friday's2% higher than close. the company hired advisers after activist fund elliott management acquired a 10% stake in riverbed last year. a major deal brewing in the european wireless market. bt group will have several weeks for an exclusive negotiation window. france banning uber starting january 1. that from the interior ministry. it comes three days after a paris judge blocked a bid to block uber. the government says the drivers do not meet the most basic requirements, including background checks and training. uber will take this to court. and to the lead, three people are dead, including the gun them, in the hostage standoff in australia. four other people were hurt, including a police officer. the standoff ended after the police stormed the cafe in sydney's central business district. the lone gunman is a self acclaimed radical cleric. >> this is a very disturbing incident. it is profoundly shocking that innocent people should be held hostage by an armed person claiming political motivation. >> some of the hostages were able to escape before the police stormed the building. we spoke to the man who knows a thing or two about hostage negotiations. he is the retired chief of the fbi's negotiation unit. >> you cannot say that the negotiations failed because the negotiators in contact with this disturbed person bought 15 hours of time in which there was no violence. that provided sufficient time for the tactical forces to prepare. obviously they would have preferred for this fellow to surrender. as we always say in these incidents, the outcome is decided by the behavior and actions of the perpetrator. >> is there a global standard of process for negotiations? what happens behind the scenes in a situation like this? and how is that response aided by global knowledge other organizations have outside of australia? >> certainly law enforcement in north america, australia, new zealand, and europe are advanced in managing these incidents. the negotiators are well-trained. the method accepted by all is to contain a situation to make sure that the threat does not spread and open up a dialogue to seek a peaceful surrender. that is generally in the best interest of the perpetrator as well. fortunately for us more of them want to live than die. at the end of the day it is the perpetrator's behavior. they threaten or actually harm folks, and then the police is left with little recourse other than to intervene and save the lives of as many hostages as they can. that was the case here. >> it is interesting that the social media response -- the gunman's demands being that some of his demands be broadcast through the facebook accounts of some of the hostages. how did that changed the chess game the negotiators play? >> typically it is the ability to a seed to the perpetrators demands are not. he captured the media's attention and issued a statement of his own, that can be more problematic. social media and other ways of communicating, this will present increasing challenges for law enforcement in the future. >> interesting to dot marketization of information -- interesting, the democratization of information. why do police want to control it as part of the negotiation? >> it is a give and take, through quid pro quo bargaining. we want to put the perpetrator in a position to have to come to us to get it. if he wanted food, we would have traded food for the release of a hostage. if he is able to make his demands met independently or accomplish his goals independently, it places on -- law enforcement responders to respond to any more difficult and challenging situation than to try to influence the outcome positively. >> i wonder if there was response not to let those tweets or information get out from the hostages, and if that is the kind of thing the fbi might pursue in situations like this. >> i don't know if there was any effort made by the australians. every case is situational. there may be instances where in cases they might find that more problematic. it is hard to come up with a hard and fast rule that applies to all situations. >> interesting stuff, and glad it did not turn out to be worse. gary noesner, the former chief of the fbi's crisis negotiations unit. coming up, the sony have a case here? might the first amendment prevail? we will talk about that next. ♪ >> this is "bloomberg west." i'm cory johnson. well, hackers have turned the inner workings of sony entertainment into a public soap rep, releasing everything from employee medical records to salary details and salacious e-mails. sony is trying to make it go all away. they have hired a prominent attorney who quickly fired a letter to media organizations, demanding we stopped publishing the private information these hackers have found out about sony. he says it is stolen information and one sony company will hold them responsible unless it is destroyed. turning now to washington is mark former head of the u.s. , department of justice computer crime unit, this raises all kinds of interesting issues. not the least of which is that sony's business is being damaged. >> sony sent letters out to journalists, telling them not to release information that was stolen. the hackers are sending e-mails to sony telling them not to release a movie. the best way to keep it confidential