How you meet, greet, or just plain invite your friends and family to event. But first, headlines from carol massar. At t boosted its firstquarter earnings to . 71 per share. Analysts on average estimated . 70, a penny better than it. They added 25,000 monthly subscribers, up from a year ago. Charter communications is entering a deal to acquire about 1. 5 million subscribers from comcast. This according to people familiar with the organization. Turner is also said to have at least 50 charter is also said to have at least 50 stake in a spinoff company. Aereo ceo and founder sat down with betty liu before oral arguments this morning. I dont think anyone can forecast what could happen. It is a full games to do that a fools game to do that, mainly because we feel very confident in our product. As a matter of law, we are dead right, but it is the United States Supreme Court and nobody can predict. That its a look at the headlines this hour. Back over to you. Thanks so much, carol massar. It is the case that could redefine the video ecosystem. What is that the court the core of the argument . Sam grobart explains the details. By now, you may have heard about aereo, launched in 2012 and backed by barry diller. It allows you to broadcast tv over the internet. But is it legal . Heres how it works. So far, they have products much like the rabbit ears you have at your home. They receive free over the air right caps off are cbs, abc, nbc, and fox. Aereo broadcast that over the internet and then you can watch tv. The Service Costs eight dollars to 12 per month. But here is where it gets sticky. Before aereo, there were three ways to watch broadcast television. You could bolton and tenant to your roof and yet it for free, pay for a cable box, or satellite dish. While you are paying cable and satellite companies, they are paying the broadcasters so they can retransmit their programming to a tune of about 2 billion to 4 billion a year. Aereo argues it is pulling down the same free signal anyone can get with their own antenna. The fact that those antennas happen to be in a warehouse and not on subscribers roofs, they say, should not matter. Broadcasters say they are no different than a cable company. In march, 2012, they sued aereo for copyright violation. They want it decided whether it is a public performance. If it is, then they are infringing by not paying for it. But if the Court Decides it is just a lot of private performances, one for each subscriber, then it would not need to pay the broadcasters. So far, both the lower and Appellate Courts have sided with aereo. It is now up to the Supreme Court to decide. Arguments will be in april and there will be a ruling in july. Those arguments did happen today. With some insight on what is happening at the Supreme Court, i want to go to washington, d. C. Greg store and also aereo defender michael weinberg. Also with us, miller baker, a partner at mcdermott, miller, and emery. He has successfully argued cases before the Supreme Court. Greg, i wonder if you could start us off and explain what is at stake. What are they are doing right now at the Supreme Court . What they argued today and it was about an hour long was whether aereo is infringing the rights of the broadcasters when it uses those little antennas that we sought to capture the signal and sends it to the customers and aereo says that it is the customers that are supplying the equivalent. It is just like an antenna and we are not violating the broadcasters. Is this a matter of defining what is public and what is private . This gives lawyering a bad name. This is no different than Cable Television or satellite television. The reason aereos Business Model is what it is and that it is cheaper than satellite or cable is that they are not paying royalties. The average cable or Satellite Company has to payroll fees on what they are retransmitting. Aereo is not. We will see what happens in the Supreme Court, but i believe, ultimately, the broadcasters will prevail. Michael, you must have a response to that. I think the reason aereo is not paying royalties is that it is not required to payroll fees. Under the law, they are doing a private performance, and that is not the kind of thing that has to be paid to write folders. Aereo went out of their way to comply with the law and build their service. What is the complying with a lot taking advantage of a loophole that could be very easily closed, michael . Aereo no, i think that is complying close, michael . Rex know, i think that is complying with the law. If the reasons you dont have to go pay write folders is because you are singing in the shower or reading a book off of your shelf these are all things that are happening privately in your house. The fact that the broadcasters would like to be paid doesnt mean they have a legal right to be. I wonder if you could come back on this. It also hinges on who makes the content. In other words, you have to be compensated for the work and the investment. That is why we have copyright law. It protects the