All of that and more over the next hour. At first, the headlines with my colleague, su keenan. But thank you, mark. Mark. Ent thank you, president obama expressed some over over the accord ukraine. I think there is the possibility, the prospect that diplomacy may deescalate the situation and we may be able to move to what has always been our goal, which is to let the ukrainians make their own decisions about their own lives. The u. S. And its european allies have threatened to ratchet up sanctions against russia if it does not act to calm the situation in Eastern Ukraine. Meanwhile, herbalife is back in the headlines again. It is under investigation by attorney general lisa madigan, who joins a growing group who are looking into complaints. Herbalife responded by saying we are confident in the integrity of our longstanding business and the companys compliance with applicable laws and regulations coco those are the top headlines at this hour. Regulations. Headlines at top this hour. Su keenan, thank you. Back to the ukraine, president obama not the only one speaking out. Represent secretary of state john kerry met with leaders in geneva. He said they agreed on the first death to deescalate. The first steps to deescalate. The parties all agreed that we must refrain from using violence or intimidation or aggressive accident actions. When we strongly indent all inferences of racism or religious intolerance, including antisemitism. And shortly after the talks in geneva wrapped up, lou berks Ryan Chilcote bloombergs Ryan Chilcote spoke with the Ukrainian Foreign minister. We are committed to be part of this protest through the monitors. We are ready to stop this process immediately. Joining me from washington now its a Bloomberg News reporter. How optimistic is the Obama Administration about this accord . Senior Administration Officials who talked with reporters yesterday ahead of the meeting said they do not have a high degree of confidence that the talks will yield a breakthrough. And i think that message, despite the fact that secretary of state john kerry called the days work,ood stay that holds true. President obama said we cannot be sure of anything just an hour after the meeting. I think there the ball is in russias court. The question now is how will the u. S. Or ukraine make sure that russia abide by the terms of todays meeting . As you know, Vladimir Putin is insisting that these actions are being taken to protect ethnic speaking russians who were in the eastern part of the country. How is the International Community dealing with what president putin seems to feel is a call to action . That has been one of the punching points of todays meeting. President putin had denied any sort of linkages to the armed groups and has justified military action. How does that fit into what was agreed to in todays meeting . Osce monitorssaid will be there to oversee whether the terms of the accord are met, but i think in the next couple of days we will have to watch and see how these events unfold. Thank you. Also joining us from d. C. Thomas from d. C. , the former ambassador to ukraine where he served from 2003of 06. From 2000 306. Thank you for your time tonight. The accord is contingent upon cooperation from russia to help calm the situation in the eastern part of the country. Will that cooperation be forthcoming, in your opinion, given that the u. S. Has accused moscow of inciting the violence . We dont know. Obviously, the accord is a good step, but the key is whether it will be implemented. This tour putin is certainly responsible for the turmoil in Eastern Ukraine. It is his special forces soldiers who are stirring it up. This accord calls for all of the separatists to give up the buildings and installations they have captured from ukraine authorities. We will know in two or three days whether or not the russians and their allies are carrying out the attacks. Carried out,ot then the accords will be meaningless. There was a veiled threat today from russian president Vladimir Putin in a televised questionandanswer session in moscow. He was asked about rejecting russian speakers in Eastern Ukraine and he responded, we will fight for this. The Federation Council gave him the right to use military force in ukraine and he said, i hope very much i dont have to use it. What do you make of this . He has been saying this for the last six to eight weeks, so it is nothing new. Hopefully, he made that comment in order to disguise his retreat in the agreement in geneva. Suppose they, agreement is something he has no intention of implementing and again, we will know in a couple of days if he is serious. If the separatists backed by russia or led by russia remain in the Government Installations in Eastern Ukraine, we will know that the putin government was just making the agreement today on good faith. In that case, we will proceed accordingly. Moscow the derision in at the sanctions, western sanctions have had a real impact and putin would prefer there not be more western sanctions. The Russian Foreign minister also