is to protect us from being hacked in the first place. what journalists do is release information that other people may not want to have released. that is what they did. it is a really touchy issue here. >> it certainly is. sony wants the first amendment on one side and they don't want it on the other side, which is ironic and maybe hypocritical. do they have to case? this is stolen property and this is something that was private and is broadcasting that breaks the law? >> the law does a really bad job treating information as property. if i go in and break into your office and steal a ream of papers i clearly stole something. what if i read those papers and get the information from them, it is not clear that i have stolen anything. when you look at different kind of information differently, like classified information or trademark information or trade secrets or private information. ultimately what the journalists need to do is act responsibly in what they decide. >> we have all kinds of people online changing the rules of who is a journalist and what is journalism. it is one thing if someone gets a hold of these documents and reads them. it is another thing if a journalist gets this information and retransmits them. >> the law makes no distinction between a blogger, a person with a computer, somebody who sends out a tweet, the new york times, or bloomberg. they are all protected by the first amendment. >> that is a recent understanding from the supreme court in the last year or so. >> that is correct. one of the problems as a traditional journalist is if i don't publish it someone else will. it really is a very difficult, moral, ethical, and legal choice for journalists to decide what they need to do in this case. >> aaron sorkin has some interesting comments on this. he said if you close your eyes, you can imagine a hacker sitting in a room, combing through the documents to find the ones that will draw the most blood. in the next room, next-door american journalists are doing the same thing. the hackers are doing it for a cause, the journalists are doing it for a nickel. what do you say? >> when you ask yourself the question what is newsworthy, when you get the scoop from somebody you go through it and say what is it that is newsworthy? there is a lot of that going on. in releasing stuff like the name of the associate producer's medical records from sony, there is new -- no news value in that and that serves no purpose other than to embarrass somebody. that is the problem about being responsible. the other problem is when you are responsible, somebody else may not be. >> you don't want to go dirty or in this. i wonder about the connection to what is news and what isn't a news. naked pictures of celebrities that were hacked was much more salacious than the salaries of the same celebrities. there has been a cyber attack, possibly nation and state oriented. -- nationstate oriented. >> this is a very dangerous precedent. ultimately they will be hacked because hackers are getting that good. all of the salary information, all of the confidential information, all of the trade secret information, you can have all the legal protection. all that has to happen is one person leaks it and all protection goes out the window. they need to start allocating much more resources to start preventing these attacks meant to be able to respond to them effectively afterwards. it is almost impossible to put the genie back in in the bottle. but ibe i am a pollyanna, am hoping for the best. thank you very much. coming up twitter cofounder evan williams launches his latest project. can it be as successful as his previous effort? like twitter or medium? we will talk next. >> this is "bloomberg west." i am cory johnson. williams seems to think so. he cofounded a new venture capital firm. they are focusing on more positive investing and it is called "obvious." it should be called, "duh." focusing on early-stage companies and sustainability, here to talk about that is the cofounder. ira member talking to ev about this. if you are going to go through all the blood sweat and tears of companies you might as well make it do something good in the process. >> the simple idea of combining profit and purpose is a really great one. and it is found on our hypothesis that companies will be built by solving grand challenges in the world, like climate change and chronic disease. we think there is an enormous amount of work to do and profits to be made. >> that sounds cute, but does twitter solve a massive global problem? >> twitter has given hundreds of millions of people a voice. for us that is real positive. >> it is interesting in the case of medium and twitter, these are all medium focused. but you talk about things that go far beyond, giving people voices. >> we have three themes, one is sustainable systems. it is about new kinds of sustainable resources. we invested in a company called beyond meat. they are taking plant protein and creating delicious products that are an alternative to eating animals. >> protein is the most expensive part of every meal. it is hard for most people to get enough of. what is the second? >> the next one we call people power. we think there is an opportunity to use cloud and mobile technologies to really empower individuals and