The Information's 411

Nick Bastone and Jessica Lessin talk about David Drummond's tense relationship with Google Venture and his lasting legacy at Alphabet. Read more: Drummond Departure Puts Spotlight on Google Venture Arm Google Reckoning With History of Interoffice Romance by Top Execs 

This week, we talked about Amir's exclusive story that outlined Uber's many business problems, including UberPool, and Amazon's Twitch, which is grappling with a declining user base and falling short of advertising revenue goals.

Tom and Jessica wrap up 2019, looking back at the year for Facebook, startup fundraising and media.

Jessica Toonkel makes her prediction about how streaming services will affects the theater and movie industries. Kevin discusses AWS and its relationship with the open-source community. 

Alex dives into Facebook's massive hardware plans in AR and VR and the executive, Andrew "Boz" Bosworth, who's heading the endeavor. Nick and Kevin talk about Google Cloud and the long-shot effort to beat Amazon and Microsoft. 

Wayne explains how Vietnam became such a significant business for Facebook and Google. Zoë dives into the trend of hiring elite athletes at tech companies. 

A trio of executives, Universal Pictures' Katie Goldsmith; Attention Capital’s Nick Bell and Instagram’s Charles Porch, explain the next phase of growth for direct-to-consumer brands.

Amir joins to talk about DoorDash's money-losing business and Uber's report on sexual assaults. Alex Heath talks about his investigation of Magic Leap's business and the disappointing sales for its AR headsets. Story links: Doordash https://www.theinformation.com/articles/with-public-debut-looming-doordash-projected-450m-2019-loss Magic Leap https://www.theinformation.com/articles/dented-reality-magic-leap-sees-slow-sales-steep-losses

Ashley breaks down where the frontrunners for the Democratic nomination stand regarding the tech industry. Martin joins to talk about the math of Disney's acquisition of Fox's assets and why it's clear that it seriously overpaid. 

Producer Jason Blum explains why we've still got a few more years of big money flowing into Hollywood before business realities set in. Also why Apple should consider buying a studio and why most movie budgets have gotten smaller while TV shows have ballooned in price.

Beejoli talks about the future of cable channels during the streaming era and what it's like working for the "old" part of the business. Cory gives the latest on Airbnb, including a scoop on its money-losing second quarter and its departing chief operating officer. 

Snap's chief strategy officer talks about Snap's Discover section, its explosive growth in India and competition from TikTok and Quibi.

Nick talks about Apple's big internal meeting about its augmented reality plans. Jessica Toonkel discussed Disney's big streaming launch and what comes next.

Priya talks about the companies that have inflated their origin story and why these myths matter. Kevin dives into the feud between Rubrik and Cohesity.

Beejoli and Tom discuss the latest battle in the streaming wars as WarnerMedia unveiled HBOMax. Nick makes his first appearance to talk about how Google has tweaked its hiring strategy to focus less on culture fit. 

We interview Thomas Middleditch and Zach Woods, the stars of HBO's Silicon Valley. Ahead of the final season premiere on October 27, they reflect on how the tech industry has changed during the course of the show's run, how they searched for the humanity in the Valley, and why they think the show sticks the landing.

Cory Weinberg talked to Lauren Cummings of Morgan Stanley, Will Connolly of Goldman Sachs and Scott Stanford of Acme about the future of the IPO, why direct listings make sense for some companies and whether Softbank will stick with companies it has backed as they go public. This on-stage interview took place at our annual Subscriber Summit at the Rosewood Sand Hill Hotel in Menlo Park on October 17, 2019.

Jessica Lessin spoke to Instacart CEO Apoorva Mehta about the company's growing ad business, potential regulations on gig-workers, and how he discovered that Amazon had bought its biggest customer Whole Foods. This on-stage interview took place at our annual Subscriber Summit at the Rosewood Sand Hill Hotel in Menlo Park on October 17, 2019.

Jessica Lessin spoke to Facebook executive Fidji Simo about the future of the Facebook app, its slowing growth and the struggle to protect users while maintaining principles of free speech. This on-stage interview took place at our annual Subscriber Summit at the Rosewood Sand Hill Hotel in Menlo Park on October 17, 2019. 

Matt Drange joins to talk about how the Trump administration has cracked down on the volume of sensitive US technology that it allows to be exported around the world.