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

Dylan Field, CEO of Figma. Photo by David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images.

With Both X and Figma-Adobe, European Regulators Flex Muscles

By Martin Peers · Dec 18, 2023 5:00pm PST · 1 comment

What would European bureaucrats do without an active U.S. tech industry to bother? On Monday, for instance, Adobe and Figma called off their $20 billion deal in the face of European regulatory opposition. The deal would have led “to higher prices, reduced quality or less choice for customers,” claimed European regulatory czar Margrethe Vestager... What would European bureaucrats do without an active U.S. tech industry to bother? On Monday, for...

Nelson Peltz. Photo by Getty

Why Nelson Peltz Can’t Fix Disney

By Martin Peers · Dec 15, 2023 3:00pm PST

Judging by two news events this week, next year will be dominated by new episodes in that long-running series, “The Decline of the TV Industry.” First, widespread reports that Shari Redstone is in talks to sell her stake in CBS owner Paramount Global suggest the Redstone family is finally throwing in the towel. Or at least they’re trying to, if... Judging by two news events this week, next year will be dominated by new episodes in that...

Midjourney/Mike Sullivan

The Next AI Battle: Adding It to Existing Products

By Jessica E. Lessin · Dec 14, 2023 5:00pm PST · 3 comments

Ok, I’ll call it: We are closing this chapter of the AI wars.Since January or so, tech leaders, their customers and reporters have been haggling over advancements in large language models. We’ve been consumed by models, their names and which 0.5 version of a model is better than another. I don’t think any of that is going to matter... Ok, I’ll call it: We are closing this chapter of the AI wars.Since January or so, tech leaders,...

Etsy's Brooklyn, New York office today. Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images.

Etsy’s Layoffs Reflect No-Growth Reality

By Martin Peers · Dec 13, 2023 5:00pm PST

Etsy's Brooklyn, New York office today. Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images.

Etsy’s Layoffs Reflect No-Growth Reality

By Martin Peers · Dec 13, 2023 5:00pm PST

When an online shopping site cuts 11% of its staff two weeks before Christmas, you know something’s up. This should be the happiest time of the year for Etsy, an online marketplace that today was promising “Last-minute gifts at every price!” Instead, the firm joined a growing list of businesses laying people off in recent days—including Spotify... When an online shopping site cuts 11% of its staff two weeks before Christmas, you know something...

Photo by Bloomberg via Getty.

Wall Street Yawns at Google’s Monopoly Threat

By Cory Weinberg · Dec 12, 2023 5:00pm PST

Silicon Valley’s phones buzzed with alerts last night, offering surprising news about one of its bellwether companies: A federal jury decided Google had exercised unlawful monopoly power over app developers like Epic Games. Investors so far have responded mostly with a shrug. By the end of today, the stock of Google’s parent company, Alphabet,... Silicon Valley’s phones buzzed with alerts last night, offering surprising news about one of its...

Ruth Porat, President and Chief Investment Officer of Alphabet, is one of many executives to transition from Chief Financial Officer roles in 2023. Photo by Noam Galai/Getty Images.

This Year’s CFO Revolving Door

By Martin Peers · Dec 11, 2023 5:00pm PST

Quick quiz: Which C-suite position has the least job security? This year, at least, the answer would have to be chief financial officer, arguably the No. 2 executive at most big public companies. In tech and media in 2023, we’ve seen CFO departures (or CFOs taking a different position internally) at Alphabet, Uber, Tesla, Disney, Stripe, Airbnb,... Quick quiz: Which C-suite position has the least job security? This year, at least, the answer...

A Microsoft Store in London. Photo by Peter Dazeley/Getty Images.

Regulators Scrutinize Microsoft-OpenAI Partnership; Shein’s IPO Hurdles

By Martin Peers · Dec 8, 2023 3:30pm PST

You knew it was just a matter of time. Regulators in the U.K. and U.S. are looking into the antitrust implications of Microsoft’s partnership with OpenAI, according to the U.K. regulator and Bloomberg. Yes, that’s right. A partnership that poses a serious competitive threat to Google—whose dominance of internet search and advertising is the... You knew it was just a matter of time. Regulators in the U.K. and U.S. are looking into the...

Elon Musk. Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images.

