Transcripts For BLOOMBERG Bloomberg Technology 20240714

And linking up. We get an exclusive check in with the linkedin ceo. Jeff weiner. His thoughts on the Company Three years after microsoft acquired the job listing site. But first, to our top story. A late developing shakeup at the top of oracle. The ceo is stepping down for health reasons. The company did not specify what issues he is facing. But executive chairman released a statement saying oracle has an extremely capable ceo and an extraordinarily deep team of executives, many with long year tenure. Joining me to discuss, Bloomberg Intelligence Senior Analyst in new york, and with us, Global Executive editor tom giles. Thank you for crashing on this. How surprising was this announcement . Tom as far as his leave, there have been signs over the last year that he may not be unwell. What was not expected was the announcement to come today. And because they had not announced until now, there was a question mark about whether they would and whether he was getting well or not. It took us a little bit by surprise, the timing in particular. Taylor i want to bring you in here. You heard it from larrys mouth, does any of this change the future direction of the company . No, it does not change the future direction of the company. Oracle is a very stable business, given a large on premise database business they have and a large applications business. The key risk for oracle and the key story remains how soon can they get the database customers onto the cloud . That story remains the same. I dont see any changes because of this shift. Taylor mark hurd was known as working on shifting that composition from hardware to software. He touted getting to 50 software. How diheo . Tom it has been a mixed record for oracle over the last several years. Their stock price, i should note, has been really over 20 gained this year because a lot of investors are looking at that staff, the deep bench. They are looking at the shift and they are starting to see signs that it is taking root. It has not been even. There have been quarters where people have doubted. On todays numbers which we will talk about in a minute, looking light. It has not been super even. However, what you are seeing is when customers shift to the cloud, that is where the growth is coming from. The legacy database business, Traditional Software has not been growing as needed. And had the shift been happening as quickly, sometimes the answer has been no. When you look at the stock price, you are seeing an Investor Base giving them the benefit of the doubt. Taylor talk to me about the earnings. Top line is a miss. Margins look healthy. What was your take away . Anurag with almost everything, there was a slight slowdown in the application business. At the same time, we saw margins expanding. We saw buybacks. I was not that surprised with any of the numbers. The key issue remains how soon some of the new database products adoption goes. And that we will see from the colors, how that is going along. Taylor what does a 15 billion buyback tell you . They have nowhere else to invest or they think their shares are undervalued . Tom i think it is both. Are there acquisitions you can make, largesize acquitions you can make . Oracle has been a big acquirer. They have made some big acquisitions. It seems to me that there is not a lot in the pipeline right now that they want to take aim at. But they have a lot of cash. I wouldnt rule it out. 15 billion shows a boat of vote of confidence. When you are announcing a ceo is taking a leave of absence. You want there to be some vote of confidence on the part of the management. As larry said, they have confidence in their bench. Safra catz, capable, very well regarded. Larry, even though he handed over the reins, he has never strayed that far from having a hand in how the company is managed. Taylor did the Cloud Services revenue meet your expectations . Anurag there was slight slowdown in the applications area. Overall, it is lumpy because unlike an adobe or office 365, these large enterprise deals could take time. Nothing surprising from our side, generally in line quarter for us. Taylor tom, generally speaking, how is oracle set up among china and tariffs . Something we have talked to so often about within the tech sector. What is your broad take . Tom right now, a lot of companies in the tech sector are going to be affected by the tariffs. A lot of it has to do in areas such as hardware. Oracle has not been one of the companies that we have looked at and said, this is going to be a huge hit for them. We talk about apple a lot, some of the other companies, some of the chipmakers for example. Oracle, less so. That has not been a big area of overhang. Id be curious to hear what anurag says about that. The tariff issue is one we think that will hit a lot of the other big tech players aside from oracle. Taylor was the revenue not related to tariffs . Anurag i dont think so. As to toms comment, Enterprise Software spending little exposure to china. When you have macro sharks, people pullback spending. You really dont need to upgrade if you dont have to because you can go around another six months before getting that new server or upgrading to the new set of software. That is where we have already started to see some kind of cracks in the Software Growth story with some of the companies talking about weaknesses in europe right now, that is leading to software. Taylor we know that all the glitz and glam is in software. Get us back to basics care and how is the hardware business doing . Anurag hardware business has been weak. That has been the story for a while. People have been delaying their hardware upgrade