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

Get smarter about the day’s news in tech, media and finance by following Silicon Valley’s most-read executive newsletter.

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Recent Editions

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Startup Employees Can Exhale, But Not Relax Too Much

By Cory Weinberg · Oct 5, 2023 5:00pm PDT

Maybe, just maybe, startup employees who held onto their jobs amid spurts of mass layoffs over the last year and a half can exhale. They have survived. The number of monthly job cuts at tech companies—just over 4,600—hit an 18-month low in September, according to Layoffs.fyi, the venerable tracker of employee career pain. The recent sprinkling... Maybe, just maybe, startup employees who held onto their jobs amid spurts of mass layoffs over...

Elon Musk. Photo via Shutterstock.

Musk’s Counterproductive Moves

By Martin Peers · Oct 4, 2023 5:01pm PDT · 2 comments

What a time to be a tech business reporter! Even as Sam Bankman-Fried’s fraud trial gets underway, our scoop yesterday about AI startup Anthropic’s rising valuation suggests that the disgraced FTX founder may have scored at least one home run with his Anthropic investment. Yes, that’s right: The fast-evolving story about AI startups has... What a time to be a tech business reporter! Even as Sam Bankman-Fried’s fraud trial gets...

Photo via Shutterstock

Streaming Services Should Beware Becoming Like Cable Companies

By Nick Wingfield · Oct 3, 2023 5:00pm PDT · 1 comment

About a month ago, I finally reached my breaking point with YouTube TV, the streaming service I had subscribed to years earlier as a replacement for cable TV. I didn’t think twice about paying $40 a month for it in 2018, but after years of price increases—YouTube TV now costs $73 a month—I realized my family wasn’t watching it nearly enough to... About a month ago, I finally reached my breaking point with YouTube TV, the streaming service I...

Photo via Nasdaq

DoorDash Should Buy Instacart Now

By Martin Peers · Oct 2, 2023 5:01pm PDT · 2 comments

Photo via Nasdaq

DoorDash Should Buy Instacart Now

By Martin Peers · Oct 2, 2023 5:01pm PDT · 2 comments

Instacart’s stock price performance so far brings to mind a variation on the old line about love: Is it better to have gone public and lost, or never to have gone public at all? The shares fell 9% on Monday to $26.96, 10% below its IPO price, following our scoop that the Wall Street analysts at the banks underwriting the offering are projecting... Instacart’s stock price performance so far brings to mind a variation on the old line about love:...

Photo via Getty.

Apple’s Hiccup, Blue Apron Gets Picked Up

By Martin Peers · Sep 29, 2023 3:00pm PDT

It’s hard to feel sympathy for Apple, given how much money it makes ($9.2 million in net income every hour in the most recent quarter). But the flood of complaints on social media about overheating in the latest line of iPhones makes you feel a bit for the tech giant and its executives. Here’s a company that wanted to make its high-end phones... It’s hard to feel sympathy for Apple, given how much money it makes ($9.2 million in net income...

Linda Yaccarino, CEO of X. Photo via Getty.

Linda Yaccarino May Have the Toughest CEO Job

By Martin Peers · Sep 28, 2023 5:00pm PDT · 1 comment

Here’s a question: How long can someone stay as CEO of a company when the owner of that company is publicly repudiating what they’re saying? Take Linda Yaccarino, CEO of X, previously known as Twitter. On Wednesday, Elon Musk confirmed a report in The Information about layoffs at X’s election integrity team—Musk even went further than what we... Here’s a question: How long can someone stay as CEO of a company when the owner of that company...

Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI. Photo by Bloomberg via Getty.

Why the AI Race Is Getting Weird

By Jessica E. Lessin · Sep 27, 2023 5:00pm PDT · 1 comment

There comes a point in every major new technology cycle where new alliances form, especially between the incumbents and the younger upstarts nipping at their heels.This is happening at superspeed in artificial intelligence—but the pattern is frankly pretty weird, and I think it points to the fact that AI, in a lot of ways, is going to be... There comes a point in every major new technology cycle where new alliances form, especially...

