Ride hailer to a group led by softbank. Implies a the deal valuation of 48 billion for uber and more than a billion will be invested. It makes softbank one of ubers largest shareholders and counts seats on the board. Global news 24 hours a day, powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in more than 120 countries. Lets take a look now at the markets. Hong kong and china, currently closed for lunch but heres how the morningading in session. This is the picture in and mumbai. Okyo back in half an hour. Time now for the best of bloomberg markets, middle east. [music] im cory johnson in for emily chang. This is Bloomberg Technology. Softbank c. E. O. Masayoshi son is about to add to portfolio. Uber investors agree to sell him stake. Great story here. And the Silver Lining for one of worlds most valuable. A look back at a year uber but wewants to forget, werent. More highlights and interviews, technology in the last year. I think months to happen. Heres what Masayoshi Son had to say about uber back in august. I think the way people use transportation and the lifestyle will be different from 30 years later, 50 years later. It will be very different. Autonomous car is definitely coming. Comes, thist stage business becomes even more important. Joining us now to discuss the news, bloombergs head of global technology, brad stone. Shira joining u. S. As well. Shira, this deal took quite a while for these guys to put together but also really suggests that uber is not what it used to be to the tunes of tens of billions of dollars. Yeah. Think you cant escape the fact that uber is essentially less valuable than years ago,uple of when it was valued at 69 billion, in the stock transaction, and now were talking about a 30 haircut. And yeah, you can make all kinds excuses that this is a transaction not from the company from its existing shareholders. But obviously its been a bad uber. Lus for and its clear that thats hurt the valuation of the company. Really shocking, when you look at that chart by our producers here of the show. Know, this also took a while to do. Who were the sellers in this deal . I like the 69 40. On but ill take get me out. We dont know everyone who has sold. Benchmark, an early investor. Venture capital firm. We dont know yet about travis who still owns 10 . But i want to add one thing to what shira said. A year of controversy but it was also a year of very justof ambiguous or even negative economics for uber. The company lost 4 billion in 2017. There was a belief in the company for a long time that they could raise money and kill all the little guys, and that just hasnt happen. Faces destructive competition in places like india, singapore and brazil. The deal can help alleviate some of that competition, because invested in these other companies as well. Very bigailed on a chinese investment. To me, it seems like they got out of that deal pretty good. But they also bailed on their c. E. O. , basically an entire suite, the ways that they ran their business, customers. Ppers from the seamless of the transaction, get in the car, get there and get out is gone. Almostuld describe it as like it was a year where the manifest destiny of uber to be a in raid sharing around the world is gone. That happened because of the happenedsy but it also because there were savvy investors out there like son and softbank that saw an opportunity for these other players. Was ubers controversy but part of it was market flood nothing the and propping up players like ola. Uber is not going to be the dominant player. I think part of that realization us here today, the fact that uber is taking a valuation haircut. Known me a long time. You know i like my conspiracy theories. One. E deposit that the last round of investors nota deal that they would get deluded in the future, that any future valuation would only be up. Thats why Masayoshi Son had to pay 1 billion at a high almoston while simultaneously paying a lot less at a much lower valuation. It wouldnt trigger that reissuance of even more shares to the last round of investors. I like your Conspiracy Theory. I have no idea if its true. I like everyone who likes my conspiracy deals. I like you too. I liked you before that. But it is striking here that, as it, their manifest destiny is not very clear and you can see it in the valuation. Yeah. Wonder, is if uber is no longer going to be this winner take all, what is uber . How big can it eventually get, right . Know its losing staggering sums of money. Its had to retreat from various businesses in parts of the world. And so if you invest in uber a thatears ago, thinking its going to go into russia and indonesia and africa and the Restaurant Delivery business, all these other places, and just competitor, that no longer looks like a sure thing. If itt is uber worth cant be successful everywhere in the world . The past, anin ipo, less obvious at the exact same moment, that the time from now until ipo is longer. Have stated they want to get to ipo eventually. But also, it gets simpler, the varying shares of stocks, the fact that shareholders who dont have a had moreney at stake votes, some of the early and the founder as well. Well, everything has been simplified in this deal, with the power for the early know,olders, you softbanks taking board, governance reforms. Company. S a simpler benchmark sued travis. Of these lawsuits go away. And, yeah, Dara Khosrowshahi that some of the pressure for liquidity is taken off the table with this deal. So i think hes got room to operate now. I want to change gears. We just had breaking news from apple. I want to get to you on this first. Apple admitting theyve got their batteries and what people have noticed is that it seemed like, as soon as available,ne was their old phone got worse. Apple sort of suggesting, yeah. That. Dnt just think thats happening. I mean, its always weird when apple apologizes and said did the wrong thing. Its not in apples character to say it was