As one of the founding fathers of the L.A. tech scene, Brian Lee is used to having entrepreneurs pitch him on ideas. What does he look for? It's not so much a business plan or even an idea. He says he goes off a vibe.
That's how he ended up being the first investor in the deal-finding browser add-on Honey, which was bought late last year by PayPal for $4 billion in what ranks as the biggest acquisition L.A. has seen to date.
Snap Inc. stock dropped more than 10% on Tuesday after it reported earnings that missed analysts expectations for Q4.
The self-described camera company, based in Santa Monica, reported revenue of $561 million versus the expected $563 million. The company's reported cash flow remains negative despite improvement over the year prior. The company said it lost $240.7 million, or 17 cents per share, compared with FactSet estimates of a 12-cent loss per share.
On a late afternoon, after a long, drawn-out game of phone tag, Michael Lynton put off his family dinner for just a while longer to talk. The former CEO of Sony Pictures has been notoriously press shy since hackers calling themselves "Guardians of Peace" leaked a trove of confidential -- and sometimes embarrassing -- data plucked from the studio's servers.
And, since taking over in 2016 as chairman of Santa Monica-based Snap Inc., he's chosen to stay mostly out of the media's glare. In his first wide-ranging interview in years, Lynton did not hold back: "I will be a little controversial here."