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The Briefing

By Martin Peers, Jessica Lessin and the team at The Information

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Recent Editions

Snap CEO Evan Spiegel. Photo by Bloomberg
The Briefing

Spiegel’s Long View Pays Off For Snap: The Information’s Tech Briefing

By Martin Peers · Feb 23, 2021 5:31pm PST
You have to hand it to Snap CEO Evan Spiegel: He took the long view and turned out to be right. A little over two years ago, Snap stock was trading as low as $4.99 and user growth was flatlining. In a memorable story in The Information, we described tensions on the board over the company’s failure to meet Wall Street’s expectations... You have to hand it to Snap CEO Evan Spiegel: He took the long view and turned out to be right. A...
The Discovery+ home screen on a smartphone. Photo by Bloomberg
The Briefing

Streaming’s Fuzzy Picture: The Information’s Tech Briefing

By Martin Peers · Feb 22, 2021 5:00pm PST · 1 comment
All those worries about the impact of cord-cutting seem to be in the rear-view mirror. The latest group of stocks to take flight are the traditional entertainment companies, proving that for media investors, it doesn’t matter how troubled your business is as long as you have a streaming story to tell. Take TV firm Discovery, whose stock... All those worries about the impact of cord-cutting seem to be in the rear-view mirror. The latest...
Photo by Bloomberg
The Briefing

Microsoft’s LinkedIn Puzzle: The Information’s Tech Briefing

By Martin Peers · Feb 19, 2021 5:31pm PST
You might think our scoop today that Microsoft’s LinkedIn plans to enter the gig economy market of connecting businesses with white-collar freelancers would have unnerved investors in Fiverr and Upwork, the two public companies now in that market. Apparently not: Stocks of both rose about 5% on Friday. Perhaps investors see... You might think our scoop today that Microsoft’s LinkedIn plans to enter the gig economy...
News Corp chairman Rupert Murdoch. Photo by Bloomberg.
Australia Kerfuffle Wins Facebook Friends: The Information’s Tech Briefing
By Martin Peers · Feb 18, 2021 5:00pm PST · 1 comment
News Corp chairman Rupert Murdoch. Photo by Bloomberg.
The Briefing

Australia Kerfuffle Wins Facebook Friends: The Information’s Tech Briefing

By Martin Peers · Feb 18, 2021 5:00pm PST · 1 comment
The Australian government has managed the seemingly impossible, turning Facebook into a sympathetic creature for many tech pundits who have relentlessly pilloried the social network over the past few years. Commentary today and yesterday supported Facebook’s decision to block news content in Australia rather than give in to the proposed... The Australian government has managed the seemingly impossible, turning Facebook into a...
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Photo by Bloomberg
The Briefing

Facebook’s Australian High Noon: The Information’s Tech Briefing

By Martin Peers · Feb 17, 2021 5:32pm PST · 1 comment
We’re about to find out just how important news is to Facebook’s audience and, by extension, to the social network itself. Facebook is restricting the posting or sharing of news content in Australia in response to the Australian government’s proposed news media code governing how internet companies pay for news content. At the... We’re about to find out just how important news is to Facebook’s audience and, by...
ByteDance CEO Zhang Yiming. Photo by Bloomberg
The Briefing

ByteDance Goes From Strength to Strength: The Information’s Tech Briefing

By Martin Peers · Feb 16, 2021 5:31pm PST
For sheer corporate drama, few episodes in recent U.S. business history can match last summer’s Trump-TikTok saga, with elements of geopolitical intrigue spliced with Trump’s unique governing style. And as is clear now, it all culminated in…absolutely nothing. The Biden administration isn’t pursuing the ban. Meanwhile,... For sheer corporate drama, few episodes in recent U.S. business history can match last...
Comcast CEO Brian Roberts. Photo by Bloomberg
The Briefing

Why Comcast Should Sell NBCU: The Information’s Tech Briefing

By Martin Peers · Feb 12, 2021 5:46pm PST · 1 comment
Walt Disney’s December quarter results on Thursday, showing how well the company is doing in streaming, provided a fascinating contrast with NBCUniversal’s more risk-averse approach to the new industry, which we wrote about this week. And it is a reminder that when your corporate parent is focused on another business—NBCU is... Walt Disney’s December quarter results on Thursday, showing how well the company is doing...
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. Photo by Bloomberg
What’s Nadella Up To? The Information’s Tech Briefing
By Martin Peers · Feb 11, 2021 5:00pm PST · 1 comment
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. Photo by Bloomberg
The Briefing