intellectual property of the people transmitting this, the broadcasters. This is no different than satellite or cable. They pay a royalty, and this company, aereo, is simply transmitting through a different mechanism, but in the same way ort a satellite provider cable transmits. Copyright law protects this and the aereo Business Model simply does not work because it conflicts with copyright law. Greg, im sure these are similar to the kind of arguments that went on at the Supreme Court today. Who is on which side . Obviously, we know the broadcasters and we know aereo, backed by barry diller. Who else has expressed an opinion about this . Among other people, the Obama Administration argued alongside the broadcasters today. And in an interview with aereo ceo, betty liu talked about how he was disappointed that the it ministration to deposition. The broadcasters have some heavyweight content providers, including the nfl and major league baseball. If this is all about subscription and public versus private, why doesnt aereo offer to make some kind of contractual agreement with the broadcasters . Again, because they are not required to by law. The law does not require them to go and say, we want to pay you for the content, anyone who is any more than someone who is selling antennas at the store or coaxial cable is required to. It is a very specific set of rights. If youre behaving outside that set of rights in a way that does not trigger a copyright, then you have no obligation to the right holder. Miller, what is it like to argue at the Supreme Court . And what happens next . We are waiting until july for some kind of result. It is intense, but also fun. I very much enjoyed it. What happens next is that the court will go to conference at the end of this week and they will take a tentative vote. And the chief justice, assuming he is in the majority, will assign the opinion to either himself or one of his colleagues. We should have an opinion from the court by the end of the term, which should be the end of june. Greg, last point to you. If the Supreme Court rules and is consistent with rulings in lower courts, what does this mean for aereo and broadcasters . The lower courts are divided. In areas aereos case, there are a couple of courts that have ruled the other way on similar services. Perhaps, that is why the Supreme Court has agreed to take this up. If aereo loses, not much changes in the world as we know it. If aereo wins, it will be a fascinating time to watch the broadcast industry. I want to thank you all. In full disclosure, i want to note that Bloomberg Television has a Distribution Agreement with aereo. Coming up, a banner day for big pharmaceutical companies. Lots of mergers and acquisitions taking place. Investors are working to figure out the details of the deals. Also, tomorrow, bloomberg tv will have an exclusive interview with mohamed elerian, the former pimco co. Chief executive. That will be with betty liu at 9 30 a. M. Wall street time. A wave of acquisitions hit the pharmaceutical industry in just last 24 hours. And when the dust settled, it seemed like novartis went to a swap meet with glaxosmithkline and eli lilly. Investors cheered the deal today as healthcare stocks in the s p 500 were the biggest gainers of all of the major industry groups. And the mergers may not be over yet. For more, im joined by Shannon Pettypiece and also steve brozak, president of an Investment Bank that specializes in the pharmaceutical industry. Shannon, i know you wrote the story today and have been following what is going on. This has to do with a swap of a variety of properties. Novartis, which is based in switzerland, glaxosmithkline, which is based in u. K. , and eli lilly to my based in indianapolis. It is interesting to see all of these big pharmaceutical ceos and executives that usually can keep with each other come together. Compete with each other come together. Basically, what you need to know is novartis is getting bigger into cancer. Glaxo is getting bigger into vaccines. And eli lilly is getting bigger into Animal Health. The bigger themes across all of these Countries Companies is that they are trying to focus on what they do best. It is not, lets do everything for everyone and you have to be big. Now, it is about focusing on not one thing, but a few things. Novartis, one of the things they want to focus on is cancer drugs. Right. And one of the things that glaxo smith klein wants to focus on is the vaccine business. And eli lilly wants to focus on the Animal Health business. Steve brozak, do you agree . Is this what they are trying to do . Absolutely, and the way we look at it is, not too big, not too little, but just right. And we saw this yesterday with bill ackman going out there and frankly, spearheading the acquisition of allergan. We will get into that deal. Im curious, why is it that they have chosen now to make this threeway swap . There is the cynical side of me that says, there is a banking reform act and investors are saying, youve got to do something