Speaker 1: I'm Caroline Hyde the Bloomberg's World headquarters in New York,
Speaker 1: and I Mad Ludlow in San Francisco. This is Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Technology coming up this hour. Sam bankmun Freed is taking
Speaker 1: live questions in the wake of the f t X
Speaker 1: contagion for bringing the headlines as we get them and
Speaker 1: the tragedies of TikTok. Bloomberg's Big Take investigates how trending
Speaker 1: challenges on the platform are turning out to be deadly
Speaker 1: for some children. We discussed why the world's most popular
Speaker 1: app isn't doing more to protect them. Meanwhile, the CEOs
Speaker 1: of Earn Your Leisure are here to explain how their
Speaker 1: financial literacy media platform is selling out venues from m
Speaker 1: s G to the Royal Albert Hall. The first black
Speaker 1: Rock chief executive, Larry Fink, saying earlier today the most
Speaker 1: crypto companies will probably fold in the wake of f
Speaker 1: t X is collapsed. This, of course, during the interview
Speaker 1: in the New York Times Deal Brooks Summit. This is
Speaker 1: of course now we see that s Bankwin Freed has
Speaker 1: taken to the virtual stage, appearing at the event as
Speaker 1: we speak, and passation. Ai Usk is here with all
Speaker 1: the latest some headlines coming from that event, some brkminfreed
Speaker 1: saying he, to his knowledge, f t x u u
Speaker 1: S platform is solvent, and overall that he made a
Speaker 1: lot of mistakes as the CEO of f t X.
Speaker 1: You have him first answering your question, or early in
Speaker 1: the program answering question by Andrew Ross Sorkin about gentleman
Speaker 1: a letter. He was reading a letter from a gentleman
Speaker 1: who lost his life savings, and then he asked Sam
Speaker 1: Bankman free to answer to that letter. And that's when
Speaker 1: Caroline he had said that f t x U S
Speaker 1: he to his knowledge, was solvent and you could withdraw
Speaker 1: today if they allowed for it. Now he's starting to
Speaker 1: talk a little bit about f t X the international business.
Speaker 1: We know he also had that interview with Axios over
Speaker 1: the last twenty four hours or so where he talked
Speaker 1: about getting those licenses around the world very quickly and
Speaker 1: the issues that have resulted from those international licenses that
Speaker 1: have been accumulated so quickly. I would also say that,
Speaker 1: you know, he started off with some of the things
Speaker 1: that he has said before. He is deeply sorry that
Speaker 1: he had wished he had done certain things differently, but
Speaker 1: it was only a month ago when he was excited
Speaker 1: about the prospects for f t X. So the tone
Speaker 1: he's been taking here is a pretty solemn, pretty somber
Speaker 1: and apologetic, I would say, is the first way he's
Speaker 1: coming off the bat. Yeah, there's certainly a level of
Speaker 1: contrition from Sam Bankman Freed right as you know. He
Speaker 1: says that he has mistakes that if he wish you
Speaker 1: could go back, he could change really early exchanges. Snali
Speaker 1: will continue to bring the headlines as they crossed. But
Speaker 1: what are the key questions that we want answered by
Speaker 1: SPF On stage, Andrew Starkin had acknowledged that the money here,
Speaker 1: the dollars where everything had gone. They might get into
Speaker 1: here the details of all of those transactions. Let's see
Speaker 1: how deep they get, but certainly they're starting with a
Speaker 1: bigger issue at play here. Will we get those answers
Speaker 1: about where the money went, particularly only the eight billion
Speaker 1: dollar hall in their reality. Shana Essek will keep us
Speaker 1: appressed of what's happening in that particular interview. Meanwhile, though,
Speaker 1: we just want to turn our attention to a huge
Speaker 1: story here on Bloomberg News today. A security concerns of
Speaker 1: a different type TikTok. They keep growing, and South Dakota
Speaker 1: is acting on it, banning TikTok on its government employee
Speaker 1: devices after the governor so that the social media apps
Speaker 1: ownership by a Chinese company poses a national security threat.
Speaker 1: This comes as today's Big Take is out too, and
Speaker 1: on different kinds of security concerns, this time surrounding children's
Speaker 1: safety on the platform. It was the front cover of
Speaker 1: this week's Business Week and was a real deep dive
Speaker 1: into some particularly heart wrenching stories, and I must warn
Speaker 1: you involve the death of some children. Greenberg's Olivia carvill
Speaker 1: is with the story and joins us now Olivia. It
Speaker 1: was a devastating read for anyone with any emotion. But
Speaker 1: I'm sure also of exact tives that need a business
Speaker 1: such as TikTok, then in many ways get singled out
Speaker 1: because of certain trends that occur on the platform that
Speaker 1: children who are too young consume and then are in
Speaker 1: some ways affected by. Just talk to us about how
Speaker 1: you came across the story and the reporting out of it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, we've been seeing cases of children who are
Speaker 1: too young to be able to access social media platforms
Speaker 1: having devastating consequences. Last year we saw Francis Hagen testifying
Speaker 1: in Congress about Meta and Facebook and Instagram and the
Speaker 1: mental health harms that it's been causing teenagers, particularly young girls.
Speaker 1: I also noticed that we were seeing a number of
Speaker 1: children dying participating in trending challenges on platforms, and I
Speaker 1: wanted to get a sense of what happens inside some
Speaker 1: of these companies when the worst case scenario occurs. So
Speaker 1: when an eight or nine year old child dies participating
Speaker 1: in an online deer or a trending challenge, how does
Speaker 1: the company respond? And as social media to blame in
Speaker 1: any of these cases, I think that question of liability
Speaker 1: or responsibility over these deaths is a really big one,
Speaker 1: and we've seen lawsuits filed in the US recently trying
Speaker 1: to raise that question in the courts. Oliver, you outline
Speaker 1: two specific cases of children who died carrying out something
Speaker 1: or emulating something they saw on the TikTok platform. Um
Speaker 1: I would encourage our global audience to go and read
Speaker 1: that story. But you also report on the response from
Speaker 1: within TikTok sources that the company explained to you what
Speaker 1: executives did next. Could you talk us through some of that,
Speaker 1: I was connected with more than two dozen individuals who
Speaker 1: worked on TikTok's trust and safety team to really try
Speaker 1: and get a sense of how TikTok internally handles these situations.
