and...

Neil Shen of Sequoia China, and Shailendra Singh of Sequoia India, now. Peak XV Partners. Photos by Getty.

Sequoia’s China and India Arms Court Global Backers After Split

By Juro Osawa and Natasha Mascarenhas · Jul 7, 2023 6:00am PDT · 1 comment

Sequoia Capital’s Chinese and Indian arms are accelerating efforts to ensure that investors around the world back their funds after the Silicon Valley venture firm completes a landmark split from its Asian affiliates, ending a nearly two-decade partnership. Sequoia Capital China, led by star dealmaker Neil Shen, is planning to host a... Sequoia Capital’s Chinese and Indian arms are accelerating efforts to ensure that investors...

Photo by Getty.

Top OpenSea Policy Executive Exits

By Aidan Ryan · Jul 6, 2023 3:55pm PDT · 1 comment

Photo by Getty.

Top OpenSea Policy Executive Exits

By Aidan Ryan · Jul 6, 2023 3:55pm PDT · 1 comment

OpenSea, the non-fungible token marketplace that rocketed to a $13.3 billion valuation at the peak of the crypto boom, is looking for a new senior policy and government affairs executive after Loni Mahanta, the policy executive it hired from Zillow, quietly left the company after just over a year. In her first interview since her exit in late... OpenSea, the non-fungible token marketplace that rocketed to a $13.3 billion valuation at the...

Art by Mike Sullivan.

Inside Google’s Efforts to Develop Custom Chip for Pixel

By Wayne Ma · Jul 6, 2023 6:00am PDT · 8 comments

Google has big ambitions to develop its own chips for its Pixel phones. So far, however, things haven’t gone according to plan. The search giant has delayed by at least one year the release of its first fully customized chip, which would act as the brains for its Pixel line of smartphones, according to two people with direct knowledge of... Google has big ambitions to develop its own chips for its Pixel phones. So far, however, things...

BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti speaks with Justin Killion, former president of Complex Networks, and BuzzFeed's former COO Christian Baesler. Photo by Getty

BuzzFeed’s Peretti Is Hoping to Raise $150 Million From Sale of Complex Assets

By Sahil Patel · Jul 5, 2023 12:49pm PDT · 3 comments

For months, BuzzFeed stock has traded so low that the Nasdaq recently threatened the company with delisting. With BuzzFeed’s effort to sell Complex Networks, a group of websites targeted at people in hip-hop, fashion and sports, CEO Jonah Peretti has the chance to transform Wall Street’s view of the company. Peretti is asking $150... For months, BuzzFeed stock has traded so low that the Nasdaq recently threatened the company with...

Microsoft's Gurdeep Pall at an event in Tokyo in 2017. Photo by Getty Images

Longtime Microsoft Executive Gurdeep Pall to Depart

By Kevin McLaughlin · Jul 3, 2023 5:00pm PDT · 3 comments

Gurdeep Pall, a 33-year Microsoft corporate vice president who helped build and promote key products like Windows, Skype and Bing, recently informed colleagues that he plans to retire from the company in September, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Since joining Microsoft in 1990, Pall has served as a high-profile executive under... Gurdeep Pall, a 33-year Microsoft corporate vice president who helped build and promote key...

Jensen Huang, president and CEO of Nvidia, speaks in Taipei, Taiwan on May 29. Photo by Getty.

Nvidia Acquired AI Startup That Shrinks Machine-Learning Models

By Anissa Gardizy · Jun 30, 2023 7:32pm PDT · 2 comments

Jensen Huang, president and CEO of Nvidia, speaks in Taipei, Taiwan on May 29. Photo by Getty.

Nvidia Acquired AI Startup That Shrinks Machine-Learning Models

By Anissa Gardizy · Jun 30, 2023 7:32pm PDT · 2 comments

Nvidia in February quietly acquired OmniML, a two-year-old artificial intelligence startup whose software helped shrink machine-learning models so they could run on devices rather than in the cloud, according to a spokesperson and LinkedIn profiles of former OmniML employees who now work at Nvidia. The acquisition could be a sign that the... Nvidia in February quietly acquired OmniML, a two-year-old artificial intelligence startup whose...

Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadella, arriving at federal court in San Francisco on June 28. Photo by Getty.

Microsoft’s Cloud Server Business in 2022 Was Less Than Half of AWS, New Document Reveals

By Aaron Holmes · Jun 29, 2023 1:36pm PDT · 7 comments

For years Microsoft has kept a lid on details about the true size of its Azure cloud server rental business, making it impossible for investors to know how Microsoft’s cloud operations unit stacked up against industry leader Amazon Web Services. But this week, thanks to antitrust regulators, the world got a peek under the lid. Azure... For years Microsoft has kept a lid on details about the true size of its Azure cloud server...

Coatue co-founder Thomas Laffont. Photo by Juan Pinnel

‘Pressures Remain’: Coatue Prepares Tech Founders for the Road Ahead

By Jessica E. Lessin · Jun 29, 2023 11:26am PDT · 8 comments

Earlier this month, I had the opportunity to attend a founder and investor conference hosted by Coatue, called East Meets West. While the conference, held in Montecito, Calif., was off the record, I asked the firm for permission to share one of my favorite parts of the event: the keynote its partners gave on the state of the finance and tech... Earlier this month, I had the opportunity to attend a founder and investor conference hosted by...

Stripe CEO Patrick Collison. Photo by Getty.

Stripe Lays Off Dozens, Mostly in Recruiting

By Cory Weinberg and Maria Heeter · Jun 29, 2023 11:08am PDT · 1 comment

Stripe has laid off a few dozen employees, most of them recruiters, in its human resources department. The staff cuts, while affecting a tiny percentage of the company’s roughly 7,000-person workforce, are part of a broader wave of belt tightening in tech, even as the pace of larger layoffs has abated. Stripe’s cuts in the recruiting... Stripe has laid off a few dozen employees, most of them recruiters, in its human resources...

Illustration by Laurent Hrybyk.

How Amazon Is Taming Its Customers’ Returns Addiction

By Theo Wayt · Jun 29, 2023 6:04am PDT · 1 comment

Illustration by Laurent Hrybyk.

How Amazon Is Taming Its Customers’ Returns Addiction

By Theo Wayt · Jun 29, 2023 6:04am PDT · 1 comment

When Amazon announced Wednesday that customers could soon start dropping off items they wanted to return at nearly 1,000 Staples stores, it touted the partnership as part of its decadeslong quest to make online shopping as easy as possible for consumers. In reality, the Staples partnership is the result of a years-long effort by a team inside... When Amazon announced Wednesday that customers could soon start dropping off items they wanted to...

Art by Mike Sullivan.

OpenAI Plans ChatGPT ‘Personal Assistant for Work,’ Setting Up Microsoft Rivalry

By Aaron Holmes · Jun 26, 2023 12:04pm PDT · 5 comments

In the span of half a year, ChatGPT has become one of the world’s best-known internet brands. Now its creator, OpenAI, has bigger plans for the chatbot: CEO Sam Altman privately told some developers OpenAI wants to turn it into a “supersmart personal assistant for work.” With built-in knowledge about an individual and their... In the span of half a year, ChatGPT has become one of the world’s best-known internet...

Orlando Bravo, founder and managing partner of Thoma Bravo. Photo by Getty.

Inside Thoma Bravo’s Software Playbook

By Rachel Graf · Jun 26, 2023 6:00am PDT · 4 comments

Until two weeks ago, Thoma Bravo had sold just one company worth more than $10 billion in the past three years, when it offloaded Ellie Mae to Intercontinental Exchange for $11 billion in 2020. That drought is why Thoma Bravo’s deal to sell its financial software firm, Adenza, to Nasdaq Inc. for $10.5 billion—nearly twice what it... Until two weeks ago, Thoma Bravo had sold just one company worth more than $10 billion in the...