cycles, just largely because whatever little money they have, they want to spend it on the next digital transformation. Which means you want to spend it on advanced Security Products or you want to spend it on cloud products. People take money from hardware and they are spending more on software. Taylor key take away from the Earnings Call . Tom a lot about the ceo, why didnt they disclose it sooner . There may be questions along those lines. Who will be in charge of what set of responsibilities that mark was in charge of . How concerned are they about his health . How long will he be away . And certainly cloud, cloud, cloud. That is something it always comes back to. As he pointed out, as people move more and more to the cloud, that is something that affects spending on hardware which has not been a real strength business for them. Taylor number one talking point from the call you want to hear . Anurag i want to see what is a transition, the take for the new database product. That is a very important thing for us. That is what dictates how soon people will adopt into the cloud. Any new applications busess, bookings numbers, those would be the areas we will be looking at. Taylor my thank you to anurag rana and tom giles. Coming up, we will get reaction s leave of absence. John chambers joins us next. If you like bloomberg news, check us out on the radio. Listen on the bloomberg app, bloomberg. Com and in the u. S. On sirius xm. This is bloomberg. Taylor all eyes are on oracle after the Company Announced mark hurd will take a leave of absence for health reasons. The Earnings Call will give us more information on those reasons. With more on that, plus of that continued trade tensions between the u. S. And china, i want to bring in ceo and founder and former cisco ceo, john chambers. It helps startups across the globe. Great to have you. Give me your take about this news that mark hurd will take a leave of absence . What is your reaction . John my reaction first and most importantly is, as Larry Ellison, a speedy recovery for mark. He is in my thoughts and prayers. If you really think about the team of Larry Ellison, they work more effectively than anyone envisioned a three some would work. Larry and safran worked together for 25 years. I know all three of them very well. Safra is worldclass off the charts. Larry has always been involved in the engineering side of the house. I think they will navigate through this. I dont think they will have issues at all. They have a deep company, and a lot of capabilities. As i said, larry and safra are worldclass leaders that are very actively involved. My thoughts are with mark for a speedy recovery. Taylor talk about your relationship with mark hurd during cisco and then his time at oracle. How was that relationship . John the relationship with oracle and hp have always been very strong for me. I have a lot of confidence in hp. They helped me when i moved out to silicon valley, to understand the valley when i only had 400 people at cisco and people got us confused with the food truck company. Lou platt helped a great deal. Their new ceo, antonio, is amazingly good. I have a lot of confidence in the direction of hp and they did a nice job on the turnaround. In terms of safra and larry, i have always been close to them. Both on political issues in terms of positioning tech for good in the world. They are very strong leaders. I would always bet on larry and safra and mark together. They have got a deep thing. Deep team. As an investor, i think they will navigate through this very well. Taylor john, another story we continue to monitor, continues to be the u. S. China trade fight. We have not seen it impacted the bottom line of companies. Where are you seeing the impact of tariffs the most . John remember again that im not in any way associated with cisco. That company, when i left, it was important and their leadership run the company and that i was not looking over their shoulder. I have been in china for 30 years. I understand the market extremely well. I think one of your prior colleagues said it well. For enterprise business, the impact is going to be fairly small. Enterprise type companies. Supply chain people are going to have to work through. However, taking this step backwards. There needed to be a resolution. The trade unbalance between the u. S. And china. 570 billion number versus 140 billion. We have to treat American Companies in china fairly we treat Chinese Companies here. I think that needed to be resolved. While all of us wish it would be smoother in the resolution, it was something that had to occur. We had to stop kicking the can down the highway and not dealing with the issues. If you want to look at ones that are going well in handling it right in my opinion, the u. S. India trade issues. If you watch what President Trump and Prime Minister modi, both of them are involved in that. Both have taken constructive roles on how do you get our countries working together . As ive said several times, i think the most important strategic relationship between any two countries in the world for the u. S. Is the u. S. And india. I very much admire Prime Minister modi. I will see him in new york with other ceos. There is a model that i think is going in the right direction. Im cautiously optimistic you will see that trade issue resolve effectively their. Taylor i want to talk about the elasticity of the supply chains. Come into my terminal, i will use cisco as an example knowing you are no longer directly involved. We take a look at the suppliers. A lot of these Big Tech Companies have a big exposure to china. Talk to me about elasticity. Can we start to automatically move to india like