Speaker 1: The company has a trust and safety team, you know,
Speaker 1: thousands strong. They have about forty thou content moderators looking
Speaker 1: at the videos that are posted on TikTok on a
Speaker 1: daily basis, taking down anything problematic or potentially harmful. They
Speaker 1: have strict policies and guidelines set up to protect children,
Speaker 1: and so the platform has created a number of safety
Speaker 1: mechanisms to try and keep kids safe. But children are
Speaker 1: smart and they know how to side set those safety restrictions.
Speaker 1: So in terms of the videos I was seeing more
Speaker 1: recently that have been linked back to the blackout challenge,
Speaker 1: kids have started to misspell the words or come up
Speaker 1: with different hashtags or different code names in order to
Speaker 1: avoid those safety restrictions and keep this challenge trending. We're
Speaker 1: interestingly went to our own audience via Twitter and asked them, look,
Speaker 1: how can social platforms such as a TikTok become safer? Interestingly,
Speaker 1: the majority of it's only forts called for more regulation,
Speaker 1: age verification, came in at just twenty four point five.
Speaker 1: What's notable as the statistics in your story, more than
Speaker 1: us children have a cell phone by the age of twelve.
Speaker 1: Half of all kids from eight to eleven in the
Speaker 1: UK of viewing TikTok content daily. Is there a technological
Speaker 1: manner in which these sorts of platforms such as TikTok
Speaker 1: can make sure that someone who's claiming to be thirteen
Speaker 1: is actually thirteen. Yeah, and that's a really important point
Speaker 1: to remember that children who are thirteen and younger, or
Speaker 1: children who are under thirteen and not supposed to be
Speaker 1: on these platforms. Legally, there's laws set up to prevent
Speaker 1: kids from being on platforms like TikTok, But unfortunately it's
Speaker 1: very hard to figure out how old a user is.
Speaker 1: How do you tell the difference between a fourteen and
Speaker 1: a fifteen year old. It's hard for humans to do that,
Speaker 1: let alone to train artificial intelligence to do it. So
Speaker 1: there have been companies that have recently been set up
Speaker 1: trying to tackle this particular issue, the issue of age verification,
Speaker 1: which is something that all social media platforms are facing,
Speaker 1: and these third party providers are offering software that can
Speaker 1: actually tell when it's a child or when it's a teenager,
Speaker 1: and they're relatively accurate. So I was talking to a
Speaker 1: number of these providers trying to get a sense of
Speaker 1: how does the software work, what can you actually do?
Speaker 1: And unlike facial recognition technology, which is trying to identify
Speaker 1: the individual in the photo, this software is just looking
Speaker 1: at that face and guessing an age. I sent them
Speaker 1: a video of a nine year old girl who died
Speaker 1: participating in one of these challenges on TikTok, and it
Speaker 1: took that software three seconds to detect her age said
Speaker 1: she was ten years old, and she died three months
Speaker 1: before her tenth birthday. All right, Bloomberg's Olivia Carvill just
Speaker 1: just excellent reporting. I encourage the audience to read that
Speaker 1: on Bloomberg dot com, the Terminal and in Business Week.
Speaker 1: Just great detail. What's happening with the TikTok platform. Apple
Speaker 1: CEO Tim Cook is doing the rounds in Washington, meeting
Speaker 1: with top Republican lawmakers as the company seems to forge
Speaker 1: ties with the GOP ahead of the party's takeover of
Speaker 1: the House early next year. Now, this is all according
Speaker 1: to people familiar with the visit. Interesting timing given the
Speaker 1: recent tirade from one Elon Musk about Apple's dominance for
Speaker 1: its app store, and all the more intriguing is Elon
Speaker 1: Musk suggested he was actually at Apple headquarters today with
Speaker 1: Tim Cook. Our very own Mark German is here with
Speaker 1: the latest intriguing Indeed, just talk to us Mark about well,
Speaker 1: first and foremost the visit itself from Tim Cook. Yeah,
Speaker 1: clearly Cook is having a very busy week. He's scheduled
Speaker 1: to meet with some top DC lawmakers. Obviously, he has
Speaker 1: Elon Musk in Cupertino at the Apple Park headquarters earlier
Speaker 1: today around lunchtime. They went through a walk through the campus.
Speaker 1: Obviously we all know what they talked about. I'm curious
Speaker 1: to know if Musk asked for special pricing on the
Speaker 1: app store. But in terms of this DC meeting, he's
Speaker 1: scheduled to meet with Jim Jordan's. He scheduled to meet
Speaker 1: with darryl Issa and some of these lawmakers cities that
Speaker 1: is meeting with. They're going to be at the top
Speaker 1: right of the GOP when they take back the House
Speaker 1: next year, so it's important for Cook to rebuild these
Speaker 1: relationships given the changeover happening in Congress. Obviously Apple is
Speaker 1: going to continue to be under a lot of scrutiny
Speaker 1: right whether it's the Twitter situation, free speech, content moderation,
Speaker 1: whether that has to do with the app store and
Speaker 1: the fees that you know some developers aren't happy with
Speaker 1: obviously at the Epic Games trial UH several months ago,
Speaker 1: but that still remains ongoing. Privacy and security, the environment.
