The Information

The Signal app icon. Photo: AP

MobileCoin, Which Powers Crypto Payments on Signal, Valued at $1 Billion

By Hannah Miller and Kate Clark · Jul 7, 2021 6:38pm PDT · 1 comment

MobileCoin, a cryptocurrency business with close ties to Signal and its founder, Moxie Marlinspike, has raised more than $75 million in venture capital funding at a $1 billion valuation, more than 10 times higher than at its last financing in March, according to two people familiar with the matter. Founded in 2017, MobileCoin has developed a... MobileCoin, a cryptocurrency business with close ties to Signal and its founder, Moxie...

Justin Overdorff. Photo: Lightspeed Venture Partners

Stripe’s Former VC Dealmaker Joins Lightspeed to Invest in Sizzling Fintech

By Berber Jin · Jul 7, 2021 11:23am PDT · 1 comment

While Justin Overdorff was at payments company Stripe, he helped it become a prolific VC investor, spearheaded its partnerships with companies including Amazon and developed its lending business. This spring, he joined Lightspeed Venture Partners as a fintech partner, the first time the venture firm has hired someone to specialize exclusively in... While Justin Overdorff was at payments company Stripe, he helped it become a prolific VC investor...

An employee types on a touch screen as a Geek+ Inc. Eve robot transports shelves at a warehouse in Japan in 2017. Photo by Bloomberg

Chinese Warehouse Automation Startup Seeks $1.3 Billion Valuation

By Juro Osawa · Jul 7, 2021 7:38am PDT

Hai Robotics, a Chinese startup that develops warehouse robots similar to those made by Amazon’s robotics unit, is in talks with Sequoia Capital China and other investors to raise more than $150 million at a pre-money valuation of $1.3 billion, roughly triple its last valuation from a funding round in March, said people familiar with the... Hai Robotics, a Chinese startup that develops warehouse robots similar to those made by...

Google’s ‘Moral Bellwether’ Cartoonist Quits: ‘I Have to Draw the Line Somewhere’

By Sarah Krouse · Jul 7, 2021 6:01am PDT · 5 comments

Google’s ‘Moral Bellwether’ Cartoonist Quits: ‘I Have to Draw the Line Somewhere’

By Sarah Krouse · Jul 7, 2021 6:01am PDT · 5 comments

For 14 years, Manu Cornet’s day job was to help speed up Google searches and develop new backgrounds for Gmail. But Cornet was better known inside Google for publishing hundreds of cartoons, known as Goomics, which initially poked fun at its culture and employees’ sense of entitlement and later became a blistering critique of senior... For 14 years, Manu Cornet’s day job was to help speed up Google searches and develop new...

Didi president and cofounder Jean Liu. Photo by Bloomberg.

Didi’s Executives Gave Themselves $3 Billion in Stock Before IPO

By Shai Oster · Jul 6, 2021 10:20am PDT

The senior leadership of Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi Global granted themselves stock options worth $3 billion in the second quarter, before last week’s initial public offering, securities filings show. That move is likely to inflame investor anger over the offering as Wall Street comes to grips with the Chinese government’s... The senior leadership of Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi Global granted themselves stock options...

A customer enters their pin number as they make a chip and pin payment at a restaurant in London, U.K. Photo: Bloomberg

Coatue Values Banking Startup Mercury at $1.6 Billion

By Berber Jin and Kate Clark · Jul 3, 2021 7:01am PDT

Coatue Management has led a Series B investment in Mercury, a banking service for other startups, at a valuation of about $1.6 billion including the new capital, according to two people familiar with the deal. The valuation is more than 16 times higher than when Mercury raised money in 2019, reflecting the scorching market for fintech... Coatue Management has led a Series B investment in Mercury, a banking service for other startups,...

Employees at Japan's JAL answer phone calls. The need to support off-premise call center employees during the pandemic boosted demand for companies such as Talkdesk. Photo: Yomiuri Shimbun via AP Images

New Talkdesk Financing Targets $10 Billion Valuation

By Kate Clark and Amir Efrati · Jul 2, 2021 4:52pm PDT · 2 comments

Talkdesk, a developer of cloud-based software to manage call centers and other customer service, has indicated it is raising a new round of capital that would grant the company access to the “decacorn” club, a fast-growing group of privately held startups whose valuation exceeds $10 billion. The financing could value San... Talkdesk, a developer of cloud-based software to manage call centers and other customer service,...