you said to vietnam . How quickly can you do that . John it takes time. The time to move to india or mexico or other sources or balance your supply chain takes multiple years to do. You cant do it quickly. India is in the very early stages of Prime Minister modis digital manufacturing focus. I think they are making very solid progress on it. That takes time to really do. For these companies, they have to do it very carefully. All of them focus on supply chain and understanding it. It is in everybodys interest that the supply chain work very effectively during both the good times and when there is a little bit of constructive giveandtake in terms of challenges. Taylor how healthy is the ipo market right now . John i think it is very healthy. This is a great question. When you ask that question, you are asking three or four questions. The first is for jobs in the u. S. In terms of the future, Large Companies will cut dramatically their headcount due to automation, artificial intelligence, digitization, et cetera. It is so important our startup economy and ipo market will work because the 75 of the headcount are after they become unicorns or after they do and ipo in the marketplace. The pipeline looks good. I would like to see it doubled over the next three to five years. I think there will be some ipos that will outperform the market. There will be some that miss on that. The only input i would have to investors and the Companies Going public, i think it is so important as you do this to have a very clear path to profitability and a clear path to cash flow positive. For the 18 companies im providing guidance to and hopefully we bring a number of them public, they will have a clear path to profitability. Most of them will be profitable. I think that is the one caveat i would watch as an investor. Taylor talk to me about that. I want to come back into my terminal. Two things you said struck me. One, Free Cash Flow positive and looking for profitability. One could argue beyond meat has a pass to profitability and being Free Cash Flow positive. They are trading around the average analyst price target. Second, your point on alternative meats, or alternative food sources. Walk me through the start up you like and what you are bullish on. John all right. First of all, i think it is very important to have alternative food sources, given the challenges that we have purely on the agricultural production. You are already taking up the equivalent of all africa and latin america just in geographic areas that are needed to do this. With tremendous damage to the environment in terms of the meat sources. The ability to think about alternatives to meat are very important. In full disclosure, i have to share with your viewership that i bet big time in terms of crickets being one form of protein. Spare foods, the ceo there is doing an amazing job. I think people realize that with beyond meat, that you cannot only produce very good products here that have equally as good quality protein, but you can do it with less damage to the environment and they taste pretty good and likely better for your health. Im betting if beyond meat, i would bet on crickets as the next protein. Taylor you can join me on set next time and we will enjoy some crickets together. That was ceo and founder john chambers. Thank you for joining me. Coming up, reworking wework. Why the company is looking to make changes at the top. Will it be enough to save its ipo as investors worry . We will discuss next. This is bloomberg. Taylor now we turn to a story we are following, weworks troubled ipo. Bloomberg has learned the company is considering major changes to its governance structure to address investor concerns. This coupled with weworks banks worried about going ahead with the share sale that could value the company as low as 15 billion. Joining me to discuss in new york, kevin mcneil, director of technology where it was downgraded to a b. Give me the biggest reason for the downgrade. Kevin essentially since we rated them in april of 2018, the Company Raised subsequent capital and then pursued a more aggressive strategy. It basically increased its cost structure quite substantially. It increased its headcount by over 12,000 people. It is investing ahead of growth. We now see the point at which the company will become profitable has now pushed out several years from where we thought it would be. Taylor going forward, what would be a further catalyst for another downgrade or your biggest Downside Risk . Kevin it is too early to tell at this point. When we made the rating change in august, it was predicated on the Company Going forward with its Capital Raising plan. With the Capital Raising plan, it does plan to grow quite aggressively. To the extent that its financing plan changes and its Investment Plan is changing accordingly, then we will look to potentially reevaluate the rating at that time. Taylor come into my terminal here if you will when the control room is ready and gtv go. We are looking at the 2025 bonds falling below par was gathering some news. I would argue with only . 