Top Of The Order:
Can You Spare A Million?: When it comes to running for any political offer, money helps. You need to have a staff, TV ads, campaign posters and gallons of coffee to fuel everyone s efforts. And, of course, no political race is bigger, or needs more cash to support it, than the race for the White House.
And let s face it: There s a lot of money in the Bay Area, so it should be no surprise that Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and her Republican rival Donald Trump would hit up the deep pockets of the region s rich tech executives for a contribution or two. But, as has been told on various occasions, Trump, for a variety of reasons, has had a harder go of it when it comes to getting many potentially well-heeled donors to publicly break open their checkbooks for him.
But a report from the Wall Street Journal illustrates just how great a chasm there is between Trump and Clinton when it comes to raising funds from the tech industry. And the data, based on a Center for Responsive Politics analysis of Federal Election Commission data, shows that chasm isn t going to be filled by election day in November.
According to the report, which includes donations from the communications and electronics sectors through the end of June, Clinton had amassed $30.7 million while Trump was up to…$336,000.
No, there is not a zero or two missing from that number. That is $336,000. To put it in a little more perspective, Marco Rubio, who dropped out of the race months ago, had raised $7.9 million from Silicon Valley tech donors by the end of June. The lack of being able to successfully pull money out of the wallets of many of the area s tech leaders is said to suggest that Trump has frosty relations, at best, with the business community.
What else does it say? Well, apparently investor and tech-industry entrepreneur Peter Thiel, who even spoke on Trump s behalf at the GOP convention in Cleveland, has said he has no plans on contributing to raising money for Trump. With friends like that, who needs enemies, right?
Middle Innings:
It s A Good Deal, Really!: Apparently, ride-hailing operator Lyft has been trying to sell itself. And, apparently, nobody wants it.
Lyft has reportedly held talks recently with General Motors, one of Lyft s biggest investors, and just about anyone else for which spending a few billion bucks would be like sand off a beach, yet hasn t been able to get any deal done. The New York Times said other talks have include Lyft having discussions with Apple, Amazon, Chinese ride-sharing company Didi Chuxing and even Lyft s San Francisco hometown rival Uber.
And after all of that…Nothing.
The Times report said that Lyft, which has around $1.4 billion in cash, isn t in danger of closing down, but that its exploration of selling itself, and not being able to finalize a sale, is more illustrative of the challenging nature of the app-based ride-sharing industry.
Will It Have Bojack Horseman ?: I have done a lot of traveling in my life, but of all the places I have been, nothing can match the experience of visiting the Korean Demilitarized Zone. This is a you-don t-mess-around area. You can go into one building and walk across the borderline onto the North Korean side, but you can t go any farther. And the whole time you are in that room, you will have North Korean soldiers staring at you through the windows making sure you don t touch anything or do anything to besmirch anything North Korean.
It s a weird place. But then again, by all accounts so is North Korea. So, it should be no surprised that anything technological would be strange, too. Which brings us to Manbang.
You read that right…Manbang. What is it? Well, what would you think if you were told it was the Netflix of North Korea? You might not believe it, but it seems to be true.
Those few North Koreans with access to the country s very limited version of the internet are said to be able to stream videos via Manbang that include English and Russian language lessons, films about North Korea s Kim family dynasty, and the country s five TV networks.
So, no, Manbang (it s Korean for Everywhere) is not quite the same of what you can get via your Apple TV, Roku or other streaming set-top box. But it does beg the question: North Korea has five TV networks?
Bottom Of The Lineup:
Here s a look at how some leading Silicon Valley stocks did Monday…
Movin On Up: Gains came from Intersil, Medivation, Rovi, Genomic Health and Nektar Therapeutics.
In The Red: Decliners included Rocket Fuel, Workday, ServiceNow, SunPower and Twitter.
The tech-focused Nasdaq Composite Index rose 0.1 percent to 5,244.
The blue chip Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped by 0.1 percent to end the day at 18,529.
And the broad-based Standard & Poor s 500 Index ended the day down by 0.1 percent at 2,183.
Quote Of The Day: Thank you, people, for keeping me pushing and keeping me pushing, — Tragiacally Hip lead singer Gordon Downie , during what was likely the iconic Canadian band s last concert Saturday night. Downie has been diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor.
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Photo: Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and Democratic rival Hillary Clinton. (AP/Mary Altaffer, Chuck Burton)
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