Speaker 1: Clearly many different issues that both Apple and Congress are
Speaker 1: overlapping with and are probably going to continue to discuss
Speaker 1: for years ahead. Obviously there's the efforts to sort of
Speaker 1: rein in on tech giants overall, so it's important for
Speaker 1: Cook to get in there and have these relationships with
Speaker 1: the top lawmakers. We should point out we ofst Apple,
Speaker 1: if Ela Mosque was telling the truth or or whether
Speaker 1: he was in Apple HQ or not. My understanding his
Speaker 1: Apple didn't respond to that request. Maybe you can clarify.
Speaker 1: The other big story, of course is China and what's
Speaker 1: happening in Jong Joe. Give us the latest around iPhone
Speaker 1: fourteen pro production there. Yeah, regarding Musk and his visit
Speaker 1: to Apple today, I have no reason to believe that
Speaker 1: that visit didn't happen. I mean, I think it's accurate.
Speaker 1: It looks like Tim there and from what I've heard, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, Musk is there or was there earlier today.
Speaker 1: I know Musk likes to prank a lot on Twitter,
Speaker 1: and you know, tweet things that made maybe the public
Speaker 1: wouldn't necessarily believe or if not entirely accurate. But I
Speaker 1: don't think this one was inaccurate at all, to say
Speaker 1: the least. In terms of the iPhone fourteen, we're hearing
Speaker 1: that there's going to be a unit declined from the
Speaker 1: original ninety million to something north of eighty million. That's
Speaker 1: a combination of the riots and the COVID impact on
Speaker 1: the iPhone fourteen Pro factory, but also people not buying
Speaker 1: the regular iphon fourteen and iPhone fourteen plus the Pro
Speaker 1: models in quantities that Apple maybe initially anticipated. But I
Speaker 1: think things are starting to turn around. I actually ordered
Speaker 1: an iPhone fourteen Pro from a carrier, Verizon, earlier this week,
Speaker 1: and that scheduled to arrive in mid December. So depending
Speaker 1: on where you're buying from, I think things are they're
Speaker 1: going to improve the next few weeks. Alright, Bloomberg's Mark German,
Speaker 1: thank you very much. Let's stick with Apple dig into
Speaker 1: it all with Shannon cross I, t hardware analyst at
Speaker 1: Credit Sweets who covers Apple, among other things. She joins
Speaker 1: us from the Credit Swiss anual Technology conference. Shannon, I
Speaker 1: was reading your research and you point out that if
Speaker 1: you had tried to buy an iPhone thirteen at the
Speaker 1: same time last year, you'd get it much more quickly
Speaker 1: then if you try to buy an iPhone fourteen Pro
Speaker 1: model right now Christmas period two. What's going on for Apple? Well,
Speaker 1: I mean, clearly there are issues with with production, and
Speaker 1: you know, everybody's seen the videos and and what's going
Speaker 1: on in China right now. I think Apple is working
Speaker 1: as quickly as they can to help box Con and
Speaker 1: Hanhai basically Reese Art production. UM. I would say they
Speaker 1: have people on the ground that are they're trying to
Speaker 1: help the employees and and and fix some of the issues. UM.
Speaker 1: But you know, Apple did put out a press release
Speaker 1: UM a few weeks ago basically saying there was gonna
Speaker 1: be some some challenges with supply, and you know, I
Speaker 1: think what we're looking at basically is a situation where
Speaker 1: right now, if you order an Apple dot com, you're
Speaker 1: going to get your phone before the end of the year.
Speaker 1: So I'm watching to see when that actually shifts into January,
Speaker 1: and at that point, then that revenue is not going
Speaker 1: to actually hit in the December quarter and it'll actually
Speaker 1: shift over into the March quarter. You know, I think
Speaker 1: I don't think at this point we really seem to
Speaker 1: demand destruction. I think that the bigger issue that you're
Speaker 1: seeing right now is just a supply issue. You have
Speaker 1: an outperform rating on the stock hunt eighty four dollar
Speaker 1: price target that's well above the hundred forty eight where
Speaker 1: we are now at the moment, Shannon, just talk to
Speaker 1: us about the risks to the outside of the downside here?
Speaker 1: Is it more likely? Are you worried not only about
Speaker 1: the supply chain headaches but sort of the pr hit
Speaker 1: that a company such as Apple has by having so
Speaker 1: much a supply chain in China and indeed the sort
Speaker 1: of human cost of that, or is that ultimately not
Speaker 1: a key concern for you? Well, look, I think it's
Speaker 1: it's always been a risk for app for Apple. I mean,
Speaker 1: Apple has a very good relationship with governments around the world.
Speaker 1: They employ an awful lot of people, and there's like
Speaker 1: a billion seven people are a billion that would be
Speaker 1: a lot millions of people that are employed around the
Speaker 1: factory area. And it's not just the factory, right, It's
Speaker 1: it's the shop down the street that makes the widget
Speaker 1: that goes on the phone, and then the one that
Speaker 1: makes the glue. And you know, they have a really
Speaker 1: strong ecosystem of production. And and it is a risk
Speaker 1: because whenever you have something in one area, you know
Speaker 1: you're you're gonna be it's susceptible to issues. But you know,
Speaker 1: I think Apple has shown during the pandemic um that
Speaker 1: they were able to come in with their partners and manufacture.
Speaker 1: They have a lot of partners that help them with
Speaker 1: the manufacturing. They are shifting some manufacturing to India, although
Speaker 1: that will take a long time. I mean the way
Speaker 1: it's been described as you know, it's spent. They've spent
Speaker 1: fifteen years building a supply chain in um in China,
Speaker 1: and you can't just you know, rip and replace that overnight.
Speaker 1: And I don't think they would want to. I mean,
Speaker 1: China is an important market for them as well, so
Speaker 1: you know, from the standpoint of the Chinese government, it's important.
