Give truckers more time at rest stops . First, to our top story. Wework says job cuts will start this week. The struggling Office Sharing startup said that cuts will improve efficiency and accountability. Bloomberg has learned that about 2000 jobs will be eliminated, some 16 of weworks global workforce. Ellen huet joins us with more. What do we know about these layoffs and where it fits into their broader strategy of slimming down, if you will . Effort that has been going on in bits and pieces but it sounds like based on this new memo that the executive chairman sent this morning, it is going to start in earnest in the u. S. This week. They had already been starting to have some layoffs overseas and there have been some cuts in side businesses like meetup and other side businesses they owned, but it seems like maybe this week is going to be the big time. They had originally scheduled an all hands meeting for tuesday and another part of the memo says the meeting will be moved to friday. In order to, i think, give time for all of the job cuts to percolate through the company this week. On friday, we expect an update on the fiveyear plan of the company. Taylor do we have any update of what that that fiveyear plan will look like . Ellen if it is anything like what is talked about in the memos, it will be similar to that path that is trying to focus on the core business and adding back to profitability. That has been the repeated goal. I think its easier said than done, this is a business that even if they managed to make the right cuts, they will be suffering from employee morale. This has been a really hard few months for we work employees who felt in june or july were on the brink for a successful ipo and now the company has seemed to go through a 180. Many people who, even if they are not going to be cut this week, are choosing to leave. Employees have told me that a lot of people dont show up for work, are openly taking interviews elsewhere. There are people who want to stay but others who feel like it is on shaky ground. Taylor do you get a sense that the 16 , the couple that could thousand start to be getting laid off this week, is that within weworks Office Sharing business specifically or does that also include some of the side businesses you were talking about . Ellen it probably will include side businesses. I think the total number will be up to a little massaging. There will be some Side Companies that are probably expected to be shut down. It also gets a little bit complicated. For example, many of the cleaners at wework were inhouse employees for years, called Community Service associates and other titles like that. Those workers were inhouse for years and it seems like they will be slowly transitioning to being hired by an outside contractor. There is some job shifting going around so that final number of layoffs may be hard to pin down. Taylor it is interesting that you mentioned the ceo and that all hands letter. Because there have been rumors circulating about a new ceo, john legere, who we have learned today will be stepping down from tmobile in 2020. His name in the mix. Why this shakeup . Ellen they have these two coceos who stepped in after adam neumann left. Even though the company said they were not initially going to start another surge, it seems like softbank and or maybe the company as well are starting to ask around and see if there is someone to take over. I think they recognize it will be important for someone to step in with a lot of confidence, ability to set a new course for leadership. It has been so shaky internally since then. They had marcello step in as executive chairman. But notably not in a ceo role. I think the expectation would be that he would work alongside whoever ends up becoming ceo. I am sure this is a search that weighs heavily on the minds of the board, executive trying to find the right person who can lead them out of this tumultuous period. Taylor boosting employee morale can be so key to that strategy. Thank you, Bloomberg Technologys ellen huet. When alphabet started looking into acquiring fitbit, it turned to a familiar name, lazar, the Investment Bank that goes back to the 1800s. It can count on the Silicon Valley giant as a surprising and steady source of business. Joining to discuss is bloombergs leanna baker. I have to ask, why the googlelazard partnership . Leanna it goes back to a decade ago when one of lazards investors, known as being a confidant to bill clinton and d. C. Insider, had a relationship with googles top lawyer, david drummond. They made the connection and it has been history ever since. Google has been advised by lazard on over 22 billion of deals since 2011. They have quietly become googles house bank. Taylor we have learned they recently acquired fitbit. What are some of the deals they have been an advisor on . Liana lazard has stepped into advise google on its most transformative deals. Whether it was nest a few years ago. It started with motorola, almost a 10 billion deal in 2011. They have also been on a looker technologies deal earlier this year that we are waiting for approval from d. C. On. They have done smaller deals. Lazard is on retainer with google so they dont just advise on the largest transactions. They are paid a retainer fee and , about 200,000 a month, and they will weigh in on anything google is looking at. They did advise google when they looked at twitter. Not every deal that they work on comes to fruition. Taylor any sense of how all of those fees you pointed out stack up into lazards broader Business Strategy . Liana according to consultants, lazard has only made about 70 million estimated fees from google. That is not make or break for lazard, but it is this sort of repeat business and Investment Banking that the boutique has come to rely on. They have been in a bit of a shakeup. One of their top