Musk Escalates Attack on Disney

By Martin Peers · Dec 7, 2023 5:00pm PST · 20 comments

Elon Musk. Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images.

Musk Escalates Attack on Disney

By Martin Peers · Dec 7, 2023 5:00pm PST · 20 comments

If Bob Iger decides to update his 2019 memoir, “Ride of a Lifetime,” with a chapter on his return to Disney a year ago, he’ll have plenty of juicy material. The executive once widely admired for his success in running the entertainment giant is now being assailed on all sides. Today, we had Elon Musk, still irritated that Disney joined other... If Bob Iger decides to update his 2019 memoir, “Ride of a Lifetime,” with a chapter on his return...

Google CEO Sundar Pichai. Photo by Bloomberg via Getty.

What Google’s Gemini Says About the State of Alphabet

By Martin Peers · Dec 6, 2023 5:00pm PST · 2 comments

Today tells you a lot about the current state of Google and its parent company Alphabet. The tech giant, once the leader in artificial intelligence, unveiled its answer to OpenAI’s ChatGPT with a product—Gemini Pro—that is comparable to what OpenAI released a year ago. It’s easy to miss this nuance amid the deluge of positive press, but Google’s... Today tells you a lot about the current state of Google and its parent company Alphabet. The tech...

Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky. Photo by Jemal Countess/Getty Images.

Airbnb Wants to Feel Young Again

By Cory Weinberg · Dec 5, 2023 5:00pm PST

Booking Holdings and Airbnb have long resembled a father-son duo of the online travel industry. Airbnb has traditionally been the cool kid of the two, a fast-growing San Francisco media darling that customers flocked to. Its product became a verb. Booking—which came from an older internet generation, marked by a utilitarian, Dutch-influenced... Booking Holdings and Airbnb have long resembled a father-son duo of the online travel industry....

Spotify founder and CEO, Daniel Ek. Photo by Noam Galai/Getty Images.

Spotify’s Layoffs and Uber Joins S&P 500: Tech Grows Up

By Martin Peers · Dec 4, 2023 5:00pm PST

Where’s the cake? Today marks The Information’s 10th birthday, which is a milestone for any news startup, and even more so for one that has never raised outside funding. (That’s what you call bootstrapping.) Those of us who’ve been here through most or all of the past decade truly have empathy for tech startups. You labor in obscurity until one... Where’s the cake? Today marks The Information’s 10th birthday, which is a milestone for any news...

Bill Ackman. Photo by Patrick McMullan via Getty Images.

What X, TikTok and Meta Have in Common

By Martin Peers · Dec 1, 2023 3:30pm PST · 4 comments

Bill Ackman. Photo by Patrick McMullan via Getty Images.

What X, TikTok and Meta Have in Common

By Martin Peers · Dec 1, 2023 3:30pm PST · 4 comments

Every social media service is unhappy in its own way. That’s something Bill Ackman should remember. The hedge fund manager came out swinging in support of Elon Musk in a lengthy tweet late Thursday night, claiming that recent advertiser defections from X were a result of Musk being “targeted” because other media organizations view X as a... Every social media service is unhappy in its own way. That’s something Bill Ackman should...

Elon Musk speaks during The New York Times Dealbook Summit 2023 on Nov. 29 in New York City. Photo by Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images.

Musk and Altman Are Businesspeople, Not Politicians

By Jessica E. Lessin · Nov 30, 2023 5:00pm PST · 4 comments

It was once common to wonder whether businesses were too big to fail. I think it is time we start worrying about business leaders who think they are too big to fail—and what we should do about that. I had this thought as I was listening to Elon Musk tell The New York Times’ Andrew Ross Sorkin that businesses pulling their ads from X were... It was once common to wonder whether businesses were too big to fail. I think it is time we start...

Photo via Rover

Blackstone Finds a Diamond in the Ruff With Rover

By Martin Peers · Nov 29, 2023 5:00pm PST

Woof! There is deal-making going on out there that doesn’t have to do with artificial intelligence (unless of course you mean animal intelligence). Blackstone’s $2.3 billion purchase of pet-sitting marketplace Rover Group, unveiled Wednesday, demonstrates that Rover is that rarest of gems, a company that went public via a SPAC merger and turned... Woof! There is deal-making going on out there that doesn’t have to do with artificial...

