The Information's 411

It seems like in Silicon Valley is starting a SPAC. Reid Hoffman, Peter Thiel, Kevin Hartz, Chamath Palihapitiya, maybe even your roommate. Reporters Cory Weinberg and Ross Matican trace the origins of the SPAC surge. We explain why these special-purpose acquisition companies have become so popular, some of the regulatory history, and what some of the downsides are.  In this episode, we talked to: George Arison, co-CEO of Shift Technologies Milos Vulanovic, associate of corporate finance at EDHEC Business School Thomas Hennessy, co-CEO and president of PropTech Acquisition Corporation Jay Heller, head of capital markets & IPO expansion at Nasdaq Further reading: The Information's SPAC Target List What Private Tech Firms Should Watch Out For in SPACs Opendoor, in Announcing SPAC, Opens Up About Losses ChargePoint to Go Public in $2.4 Billion SPAC Deal

This week we're presenting highlights from two interviews from the WTF Summit earlier this month. Emerson Collective's president Laurene Powell Jobs discusses her group's work on voting access as well as her ownership of The Atlantic magazine. Jenna Lyons, the former creative director for J Crew, talks about starting from the ground up with her new beauty brand.

We speak to some brave souls around the world who ventured back into the movie theater. And Richard Rushfield of The Ankler joins to give his take on how well the movie industry has faired these last two weekends back and what it all means for Hollywood.

With the TikTok drama getting even messier and tech relations between the US and China at an all time low, we check in with Jessica Lessin about the latest. Then Cory talks to Kate Clark about how the payments firm Stripe has become a force in venture capital, often edging out established firms to get in on deals.

The second part of our Airbnb series looks at Domio, a startup that tried to build a business on the Airbnb platform. Paris tells us how she stumbled across the Domio story and how the company gamed loopholes in city guidelines about short term rentals. And Cory explains what the Domio saga means for Airbnb as it heads toward an IPO. Background reading: How One Rental Startup Gamed Airbnb

Cory talks about the rise of parties at Airbnb rentals and how it's poised to be a huge headache for the company as it heads down the path of going public.

Kevin talks about his profile of Marc Benioff, the Salesforce CEO and philanthropist, which looked at how he and his company are managing during the pandemic. Especially when Salesforce's marquee event, Dreamforce, appears to be off this year. Also Tom chats with Alex about Apple's changes to ad tracking and the effect it will have on Facebook—as well as the gaming companies that rely heavily on Facebook ads. 

Yunan joins to explain why the TikTok saga and the US government's decision to ban the app, unless it sells to an American company, has hurt the reputation of Zhang Yiming, the CEO of the app's parent company ByteDance. And Cory speaks to Kate about Headspin and the case of the company that had to give back some of its capital to investors after its revenue projections proved to be wildly off base.  Background Reading Once a Hero, TikTok’s Founder Is Under Attack in China Startup HeadSpin to Return Funding After Probe of Financial Statements

It was a big week for tech and politics as the four leaders of the major US tech companies testified in front of the House Antitrust subcommittee. We spoke to Alex Heath and Chris Stern about which CEOs weathered the questions from lawmakers best and where the antitrust investigations go from here. Then Cory speaks to Anissa Gardizy about delivery startup GoPuff and the problems its skyrocketing growth has caused for its neighbors.

Cory Weinberg interviews Steven Galanis, the CEO of Cameo, a fast-growing startup that allows major and minor celebrities can send messages to fans. Steven discusses Cameo's growth story, why this is a "new golden age" of consumer apps, and why Apple's app-store monopoly should get government scrutiny. 

Paris Martineau discusses her reporting on problems at the secretive healthcare initiative Haven, and what the turmoil tells us about its benefactor Amazon. Four Information reporters give their takes on which companies are ripe for acquisitions.

Nick Bastone gives us an update on the digital advertising industry and compares the trajectories of Google and Facebook during the second quarter. Jessica Lessin gives her take on whether it matters that the annual Sun Valley conference was called off this year because of the pandemic. 

We talk with John Redgrave, the CEO of content moderation startup Sentropy about the challenges of curbing hate speech online. Then Cory checks in on the state of the travel industry with Jon Staff the CEO of vacation startup Getaway.

Alex joins to talk about how Facebook went from hero to heel as America careened from the coronavirus pandemic to the Black Lives Matter protests. Then Chris Stern discusses the state of the anti-trust investigations pending against big tech companies and the behind the scenes role Pierre Omidyar is playing in advancing the cases. Background Reading Facebook's Month of Whiplash The Tech Billionaire Marshaling the Fight Against Big Tech

As part of our Juneteenth episode, we're focusing on how tech companies and tech products can contribute to major policy changes. We talk to Catherine Bracy, executive director of the Tech Equity Collaborative, about why tech companies should fight for racial justice through property tax reform. Then we hear from Nykidra Robinson, who runs Black Girls Vote, which helped drive higher voter turnout in Baltimore's primary election this year with a virtual election party. More reading Tech companies: It’s time to show that Black lives really matter to you Tech Took On Voter Turnout. It’s Still Working On It

We talk to Wayne Ma about Apple's attempts to have robots handle the manufacturing process at their factories and why it hasn't worked. Then we speak with Kate Clark about the federal paycheck protection program loan and the startups that took advantage of it.  Special guests this episode included David Bourne, a scientist at the Robotics Institute at the Carnegie Mellon University and Jonathan Wasserstrum, the CEO of SquareFoot. More reading What Apple Learned From Automation: Humans Are Better After Chaotic Start, Federal Loan Program Helped Startups Avoid ‘Deep Layoffs’

Cory talks with two black women in tech to see what tech companies have done and still need to do to address racial inequality. Sherrell Dorsey, a journalist and entrepreneur and the founder of The Plug, has been cataloguing the responses from tech companies showing support for the black community. Sarah Kunst, a venture capitalist at Cleo Capital, explains the importance of firms funding more diverse founders.

Zoe and Cory join to discuss how the pandemic has hit the job market in tech. Zoe talks about the phenomenon of job postings that turn out not to be real. And Cory gives some historical context around how the current job losses in tech compare to previous recessions.

Cory joins to discuss Mark Zuckerberg's announcement that Facebook is fully embracing the work from home office. We explore the reasons tech is rushing to adopt the policy and whether it will have a big effect on cities. Then Tom gives the backstory on Kevin Mayer, TikTok's new US CEO. He explains what it means for Disney to lose its top streaming executive and the challenges Mayer will face coming to the controversial Chinese company.

Chris Stern gives us an update on the ongoing battle to win the Pentagon's cloud computing contract. He explains why Amazon is still fighting to win the account back from Microsoft in the courts. And how Oracle fits into the puzzle. Background Reading Microsoft’s Secret Ally Against Amazon in Cloud Deal: Oracle