Interest in Twitter From Disney Unlikely.

[Mc'Lama™]

Each Saturday, Farhad Manjoo and Mike Isaac, technology reporters at The New York Times, review the week’s news, offering analysis and maybe a joke or two about the most important developments in the tech industry.

Mike: Aloha, Farhad! I’m back from a week of vacation in paradise, and everything compared to Hawaii is terrible. Usually for a week or two after returning from vacation I bemoan the advent of capitalism until I finally get used to working for a living again.

How have things been while I was away?

Farhad: Capitalism is great! While you were away I created a multibillion-dollar business conglomerate, which some of my deputies are now running while I take some much-needed “Farhad time” thinking big ideas on the couch. Look, Mike, if you work as hard as I do, you’re sure to see a big payoff someday.

Mike: Hmm ... right. Well, I did get a taste of work from vacay. I was pushing for the dateline on this Twitter story to be from “on da beach sipping mai tais, Hawaii.” The brass didn’t go for it.

Farhad: I think it’s pretty obvious from the story that you were sipping something.

Mike: O.K., news time. This week, it came out that Disney is kinda, sorta mulling a possible bid for Twitter, adding yet another suitor to the shortlist of companies that are kinda, sorta thinking about making offers. I had heard an inkling of this, too, but I kinda, sorta didn’t feel it was worth writing. Perhaps I was wrong?

Farhad: I’m with you. Recode’s Peter Kafka pointed out the many reasons it would be silly for Disney to consider Twitter. Twitter would be very expensive for Disney, and it’s not at all clear that Disney would have any capacity to fix Twitter’s user growth problem. There’s also the brand conflict between the two companies (Disney is the happiest place on earth; Twitter is for the worst people on the planet).

But the big one is about media: Twitter wants to sign up lots of content companies to provide programming on Twitter. As Peter points out, if Disney owns it, why would competing companies want to play along? They wouldn’t.

Continue reading the main story

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Mike: Yeah. It was a leak made to help Twitter, methinks, but ended up dinging Disney’s stock price. Ouch!

Farhad: But wait, there was one more bit of Twitter news: Marc Andreessen, the famous venture capitalist and somewhat controversial tweeter, announced that he was taking a break from the platform. At an industry event this week, he explained the move served as a kind of liberation. “I feel 50 pounds lighter,” he said.

I think this is terrible news for Twitter. Whether or not you’re a fan of Andreessen’s tweets, it’s a pretty bad sign if one of your more prolific producers of content decides he needs a break — and then says he feels much better after quitting.

But I’m doubtful this will last long. Andreessen seems to really love the daily scrum of Twitter. As someone who shares that affection, I suspect it must be hard to stay away too long. I predict he’ll be back in six months.

Mike: I mean, if you’re a person with outlandish and often controversial opinions willing to defend them vehemently in public on the internet, I guess I could see how getting off Twitter would be a refreshing change. Or you could just, you know, not tweet.

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SEE SAMPLE PRIVACY POLICY
In other news, Google has rebranded its set of work and productivity apps. It is now called “G Suite,” continuing the company’s streak of vaguely risqué product names.

Facebook, meanwhile, is supposedly readying for release its enterprise collaboration product, which essentially makes it easier to talk to co-workers and extended family members throughout the workday. Somehow I don’t think this will take off.

Farhad: More ways to talk to co-workers like you? Sign me up!

Mike: Uber is promoting its self-driving trucking division, Otto, which expects to start putting actual trucks on the road next year after expanding its fleet of trucks and creating new partnerships this year.

Oh, also YouTube hired a music bigwig, Lyor Cohen, who created the legendary Def Jam label and currently runs the label home to Fetty Wap, an artist I am told is beloved by “the kids.” It’s in the same vein as Apple picking up Jimmy Iovine or Spotify poaching Troy Carter, I gather. If you’re a tech company that has generally bad relationships with the music industry, you hire a veteran to be the face of negotiations for your company and hopefully do a bunch of repair work over the long haul.

Funny thing is, after asking about Cohen on Twitter yesterday, everyone told me the guy is sort of notorious for being, um, brusque, so we’ll see how well that charm offensive goes.

Farhad: Look, anyone who signs Fetty Wap is good in my book. “Trap Queen,” amirite?

Mike: Indeed. The big thing this week, however, had little to do with traditional technology stuff and was more about space: The final frontier, as it were.

In a nutshell, Elon Musk, everyone’s favorite playboy billionaire and “Iron Man” inspiration, showed off his plans to take us to Mars within the next eight years. A few hitches: It’ll cost $10 billion if everything goes to plan, and we’ll probably have to be O.K. with the first people to go up possibly dying.

