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

Disney CEO Bob Iger. Photo by Getty.

Iger’s More Sober Tone Reflects Entertainment’s Existential Crisis

By Martin Peers · Aug 9, 2023 5:02pm PDT · 1 comment

Disney CEO Bob Iger must be wishing he was at Disney’s Magic Kingdom theme park (“a land where fantasy reigns”) in Florida right now. His tone on Wednesday afternoon’s June-quarter earnings conference call was noticeably more sober than in the past, perhaps reflecting the existential crisis facing the entertainment industry. Not only are the... Disney CEO Bob Iger must be wishing he was at Disney’s Magic Kingdom theme park (“a land where...

Sandie Hawkins, former TikTok U.S. E-Commerce General Manager (right), with The Information's Kaya Yurieff at our Creator Economy Summit in April. Photo by Erin Beach.

TikTok Is Amid an Overhaul

By Jessica E. Lessin · Aug 8, 2023 5:00pm PDT

Part of the fun of business reporting is reading between the lines. When you follow a company or industry closely, eventually you pick up on very subtle shifts. And often those lead to even bigger ones. That’s happening at TikTok right now. The company has swung hard from being a little languid and consumed by political pressures to... Part of the fun of business reporting is reading between the lines. When you follow a company or...

Bob Bakish, CEO and President of Paramount Global. Photo by Getty.

Paramount Global’s Q2 Results Show It’s Going Nowhere Fast

By Martin Peers · Aug 7, 2023 5:00pm PDT

Talk about a missed opportunity. Paramount Global said today it would sell its Simon & Schuster book business, which publishes author Stephen King, among others, to private equity firm KKR for $1.6 billion. Paramount CEO Bob Bakish should have thrown a few other assets into the deal, like some of its once-valuable cable channels (MTV, VH1,... Talk about a missed opportunity. Paramount Global said today it would sell its Simon &...

Photo via Clutter

A Week of Trouble in the Valley

By Jessica E. Lessin · Aug 4, 2023 2:00pm PDT

Photo via Clutter

A Week of Trouble in the Valley

By Jessica E. Lessin · Aug 4, 2023 2:00pm PDT

M&A has finally picked up—only it’s not the kind of dealmaking investors want. The Information was the first to report on two deals this week—the fire sale of storage company Clutter and the impending sale of troubled internet underwear company Parade. You know who gets screwed the most on these kinds of deals? It’s not the... M&A has finally picked up—only it’s not the kind of dealmaking investors want. The...

Photo by Getty

Apple Services Salvage a Blah Quarter

By Akash Pasricha · Aug 3, 2023 5:11pm PDT

Apple services to the rescue! The part of Apple’s business that includes the App Store and various subscription services was the star of the show in the company’s fiscal third quarter, which ended July 1. It’s a star the company badly needed, too. Total revenue at Apple dropped for the third consecutive quarter, shrinking 1% year over year. At... Apple services to the rescue! The part of Apple’s business that includes the App Store and...

Photo via Shutterstock

DoorDash and Shopify Offer E-commerce Bright Spots

By Nick Wingfield · Aug 2, 2023 5:00pm PDT

Anybody hunting for dark signs about consumer spending will have to look somewhere other than a couple of earnings reports from e-commerce companies today. DoorDash, for example, said its food-delivery business hit all-time highs in terms of revenue, gross value of orders on its marketplace and total orders. The company said revenue jumped 33%... Anybody hunting for dark signs about consumer spending will have to look somewhere other than a...

Dara Khosrowshahi. Photo by Getty.

Uber Investors Ought to Look at the Big Picture

By Akash Pasricha · Aug 1, 2023 5:00pm PDT · 1 comment

Uber shareholders kicked the ride-hailing giant in the shins today for what some may have considered lackluster revenue growth. They ought to be celebrating! Finally, at long last, Uber’s operations are profitable.The company this morning said it generated $9.23 billion in revenue in the second quarter, a little more than $100 million less than... Uber shareholders kicked the ride-hailing giant in the shins today for what some may have...

Photo by Getty.

Iger Produces His Own Disney Drama

By Nick Wingfield · Jul 31, 2023 5:00pm PDT

Photo by Getty.

Iger Produces His Own Disney Drama

By Nick Wingfield · Jul 31, 2023 5:00pm PDT

For those of you still mourning the end of “Succession,” you’re in luck—a new season just unexpectedly dropped. This time, though, it will be presented by Walt Disney, not HBO, in the form of an arrangement in which two onetime Disney heir apparents, Kevin Mayer and Tom Staggs, have returned as advisers to CEO Bob Iger. Officially, Iger—who... For those of you still mourning the end of “Succession,” you’re in luck—a new season just...

Photo via Shutterstock.

Tech Companies Can’t Ignore Broadband Prices

By Martin Peers · Jul 28, 2023 3:00pm PDT

Enough with the chatter about Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg. Let’s talk about ordinary people for a second. If you’re in that group (and let’s face it, we can’t all be billionaires), then you may be aware that nowadays you’re spending more on broadband than you might have a few years ago. In fact, we may all find we’re spending more and more... Enough with the chatter about Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg. Let’s talk about ordinary people for...

Margrethe Vestager, European Commission's Executive Vice-President who leads competition policy. Photo by Getty.

Europe's New Microsoft Probe Strikes a Familiar Chord

By Scott Thurm · Jul 27, 2023 5:00pm PDT

Microsoft, which has managed to keep its nose clean with antitrust regulators for more than a decade, is now back in their crosshairs. The European Commission Thursday said it had opened a formal probe of complaints that Microsoft is improperly tying its Teams collaboration software to its Microsoft 365 productivity suite. The Commission... Microsoft, which has managed to keep its nose clean with antitrust regulators for more than a...

Mark Zuckerberg. Photo by AP.

