Speaker 1: From the heart of where innovation, money and power collive
Speaker 1: in Silicon Valley and beyond. This is Bloomberg Technology with
Speaker 1: Emily Jay I'm Emily taking San Francisco and this is
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Technology. Coming up in the next hour, new information
Speaker 1: on Musk's big backards in his bid to take over Twitter.
Speaker 1: High on the list and who buy based investment firm
Speaker 1: with a secretive founder. We will tell you what you
Speaker 1: need to know. Whilst I'm joined by Clarinas CEO, Sebastian
Speaker 1: Simiatkowski is he ain't worried about Apple moving into Kliners,
Speaker 1: Clarinas buying out pay Later territory, and Arianna Huffington joins
Speaker 1: me to talk about how she got some of the
Speaker 1: biggest companies in the world to sign Thrives mental health
Speaker 1: pledge covering mill and of workers. We're gonna get to
Speaker 1: all of that in a moment, but first, A secretive
Speaker 1: five billion dollar fund is helping elon Musk's bid to
Speaker 1: buy Twitter. By Capital has committed seven hundred million dollars
Speaker 1: to finance Musk's billion dollar deal. The firm is based
Speaker 1: in Dubai and was founded by Alexander Tamas, a German
Speaker 1: investor who previously worked with Russian billionaire Eurie Millner Bloombers.
Speaker 1: Kurt Wagner joins us to discuss. So tell us more
Speaker 1: about the significance, Kurt, of this fund's involvement. Well, I
Speaker 1: think it just goes to show exactly how far reaching
Speaker 1: Elon has had to go in order to get funding
Speaker 1: for this deal. It also kind of goes to show
Speaker 1: how international I think this there is interest in Twitter
Speaker 1: right now and mostly in funding a project that Elon
Speaker 1: Musk cares about. Right Vy has a history of kind
Speaker 1: of connecting itself with these big named tech backers like Elon.
Speaker 1: I think they're also in the boring company which Zilon. Uh.
Speaker 1: They've done some investments um in SpaceX before. So I
Speaker 1: just think there's you know, it kind of gives a
Speaker 1: bit of an international flare to this whole thing, but
Speaker 1: also just goes to show exactly how far Ellen is
Speaker 1: having to go in order to to find funding for
Speaker 1: this thing. And they are the third largest outside equity
Speaker 1: investor in the deal, so that's they're they're getting a
Speaker 1: big chunk of this deal. Talk to us about where
Speaker 1: the discussions between Musk and Twitter stand on bots. There's
Speaker 1: been a lot of back and forth. Right, Yeah, So
Speaker 1: the latest this week was that Elon came forward. He
Speaker 1: formally filed a letter with the SEC saying again, you know, hey,
Speaker 1: I may walk away from this deal if I don't
Speaker 1: start getting information to prove that the Botto number Twitter
Speaker 1: claims is the Botto number is legit. And now what
Speaker 1: we heard from yesterday was that Twitter is going to
Speaker 1: give him access to the A p I, which is
Speaker 1: known colloquially as the fire hose of tweets. Right, so
Speaker 1: every public tweet on Twitter is now going to be
Speaker 1: accessible to Ellen and his team. They can do with
Speaker 1: that what they wish. I'm not exactly sure if that's
Speaker 1: going to answer the box question for him, but it
Speaker 1: does show that they're trying to figure out a middle
Speaker 1: ground here where he can get the answers he needs
Speaker 1: and they can move this thing forward. Meantime, we've also
Speaker 1: been coming another story. Meta had been working on a
Speaker 1: watch that we imagine would have been a competitor to
Speaker 1: the Apple Watch. They've now stopped those plans. What happened here, Yeah,
Speaker 1: so they're still working on a smart watch. I do
Speaker 1: want to be clear about that. But the one that
Speaker 1: we have been talking about and that you may have
Speaker 1: seen written up in the press is no longer going
Speaker 1: to be developed. And that one had two cameras. That
Speaker 1: was kind of what made it unique. It at a
Speaker 1: front facing camera, but also a camera on the back,
Speaker 1: and you could take the watch off of the strap
Speaker 1: and kind of hold it up to take pictures. And
Speaker 1: what happened was that back camera that was against your
Speaker 1: wrist that was interfering with the company's ability to um
Speaker 1: use the watch as a controller. Right, So one of
Speaker 1: the things they want to do with wrist wearables is
Speaker 1: they want to be able to determine when you're moving
Speaker 1: your hand or your fingers so that you can use
Speaker 1: that as a controller for example augmented reality glasses. And
Speaker 1: the camera was interfering there. So they're gonna get rid
Speaker 1: of this prototype and they're gonna do something else with
Speaker 1: the watch. But again, as you pointed out, this was
Speaker 1: kind of considered something that maybe they were doing to
Speaker 1: compete with the Apple Watch. So the fact that they're
Speaker 1: moving to something else UM obviously is notable. Alright, Bloomber,
Speaker 1: Kurt Wagner, thank you for your reporting on this. Now
Speaker 1: back to that Musk Twitter deal. Another backer of that deal,
Speaker 1: of course, is Larry Ellison, the Oracle founder, is the
Speaker 1: world's eleventh richest person, with a net worth of eighty
Speaker 1: eight point nine billion dollars. In two thousand twelve, he
Speaker 1: bought of the Hawaiian island of lan I for three
Speaker 1: hundred million dollars. That purchase came with two four seasons resorts,
Speaker 1: a significant chunk of its homes, and practically all of
Speaker 1: its commercial properties. Overnight, Ellison became almost everyone's boss, landlord,
Speaker 1: or both. In today's Big Take Blue, Sophie Alexander took
Speaker 1: a deep dive on the impact this has had on
Speaker 1: the people of Lenin and Sophie, I'm from Hawaii. We
Speaker 1: call it La Nutty there talked to us about the
Speaker 1: history of this island. I'm very familiar with it. How
Speaker 1: is it that one person was able to buy almost
Speaker 1: the entire island. Yeah, it's unique because you think of
Speaker 1: billionaires buying private islands and it's not that big of
Speaker 1: a deal. But this one is different because it has
Speaker 1: three thousand people who live there. Uh So, Lena's history
Speaker 1: goes back into the eighteen hundreds when one person came
Speaker 1: over and started buying up chunks of the land. And
Speaker 1: slowly accumulated pretty much the entire island, like of it,
Speaker 1: and that passed from one family to another until in
Speaker 1: James Dole bought it and he started turning it into
Speaker 1: the world's largest pineapple plantation, which it was for seven decades.
