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

Casper's Philip Krim. Photo by Bloomberg

Casper Should Never Have Gone Public

By Martin Peers · Nov 15, 2021 5:00pm PST · 2 comments

When Casper Sleep was going public early last year, co-founder and CEO Philip Krim told investors that “our mission is to awaken the potential of a well-rested world.” It’s a pity he didn’t aim a little lower—say, to turn Casper into a money-making enterprise. Perhaps Krim would still have a job and a company. Instead, an investment firm is... When Casper Sleep was going public early last year, co-founder and CEO Philip Krim told investors...

An AMC theater. Photo by Bloomberg

The Flaws in CEO Management-By-Twitter

By Martin Peers · Nov 12, 2021 5:00pm PST

Elon Musk’s decision to poll Twitter on whether he should sell stock in Tesla triggered endless news coverage this week, as reporters and commentators dissected what he was really up to. The smartest take—in this Wall Street Journal commentary—was that Musk was giving himself cover for what would have been a tax-driven decision to sell stock... Elon Musk’s decision to poll Twitter on whether he should sell stock in Tesla triggered endless...

Poshmark signage at the Nasdaq market site on the day the company went public. Photo by Bloomberg.

Wish CEO’s Exit Reflects Post-Pandemic Hangover for Online Retailers

By Martin Peers · Nov 11, 2021 5:01pm PST

It’s safe to say this year hasn’t gone as planned for many of the online retailers that have gone public over the past 12 months. The stocks of Poshmark, Wish and Rent the Runway are each trading below their IPO prices, a sign that investors misjudged the prospects for these denizens of e-commerce. Wednesday’s sudden departure of Wish founder... It’s safe to say this year hasn’t gone as planned for many of the online retailers that have gone...

Disney CEO Bob Chapek. Photo by Bloomberg.

Disney’s Streaming Slowdown Shows Pitfalls Ahead

By Martin Peers · Nov 10, 2021 5:00pm PST

Disney CEO Bob Chapek. Photo by Bloomberg.

Disney’s Streaming Slowdown Shows Pitfalls Ahead

By Martin Peers · Nov 10, 2021 5:00pm PST

The streaming wars are starting to get interesting. Today, Disney reported a dramatic slowdown in subscriber growth at its Disney+ service—it added just 2 million subscribers in the September quarter, the weakest growth since the service’s launch two years ago. More strikingly, Disney executives indicated that Disney+ won’t return to meaningful... The streaming wars are starting to get interesting. Today, Disney reported a dramatic slowdown in...

A Wolt delivery courier in Norway in August. Photo by Bloomberg.

In Buying Wolt, DoorDash Has to Prove Benefits of Global Presence

By Martin Peers · Nov 9, 2021 5:00pm PST

DoorDash is plunking down $8 billion of its stock to buy Finland-based food delivery service Wolt, underscoring the U.S. company’s ambition to become a global operator. But that ambition begs a very real question: Is there any reason to think there are global economies of scale for a business focused on local delivery of restaurant meals and... DoorDash is plunking down $8 billion of its stock to buy Finland-based food delivery service...

Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe. Photo by Bloomberg.

The Amazon-Rivian Self-Funding Electric Van

By Martin Peers · Nov 8, 2021 5:01pm PST

Rivian shareholders should strap on their seatbelts. The Amazon-backed electric truck maker raised its proposed IPO pricing range 23% today—from what it disclosed last week—to a level that implies a market capitalization of $67 billion. That’s 84% of the market cap of Ford, for those keeping score—not bad for a startup that has yet to produce... Rivian shareholders should strap on their seatbelts. The Amazon-backed electric truck maker...

Lions Gate's headquarters in California. Photo by Bloomberg

What Lions Gate’s Potential Starz Spinoff Move Means for Hollywood

By Martin Peers · Nov 5, 2021 5:00pm PDT

Amid the cacophony of earnings results this week, you might have picked up the faint but unmistakable sound of a pendulum starting to swing in the entertainment industry. The long-popular idea that film and TV studios should be paired with the TV networks or streaming services that broadcast the studios’ output is suddenly getting rethought.... Amid the cacophony of earnings results this week, you might have picked up the faint but...

Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi. Photo by Bloomberg

How Uber and Airbnb Are Recovering From the Pandemic

By Martin Peers · Nov 4, 2021 5:02pm PDT

Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi. Photo by Bloomberg

How Uber and Airbnb Are Recovering From the Pandemic

By Martin Peers · Nov 4, 2021 5:02pm PDT

Airbnb looks like it has shaken off the worst effects of the pandemic more than Uber, judging by third-quarter numbers released this afternoon. Neither company showed they were yet back to their pre-Covid position in terms of business volume. But they’re both looking much healthier financially, thanks both to cost-cutting prompted by the... Airbnb looks like it has shaken off the worst effects of the pandemic more than Uber, judging by...

Former Disney executive Kevin Mayer. Photo by AP

Former Disney Exec Kevin Mayer's Comeback

By Martin Peers · Nov 3, 2021 5:00pm PDT

How the world turns! A little more than a year ago, Disney’s onetime streaming chief, Kevin Mayer, looked like he had made the career blunder of the decade by quitting as CEO of TikTok during a short-lived fuss over the hugely popular app’s Chinese ownership. Today, though, Mayer has emerged as a player in the intense battle underway between... How the world turns! A little more than a year ago, Disney’s onetime streaming chief, Kevin...

Zillow CEO Rich Barton. Photo by Bloomberg.

Zillow’s Costly Home Buying Misstep is Embarrassment for Barton

By Martin Peers · Nov 2, 2021 5:11pm PDT

Anyone who’s bought a house even once knows it can be a stressful experience. Spare a thought, then, for Zillow, which over the past couple of years has been buying up thousands of homes at a time, hoping to make a quick buck by flipping the homes. On Tuesday, after losing hundreds of millions of dollars on the business, Zillow called it quits.... Anyone who’s bought a house even once knows it can be a stressful experience. Spare a thought,...

Jeff Bezos and his rocketship company Blue Origin. Photo by Bloomberg.

Why Amazon’s Internet Satellite Plans Are Too Blue Sky

By Martin Peers · Nov 1, 2021 5:00pm PDT

One of the benefits of running a conglomerate as diversified as Amazon is that you don’t need to change your name to change the conversation. No matter how bad the news, there’s always something else coming from some other territory in the corporate empire. On Monday, just a couple of days after delivering some bleak news about rising costs and... One of the benefits of running a conglomerate as diversified as Amazon is that you don’t need to...

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy. Photo by Bloomberg.

Why Q4 Is Looking Ugly for Much of Big Tech

By Martin Peers · Oct 29, 2021 5:01pm PDT · 2 comments

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy. Photo by Bloomberg.

Why Q4 Is Looking Ugly for Much of Big Tech

By Martin Peers · Oct 29, 2021 5:01pm PDT · 2 comments

What a week. It’s now crystal clear just how badly the global supply shortages—both in chips and a broader range of consumer goods—are rippling through consumer-focused tech companies, most notably Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Snap. That sets the scene for an ugly fourth quarter, as all four companies have warned that conditions will worsen. The... What a week. It’s now crystal clear just how badly the global supply shortages—both in chips and...

Mark Zuckerberg announcing Facebook's new name today. Photo by Bloomberg.

Facebook Goes Meta; Amazon’s Slowdown; Apple Hit by Shortages

By Martin Peers · Oct 28, 2021 5:00pm PDT

It’s not often you see big public companies survive a scandal without taking major action, such as booting the CEO. Think Boeing and the 737 Max drama, which prompted the resignation of CEO Dennis Muilenburg in 2019, or the uproar over Uber’s corporate culture that precipitated the exit of founding CEO Travis Kalanick in 2017. A lesser option,... It’s not often you see big public companies survive a scandal without taking major action, such...

Snap CEO Evan Spiegel. Photo by Bloomberg.

