Speaker 1: From the heart of where innovation, money and power COLLI
Speaker 1: in Silicon Valley and beyond. This is Bloomberg Technology with
Speaker 1: Emily j I'm Emily check in San Francisco and this
Speaker 1: is Bloomberg Technology. Coming up in the next hour. White
Speaker 1: House officials in early discussions about President Biden taking a
Speaker 1: trip to Europe, has Russia's assault on Ukraine only escalates.
Speaker 1: The US now calling on China to put pressure on
Speaker 1: Putin to end the war. This is an Instagram goes
Speaker 1: dark across Russia. The Russian government has now cut off
Speaker 1: access to Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. Will examine how the
Speaker 1: digital Iron curtain is impacting everyday Russians and China dealing
Speaker 1: with a crisis of its own. Hong Kong facing the
Speaker 1: worst COVID outbreak since the pandemic began, China the worst
Speaker 1: since Wuhan. Why the technology behind the vaccine most widely
Speaker 1: used in China maybe failing. Russia's promised ban on Instagram
Speaker 1: has now kicked into full effect, with a social media
Speaker 1: platform inaccessible for the vast majority of the country's population.
Speaker 1: I want to bring in Bloomberg's Kurt Wagner now for
Speaker 1: more on this. Kurt, you know, what does this exactly
Speaker 1: mean for everyday Russians given that Facebook and Twitter have
Speaker 1: already been cut off. Yeah, I mean, I feel like
Speaker 1: we're moving towards a relatively dangerous spot here right where
Speaker 1: suddenly Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, these are services that were really
Speaker 1: connected tissues between the Russian people and obviously the rest
Speaker 1: of the world in a crisis like this. It's it's
Speaker 1: where a lot of people could get information and news
Speaker 1: that wasn't directly kind of approved by Russian state back media.
Speaker 1: And so you know, you look at what's happening now
Speaker 1: and you wonder, are we ever going to get back
Speaker 1: to this? Right? Is this maybe the beginning of Russia
Speaker 1: is kind of looking a little bit more like China,
Speaker 1: um with a with a closed version of the Internet.
Speaker 1: And I don't know what happens after this, but obviously
Speaker 1: it's a it's a pretty significant deal. Um, Russia is
Speaker 1: a lot smaller than China from a from a total
Speaker 1: population and user perspective, but it's a really big deal
Speaker 1: just symbolically what this means and what this might look
Speaker 1: like moving forward. Absolutely, China blocking Facebook and Twitter are
Speaker 1: around the Beijing Olympics in two thousand and eight, and
Speaker 1: never unblocking, and so you wonder if that's what's going
Speaker 1: to happen here. I'm curious in Russia, how widespread are
Speaker 1: the use of VPNs and other means to get around
Speaker 1: the firewall? Is that common? Well, it's the kind of
Speaker 1: thing that companies are trying to make accessible, right. I
Speaker 1: think we saw last week that Twitter, for example, created
Speaker 1: a version of its website for the tour browser, UM
Speaker 1: so that if anyone wanted to kind of get around
Speaker 1: this this band, they might be able to. They might
Speaker 1: be able to kind of use the quote unquote dark
Speaker 1: web to access these services. But Emily, that's not the
Speaker 1: kind of thing that's necessarily accessible to the vast majority
Speaker 1: of people, right. That's for people who are pretty tech savvy.
Speaker 1: That's for people who are really going above and beyond
Speaker 1: to try and figure out how to still keep these
Speaker 1: services in their life. The vast majority of people, you know,
Speaker 1: unless they can simply get it on their phone, it
Speaker 1: means they're not going to have access to it. And
Speaker 1: so I think that this is something that to your point, like,
Speaker 1: are we seeing the beginning of of of a major
Speaker 1: change here that might not be rolled back? And I
Speaker 1: think the answer might be yes. We're also saying some
Speaker 1: major changes from the platforms themselves. Facebook, for example, relaxing
Speaker 1: the rules to allow Ukrainians to talk about violence in
Speaker 1: the context of Russia's war on Ukraine. And that's really
Speaker 1: what I seem to trigger the Russian government. Instagram was
Speaker 1: a place a lot of people had turned to to
Speaker 1: protest the war in Russia. Where will these Russian citizens
Speaker 1: go to next? What social media let's are available to them? Well,
Speaker 1: the one service that continually keeps getting brought up is telegram. Now,
Speaker 1: I don't know if that's the kind of place where
Speaker 1: people will be able to organize in the same way
Speaker 1: or to promote things publicly in the same way. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, it is a is a private messaging app
Speaker 1: obviously similar to what's app Telegram. There are there are groups,
Speaker 1: there are ways to broadcast that way, but it just
Speaker 1: it has a different vibe Emily, as you know. And
Speaker 1: so I think, you know, you talked about what the
Speaker 1: platforms are doing. I mean the Instagram thing in particular,
Speaker 1: um was announced by Russian regulators after Facebook came out
Speaker 1: and said, hey, Ukrainians are able to call for violence
Speaker 1: against Russian soldiers, and they said, you know this is
Speaker 1: this is a company basically allowing you know, people to
Speaker 1: attack our citizens. That's what the Russian regulators are saying.