bankers left in france a few weeks ago. As you mentioned before, their market share in dealmaking is not what it used to be. Lazard has a ton of rivals that have taken a big share. In Silicon Valley, there are several. Lazard is almost 180 years old but they now have competition in this independent advisory space. Taylor within that Competitive Landscape that you just highlighted, how dependent has lazard become more and more on those Silicon Valley giants, on those repetitive clients that they do have that seemingly permanent relationship with . Liana they have some big names like ibm. But working with google, some rivals of lazard have said maybe they are conflicted out of working with other tech giants. Working with google on every deal, they may not be able to work with, say, apple or facebook. So they are kind of planting a flag on this relationship and they are committed. That is what google likes. They like the secrecy, that they like how lazard is behind the scenes. Until now, they havent really been in the headlines connected to google. Taylor thank you for joining us. The state of california has sued juul for allegedly marketing ecigarettes to teenagers. Authorities say the company sought out vulnerable targets for its products. Juul has become a target of government regulators trying to stop an epidemic of new, young nicotine users. Coming up, waiting in the lobby. Facebook and google spending big to keep regulators at bay. We break down the washington tactics next. If you like bloomberg news, check us out on the radio, the bloomberg app, bloomberg. Com, and in the u. S. , on sirius xm. This is bloomberg. Taylor now to a story we are following, the continued pursuit of big tech by the u. S. Government. Senator josh holly of missouri has introduced a new bill aimed at protecting american data from being acquired by countries deemed to be a National Security threat. For example, the bill says tiktok could not collect user data deemed unnecessary to its business and transmit operations within china. Joining us, bloombergs ben brody and kurt wagner. Let me start with you. What are your thoughts on this bill . I think this represents lawmakers continually feeling that they have to grapple with chinas tech ambitions. And the possibility they could really be setting the rules for the web not just in china where there are one billion plus people, but here in the United States. Do they set the content rules on tiktok, the surveillance rules . I think this is a response by hawley, and he had that hearing where he was very angry with tiktok and apple for not showing up. Youre seeing this question through the government right now. Taylor is this the kind of protection that big tech wants that Consumers Want . Kurt probably to some extent. We have seen facebook in particular but google and others push for regulation. What they really mean is they want to be involved in shaping the regulation. Can have some type of guidelines or rules written down where they can follow those and that solves all of their issues, that looks good for them especially if it keeps potential upstarts or startups from catching up. They have such a strong advantage. Tiktok is obviously a threat, i think, to facebook. If there are certain regulations that might facebook a little bit, but if they hurt foreign competitors like tiktok, they might be on board. Taylor we have you on a day where there seems to be more and more propose legislation coming out. We had a headline today that the ftc says they are looking at multiple antitrust probes underway and that they will review all of these antitrust laws in the wake of these big tech probes. Does this indicate that the size and scope is bigger than we saw before . Ben i think, absolutely. We know that the federal trade commission and Justice Department are doing these wideranging probes into digital marketplaces and they are all doing google, facebook, amazon, and apple. We know the doj is formally looking into google and facebook, we know the ftc is formally looking into facebook. Facebook is subject to both of them right now. What we dont know is whether they are doing those other companies. I think the chairman raise the question today that they may be doing all four of those, maybe two or three. If i were an investor in the company, i would be looking at the question of how intense that scrutiny has gotten. Taylor does this meet the level of the bar that needs to be set in terms of doesnt harm competition . When you look at all four of the Big Tech Companies that could potentially be in play. Kurt facebook has talked about this the most. Primarily because we know about those investigations and theyve talked more openly about it. Their argument has basically been none of the accusations are really about harming consumers, that we are being penalized because were big, and that is our only crime. That will be a question we will start exploring, i am sure, as investigations move forward. In the targeted advertising field, when you have facebook, google and amazon getting into that. When you talk about app stores, google and apple having these really dominant app stores. It is tough to say who is being harmed in what way but those are the ultimate questions we are looking at. Taylor i was looking at another story about google and facebook donating to privacy groups and think tanks, and this sort of extends their reach beyond just traditional lobbyists. Lobbying, we understand, sort of a normal course of business. How much does it concern you now that you see big donations from facebook, google, and the like, to these privacy advocacy groups, think tanks, that in some ways appear to be neutral . Ben i think that is exactly the point. This is not traditional lobbying. This is about shaping the narrative, shaping the conversation somewhat as it goes to the public, but also as it sort of