Quartz Daily Brief—Snapchat’s $19B valuation, Buffett dumps Exxon, Ukraine truce crumbling, Boston snow madness
Good morning, Quartz readers!
What to watch for today
The UN Security Council meets on Libya. It will consider Egypt’s plea for a coalition to intervene in the country. Egyptian planes bombed targets in Libya yesterday after ISIL beheaded 21 Egyptian Christians, and an Islamist Libyan faction carried out its first airstrike against opponents in the town of Zintan.
Greece caves, somewhat. The Greek government is showing signs of weariness in its fight with creditors, and will reportedly ask for up to six months’ grace on its lending agreement. That deal is distinct from the country’s troubled bailout program, which expires on Feb. 28—though we suspect the distinction is largely semantic.
Barack Obama speaks on extremism. The White House is hosting a three-day summit to discuss non-military strategies for fighting terrorist groups. Republicans are criticizing the president for refusing to directly link terrorism to Islam.
Russia reports retail sales and unemployment for January. The US will also release its industrial production figures, and the Bank of England and the US Federal Reserve release minutes of their last policy meetings.
While you were sleeping
Snapchat is seeking a valuation of $19 billion. The mobile messaging start-up is seeking a new $500 million round of funding, according to Bloomberg, which implies a valuation that would put it behind only Uber and Xiaomi among venture-backed companies. Snapchat raised funds at a $10 billion valuation last year.
Warren Buffett dumped Exxon Mobil. The billionaire’s Berkshire Hathaway holding company disclosed that it sold a $3.7 billion stake in the energy giant as oil prices have plunged. The company also purchased a 5% stake in agriculture equipment maker John Deere, plus shares of Twenty-First Century Fox and Restaurant Brands International, the owner of Burger King and Tim Hortons.
A journalist accused the Telegraph of going easy on HSBC. The Daily Telegraph’s chief political commentator, Peter Oborne, resigned after accusing the paper of pulling its punches when covering HSBC, a major advertiser. The Telegraph allegedly deleted an article that questioned the bank’s finances, and downplayed recent revelations about how it used Swiss accounts to dodge taxes.
The Ukraine truce is falling apart. Russian-backed rebels say they have taken over the town of Debaltseve in eastern Ukraine, despite a supposed ceasefire agreement, and Russian president Vladimir Putin urged encircled Ukrainian troops to surrender. Kyiv denied the town had been taken, though it admitted that the rebels took several soldiers prisoner.
The US said it would start exporting armed drones. Despite controversy about selling lethal autonomous weapons to other governments, the US has finally approved sales to selected allies. Officials said buyers would face strict conditions, and be reviewed for “human rights, regional power balance, and other implications.”
Myanmar declared martial law in its fight with rebels. Heavy fighting between government troops and insurgents in the northern Kokang region prompted president Thein Sein to impose military control of the area. Up to 50,000 refugees have fled across the border to China.
Quartz obsession interlude
Steve LeVine asks whether the oil price plunge is really just a blip. “No one predicted that many of the presumptions underlying our understanding of basic geopolitics and economics were about to be shaken fundamentally. So, should we now believe some of the oil industry’s main luminaries when they say, as they did at Davos last month, that the price turbulence we are currently witnessing is merely another of history’s usual cyclical busts, and that nothing fundamental is different?” Read more here.
Matters of debate
New leaks show the NSA is doing its job. Americans should applaud when spies out-hack the Chinese and Russians.
Don’t be so shocked about the Denmark shootings. The country is not as multicultural as it seems (paywall).
Get ready for $10 oil. Prices have a long way to fall before most major producers stop pumping.
Emerging markets could face four separate crises this year. That’s double the long-term average.
Surprising discoveries
The “paleo diet” is a fiction. Early hominids ate just about everything.
Midnight snacks are bad for your brain. Eating late made it harder for mice to learn and remember.
Cuba has an aggressive HIV strain. It develops into AIDS in less than three years, versus 10 years for other strains.
Walk like a penguin to avoid slipping on ice. Keep your body weight over your front leg.
Record snow has driven Bostonians crazy. But at least it breaks their fall when they jump out the window.
Our best wishes for a productive day. Please send any news, comments, penguin walking techniques, and snow plunges to [email protected]. You can follow us on Twitter here for updates throughout the day.