Speaker 1: And and again, um, I think that it just has
Speaker 1: kind of snowballed here the relationship between Meta and Russia
Speaker 1: and the Russian leaders, and I just don't really know
Speaker 1: where we go from here. What does this mean for
Speaker 1: Meta and Twitter? You know, two companies that obviously their
Speaker 1: growth depends on new users and new ad revenue. So, uh,
Speaker 1: Meta said something interesting at the end of last week.
Speaker 1: Not a lot of people saw it because it was
Speaker 1: at one of those private banking conferences, but their CFO
Speaker 1: said that the ad revenue that they get either from
Speaker 1: Russian businesses or that's targeted at Russian users is one
Speaker 1: point five percent of their total advertising revenues. So while
Speaker 1: obviously that's not nothing, it's not insignificant, it's also not
Speaker 1: a massive business for for Meta. And I bring that
Speaker 1: up because when you look into the future and you say, well,
Speaker 1: is this the kind of thing where Meta is going
Speaker 1: to bend over backwards to try and get back into Russia,
Speaker 1: I don't know if they're going to be willing to
Speaker 1: do that for such a small portion of their business right,
Speaker 1: they don't have the financial incentives necessarily to make concessions
Speaker 1: in the way that they might know other parts of
Speaker 1: the world, and so um that to me is one
Speaker 1: of the many reasons why I find this this kind
Speaker 1: of you know, digital iron curtain you were talking about interesting,
Speaker 1: because I don't know if there's enough people in Russia
Speaker 1: for these companies to feel like they can compromise on
Speaker 1: some of the other parts of their policy that they've
Speaker 1: so far stood stood firm uh in a in support
Speaker 1: of Meantime, Mark Zuckerberg making a surprise appearance at south
Speaker 1: By Southwest later this week, my guests. Obviously all of
Speaker 1: these topics are going to be on the agenda, but
Speaker 1: of course the metaverse and his vision for the future.
Speaker 1: What do you make of Zuckerberg, who really hasn't been
Speaker 1: doing a lot of press getting out front. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: think I heard this was his first time at south
Speaker 1: Buy since something like two thousand ten or or something
Speaker 1: like that. Has certainly been a very long time since
Speaker 1: he had appeared at this particular conference, and and really
Speaker 1: a conference like this. Now he's doing it with sort
Speaker 1: of a familiar interviewer, uh, not someone who's you know,
Speaker 1: necessarily in the news industry, who's gonna sit there and
Speaker 1: grill him about all of the stuff that we were
Speaker 1: just talking about. So I do wonder how substantive the
Speaker 1: interview will be in terms of news about policy and
Speaker 1: world happenings. But for him, it's a way to talk
Speaker 1: about the metaverse, right, to get out in front of
Speaker 1: a crowd that has always been very interested in the
Speaker 1: new upcoming technology, and to pitch kind of his vision
Speaker 1: for for what he once met at to build. So
Speaker 1: I don't know if we're going to be fulfilled as
Speaker 1: as you know a hard eating news journalists from this interview,
Speaker 1: but I think for him it's a chance to again
Speaker 1: reached people who care about the future of tech with
Speaker 1: his vision for the future of tech. All right, Well,
Speaker 1: hopefully we'll get some probing questions there and maybe some
Speaker 1: reaction to what my next guest has to say. Kurt Wagner,
Speaker 1: who covers Meta and Twitter for us, thank you sticking
Speaker 1: with Meta and its biggest bet on the future, the metaverse.
Speaker 1: I spoke with former Nintendo America President and CEO Reggie
Speaker 1: fis m A at the south By Southwest Festival in
Speaker 1: Austin over the weekend, and I asked him what he
Speaker 1: thought about Mike's Mark Zuckerberg's vision for the evolution of
Speaker 1: virtual reality. Take a listen to what he had to say.
Speaker 1: I'm not a buyer of that idea. I don't think
Speaker 1: that their current definition is going to be successful. Why
Speaker 1: why do I say that? I say that because, first,
Speaker 1: you know, and I don't know if anyone from Facebook
Speaker 1: is here, but you you have to admit that Facebook
Speaker 1: itself is not an innovative company. Wow, they're not. I
Speaker 1: mean you you look at I mean you you look you.
Speaker 1: They have either acquired really interesting things like oculus, like Instagram,
Speaker 1: or they've been a fast follower of other people's ideas.