because revenues are going down, and you can only grow earnings per share by cutting. Lets focus on core competence. Lets increase the sales we know are predictable, because shareholders like critic ability. That is what they are focusing on. It is odd we have had the deals and a lot of times they seem to come in clusters. I do not know if that is the investor bankers talking among themselves. When you see one you see more. There was the talk about the pfizer astrazeneca deal. And that would have created a powerhouse. I mean, they are all powerhouses. And that is what we are talking about here, with companies specializing. Pfizer and astrazeneca would have been a megadeal among creating a huge from a surgical behemoth. And you did have pfizer going out there saying they were taking over a business line. But the difference here is that you are actually seeing trades. Different Business Models are going out there and getting rid of certain business lines. The mantra is that you either want to be 1, 2, or three. And you saw that a month ago where j j got rid of their Business Model and solar to carlisle. Now they are saying sold it to carlisle. Now they are saying, what can we buy and what can we go out there and succeed at . Do you think the shareholders have that kind of logic . I would say in the shortterm, they have no choice. In the long term, we can talk about that later, but the idea is that you want to introduce new drugs and new technology. That takes money, though. Incredible sums of money to my because you have the regulatory hurdles. But it also takes the ability tos go out there and say the ability to go out there and say, this is not just some new type of treatment. Will ackman, why is he interested in allergan . It is the biggest stake hes ever put into an investment. The idea is that you go where the money is or you go with health care. That is the reason why. What other businesses can say they have that much kind of democratic a demographic growth . Thank you very much, steve brozak, joining us on pharmaceuticals. My thanks also to Shannon Pettypiece, Bloomberg News health reporter. Keep us up to date on this story. President obama is headed to asia for his tour of the region. We will be talking about why this is a critical time for the region as well as u. S. Policy in asia. This is taking stock on bloomberg. Im pimm fox. President obama is set to take a trip to asia and has stopped set for japan, korea, will asia, and the philippines. This comes as new tensions, about between north korea and south korea. Here with us is jamie metzl. You are taking a trip to the region on thursday. It is a crazy time. There is so much happening in asia and it has become more central in the world than it has in hundreds of years. The u. S. Is fighting to maintain its rulesbased system we have been supporting for 70 years. China is challenging that system in fundamental ways. Korea, what is the biggest topic therefore the president . The big thing in south korea, well, two things. One is trade. The United States is unhappy with the feeling that south korea has benefited as exports to the United States have gone up. But they dont have enough. That is a big issue. Also, south korea and japan are at their worst level of relations in many decades. And if south korea and japan are divided, that certainly harms u. S. Interests in the region and empowers china. There will be a big push to bring korea and japan together. What is the issue with japan and korea geico and korea . It is historical. Japan was the master of korea and very brutal. The South Koreans want them to apologize . They wanted to apologize and the japanese have apologize. They want them to do it in a deeper way. They want them to do it in the way that germany has done. Japan has not gone to the level that germany house. What does japan want . Clearly, theres the issue of military bases, but right now, the big issue is the negotiation of the transpacific partnership. The tpp is a trade agreement bringing together 12 asiapacific nations and japan and the United States are the two most important. It was the hope that an agreement could be announced during this trip. It will not happen because there are too many divisive issues. But the president and Prime Minister shinzo abe are going to try to push this. If the nations if they can come together, then it will be relatively easy to get the rest of the tpp. But it is not a fasttrack approval process. Even if they negotiate something, there will be a big fight here in the u. S. Is this like a nafta for asia . Something like that, but if you use those words, a lot of people will be up in arms. Many tough negotiating tough issues have to be negotiated. In china, intellectual property will not be protective. Services will not be part of the trade. It is very important. Thank you very much, jamie metzl. Planning your wedding . We will show you how to save postage next. This is taking stock on bloomberg. Im pimm fox. I want to go to my radio cohost, carol massar. Yum brands out with it latest quarterly results. The owner of ksc kfc and taco bell reporting . 