Abraham Shafi, CEO of IRL (left), and Masayoshi Son, CEO of Softbank.

Social App IRL, Which Raised $200 Million, Shuts Down After CEO Misconduct Probe

By Mark Matousek · Jun 23, 2023 3:34pm PDT · 20 comments

Last year, the CEO of messaging app IRL repeatedly said it had 20 million monthly active users, who chatted about shared interests and planned real-world events together. Today, a spokesperson for the startup said an investigation by the board of directors concluded 95% of those users were “automated or from bots.” As a result of the... Last year, the CEO of messaging app IRL repeatedly said it had 20 million monthly active users,...

Photo by Getty.

TikTok Inks U.S. Warehouse Partnerships in Bid to Rival Amazon and Temu

By Ann Gehan and Theo Wayt · Jun 23, 2023 11:45am PDT · 4 comments

Photo by Getty.

TikTok Inks U.S. Warehouse Partnerships in Bid to Rival Amazon and Temu

By Ann Gehan and Theo Wayt · Jun 23, 2023 11:45am PDT · 4 comments

TikTok has signed logistics deals to ensure that the products people buy on its app arrive smoothly at their front doors—a key part of the video app’s efforts to transform itself into a shopping destination. It’s currently testing the fulfillment services with U.S. sellers, a person familiar with the matter said. TikTok is... TikTok has signed logistics deals to ensure that the products people buy on its app arrive...

Google CEO Sundar Pichai in May. Photo by Getty Images

AI Boomerang: Google’s Internal Critic Returns From Rival OpenAI

By Jon Victor and Amir Efrati · Jun 23, 2023 9:15am PDT · 4 comments

Jacob Devlin, a prominent artificial intelligence researcher who left Google for rival OpenAI in January after complaining internally about how the company trained its Bard AI chatbot software, has returned to his old job, according to a person with knowledge of the situation. Google’s willingness to hire Devlin back, despite the fact his... Jacob Devlin, a prominent artificial intelligence researcher who left Google for rival OpenAI in...

Photo via Cohesity

In Battle of Ransomware Protectors, One Firm Burns a Lot of Cash, Another Preps an IPO

By Maria Heeter, Anissa Gardizy and Kate Clark · Jun 23, 2023 6:00am PDT

Four years ago, one of the most intense battles in enterprise software was underway between two startups led by former colleagues: Rubrik and Cohesity. They help businesses manage data, and they also market themselves as offering protection against ransomware attacks. At the time, Rubrik was clearly in the lead, but Cohesity was growing faster... Four years ago, one of the most intense battles in enterprise software was underway between two...

Reddit CEO Steve Huffman. Photo by Getty

Reddit Sales Growth Slowdown Preceded Fight Over New API Fees

By Cory Weinberg · Jun 22, 2023 2:26pm PDT

A stark business reality faced Reddit before a user uprising engulfed its site this month: slowing sales growth. Reddit’s revenue rose 38% in 2022 to about $670 million last year, two people familiar with the matter said, faster than many other internet ad firms but a steep slowdown from the more than doubling of revenue the company... A stark business reality faced Reddit before a user uprising engulfed its site this month:...

V. Pappas. Photo by Getty.

TikTok’s COO Pappas to Quit

By Kaya Yurieff · Jun 22, 2023 10:17am PDT

V. Pappas. Photo by Getty.

TikTok’s COO Pappas to Quit

By Kaya Yurieff · Jun 22, 2023 10:17am PDT

TikTok's Chief Operating Officer V. Pappas has quit, Pappas told staff on Thursday, according to an email viewed by The Information. At the same time, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew announced the elevation of chief of staff Adam Presser to be head of operations, while also revealing that former Disney executive Zenia Mucha will join in a new role... TikTok's Chief Operating Officer V. Pappas has quit, Pappas told staff on Thursday, according...