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

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Recent Editions

Telegram founder, Pavel Durov, in 2015. Photo by TechCrunch via Flickr.

Tech’s Premature Telegram Freakout

By Martin Peers · Aug 26, 2024 5:00pm PDT · 3 comments

There’s nothing like a billionaire’s arrest as they get off their private jet to alarm other rich people. The apprehension of Telegram founder Pavel Durov by French police as he deplaned over the weekend has more than a few techies worked up, particularly Elon Musk and other like-minded folks. Their message: This is a threat to free speech.Well,... There’s nothing like a billionaire’s arrest as they get off their private jet to alarm other rich...

Nvidia CEO, Jensen Huang. Photo via Shutterstock.

All Eyes on Nvidia’s Numbers

By Martin Peers · Aug 23, 2024 3:30pm PDT

Summer is winding down—Labor Day is just a week away! But we’ve still got plenty of business news. Next week is particularly important: Nvidia will report earnings for its July fiscal quarter on Wednesday. In a note to clients yesterday, Wedbush analyst Dan Ives described the Nvidia report as “the most important tech earnings in years,” one... Summer is winding down—Labor Day is just a week away! But we’ve still got plenty of business...

Snowflake CEO, Sridhar Ramaswamy. Photo by Bloomberg via Getty.

Snowflake’s AI Winter

By Anita Ramaswamy · Aug 22, 2024 5:00pm PDT

Investors are certainly giving Snowflake the cold shoulder. On Wednesday, the data analytics firm delivered an earnings update that showed July-quarter revenue above the company’s own projections and increased its estimate of full-year revenue growth for fiscal 2025 by two percentage points, to 26%. As Deutsche Bank analyst Brad Zelnick pointed... Investors are certainly giving Snowflake the cold shoulder. On Wednesday, the data analytics firm...

Jim Gorman. Photo via Getty.

Ex-Morgan Stanley Chief Gorman Gets Hardest Job in Business: Finding Iger Successor

By Martin Peers · Aug 21, 2024 5:00pm PDT

Jim Gorman. Photo via Getty.

Ex-Morgan Stanley Chief Gorman Gets Hardest Job in Business: Finding Iger Successor

By Martin Peers · Aug 21, 2024 5:00pm PDT

Uh-oh. This doesn’t seem good. Disney on Wednesday announced that board member Jim Gorman, a former CEO of Morgan Stanley, would take the reins of the board’s succession planning committee from Disney chair Mark Parker. This is the committee charged with what is apparently the hardest job in the Western world: finding a lasting successor for CEO... Uh-oh. This doesn’t seem good. Disney on Wednesday announced that board member Jim Gorman, a...

Bolt CEO, Ryan Breslow. Photo via YouTube/Axios.

Bolt’s Breslow Plots His Return

By Martin Peers · Aug 20, 2024 5:00pm PDT

You really can’t beat tech industry founders (and a few venture capitalists) when it comes to setting new standards of chutzpah. The latest example? As my colleague Erin Woo scooped today, Bolt founder Ryan Breslow is proposing to return as CEO of the once-hot e-commerce startup. He claims to have the backing of an overseas investor who would... You really can’t beat tech industry founders (and a few venture capitalists) when it comes to...

Photo by Jonathan Newton/The Washington Post via Getty.

Why Sports TV Joint Venture Is Dead

By Martin Peers · Aug 19, 2024 5:00pm PDT

Sports fans, listen up. If you were planning to sign up for the new Venu sports-streaming service due to launch this fall—to include sports cable channels such as ESPN, TNT and Fox Sports 1, all for the cut-rate price of just $43 a month—think again. Chances are Venu will never see the light of day, thanks to a judge’s ruling on Friday night... Sports fans, listen up. If you were planning to sign up for the new Venu sports-streaming service...

Ben Horowitz. Photo by David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty.