Speaker 1: That's Facebook. So I inherently they are not an innovative
Speaker 1: company other than the very original social platform that was
Speaker 1: created many years ago. So what do you think Mark
Speaker 1: Huckerberg is getting wrong here? Well, I I believe that
Speaker 1: in order to be innovative, you really need to be
Speaker 1: thinking about the consumer or first, and I don't think
Speaker 1: they do. I think you need to be looking at first. Uh. Well,
Speaker 1: I think they think about advertising revenue first, because that's
Speaker 1: of their revenue. I mean, that's that's the fact, um,
Speaker 1: But you have to think about your consumer. You have
Speaker 1: to think about your customer. You need to think about
Speaker 1: bringing new and different ideas into the marketplace. You need
Speaker 1: to reward that within your culture. You know, these are
Speaker 1: the things that drive innovation. Uh. You need to have
Speaker 1: a culture of innovation. Anything that you do within an
Speaker 1: innovative company, whether you're in accounting, whether you're in UH
Speaker 1: product development, whether you're in marketing, you need to be
Speaker 1: challenging yourself to be doing things differently versus doing the
Speaker 1: same old, same old, or copying someone else's idea. So
Speaker 1: you know, that's why I look at the vision that's
Speaker 1: been to date articulated and I'm not a believer. The
Speaker 1: other thing I would say about Face Look is they
Speaker 1: don't have a great history with physical products, all right, Portal,
Speaker 1: you know, not a big idea. UMIs they bought Oculus
Speaker 1: and you know they've been working on it for a
Speaker 1: number of years. Last number I saw was that in
Speaker 1: total and not just Oculus, in total, about twenty million
Speaker 1: VR devices have been sold. Million. You know, when I
Speaker 1: was running Nintendo, that was a good year one year
Speaker 1: in terms of hardware. Hoping we're gonna hear Mark Zuckerberg
Speaker 1: respond to that conversation when he speaks at south By
Speaker 1: Southwest Now. My convo with Reggie Feza May later turned
Speaker 1: to game Stop Fisa. May joined the game Stop board
Speaker 1: in April, just months before the state of Its roller
Speaker 1: coaster started its roller coaster meme Stop Gride that saw
Speaker 1: the stock go from just a few dollars a share
Speaker 1: to over five hundred Peasay left the board after less
Speaker 1: than a years, saying he was unhappy with the strategy
Speaker 1: of Chairman of the board Ryan Cohen. Take a listen.
Speaker 1: I asked to be part of the team to develop
Speaker 1: a strategy. I knew the business. I knew it as
Speaker 1: a consumer, I knew it as a vendor. I had
Speaker 1: pretty strong opinions on how the business needed to be
Speaker 1: uh pivoted. But I was rebuffed. Right. The perspective was, Reggie,
Speaker 1: we want to keep the team small, um, and so
Speaker 1: it's going to be you know, myself and a few
Speaker 1: of the people that I brought on board, who you know,
Speaker 1: by the way, don't know this business, uh don't understand
Speaker 1: the players, etcetera, etcetera. I took that as code as
Speaker 1: you know, thank you, but we really don't want any
Speaker 1: other ideas and and for me that was that was
Speaker 1: not acceptable. So what do you think of the strategy? Well,
Speaker 1: there there isn't There has not been an articulated strategy.
Speaker 1: I mean, if you could go on the GameStop website
Speaker 1: try and find a strategy, there is no artculated strategy.
Speaker 1: Leadership says, well, we don't want to articulate our strategy
Speaker 1: because we don't want anyone to steal our strategy. You know.
Speaker 1: So I come from the business perspective that you need
Speaker 1: to articulate your strategy to all of your key constituents.
Speaker 1: You need to communicate to your business partners, your vendors,
Speaker 1: your employees, your shareholders. You need to communicate your strategy.
Speaker 1: M Former Nintendo American President and CEO, Reggie Fisa May
Speaker 1: there at south By Southwest in Austin. Coming up Disney
Speaker 1: SEO about Japeck breaking his silence on the controversial Florida
Speaker 1: school bill. We'll discuss how it's impacting employees across Disney,
Speaker 1: Pixar and more and what it means for Chapec ahead
Speaker 1: Mrs Bloomberg, just two years into his role as Disney CEO,
Speaker 1: Bob Kpeck under scrutiny following his response to a controversial
Speaker 1: Florida school bill. For more, I want to bring in Bloombergs,
Speaker 1: Chris Paul Mary who covers Disney for so, Chris at
Speaker 1: the stage, what is this Florida school bill and why
Speaker 1: is it so uh controversial? What Bob Japeck didn't and
Speaker 1: now does have to say about it? Well. The bill,
Speaker 1: which was passed by both houses in Florida, would prohibit
Speaker 1: schools from discussing sexual orientation or gender identity in kindergarten
Speaker 1: through third grade. This was designed for parents to be
Speaker 1: able to control the discussion of these issues with their
Speaker 1: younger kids. A lot of people in the gay community
Speaker 1: obviously don't like it. It's been called don't say gay. Uh.
Speaker 1: They feel like like this this is really stifling uh
Speaker 1: kids who may be just trying to discover where where
Speaker 1: they're going in life. And so um Spick is trying
Speaker 1: to wrote more broadly, sort of keep Disney out of
Speaker 1: these political topics. He tried to sort of like work
Speaker 1: behind the scenes on this issue, would not take a
Speaker 1: public stance, uh, and set that what he wanted to
Speaker 1: do going forward. The rank and file of Disney revolted
Speaker 1: essentially openly on social media, employees saying they disagree with
Speaker 1: this policy. A letter from Pixar employees animators union set
Speaker 1: out statements uh. And so Chapig reversed position a couple
Speaker 1: of days later on Wednesday last week, saying, you know,
Speaker 1: we we are openly opposed to this bill. Uh and
Speaker 1: then a couple of days later even to look it
Speaker 1: further and publicly apologize to all those employees. A lot
Speaker 1: of employees were not happy. And you also had leadership
Speaker 1: within Disney, for example at Pixar releasing their own statements.