FTC Chair Lina Khan. Photo by Chip Somodevilla via Getty.

The Flaws in FTC’s Amazon Case

By Martin Peers · Sep 26, 2023 5:00pm PDT

FTC Chair Lina Khan. Photo by Chip Somodevilla via Getty.

The Flaws in FTC’s Amazon Case

By Martin Peers · Sep 26, 2023 5:00pm PDT

Talk about anticlimactic. We’ve been expecting today’s Federal Trade Commission antitrust lawsuit against Amazon since the day commission chair Lina Khan was sworn into office in June 2021. After all, she rose to antitrust fame with her 2017 Yale Law Journal paper arguing that modern competition policy wasn’t equipped to deal with the threat... Talk about anticlimactic. We’ve been expecting today’s Federal Trade Commission antitrust lawsuit...

Photo by Getty

Amazon’s Anthropic Deal Signals Cloud Sector Turbulence

By Martin Peers · Sep 25, 2023 5:00pm PDT

You know the cloud industry is in upheaval when industry leader Amazon Web Services has to copy a tactic used by its smaller rivals to compete more effectively. The Amazon unit’s decision on Monday to invest up to $4 billion in AI startup Anthropic, as part of a broader deal in which AWS becomes the startup’s “primary cloud provider,” looks a... You know the cloud industry is in upheaval when industry leader Amazon Web Services has to copy a...

Photo via Shutterstock

SpaceX, Klaviyo, LLMs: Highlight Stories From This Week

By Akash Pasricha · Sep 22, 2023 4:01pm PDT

This week we were treated to not one but two big tech IPOs! Plus, two tech juggernauts—Amazon and Microsoft—held big, flashy product launch events. Through it all, The Information’s newsroom pumped out a string of scoops, analyses and meaty newsletters. This week we were treated to not one but two big tech IPOs! Plus, two tech juggernauts—Amazon and...

Photo by Bloomberg via Getty.

Google’s Standoff with AI Chip 'Shark' Broadcom

By Amir Efrati · Sep 21, 2023 5:01pm PDT · 1 comment

Jim Cramer, CNBC’s “Mad Money” host, took a swipe at our report today that Google has set an internal goal to break from Broadcom, its supplier of artificial intelligence chips. Cramer called the story “patently false” on X. Cramer, who has been particularly bullish on Broadcom lately, is often criticized for dispensing bad advice—for example,... Jim Cramer, CNBC’s “Mad Money” host, took a swipe at our report today that Google has set an...

Andrew Bialecki, CEO and co-founder of Klaviyo. Photo by the Boston Globe via Getty.

A Boring—but Important—IPO

By Cory Weinberg · Sep 20, 2023 5:00pm PDT

Andrew Bialecki, CEO and co-founder of Klaviyo. Photo by the Boston Globe via Getty.

A Boring—but Important—IPO

By Cory Weinberg · Sep 20, 2023 5:00pm PDT

We tend to lionize founders who start companies with the splashiest, most far-reaching consumer products. So Andrew Bialecki of $10 billion marketing tech startup Klaviyo—a name few people even know how to pronounce (it’s “clay-vee-oh”)—isn’t exactly a favorite to headline the next Code Conference.But Bialecki—a Boston-based, 37-year-old... We tend to lionize founders who start companies with the splashiest, most far-reaching consumer...

Instacart CEO Fidji Simo. Photo by Bloomberg via Getty.

The Instacart IPO’s Fine Print

By Cory Weinberg · Sep 19, 2023 5:00pm PDT

It’s been nearly two years since the last major IPO of a venture-backed company, so in case you forgot what one looked like, Instacart’s big day had many familiar beats. The ringing of the bell. The debate about stock pops. Early investors taking victory laps on TV.The celebration of the long-awaited listing obscured one fact. At the end of the... It’s been nearly two years since the last major IPO of a venture-backed company, so in case you...

Panos Panov. Photo by Getty.