wrong. Basically, you know, theres this Conspiracy Theory for a long time that apple slows down to prod people to buy new ones. And it emerged in the last couple of weeks that, okay, the Conspiracy Theory wasnt necessarily to prod people to buy the latest and greatest iphones. But its been clear that apple indeed slows down the performance of older iphones when the battery degrades to the point where they might have these unexpected shutdowns. What apple said this afternoon was basically they didnt that fact, actively to people who own iphones and they should have been more clear it. T and also, look, its apples fault that they make their they make it very expensive to replace batteries on older phones. Company basically said theyre gonna change both of those things. Theyre going to communicate ander and make it cheaper easier for people to replace batteries so their phones have a longer lifespan. Theyre really, really sorry. Ha ha well, i mean, like with so many it wasnt theories, true but there was a shred of truth, right . People thought apple is the older phones to make you upgrade. That was never true. Shira justs, as said, they were altering the performance of the phone to batteries from shutting down. And in this statement, youre right. Its this im sorry you got mad statement. Some people dial it down. We apologize. That. A favorite of and then they discounted the price of replacement batteries, to 29. 50 bucks off next year on batteries. So its a significant move for apple to address, you know, what people basically felt, misled by these performance issues. There was not a total Conspiracy Theory, just partial. I know they keep a Little Museum of all the stock frauds of years past. They have the thing that was invented. Was it a total fraud . Have thisey did little device that was supposed to magically recharge your battery or regrow your hair or something. In this case, there was maybe misdemeanor. Not fully disclosing the lie. It wasnt the felony people forced planhis obsolescence but there was thatinly here something apple didnt communicate properly. Much. Nk you very brad, back in new york, thanks a lot. All right. Uber. A rocky year for Eric Newcomer looks at the companys past, present and potential future problems. 2017, the year that uber super debt. Ts they claimed imlaimed on their the embattled c. E. O. Resigned. Of executives left. Allegations of Sexual Harassment that brought its Company Culture light. But that wasnt off the. The top rival, lyft, continued at market share. Largest of ubers investors announced its suing theft of the alleged left trade secrets. Transportationa Service Rather than a digital one in the e. U. And continues to face mounting legal battles from all over the globe. But uber is trying to turn the corner. With new c. E. O. , Dara Khosrowshahi, bringing in new they heads and a c. E. O. As try to right the ship. Dara khosrowshahi has been an on apologize tour, meeting with angry regulators worldwide and bringing ubers skeletons out of the massivesuch as hack of over 57 million accounts. Business fare in 2017 . Well, it grew. Bookings could reach 37 billion for the year, up from 20 billion in 2016. The company lost a massive amount of money. Reachars losses could over 4 billion. So whats on Dara Khosrowshahis list in 2018 . Chair and a new board new directorsmen directors. And dont forget, cutting losses and reducing redundancies. But the legal matters loom largest. Uber faces off in court in february. Justice department waits its turn, looking into five Different Cases over and traderibery secrets. But one thing is for sure. Year uber goeshe public. Instead, it will be the year it its reputation in the court of public opinion. That was our one and only Eric Newcomer of bloomberg. Upl, sticking with uber, next, were going to talk to bill gurley, one of our uberses, about one of first investors. The state of the ride sharing changes already implemented. And Bloomberg Technology live back east, 2 00 on the west coast. This is bloomberg. Well, benchmark is one of ubers earliest investors. Role. Layed a big bill gurley stepped off the uber board earlier this year, but about the vocal company. Blorgs emily chang spokeergs emily chang with him earlier this year. I know through my own conversations with dara that hes getting good advice and help from travis. Look at the current situation, you know, i feel happy, relative to where we were, say, back in may or june. I think the entire board, travis, is excited about dara as c. E. O. I think hes doing an incredible job. Did a great job in interfacing with the regulatory bodies in london. It again in brazil. Weve just added tony west, who helped us hire. So i feel really good. Athink weve probably reached new level of stability and i look forward to where we are, going forward. Benchmark pushed for traviss resignation and took it so far sue him. You know, that stunned a lot of people. Why did it come to that . Resolve that in private . Yeah. Look, i think any venture capitalist, you know, hopes they can use persuasion to solve thats out there so this stuff doesnt kind of roll out onto the field like it in this case. This summer, things that uber had reached a place where, you we felt, along with, by the way, four other very large so people typically say benchmark but there was five including fidelity, who felt like all the constituents at uber were at action didnt happen sooner. So we did something unprecedented. Look, we get two questions quite frequently about this. One is i cant believe you did this, and the other one is why sooner . Ou do this and theres no overlap between those two things. Where wee in a place had to make a very hard decision. We, you know, after much reflection, felt we were on the right side of history. And at this point in time, i feel like weve got things to a place where theres a really success movingor forward. And so while i wouldnt say that year has been something that we enjoyed as a firm or would look