Tech Brew Ride Home - Mon. 11/29 – Jack Dorsey To Leave Twitter

Starting point is 00:00:00 On April 4th, 2023, around 2 in the morning, a man was found stabbed multiple times on a sidewalk in downtown San Francisco. Hey, who did this to you? What happened next turned the story into a political firestorm. Reports have identified the victim as Bob Lee, the founder of Cash App. From Bloomberg Podcasts, this is Foundering, the Killing of Bob Lee, beginning April 16. Welcome to the Tech meme right home for Monday, November 29th, 2021. I'm Brian McCullough today. Jack Dorsey is reportedly about to be a one company CEO if he steps down from Twitter. The acquisition of Giffy is on life support. Folks, remember, Microsoft could be an antitrust target two. Will Apple's AR headset not need to be tethered to an iPhone and a look at just how much Amazon has increased its delivery capacity? Here's what you miss today in the world of tech. Early this morning, David, Faber was reporting that sources were telling him that Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey is expected to step down from that CEO position.

Starting point is 00:01:15 Quote, Dorsey currently serves as both the CEO of Twitter and Square, his digital payments company. Twitter stakeholder Elliott Management had sought to replace Jack Dorsey as CEO in 2020, before the investment firm reached a deal with the company's management. Elliott Management founder and billionaire investor Paul Singer had wondered whether Dorsey should run both of the public companies calling for him to step down as CEO of one of them. It is unclear who is set to succeed Dorsey, but if he steps down, the next CEO will have to meet Twitter's aggressive internal goals. The company said earlier this year it aims to have

Starting point is 00:01:47 315 million monetizable daily active users by the end of 2023 and to at least double its annual revenue in that year, end quote. It is worth noting that early this morning, Twitter stock was up as much as 10% on this news. As Barry Rittoltz tweeted, just be glad that when you quit your job, your company's stock price does not rise 10%. The rumor that I just saw on Twitter is that Dorsey and Twitter's board have already settled on a successor. And as I would point out, there is a strong and maybe obvious internal candidate to step up to the CEO position. It is friend of the show and sometimes guest on our Twitter spaces, Kvon Bakepore, who has been the leader of Twitter's recent product renaissance of late.

Starting point is 00:02:32 though, as Matt Levine tweeted, quote, What are the odds that the next CEO of Twitter currently has a Twitter account? Like zero, right? The most important criterion for a senior executive is that you've never used the product. I used to make fun of Twitter for this, but now I think it's just obviously a good idea, end quote. Shows what I know. Late breaking news to report here after I recorded that last bit that Jack Dorsey released a departure statement, quoting the verge. The company confirmed that CTO.

Starting point is 00:03:05 Parag Agrawal will succeed Dorsey and says that Dorsey will remain on its board of directors. Brett Taylor is taking over as the new chairman of the board. In a statement, Dorsey said, quote, I've decided to leave Twitter because I believe the company is ready to move on from its founders. My trust in Parag as Twitter's CEO is deep. His work of the past 10 years has been transformational. I'm deeply grateful for his skill, heart, and soul. It's his time to lead, end quote. Agarwal joined the company in 2011 as an ads engineer, eventually taking the title of CTO in 2018, end quote. I'm really thinking this one is dead. Sources are telling the financial times that the UK's CMA is expected to block META's proposed acquisition of Jiffie in the coming days, quote.

Starting point is 00:03:56 The Competition and Markets Authority is set to reverse the deal according to individuals close to the matter in what would be the first time the CMA has unwound a big tech deal. The watchdog began investigating meta's acquisition of New York-based Giffy, the biggest provider of animated images known as GIFs to social networks in June of last year. A decision to block the deal would set an eye-catching precedent from the UK regulator, which has never sought to reverse a completed tech deal. The CMA declined to comment. In August, the CMA provisionally ruled meta, formerly known as Facebook,

Starting point is 00:04:28 should be forced to sell Giffy due to competition, concerns. It has until December 1 to make a final call. At that time, the CMA argued META could cut off its rivals access to GIFs and demand platforms like TikTok or Snapchat handover more of their data in order to access GIFs consolidating power in meta's hands. The watchdog also said the deal could remove a competitor to META in the display advertising market in the UK, despite Giffy's lack of presence in that sector. Facebook controls 40 to 50 percent of the UK display advertising market, according to the GIFI had offered paid advertising in the U.S. and the CMA argued that, absent the merger, Jiffy could have gone on to expand that service into the UK, something the