Speaker 1: Then it passes to another billionaire, David Murdoch, whom as
Speaker 1: chairman of Dole, and then in two thousand twelve Larry
Speaker 1: Ellison bought it. And of course there are still thousands
Speaker 1: of regular people who live there. How exactly are they
Speaker 1: being impacted by Larry Allison now owning it? Yeah, this
Speaker 1: is interesting because, like I said, the people who live
Speaker 1: there and have lived there for generations are used to
Speaker 1: being under the control of a single company or a
Speaker 1: single person or family. But Larry Ellison is a whole
Speaker 1: different animal. As one person put it, you know, he's
Speaker 1: got ninety billion dollars. That's a lot of money. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's nearly double what you have before the pandemic started.
Speaker 1: The last billionaire, David Murdoch, he only had like two
Speaker 1: billion dollars. They call him the poor billionaire. Um, so
Speaker 1: Larry can really do whatever he wants. And it's it's
Speaker 1: starting to show and what exactly is he doing? I
Speaker 1: mean this tell us the stories in your article are
Speaker 1: just absolutely fascinating, right, so true billionaire form. You know,
Speaker 1: as soon as Larry gets there, he decides he doesn't
Speaker 1: like the food, so he builds one nobu. Now there's
Speaker 1: another sense a buy nobu. He renovates the two fours
Speaker 1: and seasons resorts and so now they're fancier than ever
Speaker 1: for you know, thousands of dollars tens of thousands of
Speaker 1: dollars a night, um. And he's also doing things for
Speaker 1: the community. You know, he bought the tree store and
Speaker 1: he renovated it um. But that is the main concern
Speaker 1: is that he's buying up a lot of the small businesses.
Speaker 1: He's buying up some more houses, and people are nervous.
Speaker 1: So generally are people you know, you use the word nervous.
Speaker 1: They're they're not happy with this, I think, even though
Speaker 1: they're getting a new grocery store for example. Sure, I
Speaker 1: mean it depends who you ask, but I think it's
Speaker 1: more of an anxiety because the big problem is a
Speaker 1: lack of communication. People don't know what ultimately Larry's plans are,
Speaker 1: and so they just don't know what their future is
Speaker 1: going to look like here, and so more and more
Speaker 1: of them feel like there's not a place for them
Speaker 1: on the island. There it's being catered to the uber,
Speaker 1: uber wealthy, not for for locals. Well, and a lot
Speaker 1: of these people, you know, their livelihoods, they service the resorts,
Speaker 1: they work at these resorts. Is Larry Ellison's spending a
Speaker 1: lot of time there personally. Do we know anything about
Speaker 1: his endgame? Yes, So he moved there during the pandemic
Speaker 1: and that's been key because you know, it's kind of
Speaker 1: like out of place, out of mind. Now that he's there,
Speaker 1: all of his plans are picking up. So he's building
Speaker 1: a monk story school, He's building a five home complex
Speaker 1: for himself. Um, you know, he's building a new housing
Speaker 1: project to house all of his construction workers because housing
Speaker 1: is a huge issue on the island. He's shut down
Speaker 1: his third hotel for workforce housing for the entire year.
Speaker 1: And a lot of this is happening with very little
Speaker 1: communication or no communication with community. M interesting. Well, it's
Speaker 1: a fascinating read. You can check it out this week's
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Big Take. Socie Alexander, thank you. Check out the
Speaker 1: article in Bloomberg Business week, while more musical chairs at Disney,
Speaker 1: CEO Bob Chpeck has abruptly fired the head of Television,
Speaker 1: Peter Rice, for not being a team player. According to
Speaker 1: Bloomberg sources, Rice was chair of General Entertainment Content and
Speaker 1: oversaw a vast swath of shows carried across Disney Networks.
Speaker 1: The sudden firing is the latest twist and a tumultuous
Speaker 1: stretch for tape Chpeck. His leadership has come under scrutiny
Speaker 1: over the last year as he wrestled with challenges that
Speaker 1: included a high profile dust stop with Florida Governor Rohnda
Speaker 1: Santis over a new law limiting discussion of sexual identity
Speaker 1: in classrooms. We're learning more about Apple's jump into the
Speaker 1: buy now, pay later business. The company will actually handle lending,
Speaker 1: including credit checks, with a new business called Apple Financing,
Speaker 1: marking a significant further push into financial services. Some see
Speaker 1: this push as a threat to the more established players,
Speaker 1: including a firm and Clarina. But is it joining me now?
