A valentines day edition of Market Makers. Im scarlet fu come in for Erik Schatzker. There is only love in here on this day. Frome top business stories around the world. Joseph a bank agreeing to pay ou eddie bauer. They have a venture prize value of 25 million. Joseph a bank has been fending off a takeover bid by mens wearhouse. 8 . Factoring output fell the fed put some of the blame on bad weather. It has not been this bad for the airlines sense Hurricane Sandy in 2012. More than 14,000 flights have been grounded this week because of storms in the south and northeast. More snow fell overnight in new york and boston. We move over to washington. Comcastrt to slow this takeover is already underway in full swing. Peter cook has more on the lobbying battle to come. The sales pitch has started in earnest. It absolutely has. Comcast reaching out to the regulators and lawmakers who say and in the way in th of this deal. Theyre moving aggressively to face competition concerns raised by the steel. Perhapsg it more making it more palatable to regulators. Keep market share below 30 . That best 3 million subscribers divest 3 million subscribers and committing to Net Neutrality. No discrimination over content in their networks. This is an nbc agreement. Theyre planning to do the same. It is considered one of the concessions the government would want to do. Another thing to remember is the key players here. Comcast has a lot a powerful lobbyists already in washington. Very effective lobbyists. One of them is the lead person the executive vp. The guy who got the Nbc Universal deal through regulators here. He is going to shepherd this transition or the process. Happens to be a very big democratic donor. Got 500,000 together for the president s reelection campaign. He was one of the top executives there. Comcast has republican ties. She is a former sec commissioner. She worked in the bush administration. She happens to be the daughter of james baker of republican fame. Dont forget, Brian Roberts has met with president obama several times. He is hosted them in marthas vineyard. Has hosted him in marthas vineyard. A bigs going to be breadwinner for lobbying companies ndc d. C. Who were the key regulators . Lets go to the other side of the table. Which key members should we watch for . I think you have to look to the sec and the department of justice. For the fcc, it is tom wheeler. This will be a big test for him. As a someone who used to represent the cable industry as a lobbyist. He represented the Wireless Industry as well. He knows a lot of the players here. He is under a lot of pressure here. Then, separately come at the department of justice, the top antitrust person there is bill baer. A veteran antitrust lawyer. He has signaled a tougher approach centered to cover this job. There are some questions as to whether or not he has refused himself in this deal because he represented the Nbc Universal deal. Something to watch for over the coming weeks. Thank you so much. Peter cook, our chief washington correspondent. Consumer groups say the new tooany will have much much market power. Senior attorney john joins me now from washington. Everyone is talking comcast, time warner and what it means for the consumer. What is your biggest concern . The biggest concern is the effect that a larger comcast could have come and not just on consumers directly, but on the rest of the medium. On programmers, Internet Services and those effects would end up affecting consumers indirectly. Do they care about the bottom line and how much is going to cost . Regulators do care about the harm that comes to consumers. They dont have to look to see whether your cable bill arrives. I do know that yesterday in a conference call, comcast admitted that this merger would not result in lower prices for consumers and would not even result in cable bill acceleration slowing down. There is a lot of harm to consumers. Anyone who relies on Internet Services should worry about the market power of a single isp controls so many millions of homes. If they start messing around with internet content, could be very disastrous. Surely it does not help the consumer of the prices went up. Should comcast have to say, will will make prices go down . When the fcc views a merger, they look to see that it merger will actually enhance the public interest. That is the fcc standard. Thatst has yet to show this merger will result in positive consumer benefit, which is the standard of the fcc. My only option in new york city as time warner and it stinks. This will open up this could help it. What is happening is your monopoly provider its name is changing to comcast. When i talk about this merger, love people wonder, why should i care . When you look at the effect on the Broader Market of media and programming and Internet Services, it will be pretty disastrous. These are the two largest isps in the country. You have to look at it from a broadband angle as well. List talk about concessions. Comcast has said that it is prepared to make some tom including divesting 3 million so. His house like a big number. In what markets . Are we talking legacy Time Warner Cable . What would you like to see you go . Theyre looking to get rid of customers so that they dont exceed a particular cap which a lot of people talk about. 30 of subscribers. However, im concerned about their percentage of control of the broadband market and the double play bundle between tv and highspeed broadband. What are the conditions that you want to see in order to support or not be opposed to this merger . I dont think any concessions would work to make this merger serve the public interest. Comcast already has a history of not following merger commitments that it agreed to in the comcast nbc merger. They are very difficult to enforce. Best way to make sure that it does no harm is to block the merger. What do you want ultimately . Be moret there to competition in the broadband market and i dont want any provider to have such dominant control over the ecosystem. , wouldharter had won you be happy . I would not be happy, but i dont think the scope of harm would be so severe. Industryset the interest in the line with what you were hoping for . When it comes to broadband, we need Net Neutrality that are permanent and we need to make sure that there are rules in place that prevents dominant gatekeepers come abusing their market power. What if they agreed to Net Neutrality and definitely . That would be an interesting concession from them and it would be comcast, who was originally an opponent to Net Neutrality to admit that it serves the public interest. Net neutrality perfections should apply to all isps. Why dont they make sense to everyone else . Im somebody who hates my Cable Provider and bill. Who pays you . I dont. We are a nonprofit founded by foundations. Our donors in the past have included comcast. Really . Give us an idea of who your corporate monsters are. Work you are doing is great. I want to get a better understanding of who is behind it. The majority of our funding comes from rabid foundations. Then, the corporate sponsors come from the tech industry, the Telecom Industry, wireless carriers you currently have funding from the Telecom Industry . You said comcast was. I dont have the numbers in front of me as to when they last a minute or how much they pay. I can say that the Telecom Ministry is very comp