Speaker 1: And then to keep people employed, and then from an
Speaker 1: output perspective, you know, obviously they're they're pretty reliant at
Speaker 1: this point. Shannon, We've been excited to have you on
Speaker 1: because you cover the world of hardware, but that encompasses
Speaker 1: many companies. A name that's jumped out in me is
Speaker 1: HP Inc. And up to six thousand jobs cut over
Speaker 1: the next three years. What's your assessment of job cuts
Speaker 1: in the world you cover, and and and also just
Speaker 1: financial discipline in response to kind of a slow down
Speaker 1: in the end markets. You know, it's essentially we're having
Speaker 1: So this is the credit sweez Um. It's our twenty
Speaker 1: six annual conference that we're holding out here. We have
Speaker 1: hundred employees or employees attendees and actually um I interviewed
Speaker 1: the PO of HP today. So you know, I think
Speaker 1: HP is in a in an interesting situation. You've come
Speaker 1: out of the pandemic where uh PCs were elevated and
Speaker 1: everybody went out. You know, you had a hybrid work
Speaker 1: and so people needed a PC, they needed a printer.
Speaker 1: And now we're in a bit of a situation where
Speaker 1: they're digesting things. But the other thing to keep in
Speaker 1: mind with HP is that they have certain pillars of
Speaker 1: growth that they're looking at. And you know, one of
Speaker 1: that is is peripherals. They bought Polly Polly It closed
Speaker 1: UM a few weeks ago. You've also got three D
Speaker 1: printing UM. They're they're focused on a number of different
Speaker 1: areas and one of the things that they are doing
Speaker 1: with this restructuring is really trying to position all the
Speaker 1: systems and their sales strategy and manufacturing such too that
Speaker 1: they're able to support where they see growth coming from
Speaker 1: in the future, because you know, I think they are
Speaker 1: cognizant of and and frankly investors are cognizant of the
Speaker 1: fact that printers are in a secular decline. I mean,
Speaker 1: they can manage the secular decline and they may be
Speaker 1: a share gainer there over time, but you know, you've
Speaker 1: got that. And then PCs are kind of they're going
Speaker 1: to be in a cycle. We had a big up
Speaker 1: cycle during the pandemic and now we're in a digestion phase.
Speaker 1: So you know, I think mature tech companies, which I
Speaker 1: tend to cover a lot of, are constantly trying to
Speaker 1: reduce costs, optimize and manage to the future, because again,
Speaker 1: when you don't grow very much or you start to
Speaker 1: decline a bit, you know, the way to drive incremental
Speaker 1: cash flow and incremental earnings is basically through you know,
Speaker 1: cost reductions and optimization of your infrastructure. Talked to us
Speaker 1: among these companies, Apple, Dell, Pure Storage, A lot of
Speaker 1: these companies you cover we talk a lot about on
Speaker 1: the show, the geopolitics, and of course Apple has been
Speaker 1: swelled in that when it comes to China. Just talked
Speaker 1: to us and steady seconds about the app Store. How
Speaker 1: are all you about the revenues from that? Well, you know,
Speaker 1: I think the the App Store, there's one of the
Speaker 1: reasons why it outperformed during the pandemic was because people
Speaker 1: were home and people are playing games, and and that's
Speaker 1: a good way that they generate revenue. You know, we're
Speaker 1: no longer home playing games. I mean this this UM
Speaker 1: conference that I'm at, it's it's packed with people. People
Speaker 1: are roaming around, we're you know, interacting, we're traveling, we're
Speaker 1: doing other things. The other thing, you know, on an
Speaker 1: off sort of an um offset to what's going on
Speaker 1: in China right now, is that you do have a
Speaker 1: situation where if people are at home and they're you know,
Speaker 1: because of COVID restrictions, we may see a little bit
Speaker 1: of an upside there, so you know, I think, Jane,
Speaker 1: and I'm sorry to cut you off. Shannon. We we
Speaker 1: we will have you back very soon. But we've got
Speaker 1: a head off, Shannon Cross, I T hardware analysts at
Speaker 1: Credit Suite. Thank you coming up. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen
Speaker 1: says she misspoke when she downplayed the possibility of probing
Speaker 1: the Musque Twitter deal. More on that next, This is
Speaker 1: Bloomberg time for talking tech. Elon Musk's purchase of Twitter
Speaker 1: could be subject to a government review after all. Treasury
Speaker 1: Secretary Janet Yellen says she misspoke earlier this month when
Speaker 1: you told CBS she saw no basis for scrutiny. On Wednesday,
Speaker 1: Yellen told an audience at the New York Times event
Speaker 1: that if there are risks with the deal in general,
Speaker 1: actually quote, it would be appropriate for SCIFIUS to take
Speaker 1: a look sifious. That's a reference to the Committee on
Speaker 1: Foreign Investment in the US, which Yellen leads. The panel
Speaker 1: of government officials reviews investments in American businesses by foreign
Speaker 1: buyers and decides if there's a national security risks. Now,
Speaker 1: foreign investors did back masks deal to take Twitter private,
Speaker 1: and a potential action by Cifius emerge due to concerns
Speaker 1: over how masks many business interests overlap with US national
Speaker 1: security priorities. Yellen also stated by the way she couldn't
Speaker 1: comment on specific reviews or what was specifically being looked at.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to even meg Technology. I'm Caroline Hide in
Speaker 1: New York alongside Ed Ludlow in San Francisco. Now, Damelio
Speaker 1: family of TikTok fame is announced their first investments from
Speaker 1: their families Venture capital fund. It's a twenty five million
Speaker 1: dollar fund recently invested so far in four startups backing
Speaker 1: mid stage, high growth tech businesses, but they're primarily started
Speaker 1: by women and minority founders. Doug rennet is with us
Speaker 1: is co founding partner of four four four Capital and
Speaker 1: talk us through this is about what you have said
Speaker 1: combating systemic inequities and technology and business world by funding
Speaker 1: the next generation of female and minority entrepreneurs. Talked to
Speaker 1: us about the brands that you've picked, the companies you picked,
Speaker 1: and why they stood out for you. Yeah, that's right, Caroline. Um.
