president obama has nominated merrick garland for the supreme court. grassley and o'connell think it should be filled by the next president. in north korea, an american college student has been sentenced to 15 years hard labor for what the government called crimes against the country. he was accused of taking down a propaganda sign last month. the obama administration has ordered another round of sanctions against north korea. there is said to be in response to the countries so-called illicit nuclear missile test. there are recent sanctions that have been approved unanimously by the un security council. kim jong-un said his country would soon it a nuclear warhead and been left missiles, capable of carrying the warhead. in result, a new twist in the country's corruption investigation. the former president would join the current presidents chief of staff. he faces criminal charges, and joining the cabinet would make it tougher to prosecute him. global news, 24 hours a day, powered by over 2400 journalists in 150 bureaus around the world, from the bloomberg news r.i.m., i am mark crumpton. ♪ emily: i am emily chang, and this is "bloomberg west." tech stocks getting a boost after the fed holds rates steady, what it means for the private market. plus, the oculus rift is almost ready to shift. i speak to the ceo of the most anticipated vr headset. energy firm,gest sun edison plunging after posting its annual report. we take a close look at what has investors worried. first, to our lead. the u.s. federal reserve decided not to raise rates, setting a weaker outlook for global growth, as well as turmoil in the market. as the central banks scaled-back rate rise forecast for the year. meanwhile, tech stocks getting a boost heading into the close on the fed's decision. here to look at what that means ch sector, i am joined by ramy inocencio and our editor. what does this mean for startups? >> i think venture capitalists and the startups are breathing a sigh of relief, now that they don't have to worry about interest rates affecting how much capital is allocated to venture funds, and they can go and borrow money, presumably at lower rates than they would if the fed were increasing rates across the board. emily: tell us how our markets markets reacting? ramy: the nasdaq rose the most, at .75%. it was this initial rise, as nd in the fall as traders tried to digest it. you can see around 2:30, they decided they were in the green, and never looked back. if you take a look at some of the biggest companies on the nasdaq and nasdaq 100, it was green across the board. apple, microsoft, and google, following that echo, not looking back. interestingly, these were the first top four gainers. but the company i want to talk about, amazon, it went the other way, strangely enough. they did have that strong rhythm. but in the last 15 minutes of trade, the news broke that apple actually signed a deal to be a customer for google's cloud platform, meaning it will rely less on amazon's web services. this is according to crn. they are going to put in around 400 million dollars to $600 million in google. two this is the second biggest company pull out of amazon, let's modify the first, -- with spotify the first, about a month ago. emily: generally good in the public markets. but i wonder, we have seen companies raise so much money over the last several years. is there any concern about the managing their debt load? especially highly leveraged companies in this environment. mark: the proportion of a convertible debt these companies have been raising has been rising. it is a concern as rates go higher. it is something the entire valley has been worrying about. particularly venture capitalists that have such vested interest in these companies. emily: one stock that can't seem to catch a break, linkedin, from its last earnings report. the stock basically plunged by half. today we saw another downgrade. tell us about that. ramy: linkedin falling by 5%, but you can see your today -- year to date it is down by 51%. it is at its lowest since february 16. it is putting its price target. -- morgan stanley cutting its price target, and some harsh words in this analysts note. basically, things you would not want to talk about. morgan stanley saying, why we were wrong, and what is changing. also, saying linkedin is not likely to be as big as a platform as we had thought. a couple of reasons, slowing growth in talent solutions, which translates to revenue subscription. fewer customers are signing up. linkedin had been looking at small and medium-sized enterprises but is hitting a wall with large enterprises. emily: i recently got a chance to sit with linkedin ceo jeff weiner, and we attacked this head-on. take a listen. >> i think it was a surprise. we were not expecting that response. when you look at the core elements of our business, they remain healthy. if you look at north american field sales for our flagship recruiter products, it has remained consistent. sponsored updates, our core marketing solutions, business line is still the fastest growing business we have to scale. post the launch of our reimagined flagship application on mobile, we have seen acceleration and engagement on both mobile and desktop. the core elements of the business remain healthy. emily: jeff weiner told me it is his job now to prove wall street wrong. ramy, thank you for joining me. and mark, thank you as well. another