Speaker 1: Sebastian Schimakowsky, CEO and co founder of Clarina and Sebastian
Speaker 1: I was at Apple when they were unveiling this and
Speaker 1: everyone immediately thought about companies like Clarina and a firm
Speaker 1: you tweeted that plagiarism is the highest form of flattery.
Speaker 1: But are you worried that this could hurt your business? Not? Right?
Speaker 1: For first of almost like, I think it's a great
Speaker 1: win for consumers world one that Apple is now embracing
Speaker 1: a better form of consuming credit. Um, we're looking at
Speaker 1: an industry of retail banking payments that you know has
Speaker 1: an addressable market of four hundred forty billion dollars worldwide,
Speaker 1: and it has been constructed in a way traditionally where
Speaker 1: credit cards have been making it fortune by trying to
Speaker 1: get us to revolve at high interest rates once we
Speaker 1: get that prayer card statement every month. And this form
Speaker 1: of credit is better for consumers. So I think it's
Speaker 1: it's it's fantastic, And Plana has been offering this form
Speaker 1: of credit for a while. I actually would be mostly
Speaker 1: worried if I was one of those predre card banks
Speaker 1: who embraced Apple Pay. Was so happy to embrace this
Speaker 1: new technology and now suddenly find myself having this company
Speaker 1: in front of my credit card promoting an interest free
Speaker 1: credit instead of my forty percent revolving credit one and
Speaker 1: then pushing the customer to another provider. I that that's
Speaker 1: the that to be should be the big headline of
Speaker 1: this news for US. I mean, Flana has a hundred
Speaker 1: fifty million users worldwide, where one of the largest third
Speaker 1: party globe and payment networks in the world. Paying for
Speaker 1: is a fantastic product. It has done tremendously well for
Speaker 1: us in the US and helped us a lot to
Speaker 1: gain recognition and so forth. But people are using us
Speaker 1: for a lot of reasons, one not the least being
Speaker 1: the fact that we're the richest data payments networks in
Speaker 1: the world because we have skew level data and digital
Speaker 1: receipts on every transaction, allowing us to create a much
Speaker 1: richard consumer experience. Transactions are debit, not even credit. People
Speaker 1: don't know that um and so forth. So so I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm working. I always think competition is nice, and I'm
Speaker 1: I'm also fortunate to have a neighbor here in Daniel X,
Speaker 1: the founder of Spotify, who has has can give me
Speaker 1: some tips on how to compete with Apple successfully. Obviously good.
Speaker 1: Good to know that you and Eck are friendly. I
Speaker 1: also spoke with a firm CEO, Max Election he similarly,
Speaker 1: you know, said it was a win for consumers, but
Speaker 1: he also said something else. Take a listen why I'm
Speaker 1: not particually worried about Apple pay entering the bioppulator space.
Speaker 1: They're focused on the can into the six week product,
Speaker 1: which I think is great and display of competitors, and
Speaker 1: they should be worried. I think this spells a certain
Speaker 1: level of concern for folks that are really specialized in
Speaker 1: this really short term product. That's not calling out Klina.
Speaker 1: He might, you know, it's funny me and act of
Speaker 1: a long history. I remember presenting Clana at depth, trying
Speaker 1: to recruit him as a board member, and then being
Speaker 1: surprised by him announcing a firm six months later. Um,
Speaker 1: so we have if we have a we have a
Speaker 1: fun history me and Max. But look, I think, look,
Speaker 1: they're very distinctly He's He's very accurate about one thing,
Speaker 1: and that is that Clana and a firm are distinctly
Speaker 1: different businesses. If I've understood the firm's reporting correct, their
Speaker 1: businesses is um is financing, long term financing. If I
Speaker 1: understand correct reports online, fifty of their UM of their
Speaker 1: balance credit is priced at only five to interest rate
Speaker 1: rates that we don't even go up to Plana max.
Speaker 1: My maxisized at twenty five. So it's a very different
Speaker 1: businesses lending high ticket items to people that think interest
Speaker 1: rate is attracted. Clina is that pay interest free product.
Speaker 1: It's a payments product. We have the largest account to
Speaker 1: account based payments network in the world. So these these
Speaker 1: are distinct different businesses and and and so yes, I
Speaker 1: think that in that I agree with him, and I
Speaker 1: don't think it's accuracy. So some some shots fired there.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna have to get Max to respond to that.
Speaker 1: You know. He also talked about how a firm. He
Speaker 1: also talked about how a firm is hiring and Clarina
Speaker 1: did have some layoffs recently. I believe you and I
Speaker 1: was planned to lay off ten percent of your workforce.
Speaker 1: When you look back, do you see any mistakes in
Speaker 1: your execution? And you know, does this mean that you're
Speaker 1: kind of slightly less optimistic about how big the market
Speaker 1: can be for Klina than you work? No, I think
Speaker 1: look for us, there's a long term opportunity in this
Speaker 1: which has been that I believe we're going through a
Speaker 1: similar revolution in retail banking and payments that retail went
Speaker 1: through ten years ago. You remember, I've been running Plan
Speaker 1: Up for fourteen seventeen years now, where of the fourteen
Speaker 1: first year we're profitable um and and I went through
Speaker 1: the financial crisis with this company two thousand seven and
Speaker 1: two thousand a. So, but what happened in the last
Speaker 1: two years is that we've been very focused on establishing
Speaker 1: yourselves in the US. We're proudly we have twenty five
Speaker 1: million users that we see, you know, Macy's and Support
Speaker 1: and big fantastic brands in the U S adopted Klan
Speaker 1: and it is offering Klan Up today. So it's been
Speaker 1: a very very um a time where we've been investing
Speaker 1: a lot, and it's been very clear, as I think
Speaker 1: a lot of other companies in the US have understood
Speaker 1: now as well, that there is a shift in investors.