Speaker 1: We actually have backed six startups to date. We launched
Speaker 1: a little over two quarters ago and we and we
Speaker 1: just announced those six startups, and four of them were
Speaker 1: backed by women founders. When we teamed up myself and
Speaker 1: my co founding partner Jeff Beacher with the Damelio Family,
Speaker 1: we really felt it was important to use our collective
Speaker 1: platform to boost both women and minority founders. They've had
Speaker 1: a tougher time and have been underrepresented for years um
Speaker 1: and that's that's what we've set out to do. It
Speaker 1: was great to see that of the four women back
Speaker 1: companies that we uh, women founded companies that we backed,
Speaker 1: all four of them had founders picked recently on Income
Speaker 1: Magazine's Top one female founder lists, So that was great
Speaker 1: validation that we're picking remarkable women founders. Doug, I want
Speaker 1: to point out that four four four Capital runs the
Speaker 1: investment operations right for Damelio Family Funds. To kind of
Speaker 1: explain your role in this, I find this really interesting, Caroline,
Speaker 1: at this stage, mid stage, high growth, and we think
Speaker 1: about the news cycle right now, layoffs across tech, the
Speaker 1: higher rate environment. What kind of conversations are you having
Speaker 1: with those mid stage, high growth companies. Yeah, great, question ed. So,
Speaker 1: first of all, to clarify, we teamed up with the
Speaker 1: Damilo family to invest our own capital plus third party
Speaker 1: capital into these high growth, midstage tech companies. So we're
Speaker 1: backing third party founders again mostly women and minority founders
Speaker 1: as they build their companies. When we look at these
Speaker 1: types of companies right now, we're pretty focused on making
Speaker 1: sure their streamline and that there's a clear path to profitability.
Speaker 1: Kind of high burn businesses right now are not in favor, uh,
Speaker 1: and we kind of keep that in mind when we
Speaker 1: look at these businesses. We want to make sure they
Speaker 1: have strong barriers to entry for competitors and already proven
Speaker 1: brand with a growing audience. And the idea is once
Speaker 1: we get involved and Damilos get behind it, we can
Speaker 1: kind of pour fuel on the fire and hopefully even
Speaker 1: help that help them accelerate that growth further. We will
Speaker 1: focus areas be too, be two CE platforms direct to
Speaker 1: concede in a retail at Tech of fintech talk to
Speaker 1: us a little bit about fintech carreas we look across
Speaker 1: the world of cryptocurrencies that is taking such a hit
Speaker 1: at the moment. Have you made investments there are you
Speaker 1: looking to in any way in the future. Yeah, So,
Speaker 1: first off, we're betting on tech companies with large audiences,
Speaker 1: large user groups. If you think about the reach and
Speaker 1: the brand power of the Demilio's and eventually other celebrities
Speaker 1: like them, that's we think where we can have the
Speaker 1: most impact again helping those companies get their products in
Speaker 1: the and services in the hands of even more people. Uh.
Speaker 1: In terms of fintech, we're looking pretty broadly at that.
Speaker 1: We'll do investment platforms of all sorts, finance platforms. We
Speaker 1: have done one blockchain related investment, which was in the
Speaker 1: company Gemini. It hasn't been a specific focus of ours,
Speaker 1: but again, if we see a strong, fast growing business
Speaker 1: where we think we can help, will certainly give it, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, serious thought. I think we're pretty happy actually
Speaker 1: that we haven't been overexposed in crypto and Gemini. Jemini
Speaker 1: is quite a big player right in the crypto space.
Speaker 1: Have you had concerns about that investment? They are a
Speaker 1: big player. Uh, it's it's a strong company. They've got
Speaker 1: a uh you know, strong balance sheet, a lot of cash.
Speaker 1: We were the first outside money. We came into the
Speaker 1: first outside round, so I think we're in pretty good position.
Speaker 1: But it's like a lot of other companies in the
Speaker 1: space has certainly taken a hit for the time being
Speaker 1: on valuation. We've been focused all day on the Federal Reserve,
Speaker 1: j PAL, the outlook for rates, the macro economic headwinds
Speaker 1: that are hitting a lot of tech. What is your
Speaker 1: venture capital view of the world right now going into
Speaker 1: twenty three. Yeah, well, we take a pretty concervative outlook
Speaker 1: at that kind of repect to what I referred to earlier.
Speaker 1: We want to make sure that the companies were investing
Speaker 1: in our streamlined and ready to uh survive and even
Speaker 1: thrive through what could be you know, a tough set
Speaker 1: of quarters coming up here. Um, we don't really try
Speaker 1: to anticipate what's going to happen, you know, at any
Speaker 1: point in or. We just wanted back companies that when
Speaker 1: the dust settles, they're going to be on top and
Speaker 1: we'll have great investments on our hands. Okay, four four
Speaker 1: or four capital co founding partner Doug Rennet, thank you now.
Speaker 1: Door Dash is laying off about one thousand, two d
Speaker 1: and fifty people in an effort to cut costs. That's
Speaker 1: according to an internal memo seen by Bloomberg. The cuts
Speaker 1: will effect about six percent of the food delivery services workforce.
Speaker 1: Door Dash saw its business boom during the pandemic, but
Speaker 1: it's still unprofitable and more tech companies layoff employees. The
Speaker 1: US government is taking advantage, though, of the growing pool
Speaker 1: of talent executives from the US Veteran Affairs Office or
Speaker 1: on an ambitious mission to recruit top designers and engineers
Speaker 1: for the agency, but enticing enough workers to jump ship
Speaker 1: from the private sector to close the gaping government will
Speaker 1: be a daunting task. Historically, the US government has long
Speaker 1: trailed the private sectors pay, driving much of the staffing shortfalls,
Speaker 1: and crypto firm Kraken is reducing its workforce by people
Speaker 1: or thirty percent. That's part of its plan to adapt
Speaker 1: to current market conditions. According to a statement on its blog,
Speaker 1: Kracken says macroeconomic and geopolitical factors have resulted in lower
Speaker 1: trading volumes and fewer clients sign ups. We'll see a
Speaker 1: little bit of contagion, and whenever one big goes down,
Speaker 1: I'm sure they are going there is going to be
Speaker 1: more fallout. I think we have one more big leg
Speaker 1: down in crypt I think overall the industry is fine.