stock we are watching, sun edison taking a dive after the company once again failed to release an annual report that would give investors a clear picture of what son edison liquidity position would look like. right now it is their towering debt load is keeping investors up at night. cory johnson joins me now. how did they get into this position in the first place? cory: they borrow tons of money and an inability to generate cash flow. the company losing, as far as we know at least $3 billion in the last 12 months. they have not told us what happened in the last quarter. they were unable to report those full results. not only can they not give us the numbers they have, they are not sure the numbers they have are correct. a great concern to investors. a minor move in the stock, because the stock has collapsed so much. look at the description page in the bloomberg terminal. you can see the market cap of the company, $67 million. it is more useful to look at the enterprise value of the company. it is not just a market capital of the stock, but it is the other stuff. it is the cash, and you have the $11.7 billion of debt, and you get an enterprise value of $13 billion. the enterprises still greatly valued. one of the things this shows you, all the different pieces of debt, that shows you all the individual pieces that trade with son edison. what you see, is that there is a lot of this. maybe even a greater concern. is the company is burning free cash flow. the company that wants to grow does not have access to that, this is the debt distribution chart. this shows you how much debt is coming in right now. over $1 billion coming in this year. $1.2 billion the next year. $1.3 billion for next year. while some of this is revolving debt, some of this has to be paid. they only had $2 billion on the balance sheet, they have big problems and can't go back on the market to borrow more money. emily: all right, cory johnson, our editor at large in new york , thank you. a stock we will keep an eye on. the coming age of virtual reality has been buzzed about four years. but in the next few weeks the , first sophisticated consumer devices finally hit the market. one headset has been scrutinized heavily ahead of a highly anticipated launch, the oculus rift. earlier at a gaming conference, i was able to try it for the very first time. >> let's go ahead and get it on. the right and left triggers operate the hand. it is based on head control. you look where you want to go. now look up. that is where you are going. emily: luckily, i am not afraid of heights. >> grant it. now let go of the other hand. one hand in front of the other. emily: oh, there is no more grip. i am dying. >> there you go. first time in, what did you think? emily: it was great. i got into it. i feel like i physically exerted myself. my hands are tired and i am out of breath. can i just tell you, i was exhausted after that for several hours? it really felt like i was climbing that wall. ceo joins me to dish on the long road ahead. ♪ ♪ emily: after a $2 billion acquisition by facebook, and years of anticipation, oculus's high end headset, the rift, is less than two weeks away from hitting the market. the ceo said the company is ready, and i caught up with them to ask how mark zuckerberg has shaped to the product development. brendan: there are a lot of different examples that we have been able to leverage. these are big risk services, with hundreds of millions of people on each. and there is a lot of code there. to be able to see this menu of codes and features, to be able to pick and choose and put that together for oculus, has enabled us to move a lot faster. emily: how has the marriage with facebook been so far? brendan: we have gone from shaking hands with mark at 60 people to many, many hundreds of people into two years. we have relocated onto facebook campus. so the food has improved. we get free ice cream. it really has been great. emily: so you guys are under a tremendous amount of pressure, expectations are high. that constrain any marriage. can strain any marriage. have you been dealing with that? brendan: when we were acquired, that woke everybody up. we knew what would happen, it was a moment where mark got up and said vr is the next platform. the world took notice more than , we were just pioneering in as a starter. this is what we needed. it is the best thing for vr, because ultimately, there has to be lots to do, and an ecosystem of content. the more people that invest in vr, the better it will be. emily: how invested is mark, personally? how often do you talk? brendan: given how many breakthroughs will come through for oculus and in the vr space, mark is really dialed into what we are doing. he says whenever a president visits, he takes them into oculus toybox and shows them the latest demo. it really is the next big platform. for mark, who has a successful, mature platform on the mobile side with facebook, being able to look at what is next is really exciting and engaging. emily: when you think that, if you had not sold to facebook, would this be happening? what would you be seeing now? brendan: we would still be releasing now, but not at the quality level it is, and it would not have this content lineup. and today, it is all about games. there are over 30 games that launch. i think 41 games here today, and dozens more coming in the first few months. that kind of momentum and breadth of content