Multiple reports about Nest portray a company with issues. Here's another: Last year Alphabet's home automation company generated $340 million in revenue - below expectations - and many of its employees are likely to leave soon.
[Mark Bergen | Re/code]

Things worth noting from Microsoft's Build conference: A Windows 10 update is coming this summer, Linux is coming to Windows, "smart" chatbots are coming to Skype and developers will soon be getting HoloLens headsets.
[Ben Popper and Dieter Bohn | The Verge]

On this week's episode of the Re/code Media podcast, Peter Kafka talks with Refinery29 co-CEO Philippe von Borries. His women's interest and lifestyle site experimented early with native ads, which helped put it on track to make more than $100 million this year.
[Peter Kafka | Re/code]

One thing we probably won't see anytime soon: Twitter direct messages as a standalone service, a la Facebook Messenger. Execs are pitching it to Jack Dorsey, who isn't interested in the idea. For now.
[Kurt Wagner | Re/code]

Which startups in private equity giants's portfolio shed value in Q1? BlackRock has reduced the worth of its stake in Jawbone by 69 percent since December, and Fidelity wrote down its stake in Zenefits by 35 percent. The WSJ has a nifty widget that has more data.
[Rolfe Winkler | The Wall Street Journal]