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

Elon Musk. Photo by Bloomberg.

What’s Next in Musk’s Next Twitter Drama

By Martin Peers · Apr 11, 2022 5:00pm PDT

So we’re back to square one on Elon Musk and Twitter. Today Musk filed the securities disclosure form that he should have filed last Monday (better late than never) about his 9.1% stake in Twitter. This time, the form had the right number of Twitter shares he holds (glad he sorted that out!). And it outlined, in legal boilerplate, what seemed... So we’re back to square one on Elon Musk and Twitter. Today Musk filed the securities disclosure...

Elon Musk. Photo by Bloomberg.

Twitter Should Make Musk CEO

By Martin Peers · Apr 8, 2022 5:00pm PDT · 1 comment

Question: When will Elon Musk get himself appointed CEO of Twitter? It has been only a few days since he joined the board, after buying 9% of the company, but already Twitter has arranged for him to talk to employees in a question-and-answer session, as The Washington Post reported. That’s an extraordinary move for Twitter to make. It’s hard to... Question: When will Elon Musk get himself appointed CEO of Twitter? It has been only a few days...

Apple CEO Tim Cook. Photo by Bloomberg.

Apple Throws Its Own Apps Under the Bus

By Nick Wingfield · Apr 7, 2022 5:00pm PDT · 1 comment

For most of the year, Apple won’t stop reminding people how in-house services like Apple Music, Apple Maps and Apple TV+ are crushing it. On Thursday though, Apple sent a very different message about how its own apps are being crushed by competitors.It published a 48-page report on its website by an economic consultancy, the Analysis Group,... For most of the year, Apple won’t stop reminding people how in-house services like Apple Music,...

WarnerMedia Cleans House Ahead of Discovery Liberation

WarnerMedia Cleans House Ahead of Discovery Liberation

By Martin Peers · Apr 6, 2022 5:00pm PDT

WarnerMedia Cleans House Ahead of Discovery Liberation

WarnerMedia Cleans House Ahead of Discovery Liberation

By Martin Peers · Apr 6, 2022 5:00pm PDT

The de-AT&Tification of WarnerMedia is underway. All but two members of the entertainment company’s executive team are departing as it gets swallowed up by Discovery, Warner said today. The two survivors are holdovers from Warner’s pre-AT&T era. Nearly all the others either came from the telecom giant or were installed by it. The shakeup... The de-AT&Tification of WarnerMedia is underway. All but two members of the entertainment...

Twitter's San Francisco headquarters. Photo by Bloomberg.

What Musk Brings to Twitter

By Martin Peers · Apr 5, 2022 5:00pm PDT

Elon Musk’s decision to plunge himself into the corporate morass that is Twitter, in a way that could spark a fight with securities regulators, suggests the Tesla CEO is a little bored and looking for a new distraction. The timing makes sense. After years of nail-biting struggle, Tesla is finally in a good place: It’s making real money.... Elon Musk’s decision to plunge himself into the corporate morass that is Twitter, in a way that...

Elon Musk. Photo by Bloomberg

What is Elon Musk Hiding?

By Martin Peers · Apr 4, 2022 5:00pm PDT

You could call it Elon Musk’s Twitter Mystery. The world’s most talkative CEO has suddenly turned coy. Yes, he revealed today that he had bought a 9.2% stake in Twitter. But he said not a word on Twitter about it. And he made the disclosure in a way that allowed him to hide how he paid for the stake. As it likely cost him at least $2.4 billion,... You could call it Elon Musk’s Twitter Mystery. The world’s most talkative CEO has suddenly turned...

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy. Photo by Bloomberg.

Amazon’s Public Shareholders Show Their Hand

By Martin Peers · Apr 1, 2022 5:00pm PDT

It looks like Amazon’s public shareholders are beginning to assert themselves. Amazon disclosed today that last year it got feedback from some shareholders that it should grant smaller equity awards to top executives, with payouts based on their hitting specific performance goals. That’s interesting for a few reasons. One is that the feedback... It looks like Amazon’s public shareholders are beginning to assert themselves. Amazon disclosed...