would not be there if we were not partnered up with facebook. we are in a much better place because of the partnership. emily: do you ever think, what if we stay independent, how different things would be? brendan: well, a lot of things cross your mind. there are a lot of moments when you look at each other as a team and say, i am so glad we are here at facebook. really. it happens time and time again. emily: why? brendan: it is moving quickly, a lot of competitors into the space. there is a need for content and the ecosystem needs a lot of support. to build the hardware takes a lot of people. it adds up to being really happy we are at facebook and have this kind of support. emily: you think the competition moves quickly, whether it is sony or samsung because of the facebook acquisition? did you get everyone else into high gear? brendan: absolutely. it woke a lot of people up. when the ceo of a multibillion dollar company gets up and says vr is the next computing platform, one of the biggest, most successful platform companies says vr is the next platform, it gets everyone on board and inspired to go out there. emily: oculus ceo brendan iribe there. up next, i will pick up where we left off looking at the , competition that may be closing in on oculus in a race to create the winning vr platform. ♪ ♪ emily: now, back to virtual reality. shares of sony's spiked after the company revealed he key details of oculus rift rivals, it goes on sale in october, and is significantly less than its competitors. and does not require a powerful pc to run, and more than 50 games available for that one by the end of the year. while oculus has the benefit of a head start against sony, they will begin shipping in three weeks. given the encroaching competition, i asked brendan iribe what sets rift apart. brendan: rift focuses on high quality vr. the hardware, making sure it feels like a consumer product, looks like a consumer product. at the same time, on the content and software. making sure there are real games. not demos, but full games. which is what we pull together. emily: a sony executive recently said that playstation vr may not be as high quality as rift, but it is for every day use and is affordable. is that a compliment or a dig? brendan: i think it is a complement. he has acknowledged that oculus rift will be the best experience. it is pioneered by enthusiasts. especially hard-core gamers. they want the best, so having the best is a great place to be. emily: how long will it take activision to work on vr games? are they waiting too long? brendan: i think they will get into the space pretty soon. it is different than mobile. they waited a long time on mobile, instead of investing themselves, they went and hired big companies pretty late once mobile was an established ecosystem. in vr, they will come a lot earlier. inside the company, the developers are dreaming about vr. they have been making flat games on monitors and screens whether it is tvs or cell phones for a few decades. and they have always wanted to make virtual reality games. and now they can. emily: i am wondering, is there a brain drain happening? why wouldn't everyone want to work on this? brendan: i think they do. and when it is big companies, they can establish that and offer long-term great positions to lead vr and help pioneer it and be fully empowered to make something incredible. we have seen that happened at oculus. emily: i asked a ceo recently who said we are looking at it. but not going to it yet. is that a mistake? brendan: remember, we have not shifted yet. it will happen in two weeks. it is normal that a lot of big ceos will be looking at it, but if no one has a shift to the consumer product yet, people are only now taking notice. people often forget about it. felt like when facebook acquired oculus, things must have shifted. but they did not, we dug in and build an incredible consumer product which shipped in a couple weeks. emily: the ceo of oculus rift, brendan iribe. you can check out the interview on our website. isning me now to discuss our intelligence analyst. now, you have spent hours yourself playing around in virtual reality. you were at the interview with brendan, and you are so excited afterwards because he felt that he revealed part of a broader master plan between oculus and facebook. what were the highlights for you? >> firstly, there has been a lot of anticipation that has been building over the last couple of years, from the kickstarter campaign, to facebook acquisition. the whole thing is getting a following. finally, to see the product out, with the content out, we have compiled the number coming out, and it is pretty solid. it is comparable to the xbox launch. they're definitely gearing up the product for gamers. what is interesting, is the idea of the computing shift. the next computing platform. it might take some time. in the next couple years, it will be more targeted toward gamers, like ps4. sony and facebook having the upper hand with the developers and content they have. but to have adoption, they need the whole echo system -- ecosystem to whole ecosystem to eat -- to evolve. ecosystem to evolve. what did mark zuckerberg really mean by social networks, avatars and stuff like that. in a gaming environment, they could look at each other, work together, and achieve something in a videogame environment. maybe that transforms into a working social network. a lot of