97 on a dollar, it is hardly distressed. A yield above 8 . Is the company being valued correctly . Kevin with the bonds themselves, one thing to consider is that they do place a limit on the secured debt the company can issue. To the extent that there is a refinancing, then potentially the bonds can be taken out above par. We did downgrade the bonds and lower their recovery rating which assumes there is not going to be a larger recovery value. Taylor what recovery value can you place on them . Kevin with all the discussion of valuation, that is why we dont use that so much as the input into our rating process. We do think about recovery valuation on an organization. Given a company that is not profitable presently, our methodology assigns a moderate doll you wish and upon recovery. Taylor what i liked about your smart note is you talk about the average revenue per physical member. That has declined 6 since your original rating. Is that a macro problem . Macro real estate problem or a wework problem . Kevin i think it is because i think wework is making a decision to move into more tertiary cities and expand its geographic locale. It is moving into areas outside of the new yorks and londons where rents are higher. That is part of the issue. On the flipside, cost could be lower in these regions as well. Taylor talk to me about the ipo. I know as an analyst, we were looking at raising 3 billion in ipo. It would secure 6 billion from banks, have the ipo been successful. Does that extra cash provide some relief or does it concern you about how reliant they are on that cash . Kevin the interesting angle about wework is that when it grows, it essentially is funded by the capital it raises. It is credit protection metrics. The extent it slows its growth, we see a more normalized profile. It is not something that is a concern to the extent the company is able to continue to move toward the path of normalized profitability over a reasonable timeframe, that forms the basis for our rating. We did downgrade the company to a b category to reflect there is additional risk since the company is deciding to push that point out farther. Taylor wonderful. That was kevin mcneil with fitch rating. Thank you for joining me. Longtime alibaba chairman jack ma retires from the company. What is next for the chinese internet leader . This is bloomberg. Here, it all starts with a simple. Hello hi how can i help . A data plan for everyone. Everyone . Everyone. Lets send to everyone [ camera clicking ] wifi up there . Ahhh. Sure, why not . Howd he get out . a camera might figure it out. That was easy glad i could help. At xfinity, were here to make life simple. Easy. Awesome. So come ask, shop, discover at your xfinity store today. Taylor this is bloomberg technology. Im taylor riggs in san francisco. Tuesday, marked an end of an era for chinese internet giant alibaba. Chairman jack ma stepped down as executive chairman. Under his leadership, chinas Biggest Ecommerce Company had more than 56 billion in the last financial year. Ma became chinas wealthiest man with a net worth of more than 40 billion. We take a look at his story. Jack ma started out teaching english more than 20 years ago for just 15 a month. In 1999, he jumped on the internet train, setting up a platform for businesstobusiness selling. That was alibaba. He took aim at ebay with towel bow which led individual sellers trade with each other. 2007 was a milestone as he listed the business Rating Division in hong kong only to do delist five years later as performance sagged. However, the company made a big comeback in 2014, getting 25 billion in new york with the worlds against ever ipo. Biggest ever ipo. Everybody should have a dream. What if the dream comes true . As jack ma steps aside, he leaves an empire that has a grab that has expanded aggressively. The challenge ahead in the face of growing competition and a slowing chinese economy, may be sustaining that growth. He has warned about the u. S. China trade war saying the impact could last decades into the future. He also urged chinese businesses to find opportunities from it. And jack ma has not forgotten his roots. September 10 is teachers day in china. Taylor that was bloombergs Rosalind Chin on jack ma stepping down. Now to tell us more about the rise of ma and what lies ahead for alibaba, lets bring in the man who literally wrote the book on both of them. Duncan clark, the author of alibaba the house that jack ma built. He is also the chairman of an advisories firm serving technology and consumer sectors. Great to have you. What struck my mind as you were an early advisor to alibaba. What did you see . Duncan you walked into that little apartment, it was tiny but packed with people working around the clock. Their shoes were at the door, they were eating hot noodles aroundtheclock and they had this crazy vision to become one of the largest Internet Companies in the world. That was striking. Jack ma somehow made it believable. He has a great ability to , employees,estors customers, and we see that today. Taylor what about daniels who is taking over . Does he have the same inspiration that jack ma had . Duncan i think nobody can fill the shoes of somebody like jack ma or a founder who is so charismatic and has built such a big business. Daniel is a manager. He has an accounting and finance background. He has been inheriting a machine that jack and 140,000 employees at alibaba have built. He has been instrumental himself in building things like the fresh hippo which is like a new amazon fresh approach. We see he has street credit, but he is not trying to out charisma jack. That is not an advisable way to do it. Jack is so charismatic. You can see in chinese and english, he commands the room. In any other country, he would be a senior politician. Taylor is now not the right time . Chinese state influence. Is now not the right time to be in that iconic figure . Duncan precisely. He telegraphed his resignation as chairman over a year ago during the heat of the speculation about how far can these figures ride in the private sector, particularly tech. Tech around the world is under more scrutiny. When we have an authoritarian leader like xi jinping on the march now. Taylor you are a former banker. I made this one just for you. Come into my terminal at