small businesses. we have 30 million small businesses, it is where job creation happens. those businesses have been underserved by technology. they actually give small businesses a full stack of services they can run on their smart phone. resources a great san francisco-based startup. they make software for carpenters, plumbers, people who run businesses out of their truck. they can do everything from scheduling to invoicing to payment on their smart phone. >> it sounds like a huge market opportunity. >> we think so. >> to piggyback on these fundamental changes in technology for the last five years, mobile and the cloud is social? >> we call that it digital democratization. everybody has a supercomputer in their pocket. it is fundamentally game changing. >> does that mean somebody is going to give you a pitch and add one more deck? that to they are also a do-good or? >> one thing we talked about is the fact that obvious ventures is about corporate philanthropy. it is not about running a traditional business and doing some good on the side, not that we are against that. but we are looking for businesses that are integrated. >> every company should do what salesforce is doing and have a certain percentage of revenue toward charity. but salesforce is not an organization built for the social good. >> that's right. that is really important. we love that companies do that. we are looking for companies where each dollar of revenue has some positive environmental or social benefit. >> does that change the way companies -- let me ask this question, when you look back in your career you were helping people spread pictures. >> it was the beginning of my positive journey. i would get e-mails from customers saying, thank you so much. i have never met mike ran. if you and i just opened up an envelope and saw pictures -- "thank you so much, i have never met my granddaughter. i just saw a picture of her for the first time." >> so you have had that happen to you. did that change the way you are doing work. i'm wondering if your company has a different sense of your work and proceeds to do it in a very different way. >> i think so. for me i thought about what is the meaning of the business i am building? that is another one of our dualities. i think we are seeing a whole new wave of millenial entrepreneurs that want to work on something that matters. they want their business to be very profitable but they want to change the world for the better. >> sounds so san francisco. and so awesome. thank you very much. and armed gunmen took siege in sydney, holding customers hostage. uber's response was controversial for those trying to flee the scene. surge pricing. how bad was this latest screwup by uber? we will talk about that next on "bloomberg west." >> time now for bloomberg television "on the market or co let's take a look at what happened with stocks today. we saw another slide. oil prices down once again. wti falling below $56 per barrel. we saw utilities and health-care stocks fall as well. ♪ >> you are watching "bloomberg west," where we focus on innovation, technology, and the future of business. i'm corey johnson. the hostage crisis ended at a sydney chocolate shop. uber quadrupled its fares. for panic-stricken people fleeing the business district in sydney. they sent out this tweet. concerned withl events in the central business district. fares have increased to encourage more drivers to come online and pick up passengers in the area. later they updated their twitter to say -- just how damaging was this move finally, after the initial hour isy posted the following -- it time for them to figure out a plan for crisis pr? peter, first of all i want to talk about the business decisions. the pr thing, they have done a horrendous job, it seems. >> i don't know if it is a cultural thing. you're right, they could have acted more quickly in changing the search pricing policy. somehow it got picked up in social media, it went wild, and it hurt them. >> there was a notion this was mathematic. the first tweet recognized what was happening. it said, "to respond to this crisis" -- >> that is what happened in new york during hurricane sandy. they raised prices and their excuse was it brings more drivers into the area. yes and no, but it also brings more profit into their pockets. in a crisis that is the last message you want to communicate. >> is it fair for consumers? is there a message you can give to consumers saying, this is how our business works. it works because we provide incentive for drivers or is , there no winning if that is the message? >> i think uber needs to be more sensitive and be more in tune with how their operations and decisions impact their area of public. they have a lot of different publics, regulatory authorities, consumers, drivers, and their investors. but i think that public has been taking care of. they need to look at this individually. when they make a mistake and it gets picked up by the social spheres it can affect all of those different publics. that is where they need to be a -- they need to watch it much more closely. >> i do have a sympathy -- a little sympathy for them because they are growing so dramatically over the world. every crisis we find about, they have to be handling it time -- 99 behind closed