Starting point is 00:05:11 company has denied, end quote. So here's the thought chain that I had about this in the shower this morning. You'll notice meta hasn't made a ton of big acquisitions in the advertising or social media space lately. This was one of the biggest potential deals of recent vintage. And if this one goes down in flames, that's basically confirmation, right? That meta likely can't make major acquisitions in this space going forward for a while. Regulators simply won't let it happen. But then I remembered all the recent acquisitions meta has made in the VR space, and I thought, ha, regulators as ever are fighting the last war, while Mark Zuckerberg is busy snapping up the pieces to corner the market of the future. But then I thought, wait a minute. This whole branding change thing, from Facebook to meta, the future is the

Starting point is 00:05:59 metaverse now? I mean, even the regulators couldn't have failed to notice all of that. So I'm not saying that Zuck has shot himself in the foot exactly, but does this mean acquisitions in VR and such will have regulators paying more attention than they would have two deals like this now that it's all about the metaverse? And regulators might be coming for trolls. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has proposed new defamation legislation mandating social media companies reveal the identities of anonymous online trolls or face fines, quoting ABC News, but the Aussie one. The laws would require social media companies to collect the details of all users and allow courts to force companies to hand over the identities of users to aid defamation cases. Social media

Starting point is 00:06:50 companies would also be made legally liable for the content they publish from users, removing liability from individuals and companies that manage pages. The legislation will be released in draft form this week and is expected to be introduced to Parliament early next year. Under the proposal, social media companies will be required to create a complaints process for people who feel they have been defamed online. The complaints process will allow people to ask that material be taken down by a user if they feel it is defamatory. If the user is unwilling to take down the content or the complainant wants to take further action, the company asks a user for their consent to release their personal details. If the user does not consent to their details

Starting point is 00:07:28 being released, a court order can be made requiring the company to release them, allowing the complainant to pursue defamation action. Mr. Morrison said the government would be happy to intervene in court and take on social media companies trying to avoid releasing personal details. Quote, so if the digital companies or others think they're only just going to have to be dealing with perhaps someone of little means seeking to pursue this, then we will look for those cases. We will back them in the courts and we will take them on, end quote. Mr. Morrison said the establishment of a public defender's office tasked with taking on such cases was under consideration, end quote. It's just a day of regulatory and legal stories from around the world, but hey, here's a new target,

Starting point is 00:08:13 or at least a tech company that hasn't been targeted for a while. NextCloud and around 30 other EU companies have filed an antitrust complaint with the European Commission against Microsoft for bundling OneDrive and Teams with Windows. As they used to say in Portlandia, the dream of the 90s is alive in Europe, quoting ZDNet. NextCloud claims that by pushing consumers to sign up and hand over their data to Microsoft, the Windows giant limits consumer choice, and creates an unfair barrier for other companies offering competing services.

Starting point is 00:08:48 Specifically, Microsoft has grown its EU market share to 66%, while local providers' market share declined from 26 to 16%. Microsoft has done this not by any technical advantage or sales benefits, but by heavily favoring its own products and services, self-preferencing over other services. While self-preferencing is not illegal per se under EU competition laws, if a company abuses its dominant market position, it can break the law. Next Cloud states that Microsoft has outright blocked other cloud service vendors by leveraging its position as gatekeeper to extend its reach in neighboring markets, pushing users deeper

Starting point is 00:09:23 into its ecosystems. Thus, more specialized EU companies can't compete on merit as the key to success is not a good product but the ability to distort competition and block market access. NextCloud is not the only company to make such complaints. Slack has filed an antitrust complaint against Microsoft in the European Union about Microsoft's integrating teams with office. This case is now proceeding. So NextCloud is asking the European Commission's Directorate General for competition to prevent this kind of abusive behavior and keep the market competitive and fair for all players. NextCloud is doing this by filing an official complaint with this body. In addition, NextCloud has also filed a request with the German antitrust authorities, the Bundeskartelan,

Starting point is 00:10:06 Bundeskart Element for an investigation against Microsoft. With its partners, it's also discussing filing a similar complaint in France. NextCloud is being joined in its complaint by several open source nonprofit organizations. These include the European Digital SME Alliance, the Document Foundation, Libra Offices backing organization, and the Free Software Foundation, Europe, end quote. Going to catch you up on some Apple rumors that we missed while we were away. First, Mark German told us that Apple is still working on a multi-device charger, other short and long-distance wireless charging options, and reverse wireless charging for its devices. Quote, I do think Apple is still working on some sort of multi-device charger that it

Starting point is 00:10:58 intends to eventually release. There's a reason why it planned to launch the device originally in 2017. I also believe Apple is working on short and long distance wireless charging devices and that it imagines a future where all of Apple's major devices can charge each other. Imagine an iPad charging an iPhone and then that iPhone charging AirPods or an Apple Watch, end quote. And earlier over the holidays, our other Apple rumor buddy, Ming Chi Kuo, had this. Apple's AR headset is, according to him, set to launch in late 2022 with an M1-like chip and no tethering to a Mac or an iPhone required, which would be absolutely huge, if true, but does continue to point to the idea that Apple wants to replace the iPhone with AR or some form of wearable over the next decade, quoting Mac rumors.