Sounds good to me. Thoughts?

Each Saturday, Farhad Manjoo and Mike Isaac, technology reporters at The New York Times, review the week’s news, offering analysis and maybe a joke or two about the most important developments in the tech industry.

Mike: Aloha, Farhad! I’m back from a week of vacation in paradise, and everything compared to Hawaii is terrible. Usually for a week or two after returning from vacation I bemoan the advent of capitalism until I finally get used to working for a living again.

How have things been while I was away?

Farhad: Capitalism is great! While you were away I created a multibillion-dollar business conglomerate, which some of my deputies are now running while I take some much-needed “Farhad time” thinking big ideas on the couch. Look, Mike, if you work as hard as I do, you’re sure to see a big payoff someday.

Mike: Hmm ... right. Well, I did get a taste of work from vacay. I was pushing for the dateline on this Twitter story to be from “on da beach sipping mai tais, Hawaii.” The brass didn’t go for it.

Farhad: I think it’s pretty obvious from the story that you were sipping something.

Mike: O.K., news time. This week, it came out that Disney is kinda, sorta mulling a possible bid for Twitter, adding yet another suitor to the shortlist of companies that are kinda, sorta thinking about making offers. I had heard an inkling of this, too, but I kinda, sorta didn’t feel it was worth writing. Perhaps I was wrong?

Farhad: I’m with you. Recode’s Peter Kafka pointed out the many reasons it would be silly for Disney to consider Twitter. Twitter would be very expensive for Disney, and it’s not at all clear that Disney would have any capacity to fix Twitter’s user growth problem. There’s also the brand conflict between the two companies (Disney is the happiest place on earth; Twitter is for the worst people on the planet).

But the big one is about media: Twitter wants to sign up lots of content companies to provide programming on Twitter. As Peter points out, if Disney owns it, why would competing companies want to play along? They wouldn’t.

Continue reading the main story

RELATED COVERAGE

Elon Musk’s Plan: Get Humans to Mars, and Beyond SEPT. 27, 2016

REVIEW
Can Tesla’s Autopilot Be Trusted? Not Always SEPT. 23, 2016

Twitter Is Said to Be Discussing a Possible Takeover SEPT. 23, 2016

SpaceX Rocket Explodes at Launchpad in Cape Canaveral SEPT. 1, 2016

YouTube Introduces YouTube Red, a Subscription Service OCT. 21, 2015
Mike: Yeah. It was a leak made to help Twitter, methinks, but ended up dinging Disney’s stock price. Ouch!

Farhad: But wait, there was one more bit of Twitter news: Marc Andreessen, the famous venture capitalist and somewhat controversial tweeter, announced that he was taking a break from the platform. At an industry event this week, he explained the move served as a kind of liberation. “I feel 50 pounds lighter,” he said.

I think this is terrible news for Twitter. Whether or not you’re a fan of Andreessen’s tweets, it’s a pretty bad sign if one of your more prolific producers of content decides he needs a break — and then says he feels much better after quitting.

But I’m doubtful this will last long. Andreessen seems to really love the daily scrum of Twitter. As someone who shares that affection, I suspect it must be hard to stay away too long. I predict he’ll be back in six months.

Mike: I mean, if you’re a person with outlandish and often controversial opinions willing to defend them vehemently in public on the internet, I guess I could see how getting off Twitter would be a refreshing change. Or you could just, you know, not tweet.

Subscribe to the Bits Newsletter
Get caught up on the latest from Silicon Valley and the technology industry, plus exclusive analysis from our reporters and editors, delivered to your inbox six days a week.

Enter your email address
 Sign Up

Receive occasional updates and special offers for The New York Times's products and services.

SEE SAMPLE PRIVACY POLICY
In other news, Google has rebranded its set of work and productivity apps. It is now called “G Suite,” continuing the company’s streak of vaguely risqué product names.

Facebook, meanwhile, is supposedly readying for release its enterprise collaboration product, which essentially makes it easier to talk to co-workers and extended family members throughout the workday. Somehow I don’t think this will take off.

Farhad: More ways to talk to co-workers like you? Sign me up!

Mike: Uber is promoting its self-driving trucking division, Otto, which expects to start putting actual trucks on the road next year after expanding its fleet of trucks and creating new partnerships this year.

Oh, also YouTube hired a music bigwig, Lyor Cohen, who created the legendary Def Jam label and currently runs the label home to Fetty Wap, an artist I am told is beloved by “the kids.” It’s in the same vein as Apple picking up Jimmy Iovine or Spotify poaching Troy Carter, I gather. If you’re a tech company that has generally bad relationships with the music industry, you hire a veteran to be the face of negotiations for your company and hopefully do a bunch of repair work over the long haul.