Speaker 1: You know, investors being entirely focused on asking for what
Speaker 1: are you doing to grow faster six to nine months ago,
Speaker 1: are now starting to ask questions about profitability and softwath
Speaker 1: And again we have the benefit of having been a
Speaker 1: profitable company for a lot of for a long period
Speaker 1: of time. We now invested heavily. We we we said, look
Speaker 1: the in goal is exactly the same that it has
Speaker 1: always been, but it's going to be a slightly different
Speaker 1: path towards that, and the unfortunately led us to something
Speaker 1: that you know, I find obviously very sad that we
Speaker 1: as a consequence of that, decided to make changes to
Speaker 1: how the order looks and how it's set up, and
Speaker 1: that has led us to suggest and ask people to uh,
Speaker 1: you know, offer them severance packages and so forth, and
Speaker 1: as some people to to leave Plana, which is abviously
Speaker 1: very sad because I think this is all amazing talent,
Speaker 1: amazing people that you know have have contributed to the company.
Speaker 1: So it's a sad thing to do, but I think
Speaker 1: it's it's the right thing considering how the marketing look nowadays,
Speaker 1: and I think it will set up up even better
Speaker 1: for for future success going forward. Now in this new
Speaker 1: in this new market environment that we're in. Well, I
Speaker 1: know you made quite a move and shared some of
Speaker 1: their their details, which um, I hope they're getting some
Speaker 1: inbound all of that great talent um. As you've said,
Speaker 1: the goal is to become the world's largest retail bank.
Speaker 1: Given regulation, given the changing competitive landscape, how far out
Speaker 1: is that vision In the United States? And abroad. No,
Speaker 1: we're quite far actually ahead. Right. So I to me, like,
Speaker 1: if you look at this from a future perspective, what
Speaker 1: I believe in, what I believe a longer time is
Speaker 1: that like someday in the future, you wake up in
Speaker 1: the morning, your computer says to your your financial assistant,
Speaker 1: Digital as system says, hey have analyzed your mortgage, tonyed
Speaker 1: I realized it, could you know, save you x amount
Speaker 1: of the nars by shifting from supplier A to supplier B.
Speaker 1: And the only thing you need to say yes, it's
Speaker 1: a little bit like self driving cars. I don't know
Speaker 1: when it's going to happen, but I do know it
Speaker 1: will happen. So the future of banking is very different
Speaker 1: to what we've traditionally seen, where banks have been obsessed
Speaker 1: with what they called maximizing interest rate spread, meaning you know,
Speaker 1: giving the positors as a little as possible and then
Speaker 1: borrowing it out the highest possible interest rate. The true
Speaker 1: future retail banking financial services is somebody's on the consumer
Speaker 1: side trying to help them save time, save money, make
Speaker 1: you the less worried about their finances. And it's been
Speaker 1: very clear to me that that who those five or
Speaker 1: four large companies that will dominate that space in the
Speaker 1: next ten years on a global basis will be that
Speaker 1: somebody's global and somebody has a banking background and it's
Speaker 1: willing to pursue that. There will be some tech companies
Speaker 1: pursuing that. We see Apple now pursuing some of that.
Speaker 1: There will be some fin techs, and there will be
Speaker 1: some traditional banks. And I think Planna would have hundred
Speaker 1: fifty million users and with a data set that is
Speaker 1: much richer than anyone else due to the you know
Speaker 1: the fact that we have skew level data on all transactions.
Speaker 1: It's giving us a tremendous opportunity to lead the game
Speaker 1: in providing more value for consumers and really be on
Speaker 1: the consumer side. And I'm also happy now that even
Speaker 1: though media has questioned things like buying now, pay later,
Speaker 1: we're seeing other people adopting and recognizing that this is
Speaker 1: a better form of credit as well. So I think
Speaker 1: it's verifying a lot of the assumptions that we've had,
Speaker 1: and so I feel very excited about it. Sebastian Chimakowsky,
Speaker 1: Corner CEO, thank you for joining us as always coming up.
Speaker 1: Meta is now a leader in another social media trend lawsuits.
Speaker 1: Why the company has been sued more than half a
Speaker 1: dozen times just in the last week. That is next.
Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg. In the last week, eight lawsuits have
Speaker 1: been filed across the country against Meta, the suits alleging
Speaker 1: that the company built algorithms leading young people into addiction.
Speaker 1: For more, I'm joined now by Bloomberg's Alafi Nayak Malthy.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for joining us. So what kind
Speaker 1: of addiction are you talking about here? So? The users
Speaker 1: who suit Meta claiming that Facebook and Instagram have created
Speaker 1: algorithms and products that keep users hooked onto um its platforms,
Speaker 1: especially young users, and that they promote excessive use of
Speaker 1: these platforms through these algorithms. The claiming that Meta knew
Speaker 1: that these algorithms were problematic, that they would lead to
Speaker 1: issues such as eating disorders a d h D, and
Speaker 1: depression among young users, but that the company continued to
Speaker 1: keep these products and services going to drive profit. This
Speaker 1: echoes what the Facebook whistle blower quote unquote Francis Halgan
Speaker 1: testified to Congress about how is Facebook responding? So Facebook
Speaker 1: hasn't responded in court as yet, but spokesperson declined to
Speaker 1: comment because it is active litigation. But she did point
Speaker 1: to some efforts by Facebook recently such as having tools
Speaker 1: um for parents to control screen time and also enough
Speaker 1: resources like having these little pop up messages that come up.