87 a share. The company also said it sees adjusted Earnings Growth of 20 this year. Yum brands plans to open at least 700 new restaurants in china in 2014. In the meantime, mcdonalds posted falling sales and First Quarter estimates that trailed estimates. Firstquarter sales that trailed estimates. Sales are projected to be modestly positive in april. Firstquarter net income was 631 million. Back over to you. I thought you try to that breakfast burrito from taco bell. All right, thank you, carol. Life is full of social event. Paperless post wants to be the company you turn to when you want to meet, greet, or just plain invite someone to do something. The online and paper Retail Company recently raised 25 million in a series of funding. Joining me now is the cofounder, james hirschfeld. Lets Start Talking about how old you do list post is. Its not such a recent startup. No, not so young. We launched five years ago yesterday. Happy birthday. Did you put together an invitation for yourself you go you would think for yourselves . He would think we would have, but we have been pretty busy. You have raised 25 Million Dollars recently. What are you going to do with the money . We live in a world where people communicate on a per list platforms and we want to bring a paper feeling to the internet where people are communicating more and more. And we have moved onto the ipad and onto paper as well. Our business has been growing a lot in these platforms. We have raised our team into developing these products faster. You have 45 million users and 100 million decards have been sent. The way it works is someone comes and signed in and become a member and they say, i want to plan a birthday party. I have a list of my 50 friends i want to invite. I put the email addresses in and i choose the way the envelope looks when someone clicks on it. It can do all of these multimedia things and then you respond by clicking. Now you have a great count for people and you know how many will show up. Exactly. And the User Experience is based on Self Expression and privacy. You go on as a consumer and you create your wedding invitation, christening invitation, whatever it is, and send it out to your list. You can send it out through email or a push notification if it is on a mobile device. The guests get the convenience of online mutation with the beauty of a beautiful printed piece. What about connecting that to peoples calendars . I keep hearing that everyone lives their lives staring at a little device. If it is not an the phone, it will not happen. Exactly. We want to bring all of the convenience of our digital life and tools to this type of social connection that will happen. Like you said, people have phones with them all the time in their lives and they are not going anywhere. Bringing that modern convenience of being able to hook in with your calendar, being able to message someone from the road, clicked a button and see where this thing is on your google maps rather than having an address card that you would have in a traditional paper invitation, all of that is updating this type of valuable to. How many employees . 75 employees in downtown manhattan. Would you like to increase that . Is this part of what money is for, what you be adding people to the payroll . Absolutely. We are hiring in a pretty competitive hiring market. We are trying to grow by 50 by the end of the year. What kind of social media have changed the nature of your business . Five years ago, it existed, but not to the proliferation that social media is today. Ironically, social media has had less of an effect with our business than other online businesses. Publishing businesses, etc. Our model is focused on privacy and the connection between two people, the private connection with your College Roommate or motherinlaw. In many ways, we have flown below the radar with social media in the way we have developed our products. Obviously, we use it as a marketing tool, but it is not built into the dna of our tool as much. How do you make money with all of this . We have two revenue models. One is, selling virtual goods. If you decide to choose a card that is particularly fancy or designed by one of our Design Partners like oscar de la hoya to or kate spade, that card will cost you some digital credits that you buy on the site in packages. A good portion of our revenue comes from selling digital goods, like imitations. And then the rest of the like invitations. And in the rest of the revenue comes from selling paper. Talk about this. You are selling custom stationery. Two years ago well, 1. 