Tech Brew Ride Home - Thu. 07/29 – Vaccine Mandates For Big Tech?

Episode Date: July 29, 2021

Tech companies dip their toes into vaccine mandate waters. Facebook in so many words says Apple’s privacy changes are about to impact earnings. Will Didi take itself private again to please the Chinese government? Is Peacock doing better than I at least thought? And a crypto startup is sliding into the biggest growth market I’ve seen in this space yet. Sponsors: NordPass.com/techmeme or code techmeme for 50% off for 2 years Metalab.co Links: Most Apple Stores to Require Masks Again for Shoppers, Staff (Bloomberg) Facebook beats earnings expectations, but warns of significant growth slowdown (CNBC) Didi Global Considers Going Private to Placate China and Compensate Investors (WSJ) Robinhood CEO on the meme stock craze: ‘I think it’s a real thing’ (CNBC) Peacock Reaches 54M Sign-Ups Thanks to Olympics, 20M Monthly Active Users (The Streamable) OpenAI proposes open-source Triton language as an alternative to Nvidia's CUDA (ZDNet) Bitcoin Seized by DOJ Headed to Crypto Custodian Anchorage in $6.6 Million Deal (Decrypt) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 Thursday, July 29th, 2021. I'm Brian McCalla today. Tech companies dip their toes into vaccine mandate waters. Facebook, in so many words, says Apple's privacy changes are about to impact their earnings. Will Didi take itself private again to please

the Chinese government? Is Peacock doing better than I at least thought it was? And a crypto startup is sliding into the biggest growth market I've seen in this space yet. Here's what you miss today in the world of tech. Okay, keeping a watch on Silicon Valley maybe or maybe not being the leading edge in current COVID times, once again, Google has announced that anyone coming to work at its campuses must be vaccinated starting in the U.S. And Google will also delay the general return to offices from September until mid-October. Facebook says it will require its U.S. staff to be vaccinated before returning to offices this fall and will work around medical. or other vaccine exemptions. Twitter closed its New York and San Francisco offices a mere two weeks after reopening them and paused further office reopenings after, quote, consideration of the CDC's

updated guidelines. Finally, in a memo, Apple says it plans to restore a mask requirement for staff and customers at most of its U.S. retail stores beginning today due to rising COVID cases. Let's start with this Apple news and then circle back to the vaccine requirement news, quoting Bloomberg. The company informed retail staff of the move Wednesday in a memo obtained by Bloomberg News. Apple already started requiring masks for employees at select stores earlier this month, and it pushed back a return to office deadline for corporate employees. It also began requiring masks for customers in a few counties based on local guidelines. Now Apple will again require masks for shoppers and employees at more than half of its about 270 U.S.

stores. It also urged retail staff to get vaccinated, but is not requiring it at this time. Quote, Apple encourages everyone who is eligible to receive a COVID-19 vaccine to take it. The company wrote to retail employees, please talk to your doctor and decide what's right for you, end quote. So that is noticeably different than Google and Facebook, suddenly requiring vaccination to return to in-person work, quoting CNBC. As our offices reopen, we will be requiring anyone coming to work at any of our U.S. campuses to be vaccinated. Facebook VP of people, Lori Goller said in a statement, how we implement this policy will depend on local conditions and regulations, end quote. Facebook will create processes for those who can't be vaccinated for medical or other reasons,

Goller said. The company will continue to evaluate its approach outside the U.S., Guller added. Facebook had already told full-time employees that most of them could continue working from home beyond the pandemic if their jobs could be done remotely. The news comes after Google's CEO, Sunder Pichai told employees earlier the same day that Google would delay its return to office plans by one month, citing the fast-spreading Delta variant. Pachai also said returning workers would have to be vaccinated, end quote. So I'm going to wade carefully here, because I know this dips into political waters, but will once again Silicon Valley lead a trend in terms of what private enterprises do going forward? I tend to think so. It was big news here in New York City this morning that