Speaker 1: If a user looks for information on and eating disorder,
Speaker 1: for example, then there will be some tips and resources
Speaker 1: that will pop up on screen to sort of help
Speaker 1: the help the young user deal with certain issues. Are
Speaker 1: these lawsuits coordinated so there are a bunch of firms.
Speaker 1: There's one group in Seattle, and then there's another firm
Speaker 1: called Beasley Allen which just filed these eight suits in
Speaker 1: the last week. UM. So at some point they could
Speaker 1: all get consolidated in court, but right now their separate
Speaker 1: efforts interesting. Gos Mouth and I thank you, thank you
Speaker 1: for that update. Welcome back to Bloomer Technology and Emily
Speaker 1: Chang in San Francisco. We have heard so much about
Speaker 1: mental health over the last few years as we've all
Speaker 1: had to navigate the uncertainty of a pandemic from home
Speaker 1: to work. This is why Thrive has partnered with the
Speaker 1: Society for Human Resource Management to get some of the
Speaker 1: biggest companies from Microsoft to Salesforce, Cisco, Uber, and Walmart
Speaker 1: to make a commitment to employees mental health and well being.
Speaker 1: Joining me right now, Founder and CEO of Thrive, Arianna
Speaker 1: Huffington's Arianna, great to have you back with us. So
Speaker 1: what exactly are these companies committing to do? So Basically,
Speaker 1: they're committing during the staff economic times ahead, not to
Speaker 1: cut mental health and well being offerings to their employees
Speaker 1: as you know, and really offered. The last two years,
Speaker 1: we've seen an incredible increase offered. Ninety companies have increased
Speaker 1: their mental health and well being offerings to their employees.
Speaker 1: Over the last two years, practically every company became also
Speaker 1: a healthcare company. And these are amazing advances, and US
Speaker 1: companies are making tough decisions. So we wanted to make
Speaker 1: sure that there was a real commitment not to cut
Speaker 1: down these fundamental services, especially at the time when the
Speaker 1: mental health crisis is seen as the second pandemic, and
Speaker 1: we were thrilled with a response. Within a week, we
Speaker 1: got over eighty both Fortune ten companies and also high
Speaker 1: growth startups to join the pledgere and sign up. Now,
Speaker 1: we've been hearing a lot of talk about mental health lately.
Speaker 1: It's also being blamed for gun violence. I'm curious if
Speaker 1: you think this issue is being politicized. Well, mental um
Speaker 1: crisis is real, and everything is being politicized today. But
Speaker 1: the truth is that we've seen unprecedented numbers of depression
Speaker 1: and anxiety, and that we know there is a lot
Speaker 1: that can be done by changing our everyday habits around sleep,
Speaker 1: around food, around the thought we hold in our heads
Speaker 1: to change outcomes. And that's one of the things that
Speaker 1: companies are doing. Beyond just the medical intervention if things
Speaker 1: get really bad, there is a lot we can do
Speaker 1: about prevention. So the question is how, and and often
Speaker 1: how much is our own tech obsessed culture making all
Speaker 1: of this work worse. You and I have talked about
Speaker 1: Facebook and now Meta, which you know, as we were
Speaker 1: just discussing in a segment earlier, is being sued across
Speaker 1: the country for knowingly coaxing teens into different four of addiction.
Speaker 1: What do you make of that narrative? So obviously I
Speaker 1: don't know the details of the lawsuit, but what I
Speaker 1: do know, and what every parent knows, is that managing
Speaker 1: the relationship of their children to technology, to social media
Speaker 1: is really hard. You and I were talking about your
Speaker 1: nine year old son and how long can you wait
Speaker 1: before he even gets a phone, and that's something that's
Speaker 1: based on observation. At Drive. We launched a dedicated curriculum
Speaker 1: called Thriving Kids because one of the companies who work
Speaker 1: with Fighter saw the concern that working parents are having
Speaker 1: over the relationship of their children to their phones, to
Speaker 1: social media, the growing skyrocketing rates of depression and anxiety
Speaker 1: among children and teenagers. It's a huge issue and I'm
Speaker 1: so glad you're looking at it more closely. I also
Speaker 1: have to ask you about Cheryl Samberg because I know
Speaker 1: you're close friends, and we've seen this great resignation happening
Speaker 1: across the country and around the world, and some people
Speaker 1: didn't expect to see Cheryl Samberg be part of it.
Speaker 1: Were you surprised how long she stayed or do you
Speaker 1: have any more insights into why she left? And now
Speaker 1: I am very very proud of her for taking that step.
Speaker 1: You know, Emily here and I have talked a lot
Speaker 1: about women, and so often I talked to friends in
Speaker 1: big corporate jobs who have stopped really feeling that that's
Speaker 1: what they want to be doing. But so many women
Speaker 1: and men, but especially women become so identified with their
Speaker 1: jobs and we know from everything Cheryl has done beyond
Speaker 1: Facebook with a lean in circles, with her work with
Speaker 1: Option B helping people who experienced loss to rebuild their lives,
Speaker 1: that this is an amazing new chapter for her. And
Speaker 1: I profoundly believe that life comes in chapters, you know.
Speaker 1: I I've had many chapters myself, and I remember when
Speaker 1: I was debating leaving the having done post to launch Thrive,
Speaker 1: I actually called Cheryl and she gave me the advice
Speaker 1: to just take a deep breath, close my eyes and jump.