Disney CEO Bob Chapek. Photo by Bloomberg.

Disney+ U.S. Growth Slows Sharply in First Half of 2021, Internal Data Shows

By Wayne Ma and Jessica Toonkel · Jul 2, 2021 10:24am PDT · 1 comment

Disney CEO Bob Chapek. Photo by Bloomberg.

Disney+ U.S. Growth Slows Sharply in First Half of 2021, Internal Data Shows

By Wayne Ma and Jessica Toonkel · Jul 2, 2021 10:24am PDT · 1 comment

U.S. subscriber growth at Disney’s Disney+ streaming service slowed sharply in the past few months, according to internal data reviewed by The Information, with most of the growth in the service this year coming from India and Latin America. The slowdown is sure to intensify a debate about whether Disney should broaden the programming on... U.S. subscriber growth at Disney’s Disney+ streaming service slowed sharply in the past few...

Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev. Photo: Bloomberg

Robinhood Valued at $55 Billion on Secondary Market Ahead of IPO

By Kate Clark · Jul 1, 2021 2:06pm PDT · 5 comments

Anticipation of Robinhood’s upcoming initial public offering, which took a step forward when the stock-trading app filed paperwork for the offering with the SEC on Thursday, has prompted secondary market investors to offer to buy its private shares at an implied valuation of $55 billion. That’s two-thirds higher than... Anticipation of Robinhood’s upcoming initial public offering, which took a step forward...

SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son. Photo by Bloomberg

SoftBank’s $12 Billion Bet on Didi Returns 14%

By Amir Efrati, Juro Osawa and Shai Oster · Jun 30, 2021 2:31pm PDT · 2 comments

SoftBank Group has been hailed as a big winner from Didi Chuxing’s initial public offering on Wednesday. But in actuality, its returns are piddly. SoftBank invested a total of around $12 billion in the company, according to a person familiar with the matter. Based on Didi’s closing price today of $14.14—up 1% from its IPO... SoftBank Group has been hailed as a big winner from Didi Chuxing’s initial public offering...

Jack Antonoff of Bleachers performing at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival in 2019. Photo by AP

Spotify Explores Expansion Into Events

By Jessica Toonkel · Jun 30, 2021 9:00am PDT

Spotify is considering entering the events business, using data about consumer interests gleaned from its music-streaming service to host virtual and possibly live concerts, according to people familiar with the situation. The move could help Spotify improve its relations with music artists, which historically have been strained, with musicians... Spotify is considering entering the events business, using data about consumer interests gleaned...

Image courtesy of Waymo

Investors Pressured Waymo to Focus on Business Sooner

By Sarah Krouse · Jun 30, 2021 6:00am PDT · 4 comments

Image courtesy of Waymo

Investors Pressured Waymo to Focus on Business Sooner

By Sarah Krouse · Jun 30, 2021 6:00am PDT · 4 comments

When dozens of self-driving Jaguar prototypes developed by Alphabet’s Waymo started criss-crossing San Francisco in February, it was a sign that the pioneering company had decided it was ready to graduate from the suburbs of Phoenix, the first place where it charged customers for driverless rides, to a more difficult urban environment. But... When dozens of self-driving Jaguar prototypes developed by Alphabet’s Waymo started...

Art by Mike Sullivan

Apple’s Spending on Google Cloud Storage On Track to Soar 50% This Year

By Amir Efrati and Kevin McLaughlin · Jun 29, 2021 6:00am PDT

Apple executives have taken swipes at Google in the past over its privacy practices. But the iPhone maker trusts Google enough so that over the past year it has dramatically increased the amount of Apple user data it stores in Google’s cloud, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter. The increase cements Apple’s... Apple executives have taken swipes at Google in the past over its privacy practices. But the...

Benchmark partners Sarah Tavel (l), Eric Vishria(center) and Peter Fenton (r). Photos by Getty Images, Bloomberg. Photo illustration by Mike Sullivan.