Starting point is 00:11:47 Quo says the internal AR headset will be able to operate independently without needing to be tethered to a Mac or iPhone, and Apple is intending it to support a, quote, comprehensive range of applications with an eye toward replacing the iPhone within 10 years. This is quoting from Quo here. We predict that Apple's AR headset to be launched in Q4, 2022, will be equipped with two processors. The higher-end processor will have similar computing power as the M1 for Mac, whereas the lower-end processor will be in charge of. of sensor-related computing. The power management unit or PMU design of the high-end processor is similar to that of M1 because it has the same level of computing power as M1. In addition to AR, Quo says, the headset will also be able to support virtual reality experiences

Starting point is 00:12:34 thanks to a pair of 4K micro-OLED displays from Sony, which require the computing horsepower of an M1-like chip, quoting quote again. Apple's AR headset requires a separate processor as the computing power of the sensor is significantly higher than that of the iPhone. For example, the AR headset requires at least six to eight optical modules to simultaneously provide continuous video see-through AR services to users. In comparison, an iPhone requires up to three optical modules running simultaneously and does not require continuous computing. Last week, Quo said that both the upcoming headset and the iPhone 14 coming next year will support Wi-Fi 6E technology, which offers the increased bandwidth and lower interference needed for AR and VR experiences, end quote.

Starting point is 00:13:26 Finally today, if you needed a reminder that COVID times have forced Amazon to like quadruple down on its previous strategies, a new analysis says Amazon has built more than 450 warehouses in the U.S. just since the end of 2019, doubling its fulfillment capacity to over 930 facilities, quoting the Wall Street Journal. Many of the new buildings are concentrated near big cities, putting more items for sale on the website closer to large population centers. The facilities also include more than two dozen smaller outposts, stocked mostly with best-selling items, allowing the company to prepare for supply disruptions, while also expanding fast shipping capabilities, according to the analysis. During the pandemic, Amazon put on hold its promise to deliver many items to customers in one day. Nevertheless, the company continued to build out a network capable of such a feat.

Starting point is 00:14:17 The work prepared Amazon for an unusual holiday shopping season in which a national labor shortage and global supply chain challenges have constrained the ability of many companies to obtain and deliver certain products in as timely a manner as they did in the past. Amazon has encouraged customers to shop early this year due to the supply chain issues, and company executives have said they are ready to deliver and have been preparing for the holidays since the start of the year. As of mid-November, more than 98% of parcels that arrived at Amazon's delivery centers, which typically are in close proximity to packages final destinations, were being delivered the next day, according to estimates from research firm Ship Matrix. At the same time, some items like household products and sporting goods were showing delivery windows of a few days, Ship Matrix said, emphasizing Amazon's message to shop early. Brian Olavski, Amazon's chief financial officers, said the company's inventory increased in preparation for the busy period.

Starting point is 00:15:10 For the first time in a while, he said the company is not capacity constrained. We've made commitments that are larger than normal, he said, on a call with analysts in October. Granted, it's at a cost penalty in many cases. Since the end of 2019, Amazon has hired roughly 670,000 people, with its global workforce now totaling more than 1.4 million, according to the company. During roughly the same period, Amazon said it nearly doubled the size of its fulfillment network. The company now has more than 930 facilities across the country, end quote. And one more thing. CNBC is reporting that Amazon is poised to pass UPS and FedEx to become the largest U.S. delivery service by early 2022. This is news that is both obvious and probably inevitable, but still somehow mind-blowing when you stop and think about it. By the by, if you're hearing this in time, quick reminder that today is Cyber Monday, I guess. Is that still a big deal now that cyber is more of commerce than ever before?

Starting point is 00:16:20 Well, regardless, maybe there's still time to hop online and score some deals. Talk to you tomorrow.

Tech Brew Ride Home - Mon. 11/29 – Jack Dorsey To Leave Twitter

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