located and there have been issues where ive worked with the cable industry where i support them. It is not a black or white issue. I takee it issue by issue. Sitting on hold for time warner with my cable going down stinks. I appreciate your fighting for me. Have a great day. John is the senior attorney at public knowledge. Coming up on Market Makers, a big deal in the clothing business. Joseph a bank buying eddie bauer. Look at that website. Everything on sale. Including the company. There you go. The new house of cards season begin streaming on netflix today. Lets see what the real washington has to say about the fictional one. This is Market Makers on bloomberg television. Watch all of our interviews, streaming live and ondemand on apple tv. Welcome back. Bank will be buying eddie bauer for more than 800 million. Tries to fight off a hostile takeover attempt for mens wearhouse. Johnson to tell us what it all means. Via phone. Now fr is this just a defensive move . Are some cynics might say that this is strictly a defensive move. We think it has some defensive and offensive minded characteristics. These are two companies that jos. A bank and mens wearhouse that have been like a scorpions mating dance. Scorpions mating dance . Andts what happens when tw acquiring candidate tries to acquire the other. It will be one on top and the mating dance, one does not make it afterwards. There is only one survivor. Any rate how does eddie bauer fit into all this . What happens is, what has been a oneonone match is now turning into a multidimensional chess game with jos. A bank bringing in Golden Gate Capital they are the controlling owner of eddie bauer and supported bank with its 250 million equity participation relative to its efforts to acquire mens wearhouse. Can you tell us a bit about eddie bauer . How is it been doing . How has it been doing . Their challenge the spin this morning was that they are in a great turnaround. Here is a company that is in chapter 11 five years ago. It is doing better than that. It has made some improvement. Early some pretty good part of the holiday season. By our count, it is still a bit on the weak side. Its turnaround is so early that i dont know how great a turnaround it is quite yet. That being said, there are some potential synergies for these two companies. They may be able to realize them. Secondly, bank and mens wearhouse operates in a Slower Growth part of the apparel market. s and the formal Side Business where. Power operates in one of the eddie bauer participate in activewear and performance where. They may have their own niches. They are not exactly exciting companies. Due to mediocre brands make a strong brand . Not necessarily. Call these tr companies mediocre. They are doing modestly better, but not any kind of robust turnaround that we have seen yet. Bank is doing ok. But it is obviously battling back and forth with mens wearhouse. We characterize it as a multidimensional chess game but it is the two players and then bringing in golden gate to mw. Ort the original bid for now we have eddie bauer and there. Offere same time, the from bank is a tender offer to buy back 60 of its own showers. Beis there no argument to made that these three companies should just end alone . They could all easily stand alone. Eddie bauers turnaround which is quite early could be accomplished in its own right. Is not ine supposedly any rush to monetize its investment from five years ago. If this do an ipo root falls apart. It is a definitive agreement. Agreementdefinitive they have been abandoned before. Warehousesens next move . If you read their release from 45 minutes ago, they are evaluating their options. That is what they always say. Move inld do a counter this chess game or they could back out. We dont expect a timely resolution in any case. To be a couple more moves before this thing sees the end of the day. Eddie bauer has the weather on its side. Greg johnson, thank you so much for joining us. Johnson, thank you so much for joining us. What is the last thing you bought from eddie bauer . I think the last thing i bought something was in 1999. It was a red duffel bag. Back in the day. I wish it was more wild than that. When we come back, dea designer coffee, italian style. We will have that next come right here on Market Makers. 26 minutespproaching past the hour. That is time for bloomberg to go on the markets. Lets take a look at u. S. Stocks an hour after trading began in new york. S p 500 up by three points. The dow industrial getting 46 poin. 5. Stocks are mixed right now. Consumer confidence was unchanged. It was expected to fall. A mixed reading their in terms of ecodata. Outside the world of equities, looking at treasuries. Prices carrying their losses. 2. 75 . Gold prices ending the week at 1319 come headed to the biggest weekly advance since august. Crude trading below 100 per barrel. That is down. 6 . F individual company movers, Weight Watchers losing quite a bit. With weakrth quarter guidance as well. Everybody goes after it. Champagne, chocolate, dessert. Tomorrow, strong Weight Watchers. A lot of good enthusiasm about losing weight at the beginning of the year that dies off by the end of january. By january 28, a whole different story. Weight watchers is currently at 2301. Cliff Natural Resources this is a company that has been targeted by activist investors. Morean see that it is up than six percent after its latest earnings beat analyst estimates. Mining costs at its facilities in canada and australia the client. That was some good news for cliff Natural Resources as a tries to appease some of those investors. Quietlly, it has been a morning. We rebounded from weakness throughout january. We are off the lows, but not a ton of volume. Those are just corrections. We would think that we would see stronger buying here. More complacency today. It has led to again for 1. 8 over the last five days led of 1. 8 over the last five days. Coming up, different form of activist investing. There try to make a difference in the climate, not in a company. Plus, time for a coffee break. Were going first class. Thes designer java with founder of Italian Coffee Company illy. Live from bloomberg headquarters in new york, this is Market Makers with Erik Schatzker and stephanie ruhle. We all know the way activist investors play. They buy big stakes in the company to force change. What about making change through selling shares . A group of foundations his hoping that approach can make a difference on the issue of climate change. Whonor sees the executive t believes in the movement. When i think about activist investors, pretty successful at getting companies to do what they want to buy their shares. You spoke with social activist investors about what to avoid because you dont believe in western companies are doing. I think that the pace and scope and magnitude of the Climate Crisis mandates that we act fast and dramatically. One of closeesent to 20 foundations that are committed to getting out of fossil fuels and actually moving our assets into renewables and clean tech and the Climate Solutions that the world dramatically needs. How do you think people in wet Pension Funds feel about that . Even if they agree with you, what is so important with them is the return theyre getting. Thistually, we are doing not only because of the ethical risks of staying in fossil fuels , but also because of