Speaker 1: You've got Bob Iger, the former CEO of Disney, also
Speaker 1: speaking out about this. What do you make of the
Speaker 1: pushback from other executives, Well, this is this is part
Speaker 1: of a sort of a broader issue that Check has
Speaker 1: found where he doesn't have the same support from the
Speaker 1: creative community at the company that his predecessor Bob Iger did,
Speaker 1: uh and um. And so you know, he's made some
Speaker 1: decisions that are very unpopular. For example, he's relocating a
Speaker 1: lot of employees to Florida's uh you know that work
Speaker 1: in team park design in that from California. They're not
Speaker 1: happy about being told they have to move and uh,
Speaker 1: and so we had a weird situations. Now we're Florida.
Speaker 1: Governor de Santis just slam Disney last week saying, you know,
Speaker 1: they don't care about human rights in China, and then
Speaker 1: Governor Gavin Newsom Ary California is saying, oh, why are
Speaker 1: you moving your people to California? So as has shade
Speaker 1: they predicted away by taking these political stands, he's opening
Speaker 1: the company up to firing fired people attacking him from
Speaker 1: both sides. This, of course, as Disney Shares themselves have
Speaker 1: been struggling. Chris Paul Mary, who covers Disney for US,
Speaker 1: will continue to follow here. Meantime, struggling carmaker electric car
Speaker 1: maker Rivian has hired a new CEO from Magna, one
Speaker 1: of the world's biggest automotive suppliers. Frank Klin will take
Speaker 1: the roll on June one, Rivan announced Monday, confirming in
Speaker 1: earlier Bloomberg scoop kind led Magna's carmaking unit before that
Speaker 1: at Mercedes parent company at Dymler years. Rivian stock has
Speaker 1: been crushed in recent days after the company's forecast building
Speaker 1: just twenty five thousand e v s this year, about
Speaker 1: half what it's factory in Illinois is capable of due
Speaker 1: to a shortage of parts and trouble with production. Rivian's
Speaker 1: former CEO, Rod Corpus resigned and the last year welcome
Speaker 1: back to Bloomberg Technology on Emily Chang in San Francisco.
Speaker 1: The Chinese city of shen Jen, home to seventeen and
Speaker 1: a half million people, is locked down as COVID cases
Speaker 1: have doubled to roughly thirty four hundred. This as China
Speaker 1: faces its biggest COVID outbreaks since Wuhan in early fox
Speaker 1: con Apple's biggest suppliers now halting operations in shen Jen,
Speaker 1: and this could have massive global implications. Are Mark Room
Speaker 1: and joining us now with more Mark give us a
Speaker 1: status update on what's happening at fox kN and what
Speaker 1: the impacts of this more broadly will be. So as
Speaker 1: of now, the office the main headquarters for fox kN
Speaker 1: and shen Jen, as well as their iPhone factory UH
Speaker 1: within shen Jen, those are both closed right now now.
Speaker 1: Fox Kon isn't saying when they're going to be reopening.
Speaker 1: It isn't definite for now, but the order for closures
Speaker 1: for factories in other places is in effect in that
Speaker 1: area until March twenty, so it's possible it'll open around
Speaker 1: then or after them. But we know the fluidity of
Speaker 1: COVID and how these things can go on for longer,
Speaker 1: and that's the real fear here right As of now,
Speaker 1: a week of one iPhone factory being shut down is
Speaker 1: not going to have much of an impact. This is
Speaker 1: a slow season for Apple, right They did just release
Speaker 1: new products, but they really need the factories running at
Speaker 1: full steam for the fall and late in the summer
Speaker 1: for the iPhone fourteen, new iPads in the fall augmented
Speaker 1: reality headsets early next year, that's when it would be
Speaker 1: danger territory. But right now I think they're going to
Speaker 1: be okay, given that their main iPhone plants called iPhone City,
Speaker 1: is in another region of China, you know, many many
Speaker 1: miles away from here, But we don't know what is
Speaker 1: going to do and expand it exactly. The pandemic is
Speaker 1: China is hitting a new peak in COVID cases. This
Speaker 1: is not just happening in shen Jen. What is Apple
Speaker 1: doing or what can Apple do to mitigate this? Given
Speaker 1: that there are already global supply chain issues that have
Speaker 1: now been reverberating for two years Yeah, it's very much
Speaker 1: whack bowld. Right. Fox Con has many factories across China
Speaker 1: where they produced the iPhone and other Apple products, right, So,
Speaker 1: as you know, limitations go up in some factories, right,
Speaker 1: they'll have to reallocate that to other factories, and as
Speaker 1: other factories reopened and they'll have to move production back.