spoke to reporters today. He said the ukrainians themselves must resolve this crisis. Does a government who believe their leaders are under siege have a responsibility as an ordering its troops to defend their territory to ease tensions through diplomacy . I think the ukrainian shownment right now has great restraint. The only reason there is violence in Eastern Ukraine is because of agents sent in by the kremlin. And im certain the authorities in ukraine are happy with the terms of the agreement today, but they want to make sure that those are, in fact, implement it. And again, that is entirely on mr. Putin. Defense secretary chuck hagel said the u. S. Will provide nonlethal military aid to ukraine. But what if russia ignores sanctions and condemnation . Then what happens . If when a line that crossed, would prompt military supplies to ukraine . I agree with senator mccain, that we should has sent lethal military supplies, antitank, and night vision goggles long ago. The ante if russia ups with its aggression, there will be increased pressure on the Obama Administration just to do just that. You believe some of that lethal aid should have been sent long ago. What would be be in the conflict if that had happened . Would we be in worse shape . I think we would be in better shape. It is very clear that if mr. Wooten wants to, he can seize parts of ukraine. Providing weaponry to the military in ukraine would increase the cost to the kremlin of aggression. Not because this will make the Ukrainian Army able to withstand the russian army. We have about a minute left. What about other countries in the region . What might their strategy be if the geneva accord does not result in any progress and russia makes what the International Committee considers to be expansionist moves . There are three things that the west should be doing. I have already mentioned one, which is to provide literary equipment military equipment. Number two, if the separatists after a few days remain in control of ukrainian installations. And three, there has been some redeployment of nato access to the eastern members, to the pulse baltic states, to poland. It should be much larger if russian aggression continues. The point is to tenant straight to the kremlin that aggression dearly. T russia the former ambassador to ukraine joining us from washington. Thank you for your time. Coming up, the 1 billion deal in the agrochemical business. We will tell you about the letter the latest and and a deal to sprout up. And i will tell you about a toilet that could help to save one million lives each year. A big merger today in the. Grochemical Industries Platform special products is acquiring Agro Solutions in a 1 billion deal. Is the ceo of platform specialty products. He joins me today. Agro solutions has established itself in a sector where you have a lot of heavyweights, dow chemical is one. How do you position yourself to succeed against rivals with such deep pockets . As you say, this is a niche specialty business that specializes in individual crops, sometimes smaller crops in many, many countries. There are more than 1500 products in more than 100 countries that it participates in, and as a result, we have a defendable position. Walk us through this. What are you attempting to do . We are attempting to make products grow better. At the end of the day, the longterm trend longterm secular trends are that you have lesswing population in arable land, so you need to yield more per acre than you normally do. It enables those crops to grow better than they otherwise would. Agro solutions has a global presence. Talk to us about the reasons you your Growth Strategy as uss its strengths and witnesses around the world. We will participate in more than 100 countries around the world, ranging from brazil, which is an important market for us, eastern europe, the bricks if you will, also the u. S. ,. Anada, africa, europe there is a broad interaction around the world of these products. Agro solutions has been aggressive about adding products to market. More than 100 new offerings a year. Is your acquisition going to accelerate this or slow it down in the pipeline . That. Hope to accelerate we have a special Business Model that we go after and this is an example of this acquisition. This is called asset light touch. Business practice involves the formulation of chemistry and the people side of business, which means rmb, Product Development r d, product we hope to, and accelerate that business as we add new products to their portfolio. Talk to me about what is happening right now, specifically as you have Economic Indicators that are specifically up. His timing is timing important to you . Timing is always important. But this is the first major acquisition we have done and is an indication of our strategy by taking a a high cash flow this is and then increasing it with the ability to add to this in the future. Tell me about bill ackmans role. He is a shareholder and we are lucky to have him as an important shareholder. Could there be other acquisitions