Reading List

The most recent articles from a list of feeds I subscribe to.

Sources: Vinted is exploring a share sale that could value the company at ~€8B; Vinted says it expects 2025 revenue to cross €1B+, up from €813M in 2024 (Financial Times)

Financial Times:
Sources: Vinted is exploring a share sale that could value the company at ~€8B; Vinted says it expects 2025 revenue to cross €1B+, up from €813M in 2024  —  Deal would highlight second-hand fashion start-up's rapid expansion and provide an exit for some early investors

Disney Plus has an underrated gem in the secretly great Rescuers Down Under

Disney's first theatrical sequel isn't as beloved as Little Mermaid or Beauty and the Beast, but it still looks great 25 years later.

Dealogic: 51 US tech IPOs raised $16.8B in 2025, driven by AI and crypto, above the past three-year average but far below 2021's 127 IPOs raising $74.4B (Valida Pau/The Information)

Valida Pau / The Information:
Dealogic: 51 US tech IPOs raised $16.8B in 2025, driven by AI and crypto, above the past three-year average but far below 2021's 127 IPOs raising $74.4B  —  The drought in initial public offerings ended this year, led by big winners in AI and crypto, but gains were rare for companies outside those industries.

Financial Times: ‘Apple Intensifies Succession Planning for CEO Tim Cook’

The Financial Times, under a four-person byline (“Tim Bradshaw, Stephen Morris, and Michael Acton in San Francisco, and Daniel Thomas in London”):

Apple is stepping up its succession planning efforts, as it prepares for Tim Cook to step down as chief executive as soon as next year. Several people familiar with discussions inside the tech group told the Financial Times that its board and senior executives have recently intensified preparations for Cook to hand over the reins at the $4tn company after more than 14 years.

John Ternus, Apple’s senior vice-president of hardware engineering, is widely seen as Cook’s most likely successor, although no final decisions have been made, these people said.

People close to Apple say the long-planned transition is not related to the company’s current performance, ahead of what is expected to be a blockbuster end-of-year sales period for the iPhone. [...]

The company is unlikely to name a new CEO before its next earnings report in late January, which covers the critical holiday period. An announcement early in the year would give its new leadership team time to settle in ahead of its big annual keynote events, its developer conference in June and its iPhone launch in September, the people said. These people said that although preparations have intensified, the timing of any announcement could change.

I have no little-birdie insight on this, but that’s not surprising. I don’t think there are many people, if any, outside Apple’s top executive team and board of directors who have any insight into Cook’s thinking on this. That “several people” spoke to the FT about this says to me that those sources (members of the board?) did so with Cook’s blessing, and they want this announcement to be no more than a little surprising.

I absolutely love the idea of Cook’s successor being a product person like Ternus, and Ternus is young enough — 50, the same age Cook was in 2011 when he took the reins from Steve Jobs — to hold the job for a long stretch. Ternus took over iPhone hardware engineering in 2020, and was promoted to senior vice president of hardware engineering in January 2021, when Dan Riccio stepped aside. Apple’s hardware, across all product lines and including silicon, has been exemplary under Ternus’s leadership. And Ternus clearly loves and understands the Mac.

I would also bet that Cook moves into the role of executive chairman, and will still play a significant, if not leading, role for the company when it comes to domestic and international politics. Especially with regard to Trump.

A cat's killing by a Waymo robotaxi sparked outrage in San Francisco, as some questioned why deaths caused by human drivers don't get the same level of concern (Heather Knight/New York Times)

Heather Knight / New York Times:
A cat's killing by a Waymo robotaxi sparked outrage in San Francisco, as some questioned why deaths caused by human drivers don't get the same level of concern  —  At Delirium, a dive bar in San Francisco's Mission District, the décor is dark, the drinks are strong, and the emotions are raw.