the financial risks. Bothe committed to protecting our returns and moving our investments into the Energy Sources of the future. There is very powerful arguments to be made about the carbon bubble and the risk and staying in fossil fuels. Even if you are right fundamentally come in terms of returns today. The investments that they may be and could be winning investm ents. We are virtually 100 out of insil fuels and invested renewables and clean tech. We have been doing phenomenally over the last couple of years being our benchmark. We have the returns now. Over time, those returns and the investments that we are making are the place to be. Fundbelieve the global began four years ago. You were an early investor in are you introducing volatility into your portfolio by focusing on those kind of companies . Over time, the volatility is coming from fossil fuels. Opportunity to be invested in the Climate Solutions of now and of the future is the right and prudent thing to do to for our portfolio. We went through quite a. Of volatility. The track record we have done quite well. We believe we will continue to do quite well. Is more impactful if you were a shareholder to make Companies Make certain moves . Disadvantaged as it should because youre are not a shareholder like carl . Youll have to have 100 million shares of exxon mobil to engage in shareholder activism. There are couple battery shareholder campaigns that call for disclosure of stranded asset risks of the fossil fuel industries that would drop down the x bennett or is that they down the capital expenditures. We need to turn this around. We need to do it quickly. It has been estimated that there annuallybe 1 trillion in investments in clean tech and renewables to orchestrate the Global Energy transition. Andlieve that philanthropy other Institutional Investors could be playing a powerful role migrating their investments into what the globe needs and what science the mans. I wonder if the exxon mobils of the world, they responded to you, notice what theyve been doing what youve been doing. They have not responded to us directly. I am more concerned that we are responsive to the climate and to the people of the world that and so so impacted impacted in the future. Exxon mobil has an opportunity to develop a Business Model that keeps them below two degrees celsius warming. They should do that. Right now, we want to put our investments into the renewables because the on fossil fuels, they are not committed to the transition. Thank you so much. Of is the executive director Wallace Global Fund in washington, d. C. , cashing in. Back casinos we talked to the head of the Italian Coffee Company, illy. Luxuries where its at. He is cashing in. Story out of sochi. American speed skaters have been coming up short. Could it be their uniforms made by under armour . We will be speaking with the founder and ceo, kevin plank. Who is to blame for the los . S in sochi will come back to Market Makers. High and cant be is gaining popularity around the world. One man who is cashing in is andrea illy. I had the chance to sit on with him and ask him how fine italian brands compete in the premium market. Take a listen. The premium markets are constantly growing. There are 380 Million Consumers buying Luxury Products in the world and they continuously grow. Inwill have 414 million 2017. Copy is following the same trend that it has coffee is following the same trend. You already have a partnership with coke. Is this a threat to your business . We have a joint venture. Illys strategy is to deliver the highest quality. The same that you can enjoy in a restaurant is brewed in a bottle that you can buy from cocacola. They are one of the biggest manufacturers. They have other interests. The strategic intent of cocacola is to serve soft drinks. They are not necessarily strategically focus on what we ffee going on in the co market. It is growing. Maybe one day we will move up. You have a partnership with samsung. Why are you working with next year, there the theme of energy for life. And coffee, its so important. The export authority decided to dedicate an entire 5 billion to coffee. It will be the largest celebration of coffee in history. To bring online. To make it accessible for copy drinkers. For you, what is your number one Growth Strategy echo the core business is always hospitality. In cafes and restaurants. Who benefited more to have a market. Petitive italy is not so competitive. Italy has a problem. Growinget is not anymore. We are in a depression. Capitahave the gdp per which we used to have in 1998. At anemployment is alltime record. This creates a situation where it is difficult to get consumption. It is always important for a brand to have an internal market before you go internationally. It is difficult to get confidence to keep people investing. It is difficult to get credit. Everything becomes difficult in a tax rate. How much can you invest in such an environment echo this compared to companies in the same market and the global fight for competition creates a difficult landscape. If you are in a large market with big consumption pulls and you have a competitive market come you can grow much faster. Can you feel the recovery . Is a real . Not yet. We hit the bottom. We will stay at the bottom for a while. The gdp is not declining anymore. It is stable. Grow enought will theeally start reducing lack of occupation, we need more movement in the reform. How challenging is it for you to run a Family Business . Can you make tough decisions among a family . Absolutely. We are disciplined. Ancestors thatur the number one to the company is the consumer, not the family. Consumers, customers, employees, suppliers and the community. We are the service. We have a governance system. We have a lot of influence from external professionals in the business. It is not too bad. The challenge is to really of our the heritage brand, which has been created by an inventor and a genius, my grandfather and developed by another incredible mind was my father. This really puts a lot of responsibility on the intangible value of this wonderful brand. Andrea illy. The head of the italian copy company, illy cafe. They are partnering with cocacola. Everybody drinks coffee. They said they are going to do something. We will see. Early this morning, netflix began streaming all of season two of house of cards. How do members of congress think about the series that third base washington . We will have that next. Stay with us. Welcome back to Market Makers. Tonight, a lot of people will say, forget valentines day, i am watching house of cards. All 13 episodes of the political thriller began streaming on netflix today. Tent is beenon ing like a state secret. House of cards is about washington, d. C. Intrigue, betrayal, even murder. Its all there. The series creator spoke to charlie rose about what viewers can expect. Bright new object that we are releasing all episodes on one day is not there. It is just the story itself. Anything, what we did was what itd was motivate us to and deepen oures characters and challenge ourselves to do even better than we did before. If youre not tuned into a house of cards that come you can see all of that interview with the creator tonight on charlie rose. Meanwhile, even the president you can watch house of cards, charlie rose. Take your partner out. Even president obama has gotten