News Information and Media Site: Byers Market: Jack Dorsey addresses Elliott fight; Susan Wojcicki inks RSN deal

March 6, 2020

By DYLAN BYERS in Los Angeles &

AHIZA GARCÍA-HODGES in San Francisco

Good morning. 😷 Sequoia Capital, the premier Silicon Valley investment firm, has sent a letter to its portfolio company CEOs declaring coronavirus "the black swan of 2020" and warning that the worst days of the outbreak may still be ahead.

• "It will take considerable time — perhaps several quarters — before we can be confident that the virus has been contained," they write. "It will take even longer for the global economy to recover its footing."

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Bird Hunt

Jack Dorsey defends dual CEO roles, but rethinks Africa

Moving the Market: Jack Dorsey says he has "enough flexibility" in his schedule to serve as CEO of both Twitter and Square, but is rethinking his plans to spend six months in Africa given "everything happening in the world, particularly with coronavirus."

• Dorsey's remarks, made at the Morgan Stanley TMT conference in San Francisco, come as activist investor Paul Singer is trying to oust him from Twitter, in part because Singer believes Dorsey has been too distracted by other interests.

The big picture: This is Dorsey's first statement on Singer's hostile effort. And while he defended his dual CEO duties, his flexibility on Africa could be interpreted as an olive branch to Singer and an effort to demonstrate his commitment to the company.

• "For the first time in our history at Twitter, it feels like we have so much focus that we can ignore a bunch of the noise and continue to just work and work and work," Dorsey said.

The backstory: Singer's firm, Elliott Management, bought a roughly 4 percent stake in Twitter last week with the intention of installing new board members and forcing Dorsey out of the company on the grounds that he had failed to realize Twitter's full value.

• As we wrote yesterday, Singer's position has its merits. Dorsey's Twitter has been largely unprofitable, slow to grow and reluctant to innovate. Its shares have fallen in the five years since Dorsey became CEO, even as most social media firms surged.

What's next: Dorsey's change of plans on Africa probably won't move the needle for Singer. As we wrote earlier this week, Elliott doesn't really believe that Twitter would be better off if Dorsey just paid more attention to it. He believes Dorsey is not the right CEO for the company, and he wants him out. Period, full stop.

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Con-Census

Facebook removes Trump ads

Big in the Bay, big in the Beltway: Mark Zuckerberg has decided to remove ads from Donald Trump's re-election campaign that violate Facebook's policy on misleading references to the U.S. census, a rare case where the company censors political speech.

• The big picture: "Facebook has taken the most permissive... approach to political speech," but it does "maintain some exceptions... including a ban on hate speech and speech that could interfere with the census," NYT's Cecilia Kang writes.

But... Facebook did not remove the ads on their own. Vanita Gupta, the president of the Leadership Conference Education Fund, reportedly urged both Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg to make the change, which they did by Thursday afternoon.

🌁 Big in the Bay 🌁

San Francisco looks set to pass a measure that would tether the construction of new skyscrapers to the creation of new affordable housing, our colleague David Ingram reports.

What's next: "Longtime residents are celebrating. Business lobbyists are predicting a local recession. And venture capitalists are taking to social media to vent their frustration."

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Coronavirus Watch

Why SXSW hasn't cancelled

Austin indecision: The SXSW Festival is facing growing pressure to cancel this year's conference after losing major partners like Facebook, Twitter, Apple, Amazon and Netflix, as well as marquee film premieres and keynote speakers, due to coronavirus concerns.

• The big picture: The reason SXSW hasn't cancelled yet may have to do with insurance. As Variety's Chris Willman notes, it's harder for SXSW to collect insurance if they're the ones who decide to cancel. If the city cancels, however, it becomes much easier.

• In 2019, the two-week event drew over 417,000 visitors from 106 countries. According to a report released by SXSW, it had a $356 million impact on Austin's economy.

The home front: NBCUniversal, the parent company of NBC News, is pulling out of SXSW, a source at the company confirms. It and AT&T's Warner Media are the latest in a growing list of businesses to cancel on the major tech and culture conference.

Market Links

• Jamie Dimon undergoes emergency heart surgery (Axios)

• Tim Cook cracks down on unofficial coronavirus apps (CNBC)

• Jimmy Pitaro prepares a record offer for Peyton Manning (FOS)

• Michael Pietsch faces a walkout over Woody Allen book (VF)

• Hillary Clinton documentary premieres on Hulu (WaPo)

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The Stream

Susan Wojcicki inks RSN deal

Talk of TV Land: Susan Wojcicki and the Sinclair Broadcast Group have reached a deal that will give YouTube TV rights to most but not all of the Fox regional sports networks. The deal does not include Fox Sports Prime Ticket, Fox Sports West and the Yankees' YES Network.

• YouTube statement on the RSNs they missed: "We don't take this decision lightly, and will continue to do our best to make YouTube TV a best-in-class experience."

Bryan Bedder/Getty

Going Rogue

James Murdoch vs. fake news

Moving Midtown: "James Murdoch, the younger son of Rupert Murdoch, is making a seven-figure investment in start-ups aimed at combating fake news, only weeks after criticizing his father's news outlets for promoting false skepticism about climate change," FT's Anna Nicolaou reports.

• "Lupa Systems... Murdoch's holding company, has partnered with Betaworks, an early investor in social media companies including Twitter, to fund an accelerator for start-ups to tackle disinformation and foster a 'more sustainable news ecosystem.'"

• "The accelerator program, called Betalab, aims to build software that can be used to authenticate videos or people and identify deepfakes, disinformation and trolls in media production."

The big picture: "Since the break-up of his family's entertainment empire... Murdoch ... has used the $2 billion he received... to launch Lupa and assemble his own portfolio of companies... distancing himself from the conservative politics of his father's news brands."