Horowitz Promotes San Francisco Standard

By Martin Peers · Aug 16, 2024 3:00pm PDT

Michael Moritz, you owe Ben Horowitz a drink. The Andreessen Horowitz partner did a masterful job of promoting an article The San Francisco Standard, a news publication owned by Moritz, published today—so much so that you might imagine Horowitz, too, has an investment in the publication!I’m kidding. In a tweet, Horowitz accused Moritz (who is of... Michael Moritz, you owe Ben Horowitz a drink. The Andreessen Horowitz partner did a masterful job...

Photo via Getty.

Calculating Cable TV’s Future

By Martin Peers · Aug 15, 2024 5:00pm PDT

Photo via Getty.

Calculating Cable TV’s Future

By Martin Peers · Aug 15, 2024 5:00pm PDT

These are dark days for big TV companies. Paramount Global, owner of CBS, began laying off 15% of its staff this week. The share price of Warner Bros. Discovery has fallen so far down the toilet that a plumber would have trouble spotting it. Disney stock has lost most of the ground it gained during an activist fight for board seats this past... These are dark days for big TV companies. Paramount Global, owner of CBS, began laying off 15% of...

Photo by Bloomberg via Getty

The Contradictions in the DOJ’s Google Breakup Idea

By Martin Peers · Aug 14, 2024 5:00pm PDT · 2 comments

Who says investors don’t care about Google’s antitrust woes? The stock dropped as much as 3.9% on Wednesday in the wake of reports that the government might seek “a breakup” of the company as the penalty for last week’s antitrust verdict, most likely through the forced divestiture of Android or Chrome.Those reports shouldn’t have been... Who says investors don’t care about Google’s antitrust woes? The stock dropped as much as 3.9% on...

Rick Osterloh, Google's SVP of Devices & Services, speaking at today's event. Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty.

Google Says ‘Add Me’ to AI-Focused Phone Buyers

By Martin Peers · Aug 13, 2024 5:00pm PDT · 1 comment

Google executive Rick Osterloh promised today to demonstrate to consumers exactly what artificial intelligence can do for them. But the array of impressive AI-powered features he displayed for Google’s newest Pixel line of phones may not be quite what consumers are looking for.While some features, such as Google’s new virtual assistant (for all... Google executive Rick Osterloh promised today to demonstrate to consumers exactly what artificial...

Elon Musk and Thierry Breton. Photos via Getty.

Musk’s European Cage Match

By Martin Peers · Aug 12, 2024 5:00pm PDT · 4 comments

It looks like Elon Musk is preparing for a cage match with Thierry Breton, a European commissioner who has been on the X owner’s case over his lack of compliance with European regulations. Today, for instance, Musk re-tweeted the latest missive from Breton—as verbose a letter as any bureaucrat could produce—with an image from the movie “Tropic... It looks like Elon Musk is preparing for a cage match with Thierry Breton, a European...

Photos via Adobe Stock

Paramount and Warner Discover Reality

By Martin Peers · Aug 9, 2024 3:30pm PDT

Photos via Adobe Stock

Paramount and Warner Discover Reality

By Martin Peers · Aug 9, 2024 3:30pm PDT

It’s Friday and lots of people are on vacation. That makes this an ideal time to dive into a really wonky subject—accounting. Fun! Don’t click away just yet. This is actually interesting. Two aging entertainment companies, Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount Global, both chose this week to reveal multibillion-dollar write-downs of their... It’s Friday and lots of people are on vacation. That makes this an ideal time to dive into a...

Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky. Photo by Getty

Airbnb’s Paradox: Profits v. Growth

By Cory Weinberg · Aug 8, 2024 5:00pm PDT · 2 comments

One of the internet’s corporate success stories of the past decade, Airbnb, is suddenly in need of an overhaul. Its stock plunged 11% this week—dragging it down 15% for the year—after executives acknowledged a slowdown among U.S. consumers had hurt its growth. The slowdown crystallizes a paradox about Airbnb’s performance. Its 11% expected... One of the internet’s corporate success stories of the past decade, Airbnb, is suddenly in need...

Photo by Bloomberg via Getty.