involved in this house of cards excitement. On his official twitter account, he makes a special request, no spoilers, please. Some of the biggest house of cards fans work on capitol hill. We asked them if the show really gets washington. What did they say . It is very clear that not only behind me in the white house, but also throughout congress, everybody is excited for the 3 00 a. M. Release this morning. We did talk to some lawmakers before they left town for the weekend. Take a listen to what they had to say. The only unrealistic thing about the show if the democrats represent south carolina. That would never happen. I think kevin spacey makes it look a lot more exciting than it actually is. And a lot more dubious. Dvs. Devious. Im one of the few living americans was not watched it. But i will. Notbviously, not to staff, just the white house, lawmakers also planning on spending this long, somewhat snowy weekend binge watching, just like everybody else on netflix. What is it about washington that likes these dark, cynical dramas . Whether it is house of cards or veep or scandal. Everybody was watching west wing and seemed to love it 15 years ago. Is a weird thing about the town. Everybody really likes watching stuff about what they do on a regular basis. Particularly when it comes to house of cards. It is pretty far out there. Even the most cynical people limit that. It is extremely popular here. Why, netflixon is done an excellent job of involving people and easy. He houseth majority whip. Goldman makes an appearance, as does our white house producer mike callahan. They did a great job involving everybody. Everybody really want to be a part of it and watch it. That you so much. Can you believe west wing was on 15 years ago . Are you kidding . Moving on, business cant wait for drones. They really cant. Estimates on business drones is in the tens of thousands. They are overwhelming the faa, which is still trying to come up with rules to fly them. We are airborne. Drones have gone mainstream. Even modern family character phil has one. Theyre making a movie. He has borrowed it from his Real Estate Company to fly on his spy on a son. It is one area where electrodes is widespread. Drones shoot video properties, neighborhoods and even home interiors. Are capturing surfers. The film are of a gettysburg documentary boasted about it. It can shoot from a few feet off the ground to 400 feet in the air. They are beautiful shots. But also may be illegal. The faa does not promote drone flights for commercial purposes. You cannot acquire one of these vehicles and launch it into the airspace. That is not how it works. That is how it works. The regulation uses a that. We went shopping at a drone dealership in maryland to see how easy it is to get one. Theoure going to go into 800 1000 range. For the ones with the camera, that will be closer to the 1500 2000 range. It is flying off the shelves. Sales are legal. How the drones are used is someone elses problem. Is there anything in here that will show me what the faa says i cant and can do with it . This box will not tell you about the faa. Theyre struggling to write new guidelines. Chopper in the drones airspace drones airspace. So far, the faa has not done much to enforce its partially span. 70 notices have been issued ordering people to stop drones. But only one fine was issued. Orderonth, the faa did the company to stand down after surfaced. Video there you go. Very rarely do your sons or my sons feel like they are connected to bloomberg television. Unless were talking lego movie. When we say drone, Everybody Loves them. A lot of people are hobbyists. They like to fly those little helicopters or airplanes. They get dangerous, though. Big, youre getting so need more regulation. Everybody sing, lets fly them around. Think about how you would feel if you were walking down madison avenue and an amazon and run when whipping past your head. Not ready for. More Market Makers coming up at the next hour. I have not gone home in todays. When we come back, i will be speaking exclusively with a man who is truly in it to win it. Under armour ceo and founder kevin plank. This company is being blamed by some for american speed skaters poor showing in sochi. Is this a big problem . Kevin plank joins us in just a view. You are watching Market Makers on bloomberg tv. If youre a question, tweeted to me if you have a question, tweeted it to me. Live from bloomberg headquarters in new york, this is Market Makers with Erik Schatzker and stephanie ruhle. Up short inis come sochi. Some critics blame their hightech uniforms. We have an exclusive interview with kevin frank of under armour. Friday for joseph a banks, the retailer is barring Outdoor Clothing band brand eddie bauer. Why going online to find a match may be the best bet of all. This valentines day, we will talk about romance on the web with the man behind jdate, chr istian mingle, and silver singles. Huge hour ahead. Erik schatzker is off this week. He must be regretting that right now. But matt miller is going to help us out. When he heard silver singles he got on this set. I piped up immediately. I am talking to christina alexi. Joseph a banks making a deal, and she is our deals reporter. The retailer is buying eddie bauer, the outdoor brand. This is confirmed by golden gate. Cash and stock. Tell us about this deal. It seems like both of these hotanies menswear is so for any kind of deal. This comes out of left field. I am going to address your first comment about singles. We have seen the stock price for bank fall today. Investors are saying, you had the perfect deal. There are a lot of synergies. Is a backandforth fight over which Management Team will keep their jobs. There is an active investor. Golden gate capital is getting a sweetheart deal. It is valentines day after all. Getschange, jos. A. Bank to be more protected from a hostile takeover from mens wearhouse. It is a poison pill kind of move. Not only are they buying eddie bauer, but golden gate is getting 2 board seats. That is another defensive move. You by two suits for the price of one, plus you get a hooded parka. And they dont call. I dont know. And a duck call. I dont know. If it is a poison pill, does it add any value . Is the board being responsible . Are the activist shareholders rising up in anger . Cracks this is a growth story. Where is the combination with mens wearhouse is more of a synergy, a nongrowth story, more about taking costs out. They are trying to sell this deal to investors. They think they are being responsible for two reasons. They are going to do a buyback for 65 dollars a share. Shortterm investors who want cash up front, they are appeasing them. In the release today, it does say that jos. A. Banks is open to negotiating another deal, potentially with mens warehouse. If a higherouting deal comes in, potentially for mens wearhouse. Around andk can turn cancel or negate the transaction on the table. Still anie bauer active brand . I have not heard about them since christmas 1998. That was a few generations ago. Questions a legitimate and something the owner of eddie bauer is sensitive about this morning. They do not like the discussion in the headlines about how eddie bauer has become an irrelevant brand. Rei, is not l. L. Bean, north face, patagonia. His is a crowded space. Have not seen them ever. In their defense, they say they brought in a