doors. not just surge pricing, but there is a surge in screwup's by uber. >> they provide a useful service around the world. they have disrupted an industry. they are global. the question is in doing that they have amassed a bunch of reputation capital. they put it in the bank. ultimately that capital is going to disappear. we thought groupon and andrew mason were immune and look what happened there. they need to be careful about their reputation. >> i don't know if we all thought that. that aside, let's talk about what you were had to say. they gave us a statement that says -- as soon as they became aware of the situation, they capped it. it sounds like it wasn't only algorithmic. they knew the situation, it had been in place for a little while. >> i am not there so it is hard for me as an outsider to comment on what decisions they made and when. it would be nice if they didn't decide after something broke in the news media and they actually recognized that something is happening in sydney that maybe this is not a good time for us to introduce surge pricing. >> is a technological response appropriate? deciding when to put in surge pricing on a human level? >> for a while buber had -- for a while uber had a can response it gave to every media outlet. it is not responsible to do that. there needs to be some human interaction, especially in a situation like this. >> i want to back up. i don't know if i should be giving them credit. that tweet looks -- it was specific to what was happening in the central business in sydney and that was their decision, a human decision, to stay with the policy once the algorithm kicked in. >> it is a question of judgment. they truly believe that by raising the prices they will bring in more drivers. they have to rethink that now. >> i hope they do. they didn't win the huge snowstorms hit last year. they had this huge storm last week and yet they had quadruple affair -- quadrupled fares on uber as well. >> the company is driven a lot by its investors, which is a whole other issue. because uber is as wonderful as it is, it has some of the most influential investors from engine mark and google ventures. they are immune to some degree. i think if they continued on this track at some point those investors are going to make a change. it is a cultural issue that needs to be addressed. >> they should know where their cars are and how much they cost. peter himmler, thank you very much. >> thanks for having me. >> san francisco went skyhigh right here in the heart of technology. what is autodesk doing just steps from bloomberg west? we will look at the geppetto of 3-d creation next. you can watch a streaming on your tablet, on your pc, at bloomberg.com and on fire tv. ♪ >> this is "bloomberg west." i am corey johnson, in for emily chang. how do you get a group of software developers to understand the real implications of their coding? you build a workshop on san francisco's waterfront, right next to our office on pier three. i spoke with the autodesk ceo carl bass. just steps from the bloomberg west studio on pier three, p are nine is the geppetto's workshop of laser cutters and 3-d printers. autodesk has built this cutting edge workshop -- get it, cutting edge? anyway, this helps autodesk and their customers. >> this is a space we use as a design ofo take the our products and turned them into physical goods. can make whatever they want, and so they do. this is like a testing lab. >> employees design on autodesk software but build on all kinds of equipment. >> it is a way to test what we do. it is not good enough to make the computer model, we have to make the real thing. our customers are the people who make cars, make airplanes, and build buildings. use this to make posters to put on your daughter's walls. >> the big idea, materializing ideas so they can see things they have never seen before. >> it this comes from a 3-d printer, this is what you would look like in an mri or x-ray or cat scan. there was a surgeon in here the other day, a neurosurgeon, who said he never wanted to do another brain operation without making these. >> it is that notion that new possibilities can only be seen in three dimensions, realizing the potential of autodesk software. >> autodesk is looking for a new group of artists starting early next year. a gaming veteran is known as the founder of electronic arts and other companies. now he is going to sidestep for a competitive mobile gaming product. we will find out why in our exclusive interview next. ♪ >> i am corey johnson, and this --"bloomberg west derrico ." the idea oft betting on games is nothing new, in places like las vegas. but betting on fantasy sports has exploded in popularity. what about competitive gaming on your smartphone? the service allows users to compete and cash tournaments, plus a number of mobile games live on their smart phone. trip hawkins has joined the company. joining us in an interview is trip hawkins as well as skills ceo. >> we start into games. there ranging anything from games in golf or bowling on ios. we are spreading from there to industry, kind of mainstream games. what we operate as a platform inside of each game. it is the games you know and love and now you can compete for currency or cash. >> it is legal? you are doing it on live