Photo via Getty

OpenAI’s Troubled Youth

By Cory Weinberg · Nov 28, 2023 5:00pm PST · 1 comment

OpenAI’s board appointment of two rhetorical graybeards—tech veteran Bret Taylor and, for some reason, former U.S. Treasury Secretary Larry Summers—mercifully helped avert its pre-Thanksgiving leadership crisis. It has more board vacancies to fill (but not with investors), governance rules to set and a CEO to investigate.I’d pose another... OpenAI’s board appointment of two rhetorical graybeards—tech veteran Bret Taylor and, for some...

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (center) takes Elon Musk (left) on a tour of Kibbutz Kfar Aza after the October 7th Massacre took place there, on November 27, 2023 in Kfar Aza, Israel. Photo by Amos Ben-Gershom (GPO)/Handout via Getty Images.

Israel Gets Sensible and Thoughtful Musk

By Martin Peers · Nov 27, 2023 5:00pm PST · 3 comments

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (center) takes Elon Musk (left) on a tour of Kibbutz Kfar Aza after the October 7th Massacre took place there, on November 27, 2023 in Kfar Aza, Israel. Photo by Amos Ben-Gershom (GPO)/Handout via Getty Images.

Israel Gets Sensible and Thoughtful Musk

By Martin Peers · Nov 27, 2023 5:00pm PST · 3 comments

After a week of OpenAI and Thanksgiving, we’re back to regularly scheduled tech programming. That means Elon Musk is once again all over the news, this time visiting Israel in what appears to be an effort to counter perceptions, rekindled by this tweet from two weeks ago, that he is antisemitic. Not surprisingly, we got the respectable version... After a week of OpenAI and Thanksgiving, we’re back to regularly scheduled tech programming. That...

The referee flips a coin prior to the Dallas Cowboys and Washington Commanders game on Thanksgiving 2023. Photo by Kevin Sabitus/Getty.

Thanksgiving’s Football Streaming Mess

By Martin Peers · Nov 24, 2023 3:00pm PST · 9 comments

If we learned anything over Thanksgiving, it’s how much of an opportunity there is for Disney chief Bob Iger to turn ESPN into a streaming hub for all sports. If you tried to catch the three NFL games on Thanksgiving Day without the benefit of cable TV (or an online version of cable, like YouTube TV), you would have discovered—as my household... If we learned anything over Thanksgiving, it’s how much of an opportunity there is for Disney...

Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty.

OpenAI Drama’s First Season Ends but Second Season Is Possible

By Martin Peers · Nov 22, 2023 3:30pm PST

The OpenAI soap opera’s first season is over. And just in time for all involved—even reporters—to take a break for Thanksgiving. Their moods may vary. While many people, including executives, employees and investors in OpenAI, are surely thrilled the boardroom drama got resolved with Sam Altman’s reinstatement as CEO, doubtless a few aren’t so... The OpenAI soap opera’s first season is over. And just in time for all involved—even reporters—to...

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. Photo via Shutterstock.

Nvidia Shows, Again, Its Real AI Moneymaker

By Martin Peers · Nov 21, 2023 5:00pm PST · 3 comments

As the tech world remained riveted by the OpenAI soap opera, the real artificial intelligence money machine was demonstrating the fine art of printing greenbacks. That would be Nvidia, which reported on Tuesday that its revenue soared 206% in the October quarter, to $18.1 billion from $5.9 billion a year earlier. That’s what happens when you... As the tech world remained riveted by the OpenAI soap opera, the real artificial intelligence...

Photo by AFP via Getty

OpenAI’s Board Lacked Foresight, But So Did Everyone Else

By Martin Peers · Nov 20, 2023 5:00pm PST · 1 comment

Photo by AFP via Getty

OpenAI’s Board Lacked Foresight, But So Did Everyone Else

By Martin Peers · Nov 20, 2023 5:00pm PST · 1 comment

Talk about shooting yourself in the foot. Three days after OpenAI’s board fired CEO and co-founder Sam Altman, most of the staff has threatened to quit, investors are complaining and customers are canvassing the wide range of alternatives. It’s a good bet this isn’t how the board members thought the Altman firing would play out. Hopefully,... Talk about shooting yourself in the foot. Three days after OpenAI’s board fired CEO and...