Speaker 1: So I'm sure that's what they're you know, on the
Speaker 1: scene in China figuring out right now, right, I think
Speaker 1: they want to see how bad this becomes. Obviously, we're
Speaker 1: in a very different place today than we were basically
Speaker 1: exactly two years ago now with vaccines and masking and
Speaker 1: people used to these protocols. So my hope, right, not
Speaker 1: only for you know, Apple and China, but for globally,
Speaker 1: that this gets resolved, you know, pretty quickly. In fox
Speaker 1: Con is able to work through it at a faster
Speaker 1: pace than they were able to two years ago. If
Speaker 1: you remember, however, even at the height of the COVID pandemic,
Speaker 1: Apple really in fox Con, they were able to figure
Speaker 1: it out. In the middle of everything, Apple was still
Speaker 1: able to ship the iPhone twelve in November of right,
Speaker 1: that was a two month delay for their flagship product
Speaker 1: in the middle of COVID pre vaccines right at the
Speaker 1: at the height of things, right, So if they were
Speaker 1: able to figure out then with only two month delays,
Speaker 1: I'm quite optimistic they'll be able to figure it out
Speaker 1: with you know, more vaccines and masking regulations and such
Speaker 1: at a slower period for the company. All Right, Mark
Speaker 1: German will continue to watch a reporting on this. Thank you.
Speaker 1: I want to stay on the topic of COVID and
Speaker 1: the resurgence we're seeing across China and in Hong Kong
Speaker 1: and bringing Ali Erman. She's a genomics analyst with our
Speaker 1: invest You know, Ali, we are seeing the spike in
Speaker 1: Hong Kong and China as the World Health Organized Station
Speaker 1: has been considering declaring an end to the pandemic. Does
Speaker 1: this signal to you that it could get worse or
Speaker 1: maybe a lot worse before it gets better. Thanks Emily
Speaker 1: for having me. It's nice to see you again, you know.
Speaker 1: I I think obviously we've had these spikes before. We've
Speaker 1: seen you know, multiple mutations arising from COVID nineteen, and
Speaker 1: this continues to be an ongoing issue that we're monitoring
Speaker 1: here at ARK. One of the things that we're thinking
Speaker 1: about is disruptive technologies that are in our portfolios that
Speaker 1: could potentially help the crisis. So you know, one such
Speaker 1: technology is Crisper, which is essentially working to look at
Speaker 1: different cases and potentially being a diagnostic tool, but it's
Speaker 1: also used as a therapeutic tool as well. Now, China
Speaker 1: has had a zero COVID policy, shutting down versus vaccinating
Speaker 1: on a broad scale. They've been using the Cino vaccine
Speaker 1: when they do vaccinate, but that's a vaccine that doesn't
Speaker 1: use m R and A technology and appears to be
Speaker 1: not as effective. Are we seeing that vaccine and that
Speaker 1: technology breaking down. It's possible that are We've been very
Speaker 1: focused on the m R and E technology and so
Speaker 1: we know that we've seen pretty great um results from
Speaker 1: it from the US UM and also from Israel where
Speaker 1: we've gotten this substantial amount of data. And so you know,
Speaker 1: this m R and A technol oology is a novel technology.
Speaker 1: It hasn't been used prior to the COVID nineteen pandemic.
Speaker 1: Um you know, we're following very closely what the companies
Speaker 1: are doing and how they're utilizing that technology, including you
Speaker 1: know Maderna, but also our tourist Therapeutics UM and several
Speaker 1: other companies that really are focusing. You know, of course
Speaker 1: we can talk about Visor and the partnerships that they've
Speaker 1: started there, but also just the the amount of sheer
Speaker 1: data that we're going to get from m R and
Speaker 1: A and be able to compare that to the adenovirus
Speaker 1: vaccines as well. How is the pace of innovation in
Speaker 1: m R and A and biotechnology accelerated during the pandemic
Speaker 1: given the role we've seen it play in vaccinations along
Speaker 1: with Crisper as you mentioned. Yeah, so the piece of innovations,
Speaker 1: Emily is really interesting because we're seeing that. You know,
Speaker 1: I think Crisper is is an excellent example as you mentioned, right,
Speaker 1: So we're seeing these amazing examples. So prior to Crisper,
Speaker 1: you know, zinc finger nucleus is another gene editing form.
Speaker 1: Also talents we're going to exist and essentially those took
Speaker 1: a really long time to move from discovery to the
Speaker 1: first human dose. So that happened for same fingers in
Speaker 1: roughly eight years, whereas Cristopher took less than half that time.
Speaker 1: They were at three years. They also can target many
Speaker 1: more unknown diseases, and so what we're seeing is there's
Speaker 1: a proliferation in terms of the piece of innovation. An
Speaker 1: example for that could be Crisper Therapeutics. They're working on
Speaker 1: creating potentially functional cures for diseases like sickle cell and
Speaker 1: beta thallasmia. They've treated about seventy patients along with their
Speaker 1: partner Vertex, both companies within our genomic strategy, and we're
Speaker 1: seeing the data looks like it could potentially really be
Speaker 1: a functional cure. And so the piece of innovation, but
Speaker 1: also what's happening within innovation is really exciting right now. Meantime,
Speaker 1: there's a controversy evolving in the gene editing world, which
Speaker 1: I know that you are following closely, where Nobel Prize
Speaker 1: winner Jennifer Downa, who's made impoor and discoveries in m
Speaker 1: R and A technology and been recognized for her work
Speaker 1: on crisper um, has lost a patent dispute surrounding the
Speaker 1: discovery of her and her team around a specific part
Speaker 1: of Crisper technology. What does this mean and how significant
Speaker 1: is this? That's right, Emily. You know, first of all,
Speaker 1: I think it's great we're talking about this because it
Speaker 1: demonstrates a commitment from the scientists across the board. UM.