forward to doing again, i do think we made the right decisions. Is there anything, bill, that think you could have done sooner, and when other Companies Look at this situation, what learn . They yeah. Look, i think thats a fair question. And weve already stated publicly we wish we could have moved sooner. You know, we dont were shareholders in all these companies. Unilaterally. So to a certain extent, you have to be successful at that persuasion element to bring everyone along. Would say ishing i that, you know, the excessive amount of capital thats been available to Silicon Valley has allowed a lot of entrepreneurs to run without much discipline, because if you if youre not running out obvious money out constantlyoure not being regraded and asked to come back to the table. Unique things is just how early the model moved to how unusualy and that was relative to everything else. And so if youre gonna move up, youre gonna grow up, if youre gonna mature, that involves not only being big and taking market share but putting in, you know, the right functions. Andgovernance and finance legal. And maturing as a business and things relative to human relations. So all those elements have to be present. You know, should we have seen it sooner . I think almost certainly yes. We got conviction along with these other shareholders that we needed to take action, we moved as fast as we could. Benchmark hired its first sara table,er, earlier this year. This amidst, you know, a string Sexual Harassment allegations that have hit the industry pretty hard. Thinkg a problem do you this is and what will it take to change . Look, i think there is change happening. I think there are two elements that lead to change. Constant conversation and awareness building, which is theening through all conversations that have been happening, including this one right here. So all those things move the ball forward. We are super excited about sara being on board. Made two investments, although i dont think either of them are announced. Shes you know, shes super competitive. So we think shes going to be an incredible venture capitalist. But every single data point helps. At katrina. Over 80 of the employees are female. Of the Management Team is female. Over 60 of the board is female. I found out this morning, she be the youngest female founder to actually take their Company Public ever. These success points and data points create role models that help bring everything forward. Benchmark capitals bill gurley talking to emily chang of bloomberg. Much more coming up on Bloomberg Technology. But first a feature. Interactive t. V. Function. Go to tv go. You can watch us live. Me , thats you can go back and look. You dont have to look at me. Producers messages while were on the air. Check it subscribers, out at tv go. This is bloomberg. Chinese court, all the known seized all the anwn assets known by entrepreneur who once declared war on apple. Than 200,000 in bank deposits, also eyeing the assets. Leeco. Ther blow to crunch. S cash Nintendo Switch is a hit. But new estimates show the console has become one of the most successful popular gaming in terms ofr hardware. Year. Lion units this the nintendo president told a japanese newspaper he wants to sell more than 20 million con soles next year and wednesday we learned that apple c. E. O. Tim big pay raise in 2017. More than 100 million bucks. The board of directors now making the c. E. O. , making him he travels, inn the interest of security and efficiency. Headlines were almost enough to give a poke for technology but there are legitimate reasons to about tech in the coming year. Well discuss, next. Bloomberg radio app. Station 119. Check it out. This is bloomberg. It is 12 30 here in hong kong. I have an update of the top stories. Apple has apologized after complaints about the latest iphone. They say they are aware of public dissatisfaction over battery life and will release an ios update. Apple said it would never intentionally shorten the life of any apple product. Poway warning of slowest Revenue Growth since 2018, despite gaining ground on apple. They are expecting arise of 9 billion this year, down from a 32 gain. Squeezed, but Telecom Spending is stagnant. The British Government with Holding Secret files on the creation of the european union. They were dated 1992 and due to be released today. Back and are held dozen relate to european policy. The Cabinet Office denies hiding sensitive material. About to spend 5. 5 billion on new planes from airbus. Widebodied 50 jets. And already have 89 planes have many customers. Global news 24 hours a day, powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in more than 120 countries. This is bloomberg. A check on how the markets have been trading in the asiapacific on this last trading day of the year. Here is sophie kamaruddin. Sophie this is a day of superlatives. A more than decent 2017. Recordsetting moves continue in jakarta. These assets having a good day and goodyear. Export growth profits lift. Set for the best year since 2009. The taiwanese dollar trading at a fouryear high. 6. 52opping around at the level. Indian bonds plunging today. Set for the first year since 2009. The beauty retains a stimulus and the fed hikes rates three times. The best annual gain since 2011. A flatter Treasury Curve has dragged on the dollar. Crumble, headed for the worst year since 2012. More payments expected next year, as the yield curve flattens further. The aussie may sustain its recent bullish trend. The aussie is up for a seventh session, set for its first rise since the summer. We are counting down to the reopen in hong kong and china. This is bloomberg. Cory i am cory johnson, this is Bloomberg Technology. There are a lot of reasons to be suspicious of technology, whether it is fake news or stocking. But benchmark thinks there are reasons to be positive about technology, going forward. We talk about these arguments and some of the things ways you may fa