in the agrochemical sector . We will be doing more acquisitions. We look for Quality Management teams who are looking for a permanent home and we want to provide the permanent home for these management teams, so yes, we went to do more. What type of savings you think you might get from the acquisitions in terms of overlap . There will be some overlap in back office, and such as Human Resource department, i. T. , accounting, which are now being provided as a centralized service at we will undertake to provide. We hope we can save some money in that process. It is a pleasure to meet you. When taking stock continues in just a moment, i will speak to a man who has a hightech toilet that does not need to be connected to sewer lines and it runs on solar power. It could help millions around the world. We will be right back. Go zero started out as a nonprofit with a mission to bring power to africa. It was an organization with a big heart, but no money. The day, it is the ninth fastestgrowing committee in america. The ceo explains how he turned a money burning charity into a giant in the solar energy space. Gold zero powers your goal zero powers your cell phones, tablets, and phones. We charge everywhere from the himalayas to disneyland. Our vision is to put power in the hands of every human. Goal zero i joined thought, this is the coolest place to work. And then it hit me. Is this a business or a hobby . Because we are spending millions of dollars. We did not know where our products belong. Should we just continue in africa . Do they belong outdoors, emergencies . We didnt know. We were urgently searching for a customer. The earthquake hit in haiti and i called our chairman and said, we have a warehouse full of stuff and these folks in haiti needed more than we do. Lets just donate it. Upumanitarian group loaded 747s and flew the products down to haiti and they said, two weeks later, they called and said, people are taking your power stations and helping people find family members. We will take everything youve got. We thought, wait a second, there might be an opportunity in the emerging markets. That is where we went to focus. We kind of identified costco as the premier play place for people to gear up in case of an emergency. That rocketed the bills ms. Last year the business. Last year, and goal zero was recognized as the night fastestgrowing business in the country. Ninth fastestgrowing business in the country. I dont think we will be satisfied until we are in every part of the world. We are growing our team to make that happen. Solar energy is also being used in Innovative New ways, including the effort to prevent as many as 1. 5 Million Deaths every year due to a lack of sanitary toilets. My next guest won the first prize at the reinvent the toilet competition sponsored by the bill and Melinda Gates foundation. It is a development of caltechs selfcontained Water Treatment system. He is recently back from installing the toilet in india and joins me in los angeles. Stock andor taking thanks for your time today. Start at the beginning. How does this solar powered toilet, which some are calling the toilet of the future, how does it work . Basically what we are doing is, we capture the energy in a solar panel and from that, we use the electricity created to run an electrochemical reactor that will convert the chloride, oxidized it to a bleach like product and that creates the clean water that you can reuse for flushing again. You have a closed loop system. How long did it take from idea to blueprint to manufacture for your design to become a reality and how much does it cost per use per day . A good question. Our commercialization plan, we are now working with a friend partners and starting from our prototype that we have now in the field, and making more industrial scale prototypes. Be in the field at the end of 2014, beginning of 2015. We are planning the commercialization with the help of the Gates Foundation for 2015. Why has billing Sanitation Systems in developing countries proven to be so difficult . Is verynfrastructure expensive, even in the u. S. Houses are connected on septic tank. Around them something 50,000 to get connected to sewers. You can imagine it is a similar cost in developing countries and there are not enough resources for that. Isew way of sanitation needed. How many prototypes are in use right now . Right now, we have three prototypes, two in india, and one in a city in the northwest and another in the southwest. And we have another prototype here in pasadena at our campus at caltech. Are you planning to develop a nextgeneration prototype . Yes, we are are talking to the peruvian government to eventually have a system in machu picchu, and also in other areas of the world. We are looking to develop the same technology and bringing it for the septic tank replacement, so the u. S. Market. He heads caltechs wasteWater Treatment system that is selfcontained. We appreciate your time tonight. Stay with us. Taking stock on Bloomberg Television continues in just a moment. This is taking stock and im Mark Crumpton in for pimm fox. The get a look at todays market moving headlines. We will go to my colleague, su keenan. To gaincare continues traction. President obama said today the number of people who sign up for insurance reached 8 million during the enrollment time frame. And i in a white house practice in a White House Press conference, he said the republicans must move beyond the current objections and try to give up trying to repeal the law. Unitedhealth group, the biggest United Health insurer said profits fell 7. 