Speaker 1: It's also quite a complicated topic, so I think it's
Speaker 1: great to delve in a little bit here. So first
Speaker 1: of all, what is Crisper. Maybe we can back up
Speaker 1: a little bit on that. So Christopher is a precise
Speaker 1: tool that is used for gene editing. UM. We believe
Speaker 1: in it, We've been investing in it for years. We
Speaker 1: think it's an incredibly innovative tool, UM, and it's revolutionizing
Speaker 1: the way we think about treatments but also potential cures.
Speaker 1: Just a little bit of background here. It's essentially from
Speaker 1: a family of DNA sequences and it was found to
Speaker 1: affect the genomes of bacteria, and it's now potentially and
Speaker 1: in trials, be used for correcting genes in humans. So
Speaker 1: about the patent dispute, as you mentioned, so really quick
Speaker 1: background here. You you know, you covered some of this
Speaker 1: really helpful. In two thousand and twelve, Jennifer Down and
Speaker 1: Emmanuel Scharpontier they wrote a paper and it detailed the
Speaker 1: Crispers system, but they didn't show that it worked in
Speaker 1: eukaryotic cells. And essentially, Emily, a U karyotic cell is
Speaker 1: a cell that has a nucleus, so that could be
Speaker 1: a plant and it's also certainly a human. Fang Zang
Speaker 1: at Harvard Road was the first one to do this. Um.
Speaker 1: So there's essentially two sides, Jennifer down and Emmanuel Charpontier
Speaker 1: on one side that houses that i P from CBC,
Speaker 1: which is the University of Vienna. Also you see Berkeley
Speaker 1: for both of them. Other side Fang Sang Harvard and
Speaker 1: the Broad. So in as you mentioned, Emmanuel Charpontier and
Speaker 1: Jennifer Downa actually won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for
Speaker 1: their discovery of crisper cast nine. But as you mentioned,
Speaker 1: this past week we saw that the U s PTO
Speaker 1: or U s PAT and Trademark Office did not um
Speaker 1: follow suit. So, um, what does this mean Getting to
Speaker 1: the point here, Um, this doesn't stop any ongoing trials
Speaker 1: um so, all clinical trials will continue. It doesn't affect
Speaker 1: i P outside of the US. The most likely outcome
Speaker 1: that ARC ces is through some form of cross licensing
Speaker 1: among the companies and in terms of sort of the
Speaker 1: specifics for companies, so Editas, Verve and Beam get their
Speaker 1: i P through Editas or the Broad Harvard and then
Speaker 1: cris Burn and Talia through CBC. So through Emmanuel Sharponti
Speaker 1: and Jennifer Down. Now, interesting controversy we're going to continue
Speaker 1: to follow. Jennifer Down has been a guest on this
Speaker 1: show several times. Ali Erman, Genomics analyst with ARC invest
Speaker 1: thank you for sharing that background with us. Coming up,
Speaker 1: Ripple calls it a victory. We're gonna have more on
Speaker 1: Ripple's long legal battle with the SEC over alleged illegal
Speaker 1: sales of its x r P token, what that means
Speaker 1: for the broader crypto industry. Next, this is Bloomberg Time
Speaker 1: now for our crypto report of the day, and I
Speaker 1: want to focus on Ripple. After the SEC alleged that
Speaker 1: the currency Exchange platform had engaged in the unlawful offer
Speaker 1: and sales of securities it's XRP token, Ripple counter saying
Speaker 1: they had not had reasonable fair notice from the SEC
Speaker 1: about whether it's sales of x RP were indeed illegal,
Speaker 1: a defense at the court upheld last week. I want
Speaker 1: to dig into this with our crypto Contributortionale Bosticctionale talk
Speaker 1: to us about how the markets reacted to this news.
Speaker 1: Obviously a volatile market and a volatile market for bitcoin
Speaker 1: as well. Yeah, even though we see Ripple down a
Speaker 1: little bit today. It did really rise after this news
Speaker 1: and over the seven day period. Actually, I leave you
Speaker 1: take a look. You do see Ripple rising to the
Speaker 1: point that it's rising almost twice as much as you
Speaker 1: see in Bitcoin over that period and almost three times
Speaker 1: as you're seeing in the Theoryum. So, guess, very good
Speaker 1: news in terms of Ripple and it's SEC defense. But
Speaker 1: there are a lot of questions remaining for the market,
Speaker 1: not just for Ripple, but the crypto industry here at large.
Speaker 1: And that question is, as Bloomberg Intelligence calls it a
Speaker 1: factual one, will it cause more issuers to register with
Speaker 1: the SEC? And what type of regulatory overhang doesn't leave
Speaker 1: for the market even after they buy it. An executive
Speaker 1: order that created some clarity for the market. Alright, Sonale,
Speaker 1: stick with us. We're gonna get deeper into this conversation
Speaker 1: with Ripple CEO himself, Brad garling House. Brad, good to
Speaker 1: have you back here on the show. You called this
Speaker 1: a victory in your battle against the SEC. What does
Speaker 1: it mean for you and also the broader crypto industry. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I do think I'll start there. Really, I think it
Speaker 1: is a victory, not just for Ripple, the company, but
Speaker 1: also the whole crypto industry because the SEC, I think,
Speaker 1: has consistently tried to take a point to really take
Speaker 1: expand their reach and their control over the crypto industry.