Speaker 1: Bitcoin is coming out of this smelling like a rose.
Speaker 1: Bitcoin funder me fundamentals are intact. We see the same
Speaker 1: confidence and the full confidence. The biggest lesson here is
Speaker 1: that the value is in bitcoin and self custody and
Speaker 1: not crypto. I think we're going to see some selling
Speaker 1: off in bitcoin. I think we're going to recover pretty quickly.
Speaker 1: We see less volatility than we did in the last
Speaker 1: sarer market. Sometimes you need to battle tests, you need
Speaker 1: to go through crises. Many big names talking about crypto
Speaker 1: a more specifically bitcoin of it there, But let's talk
Speaker 1: about Sam Banglin Freed himself, the f t X founder
Speaker 1: co founder, an interview being conducted now with The New
Speaker 1: York Times. No Notionani Bassa has been monitoring key headlines
Speaker 1: extraordinary the fact that basically he undermest died, underestimated the
Speaker 1: scale of the potential crash. He says a rule, he
Speaker 1: was not nearly cautious enough on marking to market some
Speaker 1: of the tokens on the various platforms. He thinks the
Speaker 1: US team took some assets offline, and he says there
Speaker 1: was improper access to f t X post I roll.
Speaker 1: What really stood out for you? There are a few
Speaker 1: things here. I want to talk about the timeline of
Speaker 1: events because that is something that Andrew ros Sorkin is
Speaker 1: drilling in on very deeply. If you all remember, there
Speaker 1: was a series of tweets. There was a tweet November
Speaker 1: seven that he had deleted about the assets being fine. Now,
Speaker 1: he did say that on November six he started to
Speaker 1: become nervous that f t l X t X would
Speaker 1: not be able to fill customer withdrawals. Uh. These timelines
Speaker 1: are really important here, Caroline, because at the end of
Speaker 1: the day, and Sorkin also asked, this is his lawyers, Okay,
Speaker 1: with him being up there speaking about this, this will
Speaker 1: all be cataloged and looked at the end of the
Speaker 1: day when you look at what happened here at ft X,
Speaker 1: both in November as well as the full year. Now
Speaker 1: the full year as far as what he had to say,
Speaker 1: he's really been trying to draw a very big distance
Speaker 1: between himself and his role at f t X and
Speaker 1: alamda uh. And it's you know, really apologizing for not
Speaker 1: knowing and saying maybe he should have known. But Sorkin
Speaker 1: is also drilling in here very much so on why
Speaker 1: they're seemingly was a joint roles when it came to
Speaker 1: assets that they both seemed to have some exposure to.
Speaker 1: When I say they both, I mean both Alametera as
Speaker 1: well as Sam bing Bean Freed, who was a large
Speaker 1: owner of Ala meter As we now, so a lot
Speaker 1: of questions here, muddy answers, but a lot of questions
Speaker 1: still to be worked through. This interview is not over yet.
Speaker 1: I don't want to give any away any of sort
Speaker 1: of the magic of television. But when Caroline and I
Speaker 1: were waitings come on air, there's this question of is
Speaker 1: he going to turn up? And if he did turn
Speaker 1: up virtually but as you said, you know, he was
Speaker 1: asked what do your lawyers think about this? And he said, oh,
Speaker 1: I probably shouldn't say anything. He is saying a lot
Speaker 1: of things, and one of the things he's talking about
Speaker 1: is a term I haven't heard in a long time,
Speaker 1: commingling the relationship basically between ft X and Alameda and
Speaker 1: the crossover of client funds. What was his response on that.
Speaker 1: This is a very important response, and I'm reading of
Speaker 1: the sentence I didn't knowingly commingle funds. Why is that
Speaker 1: an important statement, because at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: I wasn't trying to come and go funds, he said,
Speaker 1: I did not ever try to commit fraud on anybody.
Speaker 1: So we're going to be looking at a series of
Speaker 1: events as things go on, as well as intent there.
Speaker 1: So that is something that he had said that day.
Speaker 1: You were asking about the Bahamas as well. He this
Speaker 1: is interesting. He was asked about why certain Alameda employees
Speaker 1: had worked together. He had said he had not been
Speaker 1: living there recently. We don't know how long he has
Speaker 1: or has not been living there. He had also said
Speaker 1: that he would not be surprised if sometime I am
Speaker 1: up there talking about what happened with our representatives, our
Speaker 1: representatives meaning US representatives. In that statement, he said he
Speaker 1: has been in the Bahamas for the last year, as
Speaker 1: we know, though before this crisis had happened, he had
Speaker 1: been between the Bahamas and the US. He had been
Speaker 1: in the DC a lot. I was in d C
Speaker 1: talking to him just weeks ago, really before this implosion
Speaker 1: had happened, and he said he'd been running between ft
Speaker 1: X and the Bahamas, running from FTX in the Bahamas.
Speaker 1: But he does say that he was asked about his
Speaker 1: concern about criminal liability here. He's that he had a
Speaker 1: bad month. But what matters here is millions of customers.
Speaker 1: He did not really give a straight answer about whether
Speaker 1: the criminal liability is whether why the reason why he
Speaker 1: is not coming to the United States in person. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he says he thinks he could travel to the US
Speaker 1: and staying silent won't accomplish any good. I mean, I
Speaker 1: have to say I've almost vaguely had a little chuckle
Speaker 1: about co mingling because it came straight after a headline
Speaker 1: about the fact that a few of them lived altogether,
Speaker 1: and I couldn't work out whether which bit was commingling.