5 years ago we launched a paper line. It was maybe counterintuitive, given the name. But the idea was to read or sue serve our was to better serve our users. They were coming to us and saying, i love your brand and i use it for six parties a year. But this occasion is coming up in my life im getting married or is my parent wedding anniversary and i want physical paper. After you hear that enough times, you realize there is an opportunity to be more useful. Maybe i should order some thank you notes. Every time someone comes on taking stock, i could write them a and you know. Because i noticed you do awful offer those helpful tips. We do. And you do invitations as well . Yes, they are very popular. What was the last invitation you got . To a party im going to on friday. Very good. Thanks very much. James hirschfeld is the chief executive officer of paperless post. After a weekend of celebrating the legalization of marijuana in denver, colorado, i will speak with an executive from a Cannabis Company about the industrys profit potential. And another bloomberg tv programming note, bill ackman will be on the markets tomorrow at 10 a. M. Eastern. Ackman is making a push with Valeant Pharmaceuticals to purchase allergen. Allergan. That is tomorrow on bloomberg. Thousands of people gather this weekend in denver, colorados civic center park. They were celebrating the legalization of marijuana in the state park. The first legal outlets opened this year. Joining me now is openvapes chief revenue officer, todd mitchell. Tell me about the company. We are about 125 employees in colorado. We license in multiple states around the country. We are in california, washington, soon to be oregon, and colorado and soontobe in others. We grew last year about 12 . In terms of sales . Yes, and growth of market capture. Tell us about the product. What are you selling . It is a vaporizing been pen company. We have a battery attached to a cartridge that is filled with cannabis oil. Youre able to vaporize that at a certain temperature. The battery heats the cartridge and the cartridge produces vapor. And this has been approved for medical use of marijuana . In the states where they only have medicinal law, then that is where we sell that medicinally only. In colorado and washington they are now available also recreationally. Washington should come online by june. When you say, online, that is the timeframe when you can start to do business. But this is a bit different circumstance than opening a candy store. It is way different. Recreational licensing in colorado alone was about 1200 pages just to be able to get your license. The point of entry has changed in the last 12 months. A couple of years ago, two guys with 500 could have started a business. Now you need a lot more capital. And you need some way to keep track of the money, because it is mostly an all cash business right now. Right now, our single biggest challenge in the industry is banking. Because the banks are not working with the cannabis industry in a way that is effective, they have really created a 2. 5 billion industry around the country that is in cash and hard to track. Careers running around with cash, that is certainly a risk. And it is the ability to track where the money goes. You are counting on Industry Players Like us, quality, follow the rules. We are hoping the banks will work with us. Do you have the whole industry is dealing with Bank Accounts of that yet shut down out of nowhere. It is the most tumultuous part of the in dash the industry. Of the industry. Is there a connection between the kinds of Brand Marketing that you are trying to do now as with the kind of Brand Marketing that you did previously . What has been shocking is how fast this industry moves. This moves at tenets or 20 x. What do you mean . A week in our world equates to a month. If i put a strategy together this week, we will implement and roll with it and we have to keep up with a market in a way that is faster. Right, but how do you do that . Obviously, there is not National Television ads. You are not using this traditional form or maybe you are using traditional forms of media in order to do this kind of marketing. We are getting a ton of attention. We are here now, right . And it is a brandnew industry. And it is a brandnew way of doing this. We are not only building a new product line or a new widget, but on top of an industry that did not exist four years ago that is now becoming a viable industry. We are doing a lot of things simultaneously and being very responsible in the process. We are not only building our own Corporate Structure and our own Corporate Team and leadership and values. What about the direct to consumer sales . How do you handle that . We are able to sell right to dispensaries, who then sell it to the public. We literally sell everything we can produce. Job fairs, i noted that you were at one recently. Tell us what happened. We hosted a job fair in colorado. We felt that because we dont have time in our industry to vet people for years or months at a time, we wanted to deepen the pool of talent we have access to. The idea was we would have a job fair and invite 15 companies, 150 or so job opportunities. We did that and thought we would have 200 people and ended up with 1240 jobseekers, 33 run out of state. 