8 . It wasnt hurt by cuts it was hurt by cuts to its Medicare Advantage program. To 1 billion. Geb analyst estimates with its andtquarter operating etf reaffirmed its 2014 forecast. Ge shares are down five percent year to date and little changed on this latest earnings news. Those are the top headlines. Thank you. My next guest is a seventime grammy awardwinning music legend and the lead singer of earth, wind, and fire. His brandnew album hit shelves this week. Philip daly joins me now. Bailey joins me now. Model for Music Distribution now uses multiple platforms. That is not how it was back in the day. You might have to take the literal reel to reel tape and take it to somebody office somebodys offices to get them to hear it. Are there drawbacks to the weights than now . It is now and everyones disposal the moment you make it and record it, because people can copy it to delete a digitally and sell it. It is pretty dicey. It does open itself up, perhaps, to the legality them a thisse people can download. And package it and go on the road selling it. And there have been conflicts between originators in content and those who use riffs in their music without crediting the original performers. How widespread was that back in the day and have you personally been affected by this . Back in the day, it was really about pride. Everybody wanted to be original and they didnt want to sound like someone else. Was it really more of an honor system . It really was more of an honor system. If someone brought it to your attention that you are copying a risk a risk from someone else, you take it out of your record. But today, it is actually being marketed and promoted based on someone elses song. Many of the older artists have expressed regret over past year past business dealings and not getting the right advice. What advice would you give to younger artists in their business dealings . What have you learned throughout your career . I have learned that you have to be on top of it from day one full stop you have to not only learn your craft and your music, but also the business. Do you have to exercise more to digital Due Diligence as opposed to just saying, you are manager, deal with it . You have to know the things yourself. Lets talk about the shining star of earth, wind, and fire. Why did you write it . What did you want people to know . It was an attempt to put background to the songs that have become the soundtrack to many peoples lives, as well as a way to expose the deeper side of who i am, and how i survived the business, and really, what makes me tick. I was struck a lot of people probably dont know this about you, but your spirituality is very important to you. It has become more so over the years. It is the way i have stayed grounded and survived. When you talk about the journey from when you were a kid , talk to us about the education. That publicthe book school in denver, it was very important to you when you hear stories now about maybe some School Systems wanted to cut out music programs, you say what . My experience with music and choir, i learned some of the things my younger son, who graduated from berkeley, some of the things he started to learn there. And that is a great school. I learned those things in school in denver before i went to college. That is how wonderful the music departments were. , are young stardom ever prepared for the grind and sometimes the monotony of the grind . The day in and day out, and sometimes you may be in different cities and you say, hello, and you are in the wrong city. And i have done wrong holidays, too. How do you stay energized . Do you feed off the crowd . You have good handlers, hopefully, who tell you what day be ablend help you to to take some of that load off of you. But yes, i feed off the crowd, as well as i still love making music. I genuinely still love making music. I am doing a tour right now not only with earth, wind, and fire, lewis. H i have always been a big fan. The music is a big thing that keeps me taking. You mentioned something other start of this interview about being the soundtrack of peoples lives. It is that way for me as well. Does that don on you, that people growing up, you literally were a voice for their use youth, for their maturity growing up . Does that ever not move you . It dawns on me, and it really hits home when you meet the poll meet people like diane out on this speaking tour, and meet people like i am out on this speaking tour. Some people get very emotional. Songsu know, there