turnaround who was with True Religion in columbia. Eddie bauer still exists. They are worth 825 billion. Going to talk about 401 k s . Tim armstrong ignited a controversy last week when he proposed changes to aols retirement plan. He backed down, but others have pressed ahead with moves. Julie hyman has more. Which companies are scaling back . They clearly want to offer appropriate health care to their employees, but they have to focus on the bottom line. A lot of other companies have done this. There are different categories of some of the changes we have seen to the 401 k s. Changes to when you make your contribution to the 401 k . That is what oh what aol is trying to do. One lump some at the end of the year, so you would not gain interest over the year. Jpmorgan chase started the leg matches in 2009. Ibm moved to a lump sum Payment Method in 2013. You saw people cutting back during the financial crisis. His is a second way. Crisis, you had hp lowering its matching. Itshave caesars suspending match, and bringing back a relatively small match. You have other kinds of squeezes. Whole foods only does a 15 match on the first thousand dollars, and facebook did not do thematch at all, although Company Makes these decisions on a year by year basis. What do these changes really mean for the employee . It does make a big difference. Study, theo one average person who is approaching retirement age at 120,000 inas only their 401 k , which translates to 4800 per year. City, but in new york pretty much anywhere, that is not enough to live on. A 25yearold who has a 25,000 starting salary, at a three , would get six and 624,000. A six percent match would bump that up by about 200,000. It makes a meaningful difference to the and balance upon retirement. Especially if you are a 25yearold, where every dollar counts. Under up, exclusive with armour ceo kevin plank. His company is being blamed by some american speed skaters for their poor showing in sochi. Time to play the yearbook game. Take a look. He is an innovator. Graduated from high school in st. Louis in 1995. I know who it is, but you can help me out. Tweet your guesses. Tweet it at me. Look at what a cutie pie he is. Time for some top tech and media headlines. A new round of fundraising for jawbone, which makes wearable devices that connect to the web. They are raising 300 million at a valuation of about 3 billion wearhe whole company. I one. Twitter gets the first chance to sell shares since the ipo. Is expiring. Share prices have more than december. Nce sonys playstation 4 is once again on top in the console war. Microsofts latest entry, the xbox one sony says it has sold twice as many of its new console as microsoft did. Or is concerned more gamers are giving up consoles in favor of smart phones and tablets, which makes no sense, because call of duty would not be cool on a little screen. Thank you, matt. The intersection of celebrity and social media. You will find one man behind the curtain. He helps celebrities build their social media presence. His clients include jack black, and charlie theron. He is here to talk about a new Business Model, and it has nothing to do with celebrities. For those who do not know your. Usiness, explain your audience are helping people express themselves inside of the internet. Social media has become so important to everyones daily lives. If you are a celebrity, you want to put your best foot forward, or you also want to embrace fans and understand how to connect directly. How do you do that . People often think, if he helps with social media, he just gets you an extra 5000 followers. It is more like a reality tv production company. We are working with the entertainers to create this content. These are complex systems. We help them be the best inside of these systems. Explained to me what that means. You are like a reality tv what . We are a new media company. It is a complicated process when you are dealing with celebrities, the rights to images, the content they create, which platform is best. Directly with these markets. We cannot publish anything without them involved. In summer holder, a big tv ommerholder, ian s a big tv celebrity, exploded. He cares about the environment, about animal rights. He cares about people. And he is super hot. A goodlooking man. It is valentines. Indeed. Continue. Month, he reached 58 million unique people inside social systems. Is a media brand. He is a company unto himself. We carry great content with him. Ofwork with him to be inside these platforms in a meaningful way. He actually was not on facebook eight months ago. He now has 9. 2 million followers on facebook. Issome people think facebook not what young, hip, interesting people use. It is for people like me, stocking their exboyfriend. Twitter, facebook, instagram. What is the most valuable place to be . The new exclusivity is ubiquity. Being everywhere is extraordinarily important right now. Everybodys habits are different. I might like instagram. You might like facebook. The dark force dark horse in all of this is google plus. I know nothing of google plus. It has amazing tools. If you take five photos in a row, they make an animated gift. Gif. It is called auto awesome. Google plus is in your daily life. You just dont know it yet. In curating celebrities, but is the risk that they are everywhere . What if you have Lindsay Lohan everywhere, and doing something that does not go with the brand she wants to cure it . Curate . We are very careful with the people we work with. Positivity goes along way inside of these systems. We work with people who get the joke. They want to be embracing their fans. They want to be part of the daily conversation. A lot of celebrities do not want to do that. I have sat in so many movie casting sessions, so many tv commercials. The metrics in social media are now a defining value. Why are you sitting in those castings . Because they want to stack the cards in their favor. They want to make sure the movie has organic distribution. When we reach a billion unique people a month in the hot or not universe, you sit at the table and say, this person is going to connect socially. Absolutely, in real time. The numbers are much deeper than you think. Likesly see the amount of that lady gaga has, or katy perry has. If you start looking at the numbers on little deeper, you see people talking about this metric, or the realtime metric. Although Justin Bieber might have 60 million fans, it does not mean they still love him. It does not mean he is hot. If you start leaning into the metrics, you can see who is trending, who is popular. It is a very meaningful thing. Are there brings you think is doing it right . Everyone wants to be engaged in the super bowl, in the olympics. There are brands we may or may not work with. People doing it right are people like ford. They are the cutting edge right now. Really . Why . I do not want to speak for them, but they made the decisions of the super bowl. It has not been publicly talked about, being around the super bowl, programming alongside the super bowl, but not necessarily in the super bowl. And you mix those combinations you mix storylines, and that with a lot of people talking about that and influencing that, it makes a special moment. You can reach hundreds of millions of people simultaneously. You just made a very special music audio for the chain smokers. Can you talk about this . The beauty of the selfie is another project we do. If you look at what is going on, this is really looking at it is kind of mocking, in some respects, the culture of entity. Of vitamin d. Vanity. At the same time, it is a great guy full great song. These guys are awesome. It will celebrate this moment in history where selfexpression is part of our culture. How does the Advertising Industry feel about you . Are you an innovator, or the man to collaborate with . Hopefully, the person to collaborate with. A few smart groups a few people really hate me and hate what we are doing, because we are disruptive. This is a new business. This is not, i sit in a room and they can at all and try to sell it to people. Toand make an ad and try sell it to people. How do i connect with people . How do i use the bright spots in the social graph as influencers . How do i put them in position . They are the new distribution. We are trained to teach companies how to be publishers and not marketers. Nobody wants to be told what to do. When i get a promoted tweet, i block it immediately. I do not like you to tell me what to buy. If you are adding value to the equation, great utility or wevalue, great content are at a music festival. Why dont we post data of the traffic entrances . That is adding value to the equation, giving someone something of value. Great content will always win the battle. The platforms will come and go. But great storytelling is really what moves this game. When it comes to celebrities you are working with, where is the line between being an endorser you have had celebrities endorsing products for decades. How do you turn the corner with them and have those celebrities truly eat, drink, and sleep as products, and make me want them . Beyonce, the stuff she is selling makeup i think she lives it. She is awesome. These artists are in a right now. Upturns. If you look at it right now, there is a new Media Business happening, and it has to involve rams. If brands can give the ability for artists to create new art and be meaningful inside of these direct connections, it is extraordinarily valuable to our culture. Our culture is propelled by this money, by these brands. If you can take that money and turn it into art, that is valuable. This new Media Business this man is at the center of all of it. I have wanted to meet this guy for ages. He is the founder of the audience. A nightmare story from the sochi olympics. Why is america doing so poorly in speed skating . Two u. S. Athletes were favorites to win, but neither came close to getting a medal. Starry in the wall journal says a design flaw in their under armour racing suits may be to blame. I am not sure that is the case, but i wanted to bring in founder kevin plank. Take you for joining me this morning. A few weeks ago, we were very excited about the mock 39. What is your reaction to all of this . Our initiative is to make athletes better and give them an edge wherever they are competing. In this case, speed skating athletes on the ice. A bit of a head scratcher. The team is not performing as well as any of us hoped. We are sort of at halftime through the race. More adjustments can be made. You look at everything. From the training to the gear to the states to the pillows you slept on the night before. This is our business. We believe we have an incredible product that can help our athletes to succeed and win. Even though this is the first time you made this product you designed it with lockheed martin. And you walk me through how it has been beta tested . I did not put these suits on a few days ago, did they . We have had the relationship since 2011, or closely with the athletes. The director of u. S. Speed skating. He have a great relationship. I do not want this to be perceived as anything except, we want to do what we can to help our athletes win. Particular,ect in we worked directly with lockheed , fluid dynamic modeling and wind tunnel testing. We build not just one suit, but multiple suits. Ofs is not just a question it is trying to find the right mix. He have a team on the ground in sochi, making adjustments. That is typical for what you do at this level of highspeed performance athletics. It is just part of the game. We are making changes right now, with our team on the ground. I would like you to explain that a little bit more. It is not abnormal for teams to adjust how the uniform is put together . A flap,ead it, adding taking off a flap i think that is late to the party. Am i mistaken . Similar to the things coming out about the venting we made modifications to some of the original suits which had a bent in the back. Some question was, is that creating a parachute effect . None of our previous testing, when we gave the suits in january to the teams and coaches none of that showed up. We tried to close the venting. Womenshat for the 2000. You have two of the top rank people in the world, and they finished seventh and eighth. You are scratching your head, saying, what can we do to take advantage . We are still making adjustments and putting our team in the best position to win. If they do decide there is some sort of problem, they are not comfortable with the suit, and the players want to change what they are wearing, and maybe what they are wearing is not an under armour product, would you be ok with that . We made three different suits for them. Suit, with all the computational fluid dynamic testing we made the same suit with no flow molding. The teams used in the olympic trials. All of these are at their disposal. We are not going to stand in the way of our athletes impeding and winning. We remain patriots first. We want to give the athletes their best advantage. It starts with the belief that they believe this can help them win. Let us make a change. There are two types of coaching you can do. You stick with it. You find consistency. The other side is, you shuffle the deck. We stand behind u. S. Speed skating. The dutch coach overheard a couple of speed skaters say they thought the suits were slowing them down. Do you think they could be psyching themselves out . Do you think they have not trained at the right altitude . These are worldclass athletes. They do this all the time. When you start getting into hearsay and subjectivity, and none of that has come back to us. We have a Great Partnership with u. S. Speed skating. Our job is making these athletes believe they are at the best advantage to compete, and more importantly win. We are seeing them do that through the last five or six events. Nike did that with the suit they produced in 2010. They went back to an older model. There is a lot of tweaking as relates to speedskating suits. We are focused on 2014, on sochi and making sure they have got every advantage. We have a team that has been on the ground in sochi since before the games. It is completely set up. Modifications, adjustments, fit tweaks. Three suits they can wear, ones that have everything we came up with with lockheed and are our designam and team, and things that are more basic with what they have worn in the past. The team and u. S. Speed skating is going to have to make some decisions. We stand behind whatever they choose to do. Your plan was never to sell a ton of speedskating suits. You are under a lot of pressure to grow internationally, even though your footprint in the u. S. Is exciting. What do you think would be the results of