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Facebook leads Silicon Valley to its Minsky moment

21 Mar 2018

The social network feasted on burgeoning data and devices, just as banks gorged on easy money before the crisis. Society’s focus on benefits over risk gave tech companies free rein – until the resulting abuses couldn’t be overlooked. As user trust evaporates, regulation beckons.

Facebook gives members one more reason to leave

19 Mar 2018

An election consultant’s use of 50 mln profiles creates fresh risks at a company reeling over fake-news and ad-measurement mishaps. Users have plateaued in key markets and people are spending less time on the social network. The danger is that members may unfriend it altogether.

Zuckerberg is making a worrying passel of enemies

19 Mar 2018

The alleged exploitation of 50 mln Facebook profiles by political consultant Cambridge Analytica compounds the $540 bln social network's woes, as it contends with other backlashes. U.S. and UK legislators want to hear from founder Mark Zuckerberg now. He may be in over his head.

Hadas: Businesses need to cut back on half-truths

14 Mar 2018

In the age of digital activism, propaganda’s dire power corrupts politics and divides society. Companies too often join in, pushing agendas with scant regard for the full truth. That’s bad for the world. And if politicians respond by attacking corporations, earnings will suffer.

Trump’s incoherent strategy dooms tariff crusade

2 Mar 2018

The U.S. president defended his steel and aluminum duties, arguing trade wars are “easy to win.” But his tax cuts increase the budget deficit and the country’s reliance on foreign capital, almost guaranteeing a worsening trade balance. The conflicting tactics are self-defeating.

Review: Knocking at the door of tech’s boys’ club

23 Feb 2018

Women played key roles in the development of computers, but you wouldn’t know it by looking at Silicon Valley. A hostile culture has pushed them to the fringes of America’s technology hotbed. A new book says thinking differently would pay dividends for women, and the industry.

Kardashian slap shows hole in Snap’s accounting

22 Feb 2018

Celebrity sibling Kylie Jenner wiped over $1.5 bln from the disappearing-message app’s wobbly value after she questioned its usefulness. Influential fans attract users – and repel them if they publicly flee. Such assets don’t show on the balance sheet. Maybe they should.

The Twitter egg is not a management strategy

23 Jan 2018

The $17 bln social network is splitting its chief operating officer role among other managers, after Anthony Noto took flight to run lender SoFi. With revenue falling and government scrutiny intensifying, moonlighting boss Jack Dorsey needs a solid executive, not a blank avatar.

Disney’s future turns board geeks to possible rats

16 Jan 2018

Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey are leaving the entertainment giant’s board. Convergence with technology – in virtual reality, say – makes conflicts of interest likelier. That can dent directors’ effectiveness. Put less blandly, it can make them dangerous.

Facebook discovers cost of factory-farming users

12 Jan 2018

The $550 bln social network’s success harvesting ad dollars from mass-appeal content made it very profitable. The snag is that users are increasingly unhappy. Mark Zuckerberg’s return to focusing more on their welfare may limit short-run profits but should improve sustainability.

Domino’s Pizza is 2018’s most unlikely tech stock

21 Dec 2017

True, there’s nothing high-tech about pizza. But the take-out chain also dominates the “last mile” that delivery companies covet. Its app-to-infrastructure model makes Domino’s a little bit Uber, and a little bit Amazon. Investors are already baking in some futuristic assumptions.

Facebook targets children with Snap rip-off

4 Dec 2017

Mark Zuckerberg’s outfit is launching a messaging app for kids under 12. It’s a bid to attract a new generation of users by a company struggling to lure youngsters from Snapchat. Yet it’s also a gamble for Facebook. Targeting tweens will invite even closer regulatory scrutiny.

Review: Firm ideas for a world of soft assets

1 Dec 2017

Modern economies are increasingly built on intangible factors like research and development and software. "Capitalism Without Capital" shows how this trend contributes to problems like rising inequality. But it stops short of tackling the rising dominance of big tech groups.

Investors scramble for a slice of almost-Tencent

9 Nov 2017

Chinese search engine Sogou, which just listed in the U.S., is the No. 3 in its home market. The reason to invest, though, is its connection to the owner of near billion-user chat app WeChat. If ties with Tencent get closer, Sogou might merit its $5.1 billion valuation.

Sina’s board wins Yahoo-like prize

3 Nov 2017

Bosses of the $8 bln Chinese web outfit thwarted a U.S. hedge fund's quest to add two directors. Sina's big problem is that it's worth less than its big stake in Weibo. As Yahoo laid bare, it can be hard to run a company whose value sits elsewhere – regardless of who's in charge.