Danny Mayer will be requiring indoor diners to show proof of COVID vaccination at all of his restaurants going forward. So I kind of feel like we're at the precipice of maybe seeing a wave of similar moves by businesses in certain areas. In a way, it's kind of the only practical way forward. And look, again, think what you want about all this, but I know I've got my New York State Excelsior Pass on my phone, and I'm more than willing to show it to anyone who will ask me for it. Happily, please, some of you. someone ask me for it. Facebook joined the earnings parade yesterday, reporting Q2 revenue of $29.08 billion, up 56% year over year. So stop right there. A company Facebook size and age is still

growing at 56%. That's kind of nuts. Monthly active users came in at $2.9 billion, up 7% year over year, but stopping again, that means they're approaching 3 billion mouths, which is also amazing. Facebook said Q2 ad revenue was up 56% year over year, exactly in line with the revenue number because Facebook makes most of its money via ads, of course, with average price per ad up 47% year over year and a 6% year-over-year increase in ads delivered. But that's where things get tricky. Facebook's stock opened down more than 3% this morning because of this, quoting CNBC. Facebook said in Wednesday's statement, that it still expects, quote, increased ad-targeting headwinds in 2021 from regulatory and platform

changes, notably the recent iOS updates, end quote. Snap and Twitter have navigated the challenges of Apple's iOS 14.5 update, which gives people more control over apps that want to track them without much trouble. Both companies did warn that the long-term impacts of iOS 14.5 remain to be seen, but so far, the early returns have been promising. David Wenner, Facebook's finance chief, said the company expects a larger impact from iOS 14.5 in the third quarter than in the second quarter. The degree of opting in is in line with Facebook's expectations, winner said. We're not fully rolled out with those changes, but Q3 will have the impact more or less of those meaningfully rolled out, he said, end quote. In other words, Facebook telegraphed,

using earnings report language, that you might see some material impact from Apple's privacy changes starting now. And investors got that message, sort of makes you realize why Mark Zuckerberg has been running around talking about the Metaverse all of a sudden. He did it on the earnings call again yesterday. It's basically this strategy. Don't worry about us having trouble going forward on the iOS platform because we're busy building the next big platform and it will be an entire universe in size. So this morning, sources were telling the Wall Street Journal that D.D. is considering going back private in order to placate Chinese authorities. The word was that they would compensate investors for losses using money made during its IPO, which

I'm not even sure how that would work. But the company has also come out and denied these rumors this morning, still quoting the Wall Street Journal. The Beijing headquartered company has been in discussions with bankers, regulators, and key investors about how it could resolve some of the problems that emerged after DD listed on the New York Stock Exchange on June 30th, the people said. A take-private deal that would involve a tender offer for its publicly traded shares is one of the preliminary options being considered, they added. A take private offer could be funded partly or predominantly with money that D.D. raised from U.S. and global investors in the IPO.

The price that the company would offer to investors has yet to be determined, but it could be around or above the $14 per share IPO price, one of the people said. D.D. has asked its major underwriters to gauge investors' views regarding a privatization plan, as well as the pricing range that they would accept, the people said. The plan is still under deliberation and would need approval from D.D.D.D.E.D. Didi's board and major pre-IPO investors, including SoftBanks Vision Fund. CAC, the Chinese cybersecurity watchdog, is supportive of the privatization plans, in principle, according to one of the people.

SoftBank is unlikely to help fund a deal, the person said. The Japanese conglomerate's first vision fund previously poured about $12 billion into D-D and holds a 20% stake in the company, end quote. Also word this morning that SoftBank is considering selling about one-third of its stake in Uber in order to cover its losses in its DD investment, of which there are about $4 billion worth of losses as of this moment. I've been waiting for Robin Hood to begin trading all morning, and now at 11 a.m. Eastern, I'm throwing in the towel just for purposes of time so I can get the show out. What I can tell you right now is that Robin Hood raised $2.1 billion in its

IPO after selling $55 million shares at the low end of its $38 to $42. a share range, giving Robin Hood evaluation of $31.8 billion. But again, low end of the range, which is an ideal, I can tell you anecdotally that everyone I know who has a Robin Hood account got emails offering to let them in on the IPO this morning. I wonder if that is because of this, quoting CNBC. It was not until roughly 9 a.m. Eastern Time that Robin Hood and its underwriters were finished allocating its IPO shares, an unusual circumstance for a syndicate at that point in the process. Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase are the lead investment banks on the deal. CNBC's David Faber said, an institutional source said, quote,

they're begging us to take Robin Hood shares, Faber said on Squawk on the Street before the opening bell on Thursday, and I said, what do they got left? And he said lots, Faber added. Robin Hood, which planned to allocate 20 to 35 percent of its IPO shares to its retail clients, was reportedly sending messages late Wednesday to those retail investors about buying shares, according to CNBC's Leslie Picker, end quote. So that's why I've been waiting to see how trading went when it actually opened. Feels sort of tenuous at the moment. But things went completely smoothly for Duolingo, which closed up 36% in its NASDAQ trading debut yesterday, giving the language learning app a market valuation of nearly $5 billion after raising $521 million in its IPO. So nice first day pop for them.

narrative violation here, and I'll cop to the fact that it's a narrative that I have bought into and passed along to you. Maybe Peacock is doing better in the streaming wars than I thought, quoting the streamable. In today's earnings call, Comcast officials said streaming platform peacock continued its dramatic growth, thanks to its day and date movie distribution, its original content, and its sports productions. Peacock had a total of 54 million signups and 20 million active accounts as of this week. According to Comcast CEO Brian Roberts, that's 50% higher than last quarter.