Speaker 1: We've seen that not just as Ripple, but in other cases.
Speaker 1: And to to have the executive order, as Jali was
Speaker 1: talking about, the executive came out and really said to
Speaker 1: all agencies, Hey, we need to be coordinated. If we
Speaker 1: want the United States to be competitive in this key
Speaker 1: technology platform, we need to not have one group behaving
Speaker 1: one way and another group behaving in other ways. We're
Speaker 1: really pleased by not just the court's decision, but also
Speaker 1: in the executive order that came out last week. What
Speaker 1: do you make of the very prominent role that crypto
Speaker 1: is playing in the war on Ukraine and also concerns
Speaker 1: about how crypto currency could be used, for example, as
Speaker 1: a tool to circumvent sanctions by Russians. You know, I
Speaker 1: think this is a bit of a red herring, meaning
Speaker 1: that there's a lot of attention around as like what
Speaker 1: does this mean? But the practice, the practicality of using
Speaker 1: it to circumvent sanctions, I think is is really difficult. Uh,
Speaker 1: And the reality is that if you just take the
Speaker 1: basic math, before the invasion of Ukraine, there's about fifty
Speaker 1: billion dollars a day of Russian ruble cross border FX trades.
Speaker 1: There's just not enough liquidity in the crypto market to
Speaker 1: really put much of a dent in that. Moreover, you know,
Speaker 1: the point at which sanctions are applied is at the
Speaker 1: end points, so through you know, exchanges, a bit stamp
Speaker 1: or a binance, and you know, I think you've seen
Speaker 1: globally that the major exchange around the world say hey,
Speaker 1: we're going to we're going to acknowledge and force and
Speaker 1: respect those sanctions. And so I think the idea that
Speaker 1: crypt has been used at any scale to circumvent sections
Speaker 1: is uh not not a really it's not. It doesn't
Speaker 1: really understand how some of the stuff works. On one hand,
Speaker 1: you do have plenty of exchanges that seem to be
Speaker 1: working with a Biden administration to kind of figure out
Speaker 1: what's going on into the surface in the market. But
Speaker 1: on the other hand, when it comes to the SEC,
Speaker 1: it seems like they've been at the crosshairs of a
Speaker 1: number of different firms. Do you think the SEC is
Speaker 1: taking a tougher stance than the administration at large, and
Speaker 1: do you think that will hinder at all some of
Speaker 1: the progress that some firms are making. Look, I think
Speaker 1: there's no question that the United States Secured Exchange Commission
Speaker 1: has reduced the competitiveness of this critical industry in the
Speaker 1: United States. I think they've been out of step not
Speaker 1: just with other parts of the U S government, but
Speaker 1: they've been other out of step with other major economies
Speaker 1: around the world. The only country in the world that
Speaker 1: considers x RP the digital asset that Ripple uses in
Speaker 1: our technology stack. The only country in the world that
Speaker 1: thinks x RP could be a security is the United States.
Speaker 1: We work successfully in the u K in Switzerland and Japan,
Speaker 1: and the UAE in Singapore, all of these countries to
Speaker 1: acknowledge x rps of currency because that's how it's used.
Speaker 1: So I think the way the US. If we want
Speaker 1: the US to be a leader in this new, growing,
Speaker 1: critical innovative industry like the Internet twenty years ago, we
Speaker 1: need that regulatory clarity. And the SEC is really just
Speaker 1: coming out and saying we're gonna file lawsuits enforcement. They're
Speaker 1: not going to provide clear rules so that people know
Speaker 1: how to operate as other countries have done all right,
Speaker 1: Brad Garlinghouse, CEO of Ripple Brad, always good to have
Speaker 1: you with us in our Shonali Bostic. Things will continue
Speaker 1: to follow your situation with the SEC. CNN is preferring
Speaker 1: to launch its most ambitious effort, Yeah, a new streaming
Speaker 1: service CNN plus wild consumers buy in when there's a
Speaker 1: sea of other streaming options. Here's what Andrew Moore see
Speaker 1: in an executive vice president who's leading the streaming effort,
Speaker 1: had to say, I think at our heart, we have
Speaker 1: always been about the news, and I think every news organization,
Speaker 1: um you know, in the United States tends to do
Speaker 1: a bit of a rethink every political cycle. That's natural
Speaker 1: because politics become such an important coverage area for everybody.
Speaker 1: So I don't think that's unusual for any news organization
Speaker 1: to think about, okay, what's next, And especially now, by
Speaker 1: the way, at a time when the entire industry is
Speaker 1: moving quickly at a time and the entire industry is
Speaker 1: being disruptive, I think it's logical. There's been a lot
Speaker 1: of controversy surrounding Jeff Sucker's abrupt departure not long after
Speaker 1: Chris Cuomo's exit tied in part to Chris interviewing his brother,
Speaker 1: the Governor of New York on air. You've seen all
Speaker 1: the criticism. What's your view on what happened? That's a
Speaker 1: good question, Emily, UM, what is my view? Look when
Speaker 1: when I heard about Jeff's resignation, UM, I was shocked.
