Facebook is making changes to its News Feed algorithm that will prioritize the stuff your friends and family share, at the expense of the stuff publishers and brands share. This is exactly why digital media companies, who are increasingly dependent on Facebook traffic, are really, really afraid of Facebook.
[Kurt Wagner | Recode]
Nikesh Arora, who resigned from SoftBank's presidency last week, was being looked into by the SEC before he left. Arora's exit was unexpected, but it wasn't completely out of left field; many SoftBank investors have long been making noise about various issues with Arora.
[Matt Robinson and Peter Elstrom | Bloomberg]
On the new Recode Media podcast, Peter Kafka talks with John Gruber — the creator of Daring Fireball, a highly popular (and lucrative) one-man blogging and podcasting operation focused on all things Apple. Gruber talks about his relationship with Apple, his beef with gadget blogs and more.
[Eric Johnson | Recode]
More details on Airbnb's new funding round: The soon-to-be $30 billion startup is selling stock in two separate sales (one equity funding round and one sale of employee common stock), aiming to raise between $700 million and $1.2 billion in total. The point is to raise cash so that Airbnb doesn't have to go public this year or next.
[Rolfe Winkler, Douglas MacMillan and Maureen Farrell | The Wall Street Journal]
Since Uber and Lyft ditched Austin over a fight about fingerprint background checks, locals have turned to an unexpected place for on-demand ride-hailing: Valet service Luxe's "Drive Home" feature, which has seen a 140 percent spike in usage since the two ride-hailing giants left town.
[Johana Bhuiyan | Recode]