gtv go. We are talking about operating margins tuesday. We talked about how stellar amazons operating margins are. 4 to 7 . You go over to alibaba, and it is 20 , 40 . What does alibaba have that amazon doesnt . Duncan it is a very different business. Alibaba often say that it is the amazon of china. It is really not true, it is just a shorthand we like to do. Use. Alibaba is a platform where other merchants can come and sell on it, for brand. But itself is not taking inventory. It is not investing in the infrastructure of the delivering logistics. It has partners to do that and it has the merchants to offer the goods. It is a very different business. The aim of the business is to help Small Companies make money. It also works with big companies, but it is still committed to the third parties. The merchants are the core of the business. Taylor is that where the Business Days . Is that where the business stays . Duncan it is an ecommerce company. 50 of chinas ecommerce which is a third of all retail, that is not going away. Aliba is building allie cloud, following the Amazon Web Services business. It has ambitions in general in r d, for quantum, ai. It is not standing still but it will, for the time being, the be an ecommerce business with ambitions to move into other areas. Taylor what do you see is the biggest Downside Risk . The big event we are not looking out for alibaba . Duncan we would think the black swan would be the u. S. China trade war. Not much of the business itself is of impact. Amazon is having some impact from the cost of being passed on. It remains a fundamentally domestic business. Alibabas challenges will be domestic. A slowing chinese economy. So far they have been able to outgrow the economy in retail. In terms of keeping the management together, it has been around for 20 years. He has ambitions for it to last another 80 years so he can spend three centuries. How do you manage a company . 140,000 people and disparate groups. Internal challenges are the biggest. Taylor as we talk about china trade fights, tariffs, you spend it decades on the ground in china. What is there take . What is their take . How do they feel . Duncan alibaba . About the future . I think there is a lot of optimism in the company. There was a quote about how technology is viewed more positively in china. You saw them muskma tie up. Musk has a more negative view on the future. It was completely different, the two of them sidebyside. They almost inhabit different worlds. That is what we are moving to, parallel universes between chinacentric, and u. S. Centric tech. We have these large Platform Companies in the u. S. That are dominant here and in many parts of the west. There is a lot of pushback. In china, there is convenience coming from tech. There is some pushback over privacy. Generally, most people are more positively disposed to technology because they can see the benefits. You talk about cashless payment. Cash is disappearing from the streets of china. Wallets our history. It is all mobile payment or face payment. Chinas moving faster in among and that reflects the visions of the founder. Founder. Ll things alibaba and taylor all things alibaba and tech. That was duncan clark, fbda china. Thank you for joining me. Sticking with china, linkedin is one tech company that operates on the mainland. Three years on from being a part from microsoft, i spoke to the company ceo, jeff weiner, about doing business in china. Doing business in china. Jeff it is still early days for us in china. If by operating in china you mean how we have been so successful, our vision is to create Economic Opportunity for every member in the global workforce. Other companies who have a different sense of purpose or different mission or overarching objectives have found it difficult to do business in china because it is inconsistent with what it is they are trying to accomplish. Whereas the creation of economic opportunities, something every country in the world can get behind. Our operation in china is still very early days. We have a talented team in place. We have greater focus there on local development then we do another markets around the world. Trying to understand the cultural differences. We will continue to invest. Taylor with the trade and taylor with the trade and tariffs, do you feel anymore pushback being a u. S. Tech company in china . Jeff not with regard to the nature of our business. For a company like microsoft, larger technology companies, there are different implications. By virtue of the fact that we are a professional network, the tariffs are not impacting us at the same extent. Taylor there has been talk that china may be would not hurt any tech company on trader tariffs, but set up more rules and boundaries and limits. That would be perhaps their way of putting more backlash on u. S. Tech companies. Do you feel any of that . Jeff i do not know that is anything new per se. When you make the decision to operate in china, it is important you are prepared to comply with the law in china. In a whole host of different ways. Whether that is new regulation, additional friction, whether or not it is things beyond the regulatory purview. The competitive land view in china is incredibly intense. We continue to see that operating. That is part of our commitment to being in business in china. Taylor in the last few weeks, we have seen more and more probes, investigations into big tech over monopoly, data privacy. How have you managed those headlines . Jeff it certainly did not start now for us. We made a commitment a decade ago in terms of putting our members first which is arguably our most important value. Maintaining the trust of our members. Without