Benchmark’s VC Model Strained by Newcomers, Supersize Rivals

By Berber Jin · Jun 28, 2021 6:01am PDT

In April of last year, Michael Grinich got a call most startup founders only dream about. Eric Vishria, a partner at Benchmark, one of the most prestigious VC firms, said he was interested in investing in Grinich’s then-two-year-old software startup, WorkOS, which helps other software startups sell their products to large companies.... In April of last year, Michael Grinich got a call most startup founders only dream about. Eric...

Mark Zuckerberg, left, and Marc Benioff. Photos by Bloomberg.

FTC Heard Concerns From Salesforce, Zendesk Over Facebook’s $1 Billion CRM Buy

By Josh Sisco · Jun 25, 2021 8:01am PDT · 1 comment

Salesforce and Zendesk, which sell customer relationship management software, expressed concern about Facebook’s $1 billion acquisition of a smaller CRM firm to Federal Trade Commission lawyers reviewing the deal, according to people with direct knowledge of the matter. That’s one reason the proposed acquisition, which just a few... Salesforce and Zendesk, which sell customer relationship management software, expressed concern...

Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan. Photo by Bloomberg

New FTC Chair Lina Khan Appoints Antitrust Chief, Other Key Staffers

By Josh Sisco · Jun 24, 2021 12:54pm PDT · 1 comment

Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan. Photo by Bloomberg

New FTC Chair Lina Khan Appoints Antitrust Chief, Other Key Staffers

By Josh Sisco · Jun 24, 2021 12:54pm PDT · 1 comment

Lina Khan, the new chair of the Federal Trade Commission, on Thursday named three top staff members amid one of the most radical shifts in the agency’s history, according to a memo viewed by The Information. Holly Vedova, who was an adviser to FTC commissioner Rohit Chopra, a Democrat, on antitrust issues, is now the acting director of the... Lina Khan, the new chair of the Federal Trade Commission, on Thursday named three top staff...

Apps on a Vizio television set, including for YouTube and YouTube TV. Photo from Vizio

YouTube’s Audience on TVs Soars, But TV Advertisers Go Slow

By Sahil Patel · Jun 23, 2021 6:00am PDT

Viewers of YouTube, who have long watched the popular video service on their phones and computers, are now increasingly watching it on television sets, according to new data shared with The Information. But despite the shift, some traditional TV advertisers are still balking at moving their ad dollars to the service. Nearly 40% of ads that air... Viewers of YouTube, who have long watched the popular video service on their phones and...

A screengrab of One Piece: Blood Routes via YouTube

TikTok Owner ByteDance Finds Game Success Through Influencers

By Juro Osawa · Jun 22, 2021 9:01am PDT · 2 comments

ByteDance, the Chinese company that owns TikTok, has proved it can generate tens of billions of dollars in revenue from online ads on its blockbuster video apps. Now it may finally have figured out how to get a bigger piece of the huge games market, after having made repeated missteps in the category. In April, ByteDance launched a new mobile... ByteDance, the Chinese company that owns TikTok, has proved it can generate tens of billions of...

Photos by Bloomberg. Photo illustration by Mike Sullivan.

Amazon Says Its Suppliers Must Protect Whistleblowers. This One’s in Jail

By Wayne Ma · Jun 22, 2021 6:01am PDT

Amazon says it expects its manufacturers to protect whistleblowers, but that wasn’t enough to help a manager who raised alarms about labor violations involving teenage workers at a Chinese factory that made Kindles and Echos. In 2019, the manager secretly sent records showing how the factory’s student interns were underpaid and... Amazon says it expects its manufacturers to protect whistleblowers, but that wasn’t enough...

Photo: Bloomberg

Shopify Seeks to Challenge Amazon Through Deals With BuzzFeed, Other Sites

By Jessica Toonkel and Sahil Patel · Jun 21, 2021 6:01am PDT · 2 comments

Photo: Bloomberg

Shopify Seeks to Challenge Amazon Through Deals With BuzzFeed, Other Sites

By Jessica Toonkel and Sahil Patel · Jun 21, 2021 6:01am PDT · 2 comments

Shopify, which has become a major force in e-commerce by providing online tools to merchants, is rolling out a new service that will allow content publishers to link to merchants in the Shopify network in exchange for a cut of transaction revenue, according to people familiar with the situation. The nascent move into an area known as affiliate... Shopify, which has become a major force in e-commerce by providing online tools to merchants, is...