What’s Nadella Up To? The Information’s Tech Briefing

By Martin Peers · Feb 11, 2021 5:00pm PST · 1 comment
Is Satya Nadella getting bored? The Microsoft CEO has done an amazing job since taking the helm of the aging software giant almost exactly seven years ago. By focusing on building up Microsoft’s enterprise cloud business, he has accelerated the company’s growth rate and lifted its stock more than 500%. Now, though, he appears to be... Is Satya Nadella getting bored? The Microsoft CEO has done an amazing job since taking the helm...
Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi. Photo by Bloomberg
The Briefing

Why Uber’s Stock Rally Calls for Fundraising: The Information’s Tech Briefing

By Martin Peers · Feb 10, 2021 5:31pm PST · 1 comment
My, how time flies. Less than two years ago, Uber’s disastrous IPO seemed to demonstrate that investors had lost their taste for cash-hungry companies with no clear path to profitability. Today, Uber capped a months-long rally to hit a high of $63, 40% higher than its IPO price—despite reporting that it burned through $3.3 billion in... My, how time flies. Less than two years ago, Uber’s disastrous IPO seemed to demonstrate...
Twitter's San Francisco headquarters. Photo by Bloomberg
The Briefing

Twitter’s Capex Splurge: The Information’s Tech Briefing

By Martin Peers · Feb 9, 2021 5:34pm PST
Twitter’s fourth-quarter results today were impressive, and not just because they showed the same surging revenue growth as other internet-based ad companies Google, Facebook, Snap and Pinterest. Twitter’s ad sales business had been hit harder than most by the pandemic crunch earlier in the year and hadn’t recovered as much in... Twitter’s fourth-quarter results today were impressive, and not just because they showed...
Elon Musk. Photo by Bloomberg
The Briefing

Tesla’s Risky Bitcoin Bet: The Information’s Tech Briefing

By Martin Peers · Feb 8, 2021 5:32pm PST · 6 comments
No one could ever accuse Elon Musk of taking the conservative path. The minute he puts Tesla on a financially sound footing, he decides to invest $1.5 billion of the company’s cash reserves in Bitcoin, one of the most volatile assets around. Just imagine what he’d do if Tesla had the cash stockpile of an Apple, Microsoft or an... No one could ever accuse Elon Musk of taking the conservative path. The minute he puts Tesla on a...
Kuaishou's headquarters in Beijing. Photo by Bloomberg
Kuaishou’s IPO and Stock Price Inflation: The Information’s Tech Briefing
By Martin Peers · Feb 5, 2021 5:32pm PST
Kuaishou's headquarters in Beijing. Photo by Bloomberg
The Briefing

Kuaishou’s IPO and Stock Price Inflation: The Information’s Tech Briefing

By Martin Peers · Feb 5, 2021 5:32pm PST
No one talks about inflation much anymore, although the $1.9 trillion stimulus plan now working its way through Congress has sparked a little chatter of its revival. But judging by some recent stock valuations, we’ve already got inflation—in asset prices on the stock market. The latest example is Kuaishou, the Chinese company that,... No one talks about inflation much anymore, although the $1.9 trillion stimulus plan now working...
Pinterest CEO Ben Silbermann. Photo by Bloomberg.
The Briefing

What Pinterest, Snap Results Show About Ad Market’s Shift: The Information’s Tech Briefing

By Martin Peers · Feb 4, 2021 5:31pm PST
Stellar fourth-quarter advertising revenues reported today by both Snap and Pinterest made it official. A fourth-quarter acceleration in ad growth occurred across the board for big digital firms—Facebook, Google, Amazon—and the two smaller social media firms. It’s a sign of just how much 2020 shifted the ad market away from... Stellar fourth-quarter advertising revenues reported today by both Snap and Pinterest made it...
Photo by Bloomberg
The Briefing