Why Snap’s Wall Street Messages Need a More Realistic Lens

By Martin Peers · Oct 27, 2021 5:00pm PDT

As today was a rest day for big tech company earnings—Apple and Amazon are tomorrow—it’s worth reflecting on what we’ve learned in the past few days about the current turmoil in the digital ad market. One takeaway may be that investors don’t understand the ad tech world very well. Otherwise they would have divined ahead of time how Apple’s... As today was a rest day for big tech company earnings—Apple and Amazon are tomorrow—it’s worth...

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. Photo by Bloomberg.

Alphabet and Microsoft Power Through Q3

By Martin Peers · Oct 26, 2021 5:00pm PDT

September earnings reports today from Alphabet and Microsoft made it clear that the two tech giants are better insulated than some of their smaller peers from the vagaries of the world economy. It’s a reminder that despite all the regulatory and political doubts about big tech companies, their businesses continue to grow at an impressive pace.It... September earnings reports today from Alphabet and Microsoft made it clear that the two tech...

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Photo by Bloomberg.

Why Facebook Has to Make the Metaverse Investment

By Martin Peers · Oct 25, 2021 5:34pm PDT

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Photo by Bloomberg.

Why Facebook Has to Make the Metaverse Investment

By Martin Peers · Oct 25, 2021 5:34pm PDT

Facebook wants the world to know just how much money it is investing in the metaverse, the futuristic immersive world that CEO Mark Zuckerberg hopes will draw in a billion people at some point in the next few years. Superficially, the investment numbers are impressive—Facebook said today that its spending on the Reality Labs unit which is... Facebook wants the world to know just how much money it is investing in the metaverse, the...

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg speaks during a virtual developer conference in June. Photo by Bloomberg

Facebook’s Rebranding Is About Tim Cook, Not Whistleblowers

By Jessica E. Lessin · Oct 22, 2021 5:00pm PDT · 1 comment

Next week is going to be a big one for Facebook. There will be a corporate rebrand from the company of some sort, a very high-stakes earnings report, and Facebook’s biggest event of the year, its Connect developer conference, featuring a keynote from CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Oh, and a storm of a document dump that will be fairly unprecedented in... Next week is going to be a big one for Facebook. There will be a corporate rebrand from the...

Snap CEO Evan Spiegel. Photo by Bloomberg.

Snap’s Weak Q4 Projection Signals Sharp Slowdown in Ad Market

By Martin Peers · Oct 21, 2021 5:00pm PDT

Advertisers are hitting the brakes—hard. That’s the message today from Snap, the first of the digital ad companies to report third-quarter earnings. A combination of Apple’s ad-targeting clampdown and knock-on effects from supply shortages are expected to sharply slow fourth-quarter ad growth, Snap executives warned. It was a sobering portent... Advertisers are hitting the brakes—hard. That’s the message today from Snap, the first of the...

Pinterest's San Francisco headquarters. Photo by Bloomberg.

PayPal Investors Ask for Refund on Pinterest Talks

By Martin Peers · Oct 20, 2021 5:01pm PDT

We got a very clear sense of what investors think of the prospect that PayPal might buy Pinterest from how the two stocks reacted to news of deal talks between the companies, first reported by Bloomberg. PayPal stock dropped nearly 5%, slicing about $15 billion off the digital payment company’s market capitalization. Pinterest shares,... We got a very clear sense of what investors think of the prospect that PayPal might buy Pinterest...

Google's devices and services senior vice president Rick Osterloh on Tuesday. Photo by Bloomberg

Google’s Pixel Subscription Offering Shows Flaws of Tech Service Bundles

By Martin Peers · Oct 19, 2021 5:00pm PDT

Google's devices and services senior vice president Rick Osterloh on Tuesday. Photo by Bloomberg

Google’s Pixel Subscription Offering Shows Flaws of Tech Service Bundles

By Martin Peers · Oct 19, 2021 5:00pm PDT

Danger ahead. At a moment when consumers are finally breaking free of the cable TV “bundle”—industry code for charging people a pile of money for a bunch of TV channels they mostly don’t watch—tech companies are trying to ensnare them with similar traps. Witness Google’s Pixel Pass subscription plan, unveiled on Tuesday. It offers the new Pixel... Danger ahead. At a moment when consumers are finally breaking free of the cable TV “bundle”—...