Speaker 1: And these changes, these jumps require carriage. It's always easier
Speaker 1: to stay where you are, especially when staying where you
Speaker 1: are is a huge job. Well, that's a perfect segue
Speaker 1: to my next question, because you know a thing or
Speaker 1: two about owning a media company. And I'm so curious
Speaker 1: what you think of Elon Musk and his bid to
Speaker 1: buy Twitter. I know you gave him some advice back
Speaker 1: in to sleep More. I'm not sure if he took it,
Speaker 1: but any advice for him now? I mean, do you
Speaker 1: think he's a good owner? Will he be a good
Speaker 1: owner for Twitter if it happens? Well, first of all, Emilie,
Speaker 1: are you surprised that a company like Twitter that thrives
Speaker 1: on drama and conflict is engulfed in more drama and
Speaker 1: conflict with a man who enjoys drama and conflict. I'm
Speaker 1: actually much more interested in a learn's decision to bring
Speaker 1: everybody back to the office full time. I think that's
Speaker 1: going to become a very key decision for companies and
Speaker 1: for me. What's being missed from this conversation is that
Speaker 1: more important than where people are working is how they're working.
Speaker 1: And again, in the same way, with a mental health pledge,
Speaker 1: we want to avoid regressing into the pre pandemic past.
Speaker 1: The same applies here. We need to avoid regressing into
Speaker 1: cultures driven by burnout, and that means that whether people
Speaker 1: work in a hybrid environment, remote or back in the office,
Speaker 1: everybody has to be much more intentional about the new
Speaker 1: work order. We cannot pretend and that we can unring
Speaker 1: the bell that millions of people worked remote and did
Speaker 1: a lot of good work. But we need to become
Speaker 1: much more intentional about building the social capital that we
Speaker 1: do lose when people are not physically together all the time,
Speaker 1: and that means not having people come back to the
Speaker 1: office to take zoom calls from their cubicles. That means
Speaker 1: and that's a priority for us at Thrive. Being much
Speaker 1: more intentional about onboarding, we include something called the Entry interview,
Speaker 1: being much more intentional about hybrid rituals, like something we
Speaker 1: call reset, where people create their own sixty second reset
Speaker 1: of what gives them joy and share them. A teamm thinks,
Speaker 1: so a lot of work has to be done to
Speaker 1: navigate the new world order, and whatever Mordel a company chooses,
Speaker 1: you cannot unring the bell. We will try to get
Speaker 1: Ellen that advice Arianna, maybe via Twitter, since that seems
Speaker 1: to be where he is hanging out. Arianna Huffington's founder
Speaker 1: and CEO of Thrive. Always love having you here on
Speaker 1: the show. Thank you for stopping by. Alright, Coming up,
Speaker 1: the future of crypto regulation. How a Democratic and Republican
Speaker 1: senator are taking a stab at working on this together.
Speaker 1: Senators Kirsten Gillibrand and Cynthia Lammas joined me. Coming up,
Speaker 1: this is Bloomberg Time now for our crypto reporting. Today
Speaker 1: we are talking crypto regulation. A new bill that could
Speaker 1: help clarify which digital currencies are commodities and which our
Speaker 1: securities just got new support from the CFTC the Commodities
Speaker 1: Futures Trading Commission, while the bill would give them more power.
Speaker 1: I sat down earlier with Senator's Cares and Gillibrand from
Speaker 1: New York and Cynthia Lammas from Riot, Wyoming, who wrote
Speaker 1: the bill. Take a listen to what they had to say.
Speaker 1: I don't think any bill can satisfy everyone, but I
Speaker 1: think this is a really great start because our goals
Speaker 1: are simple. We want to create safety and soundness in
Speaker 1: the American market. We want transparency and accountability, and we
Speaker 1: want to have consumer protections. And most industry players want
Speaker 1: to have rules of the road so they know they
Speaker 1: can count on it, so they know that they can
Speaker 1: create a business plan and know that that's consistent with
Speaker 1: what US laws are likely going to be. And so
Speaker 1: what Sarah Loves and I worked on is a comprehensive
Speaker 1: framework to give guidance about which digital assets will be
Speaker 1: regulated through the CFTC, which will be regulated through the
Speaker 1: sec UM, giving I r S jurisdiction overall, making sure
Speaker 1: we have rules for stable coins and o c C.
Speaker 1: So we're doing the work that it takes to create
Speaker 1: that stability and create the essential transparency that this industry
Speaker 1: wants and needs to thrive. Our goal is not to overregulate.
Speaker 1: Our goal is to have exactly the right amount of
Speaker 1: oversight so that the industry can actually thrive, grow, and
Speaker 1: continue to innovate in the United States. On that note,
Speaker 1: Senator Lamas, Wyoming is steeped in the history of the
Speaker 1: wild West and a lot of investors are attracted to
Speaker 1: crypto because it is unregulated. How do you strike the
Speaker 1: right balance here, Well, we have decided to use the
Speaker 1: existing regulatory structure for traditional assets UH and lay the
Speaker 1: structure for digital assets on top of it. That's why
Speaker 1: we're using the Commodity Futures Trading Commission UH, the SEC,
Speaker 1: and UH the I R S UH in their traditional roles. So,
Speaker 1: for example, bitcoin is clearly a commodity, so it will
Speaker 1: fall under the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. So will the
Speaker 1: spot market in the futures market, and Ethereum is almost
Speaker 1: certainly a commodity, and there are few others that will
Speaker 1: almost certainly be commodities, they will fall under the CFTC.
