Line is a Japanese messaging app that investors used to be really hot on, but slowing user growth has cooled some of the hype. In its planned IPO later this month, the company is aiming to raise a bit over $1 billion in what's expected to be the biggest tech IPO of 2016 ... so far.
[Alexander Martin | The Wall Street Journal]
Microsoft wasn't the only suitor for LinkedIn; Google, Facebook and Salesforce were in the mix as well. We read through new SEC filings and put together a play-by-play of the acquisition, which could very easily have ended differently based on what the documents say.
[Mark Bergen | Recode]
NBC (which is an investor in Recode proprietor Vox Media) is broadcasting the Olympic Games from Rio de Janeiro this summer, which sound like they could be a disaster between the Zika outbreak and widespread civil unrest. On the new Recode Decode, NBC Olympics chief Gary Zenkel told Recode's Ina Fried that he's not concerned: "Welcome to the world."
[Eric Johnson | Recode]
San Francisco's government is considering a new payroll tax that people are referring to as the "tech tax." While it looks like it probably won't be made into law, it's a sign of how much trouble San Francisco (and other cities) has accommodating its tech-induced cost-of-living explosion.
[Thomas Fuller | The New York Times]
Last fall, Indian startups were spending money hand over fist to hire people. Investors are now backing away from the region, and many of those same companies are now cutting costs as quickly as they can.
[Simon Mundy | The Financial Times]
