Video of Ben’s appearance on a panel for a Public Workshop on Venture Capital and Antitrust hosted by the Department of Justice
Ben Thompson
First, Do No Harm
As regulators look closer at acquisitions they should be extremely wary of unintended consequences. The current system works well for everyone, most of the time.
Brandless Closes, The DTC Facebook Challenge, DTC Versus Softbank
Brandless is closing down, which is being spun into a commentary on Softbank. This is fair, but the bigger takeaway is about DTC broadly.
The Corona Virus Whistleblowers; NBA Salary Cap Decreases; Apple, Benefits, and Risks
The Coronavirus continues to spread in China, even as reports emerge of why it was not dealt with in time to make a difference, reframing the costs of authoritarianism.
Spotify Earnings, Podcasts and Lifetime Value, The Ringer Acquisition
Spotify’s mixed earnings, why podcasts are uniquely valuable to the company, and where The Ringer fits in.
The Iowa Fiasco, The Best Feature, Three Lessons
The fiasco surround the Iowa caucuses is an occasion to learn three lessons: what is a tech company, technology is hard, and why Facebook is like Microsoft.
Google Earnings, YouTube and Google Cloud, Google’s Falling Margin
Google finally released new financial information about YouTube and Google Cloud, but it is still not sufficient. Then, Google’s margins are falling just like Facebook’s: is the engine finally sputtering?
Facebook’s Platform Opportunity
Facebook is under pressure from all sides, but that actually means it has an opportunity to build the platform it has always wanted — in digital ads.
Exponent Podcast: It’s Been a Week
On Exponent, the weekly podcast I host with James Allworth, we eulogize Professor Clayton M. Christensen. Listen to it here.
Epic Systems and Electronic Health Records, Aggregators and Data Portability, Epic’s Privacy Objections
Epic Systems, an electronic health records company, is protesting a mandate that they make consumer health care available via API. Their arguments highlight the tension between interoperability and privacy.