Speaker 1: Then something that meets the Howie test, which is a
Speaker 1: court based test for what constitutes a security, will put
Speaker 1: those cryptocurrencies under the SEC, and the SEC has a
Speaker 1: strong history of being good at disclosures and consumer protection,
Speaker 1: so we believe we've found the right balance between these
Speaker 1: two agencies. The vast majority of these in terms of
Speaker 1: market share, will be under the Commodity Futures Trading Commission,
Speaker 1: but the largest number of cryptocurrencies will probably fall under
Speaker 1: the SEC. And yet there's no real broad agreement on
Speaker 1: whether cryptocurrencies are commodities or security. Senator Jillibrand, I'm so curious,
Speaker 1: which do you think our commodities? Which do you think
Speaker 1: our securities? So I think Senator love Us just answer
Speaker 1: that question perfectly. And the way we have the structure
Speaker 1: this oversight is by purpose. What is the purpose of
Speaker 1: your digital asset? Do you meet the TAWI test um?
Speaker 1: Are you like a company that's offering a stock to
Speaker 1: raise money for your company to fund your company? If
Speaker 1: that's what you're doing with your digital asset, you are
Speaker 1: there for a security. And so it is there an
Speaker 1: issuer is the issue or giving you something of value? Um?
Speaker 1: Is it something that's based on the managerial expertise of
Speaker 1: the issuer. Those are all characteristics of securities, and so
Speaker 1: it depends it's not the name cryptocurrency that decides where
Speaker 1: you go. It's the purpose of the digital asset that
Speaker 1: you are offering to the public for sale that's going
Speaker 1: to affect who's your regulator. You know, it's wonderful to
Speaker 1: see two people from different ends of Congress working together
Speaker 1: and you found common ground on this issue of crypto.
Speaker 1: Is there space in one of the most polarizing of debates,
Speaker 1: the gun controlled debate, in which you two could collaborate
Speaker 1: as well. Well, there's a bipartisan working group right now
Speaker 1: that we're not part of. But yes, there is always
Speaker 1: common ground, and that bipartisan working group right now is
Speaker 1: figuring out where does it lie. Does it lie in
Speaker 1: reforming some aspect of background checks, does it lie in
Speaker 1: some aspect of red flag laws. Gun trafficking is an
Speaker 1: area of common ground, always bipartisan, because it's just giving
Speaker 1: law enforcement the ability to our state lines to find
Speaker 1: gun traffickers who are by nature criminal networks, giving guns
Speaker 1: directly to criminals. So those are areas where I suspect
Speaker 1: there will be some common ground, but we are not
Speaker 1: on that committee, and if they fail, then Senator Lamas
Speaker 1: and I will certainly take it up. Senator Lamas. You
Speaker 1: did talk earlier this week about the volume of calls
Speaker 1: your office has gotten on gun violence and sort of
Speaker 1: signaled you know that you were giving this additional consideration.
Speaker 1: And I'm wondering where you stand on this new bipartisan
Speaker 1: legislation now, just you know where's your head at. Well,
Speaker 1: I haven't seen the legislation. The calls that I were
Speaker 1: getting from people who want us to do something, we're
Speaker 1: not specific about what they want us to do. They
Speaker 1: just said it's time to do something. The calls I
Speaker 1: was getting from people who are opposed to doing something
Speaker 1: are specific to guns, because my state of Wyoming has
Speaker 1: a strong gun culture. So for me, I'm going to
Speaker 1: be looking at issues like juvenile expungement of records for
Speaker 1: violent juvenile offenses, and I'm going to be looking at
Speaker 1: mental health solutions. Um. I'm worried that there are going
Speaker 1: to be a lot of um young people coming out
Speaker 1: of the COVID lockdowns that spent a lot of time
Speaker 1: on the internet viewing harmful websites that may trigger them
Speaker 1: to be UM violent or act out in ways that
Speaker 1: probably they would not have before we went into the lockdowns.
Speaker 1: So those are the kind of things that worry me
Speaker 1: the most. Those are the things that keep me out
Speaker 1: at night. Senators cars and Jilly Brown and Synthi alumnus there.
Speaker 1: You can catch that full interview at Bloomberg dot com.
Speaker 1: The Biden administration is taking new steps to shore up
Speaker 1: US cyber defenses in light of Russia's ongoing war on Ukraine.
Speaker 1: The biggest cyber threats the hot topic of the weeks
Speaker 1: r s a conference happening right now in San Francisco.
Speaker 1: Crowd Strikes CEO and co founder George Kurtz was just
Speaker 1: there and joins me now here in the studio. So
Speaker 1: what strikes you as different about this conference than years past. Well,
Speaker 1: certainly we're in person, which I think both vendors and
Speaker 1: customers were really excited about. I think there's a really
Speaker 1: strong interest in security. Um It's something that I've talked
Speaker 1: about for a while. Even if we go into a
Speaker 1: difficult macro background, security is still going to be a
Speaker 1: top priority for boards and a top budgeted item UH
Speaker 1: to keep companies safe. So it's encouraging. Obviously we're in
Speaker 1: that industry, but we're also focused on helping customers and
Speaker 1: consolidate their spen and I think that's been a big focus.
Speaker 1: How do you consolidate spend in an area like security. Now,
Speaker 1: they've been conflicting reports on the actual state of the
Speaker 1: cyber threat landscape. For example, cyber ransomware attacks. Are they
Speaker 1: up or are they down? Well, some of the dollar
Speaker 1: amounts are down, and I think there's two reasons for that.