What Quarterly Updates Reveal About Consumer Spending

By Martin Peers · Aug 7, 2024 5:00pm PDT

We’re in unstable times. Today’s stock market action, where a morning rally gave way to an afternoon sell-off, was the latest evidence. There’s surely lots of reasons for this volatility, but uncertainty about the economy has to be top of the list.Some quarterly earnings reports in the past couple of days demonstrated why investors might be... We’re in unstable times. Today’s stock market action, where a morning rally gave way to an...

Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses on display. Photo by NurPhoto via Getty.

Meta’s Ray-Ban Glasses Deserve More Attention

By Martin Peers · Aug 6, 2024 5:00pm PDT · 3 comments

You might not know it from the news of the past few days, but weather-wise we’re in the dog days of August. And that’s an ideal time to try Meta Platforms’ Ray-Ban smart glasses (no one wants to walk around wearing sunglasses in the winter gloom). Based on my personal experience, Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg is onto something when he... You might not know it from the news of the past few days, but weather-wise we’re in the dog days...

Google CEO, Sundar Pichai. Photo by Jeff Chiu/AP.

Wall Street Unperturbed by Google Ruling

By Martin Peers · Aug 5, 2024 5:09pm PDT

Google CEO, Sundar Pichai. Photo by Jeff Chiu/AP.

Wall Street Unperturbed by Google Ruling

By Martin Peers · Aug 5, 2024 5:09pm PDT

Antitrust regulators don’t scare big tech investors. Stock of Google’s parent Alphabet fell by only a couple of percentage points after a judge found Google had broken antitrust laws in its efforts to protect its monopoly in search. Shares of Apple, which arguably stands to lose as much from the ruling as Google, fell even less. (Both stocks... Antitrust regulators don’t scare big tech investors. Stock of Google’s parent Alphabet fell by...

Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty.

AI Investors Are Soul-Searching

By Akash Pasricha · Aug 2, 2024 4:40pm PDT · 1 comment

Anyone involved in artificial intelligence right now has to be entering the weekend deeply introspective about when this technology will actually start making businesses money. One by one, big tech companies have spent most of the past two weeks telling shareholders about their mammoth investments in AI that sent capital expenditures... Anyone involved in artificial intelligence right now has to be entering the weekend deeply...

An Amazon distribution center in Richmond, Calif on July 16 during "Amazon Prime Day." Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty.

Prime Video Ads Have Yet to Pay Off

By Theo Wayt · Aug 1, 2024 5:00pm PDT · 1 comment

We want to start this evening’s Briefing by congratulating and thanking all the people who were involved in securing the release of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and other prisoners from Russia, in a major victory for press freedom. Make sure to read The Journal’s story about the remarkable effort to rescue him here.Now on to the... We want to start this evening’s Briefing by congratulating and thanking all the people who were...

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Photo by Getty

Meta Flexes Financial Muscle in Costly AI Showdown With Microsoft and Google

By Amir Efrati · Jul 31, 2024 5:13pm PDT

Meta Platforms shareholders have had a singular concern lately: how the company can go toe-to-toe with Google and Microsoft (and Microsoft partner OpenAI) in developing cutting-edge artificial intelligence while expanding data centers and filling them with costly AI chips to enable future breakthroughs that result in profits.On Wednesday, Meta... Meta Platforms shareholders have had a singular concern lately: how the company can go toe-to-toe...

Amy Hood. Photo by Bloomberg via Getty.

Microsoft Tests Investors’ Patience

By Anita Ramaswamy · Jul 30, 2024 6:03pm PDT · 4 comments

Amy Hood. Photo by Bloomberg via Getty.

Microsoft Tests Investors’ Patience

By Anita Ramaswamy · Jul 30, 2024 6:03pm PDT · 4 comments

Patience may be a virtue, but Microsoft Chief Financial Officer Amy Hood is asking investors to take it to extremes. Twice during the Tuesday conference call to discuss the company’s June-quarter results, Hood said Microsoft’s extraordinary investment in building and leasing data centers to support artificial intelligence would pay off over... Patience may be a virtue, but Microsoft Chief Financial Officer Amy Hood is asking investors to...