your International Sales pressure, if things are not working out here . This is one that we look at as a great marketing platform, for us to tell our story about our own competency and expertise, taking the worlds fastest product. From over. S far i think everyone should take a deep rift and see how everything turns out. We have got a huge push in global. We are going to grow. Between see a parallel what is happening now and what is happening on the global stage. There is a lot more to talk about them a lot more to come. Like some people are saying this could be your lulu lemon moment. Come on. You will have days that you face adversity. We are talking about the u. S. Speed skating team. Are talking about them having to go to win. Let us let the athletes get out there and see what happens. Is there any gear being worn by olympic athletes who are getting medals, maybe not in speedskating . We have the skeleton and the bobsled team still out there. Bobsled theitted last several olympics. There are a lot more athletes competing, and we are really excited. Man, good or bad, always in it to win it. Hopefully, the team can have your enthusiasm, drive. I know as an american, i want them to bring home the gold. Thank you so much for joining us. Kevin plank is the ceo and founder of under armour. There you have it, matt miller. A serious and indepth discussion. He is under pressure, just like those olympians are. The tour, alone, and on valentines day. Is that why we brought matt here . Someone who shares your love of the theater, long walks on the beach, and gefilte fish. What are we talking about . Betting your tastes will help guide cupids arrow. Joining me is greg lieberman. Spark is the Parent Company of jdate and christian mingle. Going both ways. You know what . That might be another special dating site. Are we getting too narrow . Maybe even inappropriate . Could i say, i am looking for somebody who went to Public School in new jersey, into cheerleading, has freckles . The onion had a very mocking story today. Inish people who have been plane crashes who are plus sizes, looking for one another. Are we getting too crazy . At the end of the day, we are creating entities where there is a need. Mingle ourchristian iconic brands for each of their communities. As people are looking for. You get as narrow as people are looking for. A year ago, we did some research for you. We learned that riding a motorcycle is not a turnoff. Go for it. Both j date and christian mingle will date people who are riding motorcycles. It is not too much risk for any of those people. We have a number of other sites. Just to follow those thoughts, it seems like birds of a feather stick together. Arent we integrated as a society now . Date, doesking for a it matter to me if she is christian or jewish, or has been in a plane crash . Likes maybe not to you. We found was that over 80 of christians and over 90 of jews we talked to are looking for someone who shares their faith and values. There has been a Rebranding Campaign that touches on not only the cultural or religious aspects it is critical. If i know maybe a bunch of guys on the street who want to date a jewish girl, and they is that a jdate, problem . Is that an issue . What is the percentage of nonj guys on jdate . Extraordinarily small. You can certainly do it. We do not discriminate on the basis of religion. The default search is looking for someone jewish. Areou are not jewish, you not looking to be part of a jewish community, you are probably not going to be that successful on j date. Number of Human Resources violations matt and i are going to have by the end of this interview . What about muslims, buddhists, hindis . They do not get a website . Sites,e are a lot of perhaps not as targeted as the ones you highlighted at the beginning. For us, it is about focus, going deep in the community. This is really on the jewish and christian markets. I am guessing one of the reasons people are looking for a samesex partner is, they want to marry that person and possibly raise children. Did i say same face art and are . I meant same face partner . I meant same sex. Tinder,ut sites like Ashley Madison, sites that are about hooking up . Onpeople care about religion that . Wax people come to our sites looking for serious relationships. The one someone who shares their faith. Casual ins are more nature, less relationship focused. They probably do not care. It is a different clientele. At least everyone hopes it is. I am sure it is. Someone going on Ashley Madison is different than someone going on christian mingle. What are the biggest complaints from users on your sites . What are the biggest complaints you get . The great thing about our business is, we get lots of dating advice. One of the complaints we often ouris, someone will call Customer Care team, seeing that someone they went on a date with his log back into the site, asking us what that is all about, or why someone has not called them back sooner. One of the things we learned is, people expect instant responses. Becomeeeday rule has the threehour rule. 30 of people expect to hear within three hours. If you like the girl, call her back. If you dont, do not. If i am waiting three days, i was not that interesting. Swingers, but i am not down with that kind of admin. Get the influx of business around valentines day . Does valentines day matter to people who are looking to meet someone long term . Valentines day matters to people looking to meet someone long term. Our business starts to pick up into valentines day. You have the dynamic of, you just spend the holidays with your family. You make a new years resolution to meet someone by valentines day. How many of your users are using multiple sites . I am guessing that if i were willing to go to the web to find somebody, i would use christian eharmony. Date, how many of your users are using a few sites . If you are going to do it, you might as well go big. It is not a zerosum competition industry. If you want to find someone who shares your faith and values, you will come to j date or christian mingle, but other sites as well. You could be on both. Sites, you feel like you might find someone. If your site is successful and you are able to find someone, arent you constantly using losing customers . You could say we are in the business of putting ourselves out of business. For us, the best marketers we have, notwithstanding the tens of billions tens of Million Dollars we spend on marketing what is your marketing expense . That is a lot of money. A lot of buzz on christian mind on christian mingle. Close to 40 million last year. Date, you just put up billboards in new york. For christian mingle, you have to be all across the country. Why is that . How come christian mingle has much better marketing . I would say the market is heavily focused on new york. Jews are less than two percent of the u. S. Population. The christian market is more than 30 times the size of the jewish market in the u. S. The jewish market is very concentrated in several major metropolitan areas. All of that comes into play. We were talking to the guy from Ashley Madison today. I am not ok with what they are promoting. He said they have to offer certain features that keep you asike as far as your far as your concerned. The offer reminders for valentines day, these kind of wings, to help your customers in . There are a lot