Owen Thomas, SF Chronicle

Owen Thomas

SF Chronicle

San Francisco, CA, United States

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Recent:
  • Unknown
Past:
  • SF Chronicle
  • Inside Scoop SF
  • ReadWrite
  • Business Insider

Past articles by Owen:

Will new CEO Andy Jassy herald real change at Amazon?

Jeff Bezos stepped back from the company once before. We’ll see if he’s really gone. → Read More

Who will run Apple next?

Another shuffle on the $2 trillion company’s executive team renews the succession question. → Read More

Mozilla moves out of Mountain View

The maker of Firefox is paring down its real estate, even as its virtual ambitions spread. → Read More

Uber, Lyft shares soar following passage of Proposition 22 gig-work measure

The ballot measure cost its backers more than $200 million, but the payoff was immediate and in the billions of dollars. → Read More

There's a name for tech's attitude problem: toxic positivity

Silicon Valley should not forget its troubles, and neither should we. → Read More

What should tech companies pay remote workers?

Mark Zuckerberg says Facebook will “adjust” workers pay if they move from the Bay Area to lower-cost locations. That seems like a good way to lose employees as more companies go remote. → Read More

WeWork and the rise and fall of fauxtech

Take a money-losing company. Label it “tech.” Sell it to a greater fool. WeWork shows that this strategy is over. → Read More

Can Silicon Valley break the IPO?

Google went public 15 years ago. It didn’t change the process of selling company shares to the public. But an investor in the search startup hopes that will change. → Read More

San Francisco, why are you so taxing?

The city, in pursuit of progressive values, has made the San Francisco tax code a misbegotten hodgepodge of financial chicanery. A new CEO tax would make things worse. → Read More

What Uber’s really selling: a ride to the future

Uber’s narrative has always been about the business it might become, not its present reality. Whether investors will buy it is another story. → Read More

Retro is so now. Is 2019's IPO wave a remake or a reboot?

Welcome back to Tech Chronicle. Remember back in the 1990s when email was super new and fresh and awesome? Relive those years by subscribing to this here newsletter. Retro fever Time is a flat circle, now is the new then and the 1990s are hotter than ever. I’m reliably informed by Chronicle style correspondent Tony Bravo that the ’90s have been in for a while in the fashion world, but Wall… → Read More

How YouTube became an Internet of Contradictions

YouTube, ruled by algorithms and neglected by Google, has festered for years. The only surprise is how long it took the company to do anything about it. → Read More

Should Facebook and Google pay you a 'data dividend'?

Welcome back to Tech Chronicle. Your decision to subscribe to this fine newsletter will surely pay dividends. What are you worth? Gov. Gavin Newsom, the viscidly coiffed ruler of Silicon Valley and its lesser Californian principalities, declared his intention Tuesday in his first State of the State address to tax the money gushers of tech and distribute their wealth to the less digitally… → Read More

For Marc Benioff, it’s all about You.com

Welcome back to Tech Chronicle. If you subscribe, I'll be part of your domain every Wednesday. Marc Benioff's domain As I was leafing through the latest issue of Time, my eyes wandered to the circulation statement, where magazines must disclose their owners. Time changed hands this year, with magazine giant Meredith selling the former Time Inc. flagship to Marc and Lynne Benioff. The owner,… → Read More

Jack Dorsey sought publicity for charitable foundation

Welcome back to Tech Chronicle. If you fill out this subscription form, I’ll regularly disclose my reporting to you. When Jack Dorsey was in a giving mood Last week, I wrote about my search for Twitter and Square CEO Jack Dorsey’s Start Small Foundation. I’ve since learned that Dorsey, too, had been searching — for someone to run it. As I wrote, Dorsey appeared to explore several different… → Read More

Why the app economy won't touch your Christmas tree

Welcome back to Tech Chronicle. If you choose to deck your inbox with gay verbiage, make it this newsletter. Used Christmas tree: There’s not an app for that In an on-demand world, can’t you just push a button and get a Christmas tree? My fellow journalist Kara Swisher’s joke is that San Francisco is “assisted living for Millennials,” though this particular query came from a Boomer colleague. It… → Read More

Tech and SF are stuck with each other

Welcome back to Tech Chronicle. If you don’t already subscribe to the newsletter, let me lead you to the right spot. Tech and SF are stuck with each other The Chronicle gets results! Just last week, as you may recall, I noted that San Francisco’s tech scene lacked a clear leader. I suggested that it might be time for Airbnb’s Brian Chesky to step up and take more of a lead on civic issues. Less… → Read More

Tech in San Francisco needs a leader

Welcome back to Tech Chronicle. If you don’t already subscribe to the newsletter, let me lead you to the right spot. Who speaks for tech? Jack Dorsey started it. On a Friday in mid-October, weeks before San Francisco voters would head to the polls, Dorsey, the CEO of Twitter and Square, quote-tweeted Salesforce chief Marc Benioff about his support for Proposition C, a measure that would tax big… → Read More

Sorry, we're closed: Tech companies tighten up, and startups may suffer

Welcome back to Tech Chronicle. If you’re open to it, please access our subscription interface. Sorry, we’re closed We’d all but forgotten about Google Plus when the search company announced Monday that its foray into social networking was kaput. The cause of death? A Wall Street Journal exposé of Google’s efforts to keep secret a flaw that may have exposed tens of dozens — sorry, that’s a bad… → Read More

Startups need women in their boardrooms, too

Welcome back to Tech Chronicle. If you’re not getting this newsletter directly, let’s get you on board. Startups need women in their boardrooms, too On Sunday, California became the first state to require that publicly traded companies headquartered therein have at least one woman on their boards of directors. The new law, known as SB826, may face legal challenges. It’s not clear that California… → Read More