Funny thing is, after asking about Cohen on Twitter yesterday, everyone told me the guy is sort of notorious for being, um, brusque, so we’ll see how well that charm offensive goes.

Farhad: Look, anyone who signs Fetty Wap is good in my book. “Trap Queen,” amirite?

Mike: Indeed. The big thing this week, however, had little to do with traditional technology stuff and was more about space: The final frontier, as it were.

In a nutshell, Elon Musk, everyone’s favorite playboy billionaire and “Iron Man” inspiration, showed off his plans to take us to Mars within the next eight years. A few hitches: It’ll cost $10 billion if everything goes to plan, and we’ll probably have to be O.K. with the first people to go up possibly dying.

Sounds good to me. Thoughts?

Farhad: I’m split. On the one hand, this is so great! After the Cold War-inspired space race, the United States government has long forgotten about big bets on space exploration. Whether you care about space for high-minded reasons — you think that exploring the universe is the highest purpose of humanity — or for more practical ones (you believe, like Musk does, that we need a backup plan in case the Earth goes to pot), the news that someone is finally pouring resources and ingenuity into a big extraplanetary goal should warm your heart.

Mike: It does! Also it seems like people who go to Burning Man really love it, too.

Farhad: On the other hand: Man, isn’t this guy stretched too thin? It does kind of seem like he keeps raising the stakes in order to distract everyone from his problems, right?

Just look at his schedule: In the past few months Musk showed off Tesla’s first mass-market electric car, the Model 3; presided over a controversial merger of Tesla and SolarCity; outlined a new “master plan” for Tesla that suggests it will one day compete with Uber as a ride-hailing company; set out huge and potentially unfeasible production goals for the car company while dealing with fallout from accidents involving Tesla’s self-driving tech; tried to rally his workers in the face of a cash crunch at Tesla; and, on top of all that, Musk’s rocket that happened to be carrying another billionaire’s satellite exploded on the launchpad.

That’s so much stuff! If he ever wants to finish anything, shouldn’t he, like, focus?

Mike: This is why you will never be a billionaire playboy, Farhad. Focusing on stuff is for losers. Blasting out ideas in a shotgun spray of creativity is how history is made and old industries are disrupted. Just ask me, Mike “Playboy” Isaac, a wellspring of creativity.

Anyway, the people have voted and you’re on the first rocket ship to Mars, not me. Any last words before possibly making the ultimate sacrifice?

Farhad: On the one hand, I will dearly miss my wife and kids. On the other hand, I will no longer have to do this insufferable weekly chat with you. Tough decision, but I think I’m going with Elon. Mars or bust!

Farhad: I’m split. On the one hand, this is so great! After the Cold War-inspired space race, the United States government has long forgotten about big bets on space exploration. Whether you care about space for high-minded reasons — you think that exploring the universe is the highest purpose of humanity — or for more practical ones (you believe, like Musk does, that we need a backup plan in case the Earth goes to pot), the news that someone is finally pouring resources and ingenuity into a big extraplanetary goal should warm your heart.

Mike: It does! Also it seems like people who go to Burning Man really love it, too.

Farhad: On the other hand: Man, isn’t this guy stretched too thin? It does kind of seem like he keeps raising the stakes in order to distract everyone from his problems, right?

Just look at his schedule: In the past few months Musk showed off Tesla’s first mass-market electric car, the Model 3; presided over a controversial merger of Tesla and SolarCity; outlined a new “master plan” for Tesla that suggests it will one day compete with Uber as a ride-hailing company; set out huge and potentially unfeasible production goals for the car company while dealing with fallout from accidents involving Tesla’s self-driving tech; tried to rally his workers in the face of a cash crunch at Tesla; and, on top of all that, Musk’s rocket that happened to be carrying another billionaire’s satellite exploded on the launchpad.

That’s so much stuff! If he ever wants to finish anything, shouldn’t he, like, focus?

Mike: This is why you will never be a billionaire playboy, Farhad. Focusing on stuff is for losers. Blasting out ideas in a shotgun spray of creativity is how history is made and old industries are disrupted. Just ask me, Mike “Playboy” Isaac, a wellspring of creativity.

Anyway, the people have voted and you’re on the first rocket ship to Mars, not me. Any last words before possibly making the ultimate sacrifice?

Farhad: On the one hand, I will dearly miss my wife and kids. On the other hand, I will no longer have to do this insufferable weekly chat with you. Tough decision, but I think I’m going with Elon. Mars or bust!