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As the cost of signing up new customers rises, “lifetime value” is set to become must-use jargon for technology executives, investors and analysts in 2023. The concept of lifetime value is not new, but a common definition remains elusive. The problem is that everyone seems to have a different definition of lifetime value. But lifetime value isn’t a silver bullet, as Gurley noted a decade ago. As with previous buzzwords, investors may find that references to lifetime value do more to confound than clarify.

☆ Are You ‘Extremely Hardcore’ or Not? How Elon Musk Is Dividing Silicon Valley’s Elite
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-24 | by ( Christopher Mims | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Elon Musk has sometimes seemed like the person Silicon Valley would create if venture-funded engineers figured out how to build humans in a lab: the bold innovator fearlessly disrupting one industry after another with a nerdy verve. And yet these days, Silicon Valley’s investors, leaders and commentators are profoundly divided about tech’s billionaire icon, in ways that are revealing about Mr. Musk and about the state of the industry.

☆ Washington moved fast to crack down on TikTok but has made little progress with Big Tech
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-22 | by ( Brian Fung | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +10 min

But in fast-tracking the bill, Congress can’t help but draw attention to its notable lack of progress on regulating American tech giants more broadly — despite years of reports, hearings and proposed legislation. Washington finds a different tech villainThe tech industry’s largest players have faced a kitchen sink of allegations in recent years. The central allegation against TikTok is that the company poses a potential national security risk. But earlier this year, it acknowledged that China-based employees can access TikTok user data and declined to commit to cutting off those data flows in general. “We’re disappointed that Congress has moved to ban TikTok on government devices—a political gesture that will do nothing to advance national security interests—rather than encouraging the Administration to conclude its national security review,” said Brooke Oberwetter, a TikTok spokesperson.

☆ Silicon Valley’s Talent Spotters Are Now Looking for Jobs
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-29 | by ( Katherine Bindley | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Companies couldn’t hire enough recruiters to help fill all of the open technology positions they had a year ago. Now many tech-talent seekers are job-hunting themselves. Few other professionals have felt the whiplash more as big tech’s long-running hiring boom fizzles out. It is a sharp reversal for a field in which even inexperienced tech recruiters could earn low six figures. At Meta Platforms Inc., CEO Mark Zuckerberg warned that recruiting staff would be disproportionately hit in the 11,000 layoffs it announced this month—the result, he said, of too much hiring and spending during the pandemic.

☆ Sequoia Capital Apologizes to Limited Partners for FTX Investment
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-22 | by ( Berber Jin | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The collapse of FTX has placed Sequoia Capital in an unfamiliar position: damage control mode. The early backer of Apple Inc., Alphabet Inc.’s Google, and Airbnb Inc.—and one of Silicon Valley’s most successful venture-capital firms—apologized to its fund investors in a conference call Tuesday for its $150 million loss on the crypto exchange FTX and vowed to improve its due diligence process for future investments, said people familiar with the matter.

☆ Big Tech layoffs are dystopian job-market fiction
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-18 | by ( Ben Winck | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

After years of falling U.S. unemployment, it might seem like Silicon Valley is foreshadowing the beginning of a dystopian future for workers. Yet there’s a good chance that what happens in Silicon Valley won’t spill over into the rest of the economy. Silicon Valley is ahead of the curve on firing too. That’s particularly burdensome for tech firms that rely heavily on innovation to drive growth. Job listings for restaurant workers were up 38% from the pre-crisis levels as of Nov. 10, according to Indeed.

☆ Elizabeth Holmes Is Sentenced to More Than 11 Years for Fraud
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-18 | by ( Erin Griffith | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Elizabeth Holmes, the founder of the failed blood-testing start-up Theranos, was sentenced to more than 11 years in prison on Friday for defrauding investors about her company’s technology and business dealings. The sentence capped a yearslong saga that has captivated the public and ignited debates about Silicon Valley’s culture of hype and exaggeration. Judge Edward J. Davila of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California sentenced Ms. Holmes to 135 months in prison, which is slightly more than 11 years, followed by three years of supervised release. Ms. Holmes, 38, who plans to appeal, must surrender to custody on April 27, 2023. In the courtroom on Friday, Ms. Holmes — who appeared with a large group of friends and family, including her parents and her partner, Billy Evans — cried when she read a statement to the judge.

Persons: — Elizabeth Holmes, Holmes, Edward J, Davila, Holmes —, Billy Evans — Organizations: JOSE, Calif, U.S, Northern, Northern District of Locations: Northern District, Northern District of California

☆ Is the economy improving? Days before the midterms, no one has a good answer
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-04 | by ( Allison Morrow | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

By aggressively hiking interest rates, the Fed has sought to introduce some slack into a tight labor market. Inflation remains high, but now it’s also far more expensive to take out loans or pay off credit cards. Wages are up, but not enough to take the sting off high prices of necessities like food, fuel and shelter. Economists will get fresh insight into the state of inflation next week with the October CPI reading on Thursday. But if there’s good news in that report, it will have come two days too late to sway voters one way or another.

☆ Andreessen Horowitz Went All In on Crypto at the Worst Possible Time
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-26 | by ( Berber Jin | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

As cryptocurrency prices soared last year, no investor bet more on the sector than Andreessen Horowitz. The storied venture-capital firm had developed a reputation as Silicon Valley’s greatest crypto bull, thanks largely to a 50-year-old partner named Chris Dixon who was one of the earliest evangelists for how the blockchain technology powering cryptocurrencies could change business. His unit was one of the most-active crypto investors last year, and in May announced a $4.5 billion crypto fund, the largest ever for such investments.

☆ Blame Lockdowns on Silicon Valley
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-10 | by ( Andy Kessler | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

I blame Silicon Valley. Yet policy makers implemented lockdowns only because they could—because Silicon Valley provided the tools to lock people in their homes without completely imploding the economy. You couldn’t force lockdowns without laptops, Zoom, Amazon deliveries, cloud computing, Slack, QR codes or Netflix. Instead, we took the Faucian bargain of technology-enabled yearlong lockdowns because it was doable. Silicon Valley’s tools became shackles.

☆ Silicon Valley’s post-Covid brain drain: podcast
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-27 | by ( Aimee Donnellan | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Steve Case, chairman and CEO of Revolution, speaks during the SALT conference in Manhattan, New York City, U.S., September 13, 2022. REUTERS/David 'Dee' DelgadoLONDON, Sept 27 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Before the pandemic, 75% of venture capital was invested in California, New York and Massachusetts. In this Exchange podcast, AOL co-founder Steve Case explains that a hybrid working revolution is reversing that trend and encouraging permanent investment away from the coasts. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com RegisterEditing by Thomas Shum and Oliver TaslicOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. They do not reflect the views of Reuters News, which, under the Trust Principles, is committed to integrity, independence, and freedom from bias.

Over the last decade, the rise of internet giants like Tencent (0700.HK) exposed the flimsiness of the stereotype. “Influence Empire: Inside the Story of Tencent and China’s Tech Ambition” by Lulu Yilun Chen tracks the company’s evolution into a $350 billion social media and gaming behemoth. The backlash also undermined confidence in China’s private tech sector. U.S. venture capital investment has dwindled, and even Chinese tech investors are now venturing abroad. Follow @ywchen1 on TwitterCONTEXT NEWS“Influence Empire: Inside the Story of Tencent and China’s Tech Ambition”, by Lulu Yilun Chen, was published by Hodder & Stoughton on July 14.

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