Speaker 1: But overall, Shali, do you think it ends up being
Speaker 1: a wise decision on Sam Batmanfried's part to take a
Speaker 1: part in this conversation. Overall is saying f t X
Speaker 1: did unimpactful things to bolster his own image. I have
Speaker 1: a lot of questions here again about some of the
Speaker 1: things he's saying, because on one hand, here you can
Speaker 1: definitely see him trying to distance himself from the Lameter
Speaker 1: roles to the ft X roles, which is where the
Speaker 1: commingle and question really comes in. There are a lot
Speaker 1: of questions here about Block five and the collateral between
Speaker 1: Block FI and f t X. He again block Fire's
Speaker 1: role lationship was both with Alameda and f t x
Speaker 1: so what he knew and didn't know there are certain
Speaker 1: things he should have known as the CEO of f
Speaker 1: t x UM there He's also speaking about the relationship
Speaker 1: with Genesis as they tried to pull funds as well.
Speaker 1: So a lot of unanswered questions here to your point
Speaker 1: about you know when you look back at this and
Speaker 1: is he going to be glad if he spoke publicly.
Speaker 1: On one hand, he's distancing himself and trying to give
Speaker 1: his version of the series of events here in real
Speaker 1: time as the bankruptcy is going on in the United States. Uh.
Speaker 1: One really interesting part of this also is Andrew Starkin
Speaker 1: asked very specifically about whether he worked with the Bahamas
Speaker 1: as well when it came to any transfers, and he
Speaker 1: said he wouldn't answer any specifics of that, but he
Speaker 1: did point to the fact that Bahamas were a key
Speaker 1: regulator for them and as well as the Joint Provisional
Speaker 1: Liquidators here. So a lot of questions also not just
Speaker 1: about Samming and Freedom his roll up both of these places,
Speaker 1: but also about his relationship with You West regulators as
Speaker 1: well as the Bohemian one style bloom Bog scenari bastic,
Speaker 1: Thank you extraordinary that SPF talking about how he didn't
Speaker 1: see the extreme scenarios that played out in markets coming Carrow,
Speaker 1: which yeah, I don't think any of us really saw
Speaker 1: this coming, did we either way? Coming up, the ceo
Speaker 1: s of Earn Your Leisure talk about their media platform
Speaker 1: and the podcast that's selling out venues like m s G.
Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg. So most people head to Madison Square
Speaker 1: Garden for a game from music concert, but now they're
Speaker 1: buying tickets to financial literacy podcasts. Market Mondays, a podcast
Speaker 1: from the financial literacy brand Earn Your Leisure, recently sold
Speaker 1: out MSG as well as the rural Albert Hall in
Speaker 1: the UK and Your Leisure or Leisure as you might say,
Speaker 1: it has more than two million followers on social media,
Speaker 1: as the creators interviewed some of the biggest names in
Speaker 1: finance and entertainment joining us now. I'm very pleased to
Speaker 1: welcome the CEOs of any Leisure, I said, with our
Speaker 1: Troy Millings and it's great to have some time with
Speaker 1: you both. Welcome and thank you. Thank you for having
Speaker 1: from from our own David Rubinstein, who have you interviewed
Speaker 1: about building his wealth to talking about people how to
Speaker 1: make I ra s and wrath sexy and getting involved
Speaker 1: your children to invest in them already. Overall, Troy, what
Speaker 1: are you seeing at the moment in terms of interest
Speaker 1: in financial literacy at a time where the markets have
Speaker 1: basically been selling off. Yeah, we're seeing a peaking it.
Speaker 1: I think what happened during COVID was everybody was home
Speaker 1: and you know, people were losing jobs and they wanted information,
Speaker 1: and we just kept in to be at the right
Speaker 1: place at the right time with the information to provide
Speaker 1: to them. Um So people were investing at record numbers,
Speaker 1: people were making money at record numbers, and to stay
Speaker 1: with them, and that's one of the things we you know,
Speaker 1: we've probably put on the forefront is like we're here
Speaker 1: for the long term, right, We don't want to just
Speaker 1: be short term traders. We want to give you information
Speaker 1: that you can change your life, and now only yours,
Speaker 1: but your families as well. And I think that you're pairing,
Speaker 1: of course, coming together in ten. You from an education background,
Speaker 1: you from a financial background. Already you're an independent financial
Speaker 1: advisor and been here to Bloomberg in a previous life.
Speaker 1: Rush talk to us about how much the education is working.
Speaker 1: How much people are willing to remain invested in, committed
Speaker 1: for the long term and not be worried by a
Speaker 1: looming recession, not be worried about the valuations and some
Speaker 1: of the structs they hold now for life. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean we always leave with long term perspective. We always
Speaker 1: leave with you know, balance and not get rich quick
Speaker 1: scheme type of mentality. So I think that the people
Speaker 1: that listen to us are more um calm during this
Speaker 1: this time of turbulence, and they're actually excited because we
Speaker 1: know that you know, as an investor, you want to
Speaker 1: buy low and so high. So most people do the
Speaker 1: exact opposite it. They buy high and so low because
Speaker 1: of emotions. But when you take emotions out of it,
Speaker 1: then you have to use intelligence. So I think that
Speaker 1: the people that listen to us have a high intelligence
Speaker 1: when it comes to investing, and they're seeing this time
Speaker 1: as an opportunity. Troy, I want to come to you
Speaker 1: because you guys are content creators, right, Let's be honest,
Speaker 1: your content creators. It's just that like Caroline and are
Speaker 1: you nerd out on finance, on tech, on markets, on
Speaker 1: long term? How did you guys come up with this idea, like,
Speaker 1: where does this come from? Yes, so it was originated
Speaker 1: in the classroom. You know, we started teaching young adults
Speaker 1: about financial literacy. We were used to doing a summer
Speaker 1: program and at the end of it, they were going
Speaker 1: to make money, right, We're gonna pay them, and so
Speaker 1: we've kind kind of felt inclined to teach them about
Speaker 1: money if we're gonna pay them. That led to us
Speaker 1: creating Obviously social media content was led to earn your
Speaker 1: leisure um and so it's always been to to teach
Speaker 1: the youth, but at the same time, to you, we
Speaker 1: realized that adults needed the education, and so that's one
Speaker 1: of the things we've learned over the course of time
Speaker 1: is that financial doesn't really have an age, Right, somebody
Speaker 1: at eleven years old can know something that somebody at
Speaker 1: twenty years old doesn't know, and somebody at forty years
Speaker 1: doesn't know. So we're trying to make sure that it
Speaker 1: feels encompassent for all ages because everybody can learn. I'm
Speaker 1: not sure people like to consumerlate of different ways. I
Speaker 1: like to listen to you on a podcast, people like
Speaker 1: to view on YouTube. You'd like to have real live
Speaker 1: events and as you're doing MSG, you're doing at Royal
Speaker 1: Abbot Hole, your own invest Fest, which is over in Atlanta,
Speaker 1: which is kind of like music festival meets financial literacy.