appears to the washington class here among reporters, staff, lawmakers. It is always the concern, going to an event, a talk about how balanced is this, who is presenting, do we know their biases . What is disclosed about it . It is always a part of how everyone in washington is weighing the policymaking process. I think these groups will often push back and say, we have lots of different corporate donations and sponsorships, and we put forth the best solutions we think we can. Some groups are even more forthright and some groups are largely captured by these companies and essentially putting forth their agendas in shadow lobbying. Taylor when you were looking at some of the think tanks, companies we know of, cato institute, access now, center for democracy and technology, what stood out the most in terms of the size of the donation and influencing them . Kurt what stood out is it is hard to exactly say because some of these were hundreds of thousands of dollars, some of these were as low as 10,000. What does that really buy you . I think when it comes down to it, this is a play about leverage. This is a play about relationships, as with all of these kind of donations ndc in d. C. You want to be able to make a call to someone, get your point of view across. When you have that existing relationship, it is probably easier to do that. It is a little bit tough to say exactly how much the dollar amount, you could almost set aside. This is about building a relationship with people who have the ear of the media, the general public. Taylor another day, another big tech and focus here. Thank you to bloombergs kurt wagner and ben brody. Coming up, we talk investing in enterprise startups. A Firm Announces a 157 million funding. Bloomberg technology is livestreaming on twitter. Check us out technology. Be sure to follow our global breaking news network on twitter. This is bloomberg. Taylor just eight years ago, new yorkbased venture firm bold Star Ventures raised funds. Now it raised 157 million across two funds. Both tomic Enterprise Software startups. The news comes just days after softbank announced 2 billion funding for its Second DivisionSecond Vision Fund, also focusing closely on enterprise startups. For more on the latest funding, we are joined by Boldstart Ventures partner ed sim. As you look at the landscape with these new funds and fresh capital where you see the best , opportunities and where to invest . For us, its about the digital translation of the fortune 500. If you think of every fortune 500 as a software company, from Cloud Computing to a Developer First atmosphere is an awesome opportunity to invest. Secondly, if you think about it, salesforce is over 20 years old. Tech changes so rapidly, so the opportunity to reinvent and rebuild parts is super impressive. Companies like kustomer are going after zen desk and Service Cloud in a pretty impressive way. Funds focus ono different companies. One is transforming existing companies that are already in play. Between those two, what has been harder to raise money for . Definitely the early stage portion. This was kind of our first Institutional Fund and it took us time to play out. In 2010, we were the First Investor in technical enterprise founders. A lot of our Portfolio Companies have gone on to raise over 100 million since we helped get them off the ground. Eventually the Institutional Investors paid attention. The Opportunities Fund was easier because we can point to those Success Stories and opportunities to invest in future rounds and they had real metrics, versus the prior fund was more about vision. Taylor what question are the Institutional Investors asking you the most when they are handing over capital . Ed they are asking how you frame investing into people and an idea . We are trying to help them understand that, for us, it is about foundermarket fit, realizing things that already exist or have new categories. Walking them through the framework about how we think about the product perspective along with large enterprise. Taylor i have asked this guests and a lot of i have yet to get a solid answer. That is, at what year, on average, do you want to see profitability from these companies . Ed i have to tell you the truth, when we invest in companies, we are only investing in Enterprise Software companies so from a gross margin perspective, we dont have to think about what that would be because it is high gross margin. From a profitability perspective, we dont invest to think when this will be profitable, we have to think when the total gross margin is potentially massive and if the founders in the beginning can execute on product. They need to focus on building the best product, finding the first user and dozens and dozens of users after that. If you focus on that first in the beginning and have a great product, you will be able to win customers. Taylor softbank recently was looking at raising their Second Vision Fund and they were looking at Enterprise Software. How overvalued is this space now with too much cash chasing too few opportunities . Ed that is an interesting and leading question. I frankly think there are some companies overvalued but we are still in the second inning. If you look at Cloud Computing space as a percentage of overall i. T. Infrastructure spend, i think it is about 10 . If you take that number and look at the next five or 10 years, i think no matter what Economic Cycle we are in, there will be lots of opportunities for enterprise technologies. Whatever the value is today, i still think three or four years from now, we will be in good shape. Taylor how much is softbank a threat, seeing how overvalued Companies Like wework became . Do you fear that comes into your area as well . Ed there is always a risk of companies being over capitalized. I was on your show in august talking about money is not the answer to