Amir Efrati
The Information
San Francisco, CA, United States
Contact Amir
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Past articles by Amir:
Apollo Asks VCs to Back Its Bid For Silicon Valley Bank Assets
Private equity giant Apollo Global Management has asked major venture capital firms to help finance a bid for the assets of Silicon Valley Bank, according to a person with knowledge of the discussion. Earlier, The Information reported that several firms, including General Catalyst, Andreessen ... → Read More
Silicon Valley Bank CEO Tells VC Clients to ‘Stay Calm’
Silicon Valley Bank CEO Greg Becker on Thursday told top venture capitalists in Silicon Valley to “stay calm” amid concerns around a capital crunch that wiped nearly $10 billion off the bank’s market valuation. On a call, Becker said that “calls started coming and started panic.”He added that ... → Read More
Google’s Cloud Deals Hit a Wall
Alphabet Chief Financial Officer Ruth Porat told analysts last week that some customers of Google’s cloud servers and productivity apps “are taking longer to decide, and some have committed to deals with shorter terms or smaller deal sizes, which we attribute to a more challenging ... → Read More
Food Delivery Wars Heat Up as 7-Eleven Quietly Acquires a Delivery Startup
7-Eleven, the Japanese-owned convenience store chain, has acquired Skipcart, a four-year-old startup that developed a major network of drivers for fast delivery of restaurant food and other goods in the U.S., according to twopeople with knowledge of the deal. The move is significant because it ... → Read More
Google Overhauls Performance Review System After Employee Criticism
Google is scrapping a time-consuming, twice-a-year staff performance review process in an effort to improve morale and reduce the time employees spend preparing the assessments, according to people familiar with the changes. CEO Sundar Pichai told staff Wednesday that the new program, which will ... → Read More
Jack Dorsey’s Discord With His Hand-Picked Twitter Board Could Boost Musk
In the battle over Twitter, one wild card is Elon Musk, who bought a 9% stake and is now trying to buy the company. The other is Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s enigmatic co-founder and former CEO. Last week Twitter’s 11-member board of directors, which includes Dorsey, appeared to present a unified ... → Read More
Twitter Board Expected To Fight Musk Offer
Twitter’s board of directors views Elon Musk’s takeover offer as unwelcome, said a person familiar with the situation, suggesting it will fight the bid. One person close to the situation said that the board wanted to support CEO Parag Agrawal, who only assumed the role in November. Meanwhile, ... → Read More
Why AWS Makes Money and Google Cloud Doesn’t
Google’s cloud computing arm is the company’s biggest hope of creating a substantial moneymaker outside of advertising, but it has been struggling to make up meaningful ground against industry pioneer Amazon Web Services. That extends to profitability: Last year, despite generating $19 billion ... → Read More
New Talkdesk Financing Targets $10 Billion Valuation
Talkdesk, a developer of cloud-based software to manage call centers and other customer service, has indicated it is raising a new round of capital that would grant the company access to the “decacorn” club, a fast-growing group of privately held startups whose valuation exceeds $10 billion. The ... → Read More
Apple’s Spending on Google Cloud Storage On Track to Soar 50% This Year
Apple executives have taken swipes at Google in the past over its privacy practices. But the iPhone maker trusts Google enough so that over the past year it has dramatically increased the amount of Apple user data it stores in Google’s cloud, according to a person with direct knowledge of the ... → Read More
Two More Self-Driving-Truck Developers Consider Public Offerings
Embark Trucks and Locomation, both of which develop self-driving semitrailers to haul freight over long distances, have recently discussed going public, including by merging with a shell company known as a special purpose acquisition vehicle, according to two people with knowledge of the ... → Read More
Amazon, Microsoft and Google Pursue $1 Billion Cloud Deal With Boeing
The biggest cloud computing companies—Amazon, Microsoft and Google—often pull out all the stops to land long-term contracts with marquee corporate customers. The latest prize all three are pursuing, according to four people with knowledge of the matter, is a multiyear deal to provide cloud ... → Read More
‘These Guys Are Very Different’: Inside Andreessen Horowitz’s Rise
As recently as two years ago, the performance of Andreessen Horowitz’s investments in tech startups were average, despite the firm’s outsize public profile. But its partners had placed bigger bets on cryptocurrencies than almost anyone else, and they did so during moments when most investors had ... → Read More
Amazon Steps Up Silicon Ambitions With New Networking Chip
Over the past several years, Amazon has designed its own silicon chips to speed up the performance of servers in its cloud data centers and the artificial intelligence services it sells to customers. Now, in a big step toward seizing control over a key component in its technologies, Amazon is ... → Read More
Instacart Eyes Fourth-Quarter Public Listing, International Expansion
Grocery-delivery app Instacart has been among the biggest beneficiaries of Americans being stuck at home during the pandemic. But its executives don’t want future buyers of its stock to worry about what happens when that ends. The company, which hopes to become a major challenger to Amazon by ... → Read More
Microsoft’s New Gig: A LinkedIn Freelancer Market Rivaling Upwork, Fiverr
LinkedIn is developing a new service called Marketplaces to let its 740 million users find and book freelancers, pitting it against publicly traded firms such as Upwork and Fiverr, according to two people with direct knowledge of the matter. The career-focused networking site owned by Microsoft ... → Read More
Andreessen Horowitz Wins Deal for Creator Economy Startup Stir at $100 Million Valuation
Andreessen Horowitz recently won a competitive deal to lead the Series A financing of Stir Money, a startup whose software helps video and audio producers, writersand performers manage the income they generate from ads on social media and via direct payments from fans. The Silicon Valley ... → Read More
Amazon’s Shakeup: Five Questions and Answers About the Bezos-Jassy Bombshell
Jeff Bezos’ decision to step aside as CEO of Amazon in favor of his lieutenant, Andy Jassy, is an earth-shaking move in the tech industry. Bezos has built Amazon into one of America's biggest companies, with its tentacles in a wide range of businesses. Jassy's appointment also means that four ... → Read More
How Google Learned to Embrace Its Inner Oracle
Thomas Kurian wasn’t pleased. In mid-2019, a few months after Kurian had joined Google, the internet giant’s cloud computing service suffered a series of outages, including one that took down several of Google’s own services, along with those of major customers like Snap and Spotify. Kurian—CEO ... → Read More
Patreon Considers Public Listing as Soon as This Year
Patreon, the online service that allows podcasters, musicians and other artists to receive direct financial support from fans, is considering a public listing as soon as this year, said a person with knowledge of discussions. The San Francisco startup has met with banks and has been approached ... → Read More