He cited the performance of the day and date release of Boss Baby 2 in theaters and on Peacock, along with the release of the Peacock original Doctor Death. In addition, Roberts pointed to sports on Peacock, including the 2020 Summer Olympics and the upcoming season of Sunday night football. With the networks of NBC Universal in general and Peacock in particular in the midst of the 2020 Summer Olympics,

company officials have been notably bullish on the future of the young streaming platform, especially given its performance during the Tokyo Games. NBC Universal's CEO Jeff Schell was confident about the performance of the Olympics for the networks, quote, we are going to be profitable on the Olympics, Shell said, pointing out that his team worked through logistics for the Tokyo Games that NBC Universal had, quote, learned a lot that we will take to Beijing, referring to the upcoming 2022 Winter Olympics in February. Earlier this month, Universal announced a deal allowing the studio to shift new release movies from HBO to Peacock during the pay-one window beginning in 2022.

The films will be available on Peacock for four months at the beginning and end of the 18-month window while going to other distribution partners in between, end quote. Still doesn't make up for Peacock being a complete UI and U.X nightmare, though. OpenAI has introduced Triton 1.0, an open source programming language for writing GPU code for neural networks, and claims that it is easier to write than even in Vidia's Kuda, quoting ZDNet. OpenAI claims Triton can deliver substantial ease-of-use benefits over coding in Kuda for some neural network tasks at the heart of machine learning forms of AI such as matrix multiplications. Our goal is for it to become a viable alternative to Kuda for deep learning, the leader of the effort.

OpenAI scientist Philippe Talette told ZDNet via email, Triton, quote, is for machine learning researchers and engineers who are unfamiliar with GPU programming, despite having good software engineering skills, said to let. The fact that the language is coming from OpenAI, which developed the GPT3 natural language processing program that is taken the world by storm, may give the code some added preeminence in the AI field. The software is offered as open source with the requirement that the copyright notice and permissions be included in any distribution of subsequent copies of the code, end quote. Finally today, this is one of those, of course there would be a business for that moment. The U.S. Marshal's Service has awarded a $6.6 million contract to crypto startup anchorage. Why? Well, when the feds seize Bitcoin and other crypto assets from bad guys, they need someone to do something with it, quoting DeCript.

Alongside cash, real estate, art, and other asset classes used in the course of committing federal crime, the USS has seized some amount of digital assets in recent years. Anchorage shared in a press release today. That's an understatement. The Marshall's Service has been responsible for handling billions of dollars worth of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, either seized by it or other Justice Department agencies, such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Drug Enforcement Agency. It's then tasked with selling it.

For example, it sold 144,336 Bitcoin seized from Russ Albrecht's Dark Web Marketplace Silk Road. That sale netted $48.2 million, a big haul at the time. But it's now worth $5.7 billion, making crypto seizures a large revenue stream for the agency. Seizing Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies is far different from grabbing cash and putting it in a bag. It involves obtaining a person's private key, which is more or less a password to their wallet, while federal officials can provide a court order to get access to keys held by an exchange, funds in private wallets are trickier. One explanation, the person whose crypto it is can hand over the private key. The government can also lean on hackers to attempt to discover private keys.

The USMS began looking for a contractor to take custody of, store, and dispose of its assets back in 2019, ultimately settling on Anchorage, according to the company. Anchorage will now be responsible not just for storage of private keys, but creating new wallets, managing any blockchain forks or airdrops, and prepping assets to be sold off. Anchorage competitor BitGo won a similar $4.5 million contract from the USMS in April. Neither USMS nor BitGo independently responded to DeCrips questions about whether that contract is still in effect. Anchorage, which began as a cryptocurrency custodian, gained a banking charter this year with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency,

becoming the first federally chartered digital asset bank. Anchorage Digital hades custody for over 50 assets, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Zcash, and USDC, stablecoin, end quote. So you know when people snark, when is somebody ever going to build a real business on top of crypto? Well, here you go. There's Coinbase and this. Picks and shovels can mean marketplaces and asset forfeiture, I guess. That's all for today. Talk to you tomorrow.