exciting stuff in the pipeline. for the next couple of years it will be squarely focused on gamers. emily: you cannot just use this with a headset, you have to have a very powerful pc to use this, and it is not compatible with a mac right now. the oculus founder was recently asked about this at an xbox event whether he saw a future between oculus and apple computers, and he said it is up to apple. if they ever really think the computer, we will do it. jitendra: the processing power required is a lot. by estimates, three times needed for a standard pc game. the processing power is not really there in the most common macs sold.' if you look at graphic cards, they were all running on a fairly high-end card. you have to spend on average, $1400 for the pc, the headset, everything. pricing is just one of the elements here. there is still the screen door effect. immersion is great that the ecosystem needs to evolve a lot more on processing power, bandwidth, pricing. emily: i did ask about that, what he said. i do notan replied think he meant it that way, i think he meant they don't have a computer that is compatible with our headset yet. our vr expert, thank you very much. we will be back with more of "bloomberg west," after this break. ♪ >> president obama is on a collision course with senate republicans. the president today nominated washington, d.c. federal appeals merrickief judge garland to fill the vacancy on the supreme court. the president said naming a successor to late justice antonin scully at transcends political posturing. >> it is tempting to make this confirmation process simply an extension of our divided politics. this squabbling that's going on in the news every day. but to go down that path would be wrong. it would be a betrayal of our best traditions. >> and republicans have promised to block anyone the president nominates. they safest seat should be filled by the next president. mitch mcconnell wasted no time delivering his response on the senate door. >> the senate will continue to observe the biden rules so the american people have a voice in this momentous decision. the american people may well elect a president who decides to nominate judge garland for senate consideration. the next president may also nominate somebody very different. it away, our view is this. give the people a voice in filling this vacancy. >> in 1992, then senator joe biden argued that president george h dubya put had delayed until after the election. america's military will be pushed to the limit in a ground war against a superpower like china or russia. he told lawmakers on capitol hill that years of combat in iraq and afghanistan restricted budget and troop cuts and they have taken a heavy toll. the european union told member states wednesday they need to deliver urgently on commitments to resettle more refugees on the continent. it came on the eve of a summit of leaders from the eu and turkey that seeks to try to limit the number of refugees coming to europe. >> europe is facing a challenge. it's solidarity and core values are under pressure. if not at stake. >> according to the agency, most travel to europe through the greek islands from nearby turkey, a number that talked one million. global news 24 hours a day powered by our 2400 journalists and more than 150 news bureaus from around the world. i am mark crumpton. emily: the former israeli prime minister is getting into tech. he is chairman of an israeli startup reporting homeland security. it is part of the mobile emergency act which allows anyone in israel report emergency by the press of a button. it was just released to the general public. elliott gotkine caught up with the former israeli prime minister. >> it's a new application that is 911 instagram. one push and you are there with the first responders, be it the red cross or the firefighters the police. it provides streaming video and locations, including -- it cuts dramatically the confusion of the people reporting and provides a much faster response time. i spent up to a week sometimes with security authorities in new york. case europe discussing the . for 40 minutes, the security services did not respond because they were overwhelmed with reports but no one understood what there was. with one report they showed the people were killing the audience in the theater. it would cut through the decision-making and lead to an operation. >> presumably your name -- on the company masthead? >> i was in by the answers and the depths of their technology. the system is 10 times more accurate than the one they try to impose on the providers of services. using the deep learning. extremely impressive technology. i have a product to show a very good advance contacts. it's not just for first responders. think of the competition of live tv stations to have your own stream of video giving a huge advantage of them. 50,000 people all around the world in nigeria no one to provide their employees with a safety network that in one push will notify the networks -- and the headquarters of the company. and local first responders of any country. it will be adapted with software to answer all of these challenges. >> many are wondering what compels a former prime minister to put a million dollars of his own fortune into a startup when you could just be going on public speaking to her sort retiring and taking life easy? >> first of all, i don't invest in anything. invested another