33 from out of state . We had a gentleman from puerto rico who said he had traveled so far so that hopefully he could return in the industry someday to puerto rico. Who is ultimately responsible for making sure that those who are not supposed to have them do not have them . Our product is deafening not for kids or those who are not of age. We make our churches that are childproof. Unless youre cartridge we make cartridges that are childproof. Unless youre cartridge is committed to your battery, it wont matter if your child gets a hold of it. Thank you for sharing this information. Todd mitchum is the chief revenue officer of openvape. Coming up next, you will meet the owner of what is being called the hottest sushi restaurant in america. And Warren Buffett will be on bloomberg at 3 00 p. M. Tomorrow. Raw fish is hot in new york city right now, in fact all over the country. Luxury sushi counters are opening all over, but the hot the hottest of them all is sushi nakazawa. It is the lead story in this weeks Bloomberg Businessweek magazine. Joining us now to tell us more about the secrets of the restaurant business, alessandro borgognone, the owner of sushi nakazawa. And mm rosenbloom, Wilbur Businessweek editor. How does Bloomberg Businessweek editor. How does a guy like you end up owning sushi nakazawa . I think it was, being courageous. And finding something you are passionate about. I am very passionate about food. And it is no secret how i found him. I watched the same documentary that everybody else watched and i went after it. And was the first time you tasted sushi . In the early 1990s. It has come a long way since then. Was a california roll, my first piece of sushi. Why is sushi so popular now . I mean, it has been for a long time, but even more so today. Six highend sushi restaurants have opened up in new york in just the past six months. It is one of the big trends right now, combined with healthy eating, and it has an exotic, luxury feel. And it is one of the only products in restaurant categories that people cannot do this at home. People are big into cooking in their own kitchens right now, but they still go out for sushi. That is great for you. Im happy about that. What should we be learning about the different types of sushi . Some of the most important things we were going over just before i got here. We use 100 our product, by far, we think of it as the best. But what really makes it great is that all of our products are wild. There is not a farm raised product in the techniques that we use. The technique for what . For preparation. For smoking, pickling, aging. These are things you do not find in a regular sushi restaurant. Where does the best piece of sushi begin . What market does it began in and where does it travel all over the world to reach the table at nakazawa . I think the japanese use the surrounding waters that you have. We try to buy as locally as we possibly can, but that we do outsource. And we do have relationships, but we try to buy the best we can. And that is pretty much it. What we do is we go from very light to very heavy. The tuna would be heavy. That would be very thick. The tuna you are describing as being a heavy portion of sushi. And a light portion would be what . The salmon, of course, which we outsource from alaska. Everyone says that sushi taste can be affected not only because of the way the fish is cut, but also the kind of fish. In other words, when it is served in the meal. Is there a particular process . Should you start with one and go with another . But i dont necessarily think you should start with one and go to another, but i will tell you that every product is placed at a certain time, because we are concerned by temperature. That is one of multiple things that we do that makes it exceptional. Every piece of sushi that you get just like the rice. The rice is served at a certain temperature. When we serve the tuna, it is body temperature. You dont want it to be too cold. You want it to be robust in flavor. Trying to get sushi at a price people can afford, or does that not matter . The philosophy is, you get what you pay for. The menu at nakazawa is expensive. I would say it is 150 at the bar and 120 in the restaurant. What is the most expensive piece of sushi that you serve . Probably the geoduck. It is a large clan that is indigenous to washington state. It is probably one of the most extensive piece is a that we have. In addition to you running the place, what about your chefs . My chefs are all really talented. When we decided to open up the restaurant, we decided to open the best restaurant. I do want to mention any names, but we went out and picked people that really wanted to work with us. Most importantly, they love working with us. And the story behind the restaurant is pretty great. He did not really go into it, but he found the chef on facebook and sent him an message and then they got together and have decided to form this relationship. And it is impossible to get in there. I cannot get a reservation at your restaurant. And you have a sushi master chef. You whet everybodys appetite. Thank you. This is taking stock