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

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

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

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

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

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

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...

Lina Khan, chair of the Federal Trade Commission on March 27. Photo by Getty.

FTC’s Khan Should Pick Her Targets More Carefully

By Martin Peers · Jul 11, 2023 5:00pm PDT · 1 comment

Lina Khan, chair of the Federal Trade Commission on March 27. Photo by Getty.

FTC’s Khan Should Pick Her Targets More Carefully

By Martin Peers · Jul 11, 2023 5:00pm PDT · 1 comment

Lina Khan needs to work on her aim. A judge’s ruling today against the Federal Trade Commission’s request to block Microsoft’s purchase of Activision was so definitive that it has to hurt the regulator’s credibility, at least when it comes to tech cases. Coming immediately after a similar defeat involving Meta Platforms, the ruling suggests that... Lina Khan needs to work on her aim. A judge’s ruling today against the Federal Trade Commission’s...

Photo by Getty

For Threads, Usage Is What Matters, Not Downloads

By Martin Peers · Jul 10, 2023 5:03pm PDT · 2 comments

It’s July, which means on the East Coast it’s hot and humid and in San Francisco it’s winter. It also means we’re in a news desert, which partly explains the breathlessness (not to mention brainlessness) of much of the coverage of Threads’ rapid rise to 100 million downloads. Leave aside the fact that it’s easier to get to 100 million... It’s July, which means on the East Coast it’s hot and humid and in San Francisco it’s winter. It...

Photo by Getty

Why Threads Is Bad for the News Business

By Jessica E. Lessin · Jul 6, 2023 5:00pm PDT · 10 comments

By now we have all read myriad analyses of Threads, Instagram’s new Twitter killer. You’ve probably seen that Twitter is threatening to sue Meta over the app, alleging that the company stole “trade secrets.” Hmm, I wonder how the lawsuit will affect the big MMA fight between Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk?While there are a lot of angles to... By now we have all read myriad analyses of Threads, Instagram’s new Twitter killer. You’ve...

Photo by AP

What Threads Could Mean for Meta…and Twitter

By Martin Peers · Jul 5, 2023 5:00pm PDT · 4 comments

If there’s a tech billionaire the news media hates more than Mark Zuckerberg, it's Elon Musk. That's why you're seeing an unusual deluge of positive coverage for Meta Platforms' Twitter rival app, Threads, which formally launched a short time ago. The positivity won’t last, to be sure. Before too long—give it a week—someone in the media will... If there’s a tech billionaire the news media hates more than Mark Zuckerberg, it's Elon Musk....

Reddit CEO Steve Huffman. Photo by Getty

Reddit Battle Spotlights Existential Question

By Martin Peers · Jul 3, 2023 5:00pm PDT · 1 comment

Reddit CEO Steve Huffman. Photo by Getty

Reddit Battle Spotlights Existential Question

By Martin Peers · Jul 3, 2023 5:00pm PDT · 1 comment

It’s that point of the early summer when many in tech and business take a well-deserved break. Aside from the nonstop machinations of Elon Musk—whose only purpose in life, apart from transforming cars and rockets, seems to be keeping journalists employed—the most interesting tech news story of recent days centers on Reddit. The site’s volunteer... It’s that point of the early summer when many in tech and business take a well-deserved break....

The U.S. Supreme Court. Photo by Getty.

What Supreme Court Ruling Means for Tech Hiring

By Jessica E. Lessin · Jun 29, 2023 5:00pm PDT · 3 comments

For any folks in Silicon Valley who don’t often pay attention to what is happening in Washington, today is a day they should.As the country digests the U.S. Supreme Court’s overturning of race-based admissions in colleges, my mind turned to what the ruling could mean for companies’ efforts to diversify their ranks. After talking to about half a... For any folks in Silicon Valley who don’t often pay attention to what is happening in Washington,...

President Joe Biden holds a microchip. Photo by Getty.

The Risks of Cutting Off China

By Martin Peers · Jun 28, 2023 5:00pm PDT · 3 comments

The Great Wall dividing the U.S. from China is about to get higher. A Wall Street Journal report that the Biden administration is considering further tightening exports of artificial intelligence chips to China triggered a sell-off in chip stocks on Wednesday. Shares of Nvidia, the dominant provider of chips for generative AI, fell 1.8%. To be... The Great Wall dividing the U.S. from China is about to get higher. A Wall Street Journal report...

Photo by Shutterstock

Musk v. Zuckerberg and Silicon Valley’s Dangerous Road

By Jessica E. Lessin · Jun 27, 2023 5:00pm PDT · 4 comments

I’ll just say it: Things are starting to look ridiculous in Silicon Valley again. Two of our most at times admired, at times reviled tech leaders are getting ready to fight each other in a mixed martial arts cage match. And, as The Wall Street Journal reported today, boards and businesses across tech are dealing with a new problem: workplace... I’ll just say it: Things are starting to look ridiculous in Silicon Valley again. Two of our most...

Photo by Getty

Deal Monday Returns With Spate of AI and Enterprise Acquisitions

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

Photo by Getty

Deal Monday Returns With Spate of AI and Enterprise Acquisitions

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

The deal market lives. For the second time this month, we woke up Monday morning to a big enterprise software acquisition. This time, it was IBM (remember that company?) buying data management firm Apptio for $4.6 billion from Vista Equity Partners. People with long memories of obscure enterprise software firms (you know who you are) will recall... The deal market lives. For the second time this month, we woke up Monday morning to a big...