Speaker 1: From that point, like where does your media platform go,
Speaker 1: where does your brand go? From here? How do you
Speaker 1: build it? I think we are building a global media
Speaker 1: empire and we're looking to produce more content even outside
Speaker 1: of the realm of financial literacy. So a cooking show,
Speaker 1: a show about no children, and I think that people
Speaker 1: now they trust us, and that's one of the hardest
Speaker 1: things to do is to build trust for the audience.
Speaker 1: So now I think we have the credibility to spread
Speaker 1: the message of not only financial literacy, but a variety
Speaker 1: of different things. And on a global perspective, As you said,
Speaker 1: we just came back from London a few weeks ago,
Speaker 1: so we're seeing the need for financial literacy and business
Speaker 1: education all over the world, whether it's in Lagos, Nigeria,
Speaker 1: whether it's in Kingston, Jamaica, whether it's in London. So
Speaker 1: this is something that we're very exciting about, you know,
Speaker 1: carrying the flag of financial literacy to everybody that was
Speaker 1: left out of the conversation globally. Russian I know you're
Speaker 1: a sort of social media guy for the duo, but Troy, like,
Speaker 1: talk to me a little bit about the numbers. Are
Speaker 1: you monetizing in the way that you expected, How are
Speaker 1: the algorithms working for you? What do you think about
Speaker 1: the way in which you can build on social media
Speaker 1: at this moment? Yeah, I mean it's very important. If
Speaker 1: you don't have social media presence, you really don't have
Speaker 1: a brand UM. And so that's something we knew very
Speaker 1: very early on, and and knowing that, it was like, Okay,
Speaker 1: how do we build how do we get more people involved?
Speaker 1: And so we wanted to make sure that the content
Speaker 1: was relevant. A lot of times when we read articles
Speaker 1: and it's like, all right, this is kind of flunk.
Speaker 1: We don't really know what's being told, but we made
Speaker 1: it in a way that was suggestible. It was something
Speaker 1: that was spoken in the language that people can understand
Speaker 1: for people who were overlooked UM. And so that was
Speaker 1: pretty much our format, and it's led to us have
Speaker 1: at one point two million subscribers UH, one point to
Speaker 1: million UH followers on Instagram, over a million subscribers on YouTube,
Speaker 1: We're about to hit a quarter million on TikTok, so
Speaker 1: all these avenues of resources that we're using to reach
Speaker 1: an audience, a global audience, have paid off. Troy mentioned
Speaker 1: some of the platforms there. I guess my question Rush
Speaker 1: had is what's the biggest surprise. What have you learned
Speaker 1: about how consumers are going to get content in this area? Well,
Speaker 1: one thing that you know is ironic is that the
Speaker 1: financial literacy space actually booms during recession times. You would
Speaker 1: think that that would be the exact opposite, but during
Speaker 1: times of financial hardship is when people take their education
Speaker 1: more serious, when people invest in their education, and we
Speaker 1: saw that happened during COVID. I also saw it happened
Speaker 1: in two thousand and eight when I came in as
Speaker 1: a financial advisor. I came in at the worst economic
Speaker 1: times since the Great Depression, and that was actually a
Speaker 1: good time to start my career because it was easy
Speaker 1: for me to talk about investment because investments were so low.
Speaker 1: So we see opportunity in every crisis, and um, right now,
Speaker 1: in this economic downturn that we're in right now, I
Speaker 1: think there is an opportunity to educate, to double down
Speaker 1: on content, and to spread the message because people need
Speaker 1: it more now. Another all right, earn your leisures CEOs
Speaker 1: Rashabilau and Troy Millings thank you. The only other better
Speaker 1: double A carrows you and I. That does it? Maybe
Speaker 1: it's equivalent. There ain't no bad, sure does it? These
Speaker 1: are in different ways? That does it? All of us.
Speaker 1: For this edition of Bloomberg Technology Thursday, we have Visas
Speaker 1: CFO to share his outlook for three spending and do
Speaker 1: not forget to check out our own podcast. If you're
Speaker 1: busy looking at and listening to earn your leisure, come
Speaker 1: look at us as well. We're talking all things technology,
Speaker 1: of course where they are online, on Apple, Spotify and
Speaker 1: on my heart. So much more to be debating. Go
Speaker 1: check out the latest from Sam Bagma Freed. Of course,
Speaker 1: the interview continues and at the moment he's saying, you
Speaker 1: went through a congressional hearing and public comment and still
Speaker 1: couldn't get to a point of offering futures in the US.
Speaker 1: Fascinating conversation. Yes, so much more to come. This is
Speaker 1: flame back Wick Wick Wi A Pip Pip Pip