Understanding Google Cloud’s Red Ink: The Information’s Tech Briefing

By Martin Peers · Feb 3, 2021 5:02pm PST
Amazon really cut Google a break on Tuesday. If it wasn’t for Jeff Bezos’ big news, the tech media and investors would likely have focused a lot more on the fact that Google Cloud, now 9 years old, lost $5.6 billion last year. When Amazon Web Services was that age, it was comfortably profitable. AWS may be unusually... Amazon really cut Google a break on Tuesday. If it wasn’t for Jeff Bezos’ big news,...
Jeff Bezos. Photo by Bloomberg
The Briefing

Bezos Hands Off CEO Baton: The Information’s Tech Briefing

By Martin Peers · Feb 2, 2021 5:00pm PST
Jeff Bezos likes to say that it’s always Day 1 at Amazon. But now that the founding CEO is passing the baton to his lieutenant Andy Jassy, Day 2 may not be far away. That might sound unfair, given that Bezos has defined Day 2 as “stasis, followed by irrelevance, followed by excruciating, painful decline, followed by death.”... Jeff Bezos likes to say that it’s always Day 1 at Amazon. But now that the founding CEO is...
Elon Musk. Photo by Bloomberg.
Robinhood’s GameStop Saga Ropes In Musk and Netflix: The Information’s Tech Briefing
By Martin Peers · Feb 1, 2021 5:01pm PST
Elon Musk. Photo by Bloomberg.
The Briefing

Robinhood’s GameStop Saga Ropes In Musk and Netflix: The Information’s Tech Briefing

By Martin Peers · Feb 1, 2021 5:01pm PST
There’s something strangely appropriate about the news, broken by Deadline on Monday, that Netflix is in talks to make a movie of the GameStop stock market drama. GameStop is the type of brick-and-mortar chain that internet firms like Netflix have put out of business over the past 20 years. That’s of course why the stock rally in... There’s something strangely appropriate about the news, broken by Deadline on Monday, that...
iPhones on display in an Apple store. Photo by Bloomberg
The Briefing

The Other Big Tech Power Story: The Information’s Tech Briefing

By Martin Peers · Jan 29, 2021 5:01pm PST
Put aside for a moment all the drama around Robinhood and Reddit, and think of GameStop in the same vein as DoorDash, Tesla or Snowflake—as another hugely overvalued stock that defies fundamental analysis. With that in mind, it’s worth spending a little time on the news of this week that may have longer-lasting implications than... Put aside for a moment all the drama around Robinhood and Reddit, and think of GameStop in the...
Robinhood's web site. Photo by Bloomberg
The Briefing

Robinhood’s Hero to Zero Moment: The Information’s Tech Briefing

By Martin Peers · Jan 28, 2021 5:02pm PST · 1 comment
Talk about self-immolation. Robinhood’s decision to restrict trading in GameStop and other “meme” stocks seems guaranteed to alienate a big chunk of its user base. Who would go back to a trading platform responsible for losing them money, no matter the explanation? This also can’t bode well for its hopes of going public.... Talk about self-immolation. Robinhood’s decision to restrict trading in GameStop and other...
A GameStop store in California. Photo by Bloomberg
The Briefing

Where Social Media’s GameStop Surge Could Lead: The Information’s Tech Briefing

By Martin Peers · Jan 27, 2021 5:00pm PST · 2 comments
There’s no doubt the current stock market hysteria over GameStop and the like will come to a bloody end. The real question is whether the craziness, fueled by social media sites like Reddit and Discord and stock trading app Robinhood, leads those companies to clamp down on stock debate or trading. Media post-mortems are sure to blame those... There’s no doubt the current stock market hysteria over GameStop and the like will come to...
Verizon technicians installing fiber optic cable in New York. Photo by Bloomberg
Internet Outages, Verizon and Value: The Information’s Tech Briefing
By Martin Peers · Jan 26, 2021 5:03pm PST
Verizon technicians installing fiber optic cable in New York. Photo by Bloomberg
The Briefing

Internet Outages, Verizon and Value: The Information’s Tech Briefing

By Martin Peers · Jan 26, 2021 5:03pm PST
If you’re on the East Coast, you might have experienced the internet outage this morning that played havoc with Zoom calls, Gmail and other everyday working tools. Unlike previous outages, this wasn’t caused by a cloud provider like AWS or a specific application like Slack but by Verizon, which owned up to a “fiber cut”... If you’re on the East Coast, you might have experienced the internet outage this morning...