television -- if it is not saying this on television is not a good decision. >> it is like the way the pga tour operates. we operate in the jurisdictions where those games are legal. the new york marathon is a good example. as i mentioned, the pga tour, there are a growing number of competitions in video games. they're physically and virtually organized. >> why might this be attractive outside of the fact that people like money? >> after ea sports, the fans see two big trends. first is what i most of my time doing, running a company called "if you can." there's is a chance to do something with kids for the -- for game technology. we launched this game a few days ago on the iphone. the emotional iq game. you can search for it in the app store. i am now helping young on spinners like andrew build new companies. he is a great example of on spinners that are going to carry the game industry forward. this idea of hard-core gamers that really want to battle for prize money, it is a very big idea. it makes sense sports are going to segue into the virtual world. i got involved with skillz because they have a great platform. >> we have reached this point in the game business we have been talking about forever. i remember asking if this would be competitive. we see arenas filled with people playing games like this. is mobile the right platform for that? >> we care about what our culture values. i got into sports and sports in relation and built ea. today's kids, it is much more likely they grew up playing video games. they would rather watch a tournament of the new played by professional players. it is like the rock 'n roll revolution, everybody wanted to be in a band and we all had that fantasy. video games are a big industry. >> i was more of a rapper. markets important in this because there is money and stake. >> what trip said was we are at a point in time where videogames have been around for 40 years. you need a set of games to be around that set of time before they can transfer into professional sports. when you look at video games in the 1970's, the first cash competition was held by atari for $20,000 on space invaders. videogames like that have lasted for the timeframe. now videogames are being offered the same opportunity that professional sports like football and basketball. >> i remember battle zone. when you are counseling these people coming into the gaming business, is there a common mistake they tend to make when building a came here? >> there are tons of mistakes and i have made every single one of them. you have to make sure not to fall in the same traps or holes. the coulter of the organization, hiring decisions, how you motivate and work people, how you foster an environment that is innovative and thinking outside of the box. one of the things i like about and true is he has gotten off to such a great start in many of these areas. he is going in a fundamentally sound direction. you need to have a really big idea. this is a very big idea. >> isn't giving you any -- oh yeah, that would be a bad idea? >> there have been a number of moments like that. it is actually very interesting to me because growing up and playing games from electronics arts was so exciting. of mylly pioneered a lot favorite games. the idea of him helping us with a new way of electronic sports and bringing that to mobile was really compelling. as we started working together more and more, trip has been so insightful on things like human resources and how to build in the lead a team. that has been so amazing for us. stuff.resting thank you for coming by. now it is time for the b-west byte. one number that tells us a whole lot. brad stone joins us from the newsroom. you know i like it to be a surprise. what do we have? >> one penny, that was the price listed for thousands of items on amazon's u.k. marketplace for one hour. that was not a blockbuster holiday sale but a technical glitch that affected sellers represented by an irish company. they advertise a ridiculously simple way to increase holiday sales on their website, but that is not what the company had in mind. >> that is a good way to increase sales. sell things for less than what they cost. >> sellers lost thousands of dollars, amazon was able to cancel some of the sales. but sellers were out of luck. some were worried they were going out of business. they are banding together for legal representation. it is a mess, but some customers got a good deal. >> and marketplace business is so crucial. it really lets them broaden product offerings. bighat is right, and the challenge for small sellers is keeping their prices competitive. prices on the internet fluctuate so wildly. sometimes the seller's turn to these third-party pricing companies that control the pricing mechanism. we have seen it before where the algorithms go haywire. they tend to pay for it. >> thank you very much. member you can always get the -- remember, you can always get the latest headlines all the time on your phone, your tablet, and bloomberg.com. we will have more "bloomberg west" tomorrow. ♪ >> the following is a paid program. >> here's johnny. >> from the moment he stepped on stage to the day he said goodbye -- the king of late night was johnny carson. >> he went right into the homes across america. >> mom, i am on tv.