of different features we offer, allowing you to communicate with a broader group. For us, some of the dynamics of these features people on our sites actually want to be visible. They are looking to meet someone to share the rest of their lives with. Run into any sneaky users who may be married, who are sneaking in under aliases, try to meet someone . We have a very indepth automated process, unlike most Online Dating sites. Not only a bunch of automated filters, but it human reviews that will stop hold on a second. A human reviews it . Textery piece of profile and every profile that goes up on one of our sites its reviewed. To you guys, i think you should both joint. You should consider us for just human reviewers. Human reviewers. I will sign up for a motorcycle date. More inll be back with two minutes. A very exciting day here on Market Makers. Wyden took over as the chairman of the powerful finance committee, which sets taxes on health care. Al hunt asked him about the potential for competency test performed tax reform this year. Take a look. This tax code is a rotten, dysfunctional mess. My sense is that when we get through the extenders and look at them as a bridge to comprehensive reform, democrat and republicans can come together. The show, coming on encouraging people not to celebrate valentines, but to watch tv tonight. Tell me why. I hope you got me flowers. Wyden is an interesting new chairman. He is a social liberal, but very dependent independent on tax issues, budget issues. He wants to enact tax reform. I do not think he can do it this year. But he has established a very good working relationship with orrin hatch. First of all, happy valentines day from me. Agree that the tax code is an absolute travesty, regardless of party. Why cant they get together, throw it out, and write something new . End the mortgage deduction . You want to and charitable contributions . You want to and the health care exclusion . You are and enlightened man in a distinct minority. Focusing on the parts, and not the whole. 1985 and 1986, all the right elements. A partisan stuff on the hill. It was a tough slog. It is really going to be a tough slog now. I do not understand why all americans want to pay for everyone. Charityide i want a gift, i should pay for that myself. If i decide that i want to buy a house, i do not need you to help me purchase that house. All just spend our own money and pay our own fair share of taxes, instead of subsidizing everyone elses wants and needs . Figure,re an olympian but most people are not like you. If you talk to churches, colleges, museums, they will say, if you and the charitable contribution, we will go out of business. That is an exaggeration, but it will hurt. The mortgage deduction is an inefficient subsidy, but it has a powerful lobby. Of homeowners,y so it is tough to do. Lower rates. It is harder to broaden the base. Even if he is the most rational guy out there, with a deep understanding of what to do, if there are very strong lobbies out there, does it matter . They control things. You can get things done over the course of time. It is a process. You have to begin it. I think one can make the case that what you really need to think about is, why do you not go to some kind of value added tax . That is not going to happen without a lot of education, a lot of the a lot of discourse. Ron wyden can begin that process. I liked that idea. A radical suggestion. I will bring over chocolate and champagne, so you and i can watch together, senator ron wyden on political capital. What better to do . And we are not through with Market Makers yet. I just want everyone to be on a date tonight. It is time for my favorite friday activity, the yearbook game. Who is this man . He is an innovator. He graduated from high school in st. Louis. This is upsetting. He graduated from high school in 1995. Me out. Send me your guesses. It hurts me. You know what i was doing in 1995 . I was living it up in college. I have done that twice already today. We will be back in two. I want to take you back to the yearbook game. The first, i announce person to tweet or message me could the innovator was. It seems that everyone in this bloombergnd watching new who this was. I am going to point out the one person on the planet who did not know. That is my partner, matt miller. How did you not know . I just did not recognize him. He looks exactly the same as he does now. I do not think they look anything alike. You mean exactly alike. The twitter cofounder. He graduated high school in 1995. What were you doing at this moment in 1995 . I was probably in antioch. In florence,g italy, probably eating. It is 56 past the hour. Before i take you to bloomberg on the markets, happy valentines day from me, from matt. Happy birthday to my husband. Thanks for joining us. Time to take you on the markets. Time to send you out to the newsroom for more. Happy valentines day. Definitely looking forward to celebrating with you later. We are on the markets. It is options insight time. Strategist atthe trading advantage. We are seeing a lot of action today. Why do you think traders are placing so many bats . We had a complete reversal. We made new lows with the volatility. That is a sign of stability. Nasdaq led the way. In ndx you have to bring 2000. 13 year highs. We have added 100 handles. I have seen a lot of action in themix, the vix, volatility of the s p. It declined from the monday previous. We are seeing some action. 10,000 options in june. February spots yesterday. People are looking for more downside in the vix. The s p is training within one percent of its alltime high. We are also seeing action in jcpenney options. Put rices are rising. Do you think this is a case of traders taking a position, or hedging ahead of company earnings, out in two weeks . With february 26 coming up, you often see the volatility increase. Is volatility in jcpenney 100 right now, very high. We saww bullish that in the stock last week. 490. D a low at but the volatility did not make new highs. At about 6 20 right now. We are seeing seven calls trading for march. A buyer with 1500, 30 five cents. . 35. You could see people selling some puts to get into the stock at a lower level. You get so much at a premium. The worst case is you buy a single digit stock at a sharp discount. I want to point out a story crossing the terminal earlier today. The number of shares borrowed and sold short for jcpenney are as much as 30 of the total outstanding. That is the most since 2006. He saw that in some other stocks recently. Catalyst for a a squeeze, and the earnings could be that catalyst. Remember, a stock like best buy, a couple of years ago, was long and then forgotten as far as retail. You never know what will happen as far as jcpenney. How are you playing this rally . Are you a believer . I am. I love gold, especially valentines day. Matter of sentiment. Everyone was so negative on gold. The volatility did not make new highs. We have to stop right there. Welcome to lunch money where we tie together the best stories, interviews, and video in business news. I am adam johnson. Joseph banks spends valentines day looking for love. Eddie bauer selling his warehouse. Starbucks is using a firm in costa rica to stop the potential coffeepocalipse. California is in the worst drought ever. In todays wild card, love and money. We have a special valentines day top five