Speaker 1: We were all shocked. UM, it was a very hard
Speaker 1: day for CNN. UM, you know, Jeff resigned, and in
Speaker 1: his resignation, Jeff said that he resigning because he did
Speaker 1: not disclose a relationship that he had with a colleague,
Speaker 1: and that was his departure was very hard on the
Speaker 1: whole organization. And UM, we've all been doing our best
Speaker 1: to lead through, you know, a pretty difficult period with
Speaker 1: Jeff's departure. Some of CNN's own stars have pushed back
Speaker 1: on the way this was handled. Dana Bash said at
Speaker 1: an internal meeting reportedly that the punishment didn't fit the crime.
Speaker 1: Did you think the punishment fit the crime? You know,
Speaker 1: I think the rules applied to everybody. And the fact is,
Speaker 1: you know, the three red and white letters of CNN
Speaker 1: matter a lot, and they're bigger than any of us. Meantime,
Speaker 1: shareholders have given discoveries merger with HBO and CNN parent
Speaker 1: Warner Media. The green light Discovery CEO David zas law
Speaker 1: of naming Chris Licked, President of CNN. At the south
Speaker 1: By Southwest Festival, I spoke with Andrew Morris more in
Speaker 1: depth about the future of CNN plus, the network's news
Speaker 1: streaming service, and its most ambitious effort since the networks
Speaker 1: launch Take a listen. The beauty of a subscription service
Speaker 1: is if you create something of value, people will pay.
Speaker 1: You walk into a supermarket, you walk into a mall,
Speaker 1: you walk into a shop, you go online. If there's
Speaker 1: something of value, you'll pay. And when you think about
Speaker 1: what CNN does, you think about the coverage that we
Speaker 1: have in the Ukraine. You think about the depth of
Speaker 1: knowledge that Sanjay Gupta has and the role that he's
Speaker 1: played in this country in terms of informing you know,
Speaker 1: informing people about COVID in the last year. We are
Speaker 1: so infinite that we're building something of such value that
Speaker 1: people are going to be willing to give a give
Speaker 1: up one cup of coffee a month to pay for
Speaker 1: this service. Just in time for your appearance here. Today,
Speaker 1: shareholders approved the merger of Discovery and Warner Media CNN
Speaker 1: has a new president, Chris lift has been named Um
Speaker 1: helped conceive Morning Joe, produce The Colbert Show, revamped CBS.
Speaker 1: Have you met with Chris Licht and what has he
Speaker 1: told you he wants to see from CNN Plus. So
Speaker 1: we haven't been able to talk to him yet. And
Speaker 1: in fact, even though the Discovery shareholders have voted, we're
Speaker 1: in a quiet period, so we actually haven't been able
Speaker 1: to formally meet with Discovery about our business plans for
Speaker 1: a while. But look, I've gotten to know Chris over
Speaker 1: the years. He is what I do know of him.
Speaker 1: He's an incredibly creative producer. He's a great journalist. He's
Speaker 1: somebody who really knows what an organization like CNN needs
Speaker 1: to be successful. What's the budget for CNN Plus? How
Speaker 1: much have you spent so far? It is by orders
Speaker 1: of magnitude, larger than anything CNN has taken on really
Speaker 1: since the network is founded. It's a it's a very
Speaker 1: serious undertaking and it requires significant investment. But the reason
Speaker 1: for the significant investment is it's tied to a very
Speaker 1: aggressive and ambitious business plan. We feel very, very confident
Speaker 1: that we're going to be able to grow a very
Speaker 1: substantial subscriber base pretty quickly, and so we've been able
Speaker 1: to put together a business plan, uh and an investment
Speaker 1: case that gets us to a place where we think
Speaker 1: we can build a very healthy business. Given all the
Speaker 1: numbers you've run, the research you've done. When, then, do
Speaker 1: you expect this bet to pay off? Well, we think
Speaker 1: it can become profitable within within a few years. Um. Again,
Speaker 1: it's it's it all. It's the beauty of a subscription business.
Speaker 1: And I come back to that every time. You know,
Speaker 1: it's it's what makes it different from cable television. What's
Speaker 1: it's what makes it different from advertising. If you build
Speaker 1: something of value and you deliver value to the customers
Speaker 1: and you put those customers before anything else, you can
Speaker 1: build a business. And you have to back it up.
Speaker 1: You have to have a great product, you have to
Speaker 1: have great content, you have to have to have great talent.
Speaker 1: You can't be afraid to pivot, you can't be afraid
Speaker 1: to you know, to continue to take chances. But you know,
Speaker 1: we feel good about what we're building. Andrew Morris, executive
Speaker 1: vice president of CNN, speaking at the south By Southwest
Speaker 1: Festival in Austin, Texas. C Plus launches March twenty nine.
Speaker 1: That does it for this edition of Bloomberg Technology. Tomorrow,
Speaker 1: we're gonna be joined by Rashima Show, Johnny founder of
Speaker 1: Girls Who Code. He's out with a brand new book
Speaker 1: on the future of women and work. Also Joseph Lubin
Speaker 1: to talk about all things crypto, the CEO of Consensus
Speaker 1: and the co founder of a THEORYU. And that's tomorrow
Speaker 1: right here on Bloomberg Technology. And Emily Chang. This is
Speaker 1: Bloomberg