Stock data on Nasdaq's MarketSite in February. Photo by Bloomberg.

What the Nasdaq Doesn’t Tell Us

By Martin Peers · Mar 31, 2022 5:00pm PDT

Stock data on Nasdaq's MarketSite in February. Photo by Bloomberg.

What the Nasdaq Doesn’t Tell Us

By Martin Peers · Mar 31, 2022 5:00pm PDT

The first quarter ended today with another stock sell-off. That makes this a good time to review the state of tech stocks so far in 2022. Just don’t try to make any judgments based on the Nasdaq Composite Index, which is down 9% for the year to date. The Nasdaq is often used as a proxy for the tech sector simply because it includes the biggest... The first quarter ended today with another stock sell-off. That makes this a good time to review...

Apple's headquarters in Silicon Valley. Photo by Bloomberg.

Apple Shouldn’t Reinvent the Wheel in Financial Services

By Martin Peers · Mar 30, 2022 5:00pm PDT

Sometimes it seems that the top executives of big tech companies are deliberately taunting antitrust regulators around the world. Bloomberg’s scoop today that Apple is “developing its own payment processing technology” is sure to intensify questions at the European Commission and the U.S. Justice Department about whether the iPhone maker is... Sometimes it seems that the top executives of big tech companies are deliberately taunting...

Microstrategy chairman Michael Saylor, on the left, at a bitcoin conference last year. Photo by Bloomberg.

Microstrategy’s All-or-Nothing Bitcoin Bet

By Martin Peers · Mar 29, 2022 5:00pm PDT

Question: What is today’s best definition of a gambler? Answer: someone who buys shares in Microstrategy. That's the analytics software firm which in the past two years has decided to put almost every cent it can find into bitcoin. As of Feb. 14, its total BTC investment amounted to $3.77 billion, about 20 times the cash Microstrategy’s software... Question: What is today’s best definition of a gambler? Answer: someone who buys shares in...

Apple CEO Tim Cook at Sunday's Academy Awards. Photo by AP

Apple is Playing a Different Streaming Game To Netflix

By Martin Peers · Mar 28, 2022 5:00pm PDT

Get me Zack or Jamie! You can bet there was a mad rush among Hollywood agents trying to get Apple TV+ chieftains Zack Van Amburg and Jamie Erlicht on the phone today. To imagine the scene, just picture those lines that used to wrap around Apple stores on iPhone release days. Yes, Sunday night’s Best Picture Oscar win for “CODA” will put the... Get me Zack or Jamie! You can bet there was a mad rush among Hollywood agents trying to get Apple...

Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, earlier this month in Brussels. Photo by Bloomberg

Why Investors Shrugged Off Europe’s Big Tech Rules

By Nick Wingfield · Mar 25, 2022 4:55pm PDT

Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, earlier this month in Brussels. Photo by Bloomberg

Why Investors Shrugged Off Europe’s Big Tech Rules

By Nick Wingfield · Mar 25, 2022 4:55pm PDT

Greetings!Go figure. Late Thursday, European policymakers agreed on new competition rules that could soon force the most powerful tech companies on the planet to make big changes to their businesses. What was the reaction from investors in Alphabet, Meta Platforms, Amazon and Apple—four of the “gatekeepers,” in EU parlance, who could face the... Greetings!Go figure. Late Thursday, European policymakers agreed on new competition rules that...

Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi. Photo by Bloomberg.

Uber's NYC Taxi Deal Is Biggest Retreat Yet From Kalanick Era

By Martin Peers · Mar 24, 2022 5:00pm PDT · 1 comment

Talk about waving the white flag! In recent years, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi has pulled back from many of founder Travis Kalanick’s more ambitious initiatives, including autonomous car development and operations in many international markets. But Thursday’s news that Uber would partner with New York’s taxi industry to make all of the city’s... Talk about waving the white flag! In recent years, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi has pulled back...

Google's Mountain View campus. Photo by Bloomberg.