startup that deals with deep learning and one in cyber security. and against the a pt which is the more advanced kind of attacks. i deal with things that i understand. i have a higher expectation to have success than others. emily: that was my conversation with the former israeli prime minister. i spoke exclusively with the ceo of airbnb. i started by asking my next guest why he chose to engage with this mission teaching kids how to engage with their own is this is keeping the more excited about staying in school and learning. >> when i was a kid, my parents were both social workers. i never met an entrepreneur growing up. i never thought i could start a company. even myself, sometimes i was not interested in learning. but i loved art and i went to art school. it became a conduit to me for creating things. emily: would you encourage them to stay in school? >> i would definitely recommend the stay in high school and recommend they go through college. in hindsight, i am glad i crunch through -- went through college but have some friends who have taken the fast-track. i think extracurricular activities and hobbies -- i learned more in high school and college outside the classroom. emily: when you were a young kid, what did that mean to you? entrepreneur? >> i don't know if i ever heard the word entrepreneur. there were extremes. like bob's and bob's pizza. i did not want pizza company. i number that i loved walt disney did not think of him as enough for newer. he was at -- as an entrepreneur. he was a mythical figure. i thought i would work in a comic book company or something, but nobody told me about startup companies. i never even heard the word. emily: that was my full interview. watch it tomorrow at 6:00 p.m. new york time, 3:00 p.m. here in san francisco. now to m&a in the chip industry. the talks are ongoing and may not result in a deal. if the companies agree to terms, intel may begin incorporating certain designs into its chips. they have been competitors for many years. would you pay to watch a movie still in theaters from the comfort of your own home? some people would and competition is heating up. ♪ emily: a story that we are watching. bmw with a big push into electric cars with self driving features. harold huger announced a car called the inext. it will drive itself, link to the cloud and interact with passengers but all of that will come at a cost and bmw will largely fund it with gas guzzlers. is it time for a reboot in film distribution? the screening room founded by sean parker is said to be pushing that idea. it could be as cheap as $50 to rent a movie in your own home that is still in theaters. they would need to purchase a set top box to get access to the films, but this is up the first company to try to disrupt hollywood. previous cinema offers certain films but you have to buy the hardware. joining me now is the ceo of prima cinema. what do you think about his screening room plan? will it work? >> you know everything that i know about this so i wish i could tell you that had magical information that you don't. i will tell you that from my perspective, what really has to happen when one talks about this market is the creation of additional value not the disruption. what we have done is create additional value in the value chain itself so that we have the ability to preserve everyone who is in the existing value chain and not worry about how they will be affected and provide additional revenue to the studios. emily: the price point is a huge difference here. whatever he is working on the price will be $150 compared to $35,000. what does that mean for your business? >> there are two things. when you look at how the studios have made revenue over the past 10 years, the most stable source of revenue has been theatrical distribution and that is between $10 billion-$13 billion per year. if you're looking at a service that is likely a $150 setup that seems as though it will attract a great number of people who would otherwise be going to the theater. if you look at the statement from today given to variety by the president of nato, or the emphatic no by regal's ceo, i think they face hurdles. emily: you do have huge filmmakers like peter jackson who are backing this. he recently said that a screening room is carefully designed to capture an audience that does not currently go to the cinema and they will expand the audience from the movie not shifted from cinema to living room and it does not play the studio against theater owner but it respects both. peter jackson is a filmmaker so focused on creating amazing cinematic experiences. you would think if anyone were against it, it would be him. >> what i will say is that peter jackson is a very take name. the names we come to market with our names like universal come a paramount and lions gate. people who have come into the market that prima is trying to create with the understanding that what you just said could not possibly happen. i think even if your targeting something at a price point of $150, targeted at a specific segment, i think that segment bleeds and you cannot keep it from bleeding to other segments. from our standpoint it is problematic. emily: talk to me about how the market for home theaters is developing from netflix to piracy and how it is impacting your business. >> we spent the first 2.5 years talking to movie studios about piracy and about preserving all of the value throughout