A Microsoft Devices Guru Defects to Amazon

By Nick Wingfield · Sep 18, 2023 5:03pm PDT

This is the time of year when the leaves begin to turn color, Earth, Wind and Fire blares from car stereos, and two tech companies that aspire to be players in consumer hardware—Amazon and Microsoft—show off the gadgets they want you to buy this holiday season. This year, Amazon goes first with an event on Wednesday, followed by Microsoft on... This is the time of year when the leaves begin to turn color, Earth, Wind and Fire blares from...

Photo via Shutterstock

Our Favorite Stories From This Week

By Akash Pasricha · Sep 15, 2023 3:32pm PDT

Whether you’re a freight shipping fan, an IPO market aficionado, a close watcher of the crypto venture capital landscape, or if you’ve ever wondered what happened to Yahoo, there’s something for everyone in The Information’s coverage from this past week. Whether you’re a freight shipping fan, an IPO market aficionado, a close watcher of the crypto...

Photo via Getty.

The Instacart IPO Puzzle I Can’t Grok

By Jessica E. Lessin · Sep 14, 2023 5:00pm PDT · 5 comments

Photo via Getty.

The Instacart IPO Puzzle I Can’t Grok

By Jessica E. Lessin · Sep 14, 2023 5:00pm PDT · 5 comments

These days I often read things that stop me in my tracks. In challenging economic times, the ugly truth often comes out. But upon reading Cory’s excellent account of how Instacart’s former CEO clashed with Sequoia Capital this morning, one line almost made me spill my morning coffee. "Some investors close to Instacart, like Sequoia,... These days I often read things that stop me in my tracks. In challenging economic times, the ugly...

Arm headquarters in San Jose, Calif. Photo by Bloomberg via Getty.

Arm Flexes Its Pricing Muscle

By Cory Weinberg · Sep 13, 2023 5:06pm PDT

Bankers working on Arm Holdings’ much-watched initial public offering huddled on Wednesday to spar over how to determine the most important part of the deal: At what price are they going to sell shares when the SoftBank-owned chip designer goes public tomorrow? Like a Vatican smoke signal, push alerts and headlines across the business press... Bankers working on Arm Holdings’ much-watched initial public offering huddled on Wednesday to...

Google Chief Economist, Hal Varian (right), served as a witness at today's trial. Photo by Bloomberg via Getty.

Why Google’s Antitrust Trial Is Not Like Microsoft’s

By Jessica E. Lessin · Sep 12, 2023 5:09pm PDT · 2 comments

Snoop into any conversation in Silicon Valley and you’ll hear talk of large-language models, wrangling developer credits from OpenAI, the IPO market and whether anyone actually was going to the Apple event (really—I was just at a school cocktail party of this nature).What you won’t hear is buzz about the government’s biggest antitrust trial in... Snoop into any conversation in Silicon Valley and you’ll hear talk of large-language models,...

Photo via Shutterstock

Apple and Qualcomm Delay the Inevitable

By Nick Wingfield · Sep 11, 2023 5:00pm PDT · 1 comment

Apple and Qualcomm are like a couple you’re certain will eventually get divorced but, for one reason or another, they keep patching things up, postponing the inevitable. Monday brought news of the latest peace treaty between the two companies with an announcement that Apple will continue to use Qualcomm’s 5G cellular modems in iPhones through... Apple and Qualcomm are like a couple you’re certain will eventually get divorced but, for one...

Ryan Petersen. Photo by Bloomberg via Getty.

Flexport Drama Spotlights Petersen’s Role

By Martin Peers · Sep 8, 2023 3:01pm PDT

Ryan Petersen. Photo by Bloomberg via Getty.

Flexport Drama Spotlights Petersen’s Role

By Martin Peers · Sep 8, 2023 3:01pm PDT

It’s day 3 of the Flexport CEO shakeup saga, which seems the perfect set up for a corporate TV drama, if only Hollywood writers weren’t on strike. Today’s developments included Flexport founder and once-again CEO Ryan Petersen not-so-subtly criticizing the management of Dave Clark, the former Amazonian ousted as Flexport CEO on Wednesday after a... It’s day 3 of the Flexport CEO shakeup saga, which seems the perfect set up for a corporate TV...