Meta’s Growth Rebounds, With Caveats

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

Mark Zuckerberg’s long national nightmare may be over—at least regarding Meta Platforms’ time in Wall Street purgatory. The social media giant reported 11% topline growth for the second quarter Wednesday, outperforming its bigger digital ad rival Google in ad growth for the period. More importantly, Meta projected third quarter growth of as much... Mark Zuckerberg’s long national nightmare may be over—at least regarding Meta Platforms’ time in...

Photos by Shutterstock.

Alphabet Stands Out in a Trio of Unimpressive Earnings

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

Photos by Shutterstock.

Alphabet Stands Out in a Trio of Unimpressive Earnings

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

Meh. June-quarter earnings out Tuesday from Alphabet, Microsoft, Snap and Spotify shouldn’t excite anyone about the state of business in tech. The digital ad market is showing what can only be called an uneven recovery, while enterprise software appears to be still struggling. Alphabet seems to have had the best quarter of the companies... Meh. June-quarter earnings out Tuesday from Alphabet, Microsoft, Snap and Spotify shouldn’t...

Photo by Getty

What Lyft and Altice Asset Sales Say About the Art of the Deal

By Martin Peers · Jul 24, 2023 5:00pm PDT

The deal business is definitely picking up—if only from troubled companies unloading stuff to raise cash. Take reports today that Lyft is looking to sell its bike-share business and that French-controlled cable firm Altice USA is contemplating ditching its Cheddar News financial news streaming channel. Both Lyft and Altice are in a bad way—as... The deal business is definitely picking up—if only from troubled companies unloading stuff to...

Ryan Breslow. Photo by Getty.

Bolt, Cameo and the Dangers of Having Too Much Money Too Soon

By Martin Peers · Jul 21, 2023 3:00pm PDT

Talk about shades of “Succession.” Investor Activant Ventures, a shareholder in e-commerce software firm Bolt, made some extraordinary allegations in a lawsuit filed today against Bolt co-founder Ryan Breslow—which The Information’s Erin Woo scooped here. Most stunning was that Breslow, in a move reminiscent of Logan Roy, last spring removed... Talk about shades of “Succession.” Investor Activant Ventures, a shareholder in e-commerce...

Tim Cook peacing out. Photo by Getty.

For Big Tech in Europe, This Time Seems Different

By Jessica E. Lessin · Jul 20, 2023 5:00pm PDT · 2 comments

With another set of headlines about tech companies threatening to pull their products from the U.K. or the EU rather than comply with new regulations, I have to wonder: Will it actually happen? Because that would be an interesting shift.Today, Apple said it would remove FaceTime and iMessage from its products in the U.K. if the government goes... With another set of headlines about tech companies threatening to pull their products from the...

Photo by Shutterstock.

Netflix’s Q2 Results Don’t Support Stock Rally

By Martin Peers · Jul 19, 2023 5:00pm PDT

Photo by Shutterstock.

Netflix’s Q2 Results Don’t Support Stock Rally

By Martin Peers · Jul 19, 2023 5:00pm PDT

The bulls are back in Netflix stock, even if the growth isn’t. Netflix on Wednesday reported just 2.7% higher revenue in the second quarter, below what it had projected, confirming that it’s now firmly in the class of slow-growing TV companies. Even excluding the impact of foreign exchange fluctuations, revenue grew just 6%—nothing to write home... The bulls are back in Netflix stock, even if the growth isn’t. Netflix on Wednesday reported just...

Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia. Photo by Getty.

The Venture Capitalist Who Holds All the GPUs

By Jessica E. Lessin · Jul 18, 2023 5:00pm PDT

If there is anything venture capitalists love more than making money, it’s opining on the best and worst ways to make money. And so the debate over how to make money (or not) investing in artificial intelligence is raging throughout Silicon Valley. There are the believers who are banking on AI to mint the next supercycle of venture profits.... If there is anything venture capitalists love more than making money, it’s opining on the best...

Photo by Getty.

Musk’s Twitter Should Bite the Bullet on Equity Raising

By Martin Peers · Jul 17, 2023 5:00pm PDT · 1 comment

Elon Musk’s tweet early Saturday morning that Twitter is “still cash flow negative”—as in spending more than it is taking in—was, by Musk standards, a bit of a yawn. We’ve heard so much about Twitter’s precarious financial position over the past few months—as Musk acknowledged in the tweet, it’s due to both a roughly 50% drop in ad revenue and a... Elon Musk’s tweet early Saturday morning that Twitter is “still cash flow negative”—as in...

Photo by Getty.

Court Ruling Will Create Ripples for Individual Crypto Investors

By Akash Pasricha · Jul 13, 2023 5:00pm PDT

Good news for institutional crypto investors: The courts have your back. But as for individual traders: You’re on your own. That was the spirit of a New York district judge’s ruling on an SEC lawsuit against Ripple Labs, which alleged that the crypto firm illegally sold securities. In a split-the-crypto decision, the judge ruled that Ripple... Good news for institutional crypto investors: The courts have your back. But as for individual...

Bob Iger. Photo by Getty.

What Disney’s Iger Should Do With His Extra Two Years

By Martin Peers · Jul 12, 2023 5:00pm PDT

Bob Iger. Photo by Getty.

What Disney’s Iger Should Do With His Extra Two Years

By Martin Peers · Jul 12, 2023 5:00pm PDT

Talk about kicking the can down the road. Disney today extended CEO Bob Iger’s contract by two more years, giving him until the end of 2026 to fix the beleaguered House of Mouse. Oh, and he’ll work on a CEO succession plan, the company said, although it made the same comment when it brought Iger back to replace his short-lived successor (the... Talk about kicking the can down the road. Disney today extended CEO Bob Iger’s contract by two...