the entire chain. this is important because we are the only people in the world that if been approved by every studio for antipiracy technology. we literally provide a rock solid basis. it is the most secure distribution for film distribution in the world. from that standpoint, we believe that when you have the crown jewels of the entertainment industries market, you have to think about how you affect ancillary and downstream windows as well and the first thing you have to do is protect that film and that is something we do better than anyone. emily: how big is your business? >> it is growing. we grew 60% year-over-year. hopefully in the next year we will grow another 75 to 150% and hopefully in another three years we will be large enough to be considered one of the largest exhibitors in the world. we like to say that prima cinema is not home theater, but a theater in your home. emily: thank you for joining us. surveymonkey is working on turn around. they are expanding internationally and opening a new office in australia. the ceo spoke with bloomberg about his outlook for the business and when the company might go public. >> the company has a very cash generative business model and we are fortunate to be in a leadership position in our state and we feel that opens a whole host of opportunities globally. we do not have a time frame, that is not a milestone or finish line, it's just another event in the capital raising process. emily: we hear from a major silicon valley entrepreneur and what she hopes will be the next big social media platform and tomorrow to not miss alan greenspan on bloomberg or bloomberg west, next. ♪ emily: shifting gears to mighty bell. they already boast an impressive user base including the bill and melinda gates foundation and lean in. here with me now to discuss the potential of niche social platforms, the founder and ceo , and thank you for joining us. great to see mighty bell getting traction. you sell the software and it is a big company. what is the goal? >> our goal and something we launched a few ekes ago is to make it available to everybody. our goal is to create a new breed of community entrepreneurs. so people who can create community and business by bringing interesting people together who would not otherwise meet and to bring them together around an interest, specialty and shared profession, life stage and conditioned diagnosis and passion. we are already seeing such an interesting mix of networks on a platform. we have the largest network of craft hairdressers. it was started by two master instructors in new york and they just moved over to mighty bell as they are passionate with how do they bring their 10,000 craft hairdressers together to go deeper. they have 100,000 facebook fans but where two people come together to talk just to? -- just to each other. emily: you cofounded with mark andreessen and disorder of built on a similar premise and you have more than a decade of experience working on social networking. there is a great wired piece about you which is that jeannie knows what it is like to helm an ailing unicorn. what are you doing differently and better? >> what we did with ning was to enable niche networks, and with mighty bill we are enabling them for the new era. the mobile air is so much more exciting because the platform is smarter. you have a supercomputer in your pocket now and with that we can now connect people within these networks so as they get bigger and bigger they still feel intimate and we are able to connect the most relevant people to each other. emily: we are talking about leaving rates unchanged, what does that mean for you? >> i am a huge believer in, how do we expand and make more inclusive who gets to be a technology entrepreneur. i think this whole model of go and raise tens of hundreds of millions of dollars will never go away. it's going to be available to fewer people, not more and more. so what i am passionate about, and what my team is passionate about is, how do we take the things that have been created and as more people join it not only gets easier to manage but also more valuable to every member who joins. that is facebook, instagram, airbnb, ebay -- the list goes on and on. from our perspective it is about how do we bring that to anyone who has a good idea even if it don't have access to capital. emily: how is it changing how you run your business? >> we have always thought about revenue and it has been one of the things most important us to create a platform that people can build businesses on. we have to stick around for the long term. that is a lot easier to do on revenue then venture capital money. emily: thank you for joining us. great to have you. that does it for this edition of bloomberg west. tomorrow, do not miss my full interview with brian chesky. excitement builds around the playstation vr. that is all today from san francisco. ♪ >> this program is a paid advertisement from the u.s. money reserve, a company not affiliated with the u.s. government or the u.s. mint. the markets for coins and bullion are unregulated. prices can rise or fall, so buying these items carries some risks. past performance of a coin or the market cannot predict future performance. offers are void where prohibited. the views and opinions expressed on this program do not reflect those of this station, network, its management, or their ownership. the information in this program is accurate