Friday's economy & business stories

Trump's mixed messages on CNN
Trump has been telling his surrogates to try and get bookings on CNN, according to a BuzzFeed News report, even though the POTUS has been railing against the outlet as "fake news" since CNN reported on the infamous Trump dossier report.
Why it's happening: People close to the President said he recognizes the importance of CNN as a platform, perhaps because of the looming midterms and 2020 election seasons. One surrogate recalled Trump saying: "Looking to 2018 it would be better for us if you dive back into that fire at CNN."
This sounds familiar: Although he's called out The Washington Post and The New York Times for being fake or failing news, those are the first two outlets he called when he wanted to get out the message that Republicans would be pulling the repeal bill from the House floor.

Cloudera files for IPO
Cloudera, a Silicon Valley-based provider of enterprise big data software, on Friday filed for a $200 million IPO (as Axios had reported it would).
Offering details: The Palo Alto, Calif.-based company plans to trade on the New York Stock Exchange under ticker symbol CLDR, with Morgan Stanley listed as left lead underwriter It reportedly will seek a valuation of around $4.1 billion.
Financials: Cloudera isn't anywhere close to profitable, although net losses fell from to $187 million in its latest fiscal year from $203 million for the prior year. Revenue climbed from $166 million to $261 million.
Backers: Cloudera has raised more than $1 billion in venture capital, according to PitchBook, and was most recently valued at about $4.1 billion. Its investors include Intel Corp. (22% pre-IPO stake), Accel (16.3%), Greylock (12.5%), GV and In-Q-Tel.
Fun fact: Cloudera's IPO process was code-named Project Thunders.
Palantir CEO: "The Valley is marching off a political cliff"
Palantir CEO Alex Karp told the FT's Gillian Tett that the tech industry is overplaying its hand with the Trump administration."The Valley is marching off a political cliff," Karp, who works closely with Trump ally Peter Thiel, told Tett. "The [tech companies] have all these monopolies and economic capital, and assume that it translates into political capital — but that isn't true." Here's why Tett thinks tech is vulnerable: Miles apart: Silicon Valley was largely "on the wrong side of" the election, and they were quick to challenge Trump's immigration policies. And few tech CEOs sit on Trump's advisory council, which Uber CEO Travis Kalanick quit. Jobs losses: "Until now Mr. Trump has blamed trade for American workers' woes. However, another big culprit is the type of digitisation being unleashed by Silicon Valley. Tech businesses could become convenient scapegoats, particularly since companies such as Amazon, Apple, Google and Facebook have enjoyed fat profits and near-monopoly power in certain sectors." Taxes: "As profits have boomed, tech groups have amassed $867 [billion] in offshore cash piles, partly to avoid paying high U.S. taxes. This irritates American politicians."

5 things to know about Congress' rejection of FCC privacy rules
The House on Tuesday voted to block implementation of new online privacy rules rushed through the FCC in the final days of former chairman Tom Wheeler's tenure. In a vacuum of information, this sent pockets of the internet into a panic. But consumers wake up today to the same online world and digital protections they enjoyed one week ago.

The billboard survives
Unlike other traditional advertising platforms like magazines and newspapers, out-of-home advertising such as billboards and subway posters grew almost 7% last year, mostly due to the rapid conversion of static ad spaces to digital. Per eMarketer, roughly 50% of all out-of-home ads will be digital this year, up 10% from 2014.
Data: Standard Media Index; Chart: Lazaro Gamio / Axios

Cloudera IPO gets closer
Cloudera, a Silicon Valley-based provider of enterprise big data software, is expected to officially file its IPO papers tomorrow with the Securities and Exchange Commission, according to a source familiar with the situation. This would make it the latest so-called "unicorn" to go public in 2017, following Snapchat parent Snap Inc. and Mulesoft, as well as the upcoming offering for identity management company Okta.
A recent Bloomberg report suggested that the company will seek a valuation of around $4.1 billion (same as its most recent private round), although such information would not be available in the initial S-1 filing. Morgan Stanley is expected to be lead underwriter, with J.P. Morgan and BoA Merrill Lynch also participating.
Cloudera shareholders include Intel, Accel Partners, Greylock Partners, T. Rowe Price and Google Ventures.

NASDAQ closes at record high
The Nasdaq finished up 17 points today, a rise of about 0.3%, bringing it to a record high of 5,914. That's the 21st new record high for the NASDAQ in 2017.
Context: Stocks were up on Thursday, likely due to the Commerce Department's statement that Q4 of 2016 growth was stronger than previous estimates showed.
Streaming services now half of digital music industry revenue
A big jump in revenue from streaming services allowed the overall revenue of the music industry to grow 11 percent last year, to $7.7 billion in retail sales ($5.3 billion wholesale, up 9.3 percent), according to the industry group RIAA. And, for the first time, streaming services accounted for half of all digital music revenue.
On the flip side, paid downloads saw their biggest-ever decline, down 22 percent in 2016, to $1.8 billion. And, as RIAA chief Cary Sherman notes, the music business is still half of what it once was.
As excited as we are about our growth in 2016, our recovery is fragile and fraught with risk. The marketplace is still evolving, and we've experienced unexpected turns too many times before. Moreover, two of the three pillars of the business — CDs and downloads — are declining rapidly. It remains to be seen whether growth of the remaining pillar will be sufficient to offset the losses from the other two. Much rides on a streaming market that must fairly recognize the enormous value of music.
Here are a couple other key other stats from the report:
- Paid subscription music was the fastest growing category, more than doubling, to $2.5 billion and accounting for roughly 1/3 of the total U.S. music industry.
- Sales of physical music — aka CDs and records — fell 16 percent, to $1.7 billion.
Correction: An earlier version incorrectly stated the retail sales and percentage growth of streaming music.

Dropbox opens $600m credit facility as it pushes toward IPO
The cloud file-sharing startup, Dropbox, is opening a new line of credit worth $600 million with 6 banks led by JPMorgan Chase, reports Bloomberg, providing the company with increased economic flexibility as it eyes an IPO. The credit facility is expected to close on Monday.
Why it matters: Dropbox has been reportedly meeting with bankers to discuss its options, and potential advisers have said that the company should be ready to go public by the end of the year.





