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The Briefing

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

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Recent Editions

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
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
Why Uber’s Stock Rally Calls for Fundraising: The Information’s Tech Briefing
By Martin Peers · Feb 10, 2021 5:31pm PST · 1 comment
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
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.
What Pinterest, Snap Results Show About Ad Market’s Shift: The Information’s Tech Briefing
By Martin Peers · Feb 4, 2021 5:31pm PST
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.
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 Other Big Tech Power Story: The Information’s Tech Briefing
By Martin Peers · Jan 29, 2021 5:01pm PST
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
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...
Photo by Bloomberg
The Clubhouse Investment Boom: The Information’s Tech Briefing
By Martin Peers · Jan 25, 2021 5:00pm PST
Photo by Bloomberg
The Briefing

The Clubhouse Investment Boom: The Information’s Tech Briefing

By Martin Peers · Jan 25, 2021 5:00pm PST
Just when you think the stock market excesses couldn’t get any crazier, along comes GameStop. In the space of a few hours today the stock, which was trading at $20 two weeks ago, more than doubled to a high of $159 before collapsing back to $76.79. Like a lot of other stocks bouncing around like a yo-yo lately—video-streaming service... Just when you think the stock market excesses couldn’t get any crazier, along comes...
Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai. Photo by Bloomberg
The Briefing

Google’s Threat Down Under: The Information’s Tech Briefing

By Martin Peers · Jan 22, 2021 5:31pm PST
Google’s threat to shut down its search engine in Australia if the legislature there proceeds with a plan to require the search giant to pay publishers for linking to their news articles puts the spotlight on a little-understood question. What is the potential cost for Google, and Facebook, if they had to pay for news content on terms... Google’s threat to shut down its search engine in Australia if the legislature there...
The Justice Department's sign at a press conference. Photo by Bloomberg
The Briefing

When Antitrust Opposition Boosts Value: The Information’s Tech Briefing

By Martin Peers · Jan 21, 2021 5:01pm PST
Sometimes, the government is here to help. The Justice Department’s antitrust lawsuit that killed Visa’s acquisition of Plaid promises to become a windfall for shareholders in the fintech startup, as The Information reported today. Visa had agreed to pay $5.3 billion for Plaid, but there’s now investor interest in the company... Sometimes, the government is here to help. The Justice Department’s antitrust lawsuit that...
Anthony Levandowski. Photo by Bloomberg.
The Briefing

The Thinking Behind Levandowski’s Pardon: The Information’s Tech Briefing

By The Information Staff · Jan 20, 2021 5:02pm PST
Now-former president Trump’s last minute pardon of self-driving car engineer Anthony Levandowski raises a fascinating question about crime and punishment in Silicon Valley. When a judge last year sentenced Levandowski to 18 months in prison for stealing a proprietary Google document, he said his goal was deterrence. As we reported at the... Now-former president Trump’s last minute pardon of self-driving car engineer Anthony...
Netflix's Los Angeles office. Photo by Bloomberg
Netflix Passes Major Milestone: The Information’s Tech Briefing
By Martin Peers · Jan 19, 2021 5:32pm PST · 1 comment
Netflix's Los Angeles office. Photo by Bloomberg
The Briefing

Netflix Passes Major Milestone: The Information’s Tech Briefing

By Martin Peers · Jan 19, 2021 5:32pm PST · 1 comment
If the contest to build a profitable video streaming service were a footrace, Netflix would be the runner crossing the finish line as all the other contestants were leaving the starting blocks. The reality of that was brought home today when Netflix said it had passed 200 million global subscribers and was “very close” to being... If the contest to build a profitable video streaming service were a footrace, Netflix would be...