are and things for my past that take me right back to the sound and smell. I can relate. Do you ever get tired of being called a legend . I keep it in perspective. I stay at the task at hand. You will have a book signing tonight at barnes noble in the Upper West Side at 7 30 p. M. And you will be performing with ramsey lewis at the blue note here on west 4th street. I knew it well. That is on june the 14th. Thank you for joining us in studio. It is a pleasure to meet you. Whatg up, we will find out Bombay Sapphire is doing to encourage budding film thinkers filmmakers at the tribeca Film Festival. Welcome back. Im Mark Crumpton in for pimms stock pimm fox. For some people, pete candy has been the number one nonchocolate easter candy peeps candy has been the number one nonchocolate easter candy for many years. Are an iconic marshmallow candy that makes you feel good when you need them and are particularly noted for their easterof being the candy, a candy that people love and attribute to the first signs of spring. You will find many in easter baskets sunday morning. I have a rainbow peep, called a rainbow pop. Were not always just known for this. About justittle bit born. It is a thirdgeneration familyowned business, started in 1923. We just celebrated our 90th anniversary last year. Were part of the acquisition and came into being 61 years ago, in 1953. It gained in popularity every year. It is something you can find primarily around easter, but other holiday seasons as well. As i hinted to you last time we were together, some big news. We are coming out with a new peeps of peeps, called minis. What is the difference between the two . The mini are about half of the size of the regularpeep, and half the calories. You can eat them hand to mouth, and when you are done eating them, just seal the bag and they will stay fresh. Peeps story has grown along with the ability to engage people in the whole peep experience. How do you keep something fresh, but also stay with what the jurists really want . I think it is about establishing your base, as you said, and always having the base product and the icon available in the forms people are most familiar with and feel the most comfortable with him and then finding out where we can take peeps and satisfying those needs. We have a party cake and bubble gum, and all those flavors that work well with marshmallow. You produce them all year long. All year long. Billion and about 75 of those are for the easter season alone. All varieties and shapes and colors. This is prime peep time. We will do the majority of our sales are bubbly in the two weeks leading into easter. That is how concentrated it is. Can you give me an idea how big the company is right now, how many employees . We are moving from the tent into the ninth largest Confectionery Company in the u. S. , based on sales. Facilities, one in bethlehem, pennsylvania and another in philadelphia, pennsylvania. And i think you will find when you come to visit us that people enjoy working there. We are very dedicated and passionate about the business. If i saw your house, would there be peeps everywhere . I have peeps crystal at home. It runs the gamut. When you think about the mass appeal and the wide convergence across all socioeconomic groups, you can at dunkinfor easter donuts for their special springtime doughnut, and then go to the other end of the spectrum and find peeps dipped in godiva chocolate. It can span the whole spectrum. As someone who is an expert in the snack food industry, do you taste all kinds of snack foods . If i went through the snack food aisle with you im a you would be able to say, i do not like the parmesan potato chips very much, but i do like the thai chili twists with the pepper and the pretzel . For ang in this business long time, i try to keep abreast of what is happening and i will have tried a number of them. For all of the years i have been in the snack and beverage business, i have never come across a product like peeps where people have what i would call a visceral connection to the brand. Not only do they eat it, but they use it for arts and crafts. They use it for decorating. They use it for recipes and other types of foods and they are totally engaged in it. If you go on social media now, there is a terrific outlet for people to express that connection, and it really is a connection with peeps. I could see a peeps movie festival. Right now, you could look at all of the different tire, rama contestsru going on across the country. One of them shows the infamous traffic jam with peeps. Do you have to have a certain kind of acumen to be in the snack food business . When i asked you why you got into this, you said you wanted to make people smile. Like ikek of things and mike and pete brand. You see people interacting with them and it always brings about a happy smile. It is almost foolproof will stop it is fun to bring about those omens of sweet enjoyment to a moments of those sweet enjoyment to a variety of users. Coming up, the tribeca fan festival brand him a not just films, on