that, the ecosystem doesnt exist. We put together First Principles with how we would leverage data. Dating back 10 years. Those principles were all about clarity, consistency, and control. As a result of not just talking about that, but walking the walk and codifying that early on in terms of how we prioritize and develop strategies, where we would make changes, that has served our members well and that ultimately served the company well. Taylor that was linked in ceo jeff weiner. Coming up, the cross roads to medicine and technology in our series. We will look at how companies are bringing innovation to the human brain. This is bloomberg. Taylor following a break for the apple event tuesday, we pick up with our medical Technology Series where we explore how innovation does play a crucial role in sustaining health. Today, we explore brainpower. Brain Computer Interface Company c krohn is developing a technology that will someday allow people to control prosthetics with their minds and without invasive brain surgery. The Company Began its first clinical this year as it seeks to treat a range of Neurological Disorders ranging from paralysis to even depression. Joining me to discuss, the ceo and founder tom moxley. For those of us who do not know, explain how this implant works and what it does. Tom a a braincomputer interface is a device implanted inside the brain that is capable of picking up signals that enable the user to control external systems. The initial application would be for computer control use that is completely handsfree. Taylor do you really see this as the future of neurological diagnosis and treatment . Tom i think this is an industry that is emerging with the blessing of the fda and encouragements in the fda. It is a promise to overcome a range of problems that can affect humans all the way from their hands to muscles to nerves to the spinal cord, up to the brain, that overcomes that by linking the brain to a device that enables them to interact with the world once again. Taylor you mentioned the fda. Talk about discussions you have had. I think we are looking forward to worldwide trials potentially, fda approval down the road, any sense of a timeline or guidance . Tom for us, we have been in discussions with the fda for a number of years. That involved several meetings around the clinical trial, the indication, the type of patients, so that we can structure a trial that enables the fda to give approval within a certain cohort of patients. We have entered the clinical stage. We cant quite talk too much about that yet. We are looking forward to doing that soon. The fda has been looking at the space for a number of years. There was an initial group that started to investigate this. He has been a frontrunner with discussing what these Clinical Trials should look like. There is some history with the fda from an academic point of view with how we should move forward. We have really been using that history to guide us forward. Taylor what have the results from the trials shown you so far . How successful are they . Tom i would love to be able to talk about that. I cant discuss the particulars of the trial except to say we have commenced the trials and the results will be coming soon. More than that unfortunately, i cant announce much. Taylor when you come back, you will. In the meantime, talk about some of the reaction from colleagues, the rest of the medical community. What do they say about this as well . Tom what has affected me is seeing that people who i have respected and looked up to make comment on the fact that to get to the point of a fully implantable system and demonstrating a mechanism to achieve that implant in a safe way is the next step that has now put us into the next stage of this technology development. It is a very exciting time. Up to this point, the technology has proven that it can be extremely beneficial for patients in a number of ways. The challenge has been how do you get it into the brain safely that is reproducible . Taylor how are you doing that . Tom our technology does not require craniotomy. It does not require open brain surgery. We use the blood vessels as a natural highway to get into the brain and we built a system onto the stent that records local brain activity from inside a blood vessel. Taylor fascinating. Synchron ceo, tom oxley, thank you for joining me. From technology that is literally in your mind, innovation to help what is on your mind the Mental Health Technology Market now estimated at more than 1 billion is expected to generate revenue of 4. 5 billion by 2026. That is a nearly 15 increase. We turn to two gentlemen who are considered pioneers when it comes to harnessing technology to support Mental Health. That is andy pettit, and rich pearson who cofounded the app headspace back in 2010. It has reached over 54 million members across 190 countries. You can access it via amazon, alexa, and google assistant. And recently starbucks announced its employees would be granted subscriptions as part of its Corporate Wellness program. Thank you both, andy and rich, for joining me. Andy, i will start with you. You two were the leaders. When you started this, how did you see the future . What did you see as the future of Mental Health . Andy i think it was just a realization on both our parts that there was a skill that anybody could learn, that could change peoples experience of life. I think it was very early in terms of science and Popular Culture as well. We knew there was the potential there. We experienced the benefits ourselves. I think it was a combined desire to demystify it and make it more accessible to people. Taylor talk to me about the partnership. How have those