Apple Pressured by Google-Spotify Deal

By Martin Peers · Mar 23, 2022 5:00pm PDT

It may only be a matter of time before the Berlin Wall of the mobile app ecosystem, Apple’s rigid App Store rules, falls. Google’s announcement today that its Google Play app store will allow a “dual billing option” in U.S. apps, starting with Spotify, puts pressure on Apple to follow suit. Giving consumers a choice about the payment systems... It may only be a matter of time before the Berlin Wall of the mobile app ecosystem, Apple’s rigid...

BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti. Photo by Bloomberg.

It’s Déjà Vu at BuzzFeed

By Martin Peers · Mar 22, 2022 5:00pm PDT

Greetings!So, BuzzFeed executives are talking about making the company’s news division profitable. And they’re pivoting part of its business after realizing it was too reliant on Facebook to drive traffic. No, you didn’t just wake up in 2018. BuzzFeed executives are really saying the same things they were saying four years ago about some of the... Greetings!So, BuzzFeed executives are talking about making the company’s news division...

Thoma Bravo founder Orlando Bravo. Photo by Bloomberg

Private Equity Feasts on Software Bargains

By Martin Peers · Mar 21, 2022 5:00pm PDT

Thoma Bravo founder Orlando Bravo. Photo by Bloomberg

Private Equity Feasts on Software Bargains

By Martin Peers · Mar 21, 2022 5:00pm PDT

If there’s one group of deal makers that hasn’t been slowed by market volatility, it’s those private equity folks buying up much of the enterprise software industry. Thoma Bravo’s $10.7 billion deal on Sunday to buy Anaplan, a maker of business planning software, follows Vista Equity Partner’s $16.5 billion purchase of Citrix Systems in January.... If there’s one group of deal makers that hasn’t been slowed by market volatility, it’s those...

SoftBank Chief Masayoshi Son. Photo by Bloomberg.

SoftBank Bails on Cruise, Possibly In a Sign of the Times

By Martin Peers · Mar 18, 2022 5:00pm PDT

If there’s one company that’s likely to be harder hit than most by the recent stock market upheaval, its Japanese investor SoftBank. Today’s news that SoftBank is selling out of the GM-controlled self-driving car unit Cruise, instead of investing more money as was expected just six weeks ago, might be an indication that SoftBank is feeling the... If there’s one company that’s likely to be harder hit than most by the recent stock market...

MGM's office in California. Photo by Bloomberg.

Amazon’s Minor Win Over FTC Overshadowed by Bigger Battle to Come

By Martin Peers · Mar 17, 2022 5:00pm PDT

Greetings!With its completion of its MGM purchase today, Amazon appears to have won a minor victory in the increasingly intense war between the tech behemoth and the Federal Trade Commission. But the real battle, which will likely focus on Amazon’s power in e-commerce and cloud computing, remains to be fought. And all Amazon might have... Greetings!With its completion of its MGM purchase today, Amazon appears to have won a minor...

Troy Aikman. Photo by Bloomberg.

What Troy Aikman’s ESPN Move Says About Amazon’s Status in Media

By Martin Peers · Mar 16, 2022 5:00pm PDT

ESPN’s confirmation today that it signed former star Dallas Cowboys quarterback Troy Aikman, along with sportscaster Joe Buck, to announce Monday Night Football games is a reminder of the pull that the Disney-controlled cable sports channel still exercises in the media. Aikman, most recently at Fox Sports, had been reportedly courted by Amazon... ESPN’s confirmation today that it signed former star Dallas Cowboys quarterback Troy Aikman,...

Arm CEO Rene Haas. Photo by Bloomberg.

Arm’s Job Cuts Could Be a Sign of Things to Come

By Martin Peers · Mar 15, 2022 5:00pm PDT

Arm CEO Rene Haas. Photo by Bloomberg.

Arm’s Job Cuts Could Be a Sign of Things to Come

By Martin Peers · Mar 15, 2022 5:00pm PDT

Amid the crush of bad news lately, one thing we haven’t seen too much of is job cuts. In fact, the story has been more about the tightness of the labor market, as tech companies struggle to hire enough people. But a Bloomberg report today about chip designer Arm planning to cut up to 1,000 jobs to improve its profitability ahead of an IPO may be... Amid the crush of bad news lately, one thing we haven’t seen too much of is job cuts. In fact,...