the red carpet. Brand,eca Film Festival not just films, on the red carpet. Wasnext, a ring that supposed to sell at risds sold at the high end of its range, 5,765,000. That is a pretty penny. For the last of her teen years, the tribeca Film Festival has transformed the new york filmscene as well as makers careers. International brands are increasingly recognizing tribecas mobile spotlight and launching there are no their own initiatives. Has more. Uest welcome to taking stock. Good to see you. How long has bombay been working with the festival . This will be our third year. But how fast did that go by . It has gone very quickly. Hard work makes things go by quickly. Why are you interested in the films . Film is an art and a huge artistic expression. Few people know that Bombay Sapphire was imported in the late 1980s. It was really accepted down here on the Lower East Side of manhattan, adopted by the artistic community. Since then, Bombay Sapphire has been closely aligned with the art world and emerging art forms. And that is exactly what the tribeca Film Festival is all about. Talk to us about those who are taking an active approach in their own digital installations. One of the really wonderful things about working with Bombay Sapphire is that they were involved from the beginning. We had all of these ideas about transmedia interactive story is stories working with tribeca. I think their enthusiasm and they were so open to us doing something, which in the broad scheme of things sounded kind of crazy when we started talking about an interactive installation for the festival. But they were with us the whole way. It has been pretty fun. You have two programs, story scapes and imaginations. Tell us about them. Story scapes has been our effort to honor and spotlight thesmedia, which we see as future of film. It is the idea of bringing storytelling off of the screen and using technology to tell the story. The last time he went to a film, you probably sat down with a coke and popcorn and watch the story unfold on screen. Transmedia is having that story told in different ways. It could be through interactive goggles that you put on it really brings the audience into part of the story. Talk to us about the importance of these digital partnerships with this specific festival. I think tribeca, we are putting ourselves on the map as a festival that is interested in technology and culture and where things are going. We want to sell a great culture, but we also want to think about what is coming down the pipeline. Is that a way of differentiating yourself from other Film Festivals . I think a lot of people are interested in this right now. Everyone looks around and sees a lot of technology. People are interested, but it is something about the work we are doing with the stories. Both so much for coming on taking stock. And other brand on the red carpet tonight at the tribeca Film Festival, iwc International Watch company of switzerland. This year marks the second year the festival and the watchmaker are collaborating. Iwcs chief executive George Kearns joins me now. You have some very good looking watches there. Tell us about them. In this series we are doing for the tribeca Film Festival is a series of 100 pieces. We gave one piece to an auction a couple of weeks back, which was sold for 55,000 u. S. Dollars. We are adding another 45,000 and giving 100,000 to the film institute, the tribeca film institute, to support their project. Your second year partnering with the festival. Why did you feel like it was important to continue that collaboration . No one is watching is buying a watch today through retirement. It is about storytelling. You need to create a dream in the consumers mind and filmmaking is about storytelling. It is a link between storytelling at our level and the tribeca Film Festival. What prompted this collaboration . Really to get closer to art, to luxury, industry and art on a broader level are getting closer and closer. There are more and more associations. We sponsor many festivals around the world and we work with many stars. It is a natural fit between the luxury industry and movies. Where can people purchase it . And i have to ask you, how much does it cost . The limited series is around 11,500 u. S. Dollars. This one is a bit more expensive. It is around 50,000. There is another for around 20,000. You can purchase it at various boutiques around the usa. It really is a piece of art. It is a beautiful piece. I would love to see one of these watches on your wrist. [laughter] i will tell my boss about that. Thank you so much. Chief executive George Kearns. That is it for taking stock on this thursday. Have a good night and enjoy your weekend, everybody. Live from pier three in san francisco, welcome to bloomberg west. I am emily chang. Facebook wants to help you find and connect with friends when they are nearby. Will the move helped the company make more revenue . Waiting into the ipo market, despite the recent recent tech selloff. I will speak to the chairman of what many call the ter