helped you find people that perhaps normally would not be attracted to a to meditation or Mental Health . Rich partners have been a huge part of the success of headspace, since 2010, the First Partnership we did with the guardian newspaper, we launched one million booklets back in january 2012. We have worked with the nba, nike, and more exciting, we have been working with medical associations as well as enterprises. You mentioned starbucks deal as of january, 300,000 starbucks partners will get access to headspace. That is a very important thing for a huge company that is global in every single country around the world. It is giving access to all of their partner employees. It is a big moment. The ama is another good example where we are the official meditation partner for the american medical association. Every doctor that is a member of ama gets access to headspace. It has been an important part of the success of the company. Taylor andy, going forward, do you see more Corporate Partnerships as the key to future growth . Andy i think it is one area of growth. We see it in three parts. Theres the consumer, b2b, and health care. Already, we are very fortunate, most of our b2b has been inbound and we have been servicing it. It is part of the business we are growing at. I think the health care thing is what we are arguably most excited about. Both as headspace and headspace health. There is enormous potential to people that otherwise would not have access to it or afford it. Taylor rich, when we talk about health, i think on tuesday when you had apples announcement of the watch and including Health Research into wearables, do you view that as competition or the more the merrier . Rich i think it is fantastic that all Technology Platforms are building these operating systems. Our belief is consumers are going to have more information and be more educated about their health, and that will come from the data these powerful devices are providing. We really want to be sitting on top of all those devices, to provide the interventions and behavior change that people need to change that data. We definitely see that all of those partners are going to be absolutely fundamental to our success for our members. Without that, we dont think we can deliver on our vision on improving health and the happiness of the world. We are bullish on all those folks building these brilliant platforms for our members. Taylor andy, talk to me about the investor environment. When people come to you and want to throw cash over at headspace, do they talk about where they want the future of the company . How is the fundraising environment been . Andy it has been interesting. We are fortunate. I think we learned a lot through doing that. We have been fortunate in so much as that investment has been very forthcoming. Right now, there is a recognition that this area is absolutely huge. And i think it has moved from the recognition at the consumer space, a huge amount of potential to health care as well. I think within health care, right now, there is not the ability to scale in the way it needs to scale, to service the amount of people who are struggling with stressrelated symptoms whether they are physical or Mental Health related symptoms. I think the industry will only grow. Taylor wonderful. Headspace cofounders andy and rich. Thank you for joining me. Coming up next, california tries to force Companies Like uber and lyft to change their business models. This is bloomberg. Taylor it could be the biggest threat yet. The ridehailing services have generated billions from their drivers without having to treat them as employees. Under a bill passed by california senate, many of those independent contractors would be reclassified. That would make them eligible for minimum wage, overtime, and workers compensation. Californias lower health will take up the measure next. Shares of both rows on the news that californias governor was open to negotiating exemptions from the law. Another investigation for amazon. Bloomberg has learned the ecommerce giant is being probed by the u. S. Federal trade commission. The ftc is interviewing Small Businesses to determine whether the amazon is using its market powers to hurt competition. The news comes as state attorneys general investigating google order it to turn over a wide range of information about its advertising business. Finally, this hour, we recap our top story, oracle ceo mark hurd is taking a leave of absence for health reasons, following the initial announcement, executive chairman Larry Ellison said he and Ceo Safra Catz will cover the response abilities during his absence. Oracle moved up earnings report. At the same time, shares slipped in aftermarket training as revenue came up short. That does it for this edition of bloomberg technology. We are Live Streaming on twitter. Check us out technology and follow our global breaking news network at tictoc on twitter. This is bloomberg. At comcast, we didnt build the nations largest gigspeed network just to make businesses run faster. We built it to help them go beyond. Because beyond risk. Welcome to the neighborhood, guys. There is reward. Beyond work and life. Who else could he be . There is the moment. Beyond technology. There is human ingenuity. Every day, comcast business is helping businesses go beyond the expected, to do the extraordinary. Take your business beyond. The following is a paid presentation brought you by rare collectibles tv. In a letter dated december 1904, president Theodore Roosevelt wrote a short letter. This was in typical Theodore Roosevelt direct, bravado style. My dear secretary shaw, i think our coinage is artistically of atrocious hideousness. Wo