Speaker 1: You've seen some movement in bitcoin right as it's as
Speaker 1: it's crashed, and when you calculate all the sits down
Speaker 1: a little bit. But the other pieces, um. When you
Speaker 1: think about Ukraine and Russia and some of the cyber
Speaker 1: crime e crime groups they used to coordinate. Now there's
Speaker 1: not a lot of coordination between the groups, and some
Speaker 1: of the groups have actually splintered and uh and fractured off.
Speaker 1: So overall it's still a really robust e crime market.
Speaker 1: Ransomware is one of the top threats of the day
Speaker 1: and people are still paying big dollars for it. President
Speaker 1: Biden have warned about these retaliatory potential cyber attacks from Russia,
Speaker 1: but it doesn't seem like that has happened yet, has it.
Speaker 1: Are we missing something? Well? I think what's important to
Speaker 1: realize that Russia continually has access to lots of systems
Speaker 1: around the globe. They're very capable um cyber adversary. But
Speaker 1: it hasn't happened yet, right, I mean, it hasn't been
Speaker 1: as bad as certainly the president well you know, and
Speaker 1: I think that's what I'm trying to say. They have
Speaker 1: access in lots of places, and once you start to
Speaker 1: destroy things, then your access tends to get figured out right.
Speaker 1: And what people have to realize that in in cyber
Speaker 1: wards a one time you sweapon if if something it's
Speaker 1: destructive is used, you can use it one time. The
Speaker 1: other piece that's interesting, and it's a broader question, is
Speaker 1: what a cyber attack, a destructive one, now constitute an
Speaker 1: act of war? And I think just given the changing
Speaker 1: geopolitical landscapes, it's unclear. There's also been criticisms about Biden's
Speaker 1: approach to cybersecurity, you know, pushing more responsibility on private companies.
Speaker 1: Kirsten Todd of SISA was also at r s A.
Speaker 1: She was here on the show. Take a listen to
Speaker 1: what she had to say. When we're talking about ransomware.
Speaker 1: I think the challenge with this issue is that we've
Speaker 1: created kind of a perverse structure. We in the United
Speaker 1: States have actually created a market, a very thriving, strong
Speaker 1: market in ransomware, where we now have companies that charge,
Speaker 1: you know, six figures to go on retainer to negotiate
Speaker 1: ransom to get information about malicious actors. What do you
Speaker 1: make of that? Did we create our own problems? I
Speaker 1: don't know. We created our own problems obviously when you
Speaker 1: look at the amount of money that can be gained
Speaker 1: from encrypting a system, I think the bad guys have
Speaker 1: figured out that if you can make a three on
Speaker 1: one system, you can make a lot more by taking
Speaker 1: out an entire company. And it's just a function of
Speaker 1: the complexity of the technology environment and the fact that
Speaker 1: from a regulatory or maybe from a legal framework perspective,
Speaker 1: it's very difficult to bring these thread actors to justice
Speaker 1: because they're all over the place and a lot of
Speaker 1: times you can't get to them. So there's big dollars
Speaker 1: to be made in those areas. Speaking of dollars, crowd
Speaker 1: strike share price has dropped significantly with the rest of
Speaker 1: the market. What should investors be looking for over the
Speaker 1: over the next six months and what do you have
Speaker 1: to say to to folks who are maybe skeptical well,
Speaker 1: I mean I can't forecast the market, but when you
Speaker 1: look at our key one earnings and what we were
Speaker 1: able to uh to display UM and we talked about
Speaker 1: that last week. You look at the growth rate annual
Speaker 1: recurring revenue almost two billion dollars in annual recurring revenue,
Speaker 1: and that's combined an incredible growth rate at scale with
Speaker 1: cash f generation, which is what investors are looking forty
Speaker 1: free cash flow generation hundred fifty seven point five million
Speaker 1: for the quarter. We think that's the right recipe and
Speaker 1: that's what we're focused on executing and keeping our customers safe.
Speaker 1: There are so many more cybersecurity companies that this year's
Speaker 1: RSA than there were even last year, because so many
Speaker 1: new companies have been funded. Are they all going to survive?
Speaker 1: Are you worried about the future of some of these companies? Well,
Speaker 1: I think security is a complicated landscape and not every company,
Speaker 1: even ours, can handle everything in the security landscape in
Speaker 1: terms of UM specific areas. That being said, a lot
Speaker 1: of companies at r s A are features right, They're
Speaker 1: not true companies or true platform companies, and a lot
Speaker 1: of them won't be public. And when we think about
Speaker 1: what's happening today. The public markets are locked up, so
Speaker 1: you have a lot of private companies with high valuations
Speaker 1: that don't really have an exit at this point. And
Speaker 1: when you think about the public market valuations going down,
Speaker 1: that's going to bleed off into the private markets. We've
Speaker 1: seen layoffs at some of these companies, and in fact,
Speaker 1: we think it's gonna be an opportunity for better hiring
Speaker 1: because of just this lock up in the I p.
Speaker 1: O market, And the second area is in the M
Speaker 1: and A front. We think there's gonna be some great
Speaker 1: opportunities out there in the future. Interesting crowd checks. CEO
Speaker 1: and co founder George Kurt's good to see you in
Speaker 1: here in person for the first time in a couple
Speaker 1: of years. Thank you for stopping by. And that does
Speaker 1: it for this edition of Bloomberg Technology. We're gonna be
Speaker 1: back Tomorrow's got cutlerro Stockics will be with us. We'll
Speaker 1: talk about that legal battle with Nike and a new
Speaker 1: report about the rise of counterfeit luxury