Transcripts For BLOOMBERG Bloomberg Technology 20240712 : vi

BLOOMBERG Bloomberg Technology July 12, 2024

Curfews have lifted in many cities but remain in new york as we go into another weekend of protests. A Record Number of National Guard troops have been deployed. The mayor of washington, d. C. , has asked President Trump to withdraw troops. For what it means i want to bring in abigail doolittle. Talk about the ups and the downs today. Abigail investors squarely focused on the jobs report that came in better than anybody expected. The estimate was for a loss of 7. 5 million jobs. Instead we had an ad of 2. 5 million, which is great news for folks in those new jobs and for the folks who did not lose their job. As for the stock market, of course we had this debate about whether stock should be up so much since the march lows. This Economic Data, you could make the case that stocks have been right. Who was such as myself questioning stock should be high against the real world is wrong although one month does not make a trend. Lets see if that continues. Some say there could be more waves ahead. The nasdaq 100 at an alltime high. Its best day in more than a month. Really helping out all the major averages. Up 3 . A lot of Risk Appetite flowing through stocks on the day. And this big jobs report, investors looking past of the social unrest, the feeling that it is over. Lets hope that is the case. Relative to the indexes out of the march lows, the faang index up going back to the idea of it was hard to stomach that giving the Economic Data and the jobless claims. It is hard to square that with the payroll report. The idea that stocks were right to climb. Lets see if it continues. Notable,ere was one slack was down 14 . We will speak to the ceo later in the show. Was that an anomaly . Was, and for fundamental reasons. Idiosyncratic reasons. They actually beat estimates. They put up a small loss. We are still high. Everyone thinks they are going to benefit from the work at home trend. Not as big as expected. They did withdraw the building guidance. Never a good thing. One takeaway might be the idea working at home, folks percent prefer zoom. They dont need the messaging software. And valuation. This stock, out of the march lows, it more than doubled. Investors had expected big things. You can see the spread between slack and the nasdaq, just to make the point, slack has been so far ahead of the market. Down day. G even though within the context of the jobs report, that rally on the very big jobs surprise. , thanks. Igail we will speak to Stewart Butterfield in just a moment. Another Company Working to accelerate hiring for millions of folks across the country, workstream is a hiring platform that works with 5000 managers to streamline the hiring process, Companies Like chickfila and more. Joining me on the phone is the cofounder and ceo. You in the data telling terms of what the big employers are seeing . Who is hiring . Who is laying off . Where are things accelerating and slowing down . Thank you, emily. I see a trend that many to opennts are trying up. Trying to hire people. We see the trend in health care. They have been strong. Those carryon to growth. Moreu can see, more and businesses and companies are trying to open up. We think that trend would carryon to growth. Potentially aout second wave of infection . What about what is going on with these protests which have left many businesses closed as they try to protect themselves . What about hiccups along the way . That is a good thing to ask. We have seen many of our current contactless hiring and screening. More and more people trying to sayrage video, trying to they can screen in a way that is safe and fast. Businesses and more trying to set up to keep people safe. We think that trend would actually carryon. People know there could be a second wave. People know they have to keep things going. They are trying to change the way they work and screen and hire people. They are trying to use more video, trying to set up workflows. ,mily all right, desmond lim ceo of workstream, thank you for joining us. We will watch these numbers and the trends within. Coming up, slack reporting record revenue. The stock plummeting. We will talk to ceo Stewart Butterfield about why. This is bloomberg. If there are any winners in this pandemic, one of them has been slack, a Company Helping people work remotely with more and more people flocking to the service as they work from home. After slack reported earlier but week, record revenue, withdrawing its billing forecast for the year, leading shares to plummet. Joining me now is ceo Stewart Butterfield. Investors are concerned perhaps slack is not going to benefit as much as they thought. There are High Expectations. What happened . Speculate would not as to what investors are thinking. The stock has fallen to the price it was last wednesday. Executive, i cant pay much attention to the shortterm movements. Especially in this market, theres a lot going on. Theres a lot of unusual volatility. Said the second half of the year is too complex. What clues do you have about what the second half of the year will look like . Stewart we do know theres going to be that compares to 5000 the quarter prior. We added 90,000 new organizations using slack. More than the entirety of last year. That will pay off. What we dont know is the strength of the headwind. The businesses we are affected by the crisis have felt that to a large measure. Airlines are figuring out businesses down. What we dont know is the trickledown effect for the rest of the economy. Todays job numbers are good. Many people are unemployed. A lot of stimulus checks or unemployment is going to run out. I dont think we have any good idea of what the world looks ore in september, october, november. Balancing that is tough for us. To, thes you alluded return to work will be slow. I have no idea when my kids are going back to school. When we are going to the office. It will happen. Hopefully there is a vaccine. When you look long term, do you see a point where slacks growth slows or even drops as we go back to whatever new normal is . Stewart i dont think so. Had 100 thousand plus customers before the crisis. All of those people were working the benefitnd found to slack and decided to pay for it. It is hard to tell. To offices, back they will still retain their slack use because it still has the same advantage. I dont think there is any real relationship there. Slack improves your ability to communicate. That is one of the challenges. It is not specifically designed for that. Have seenat we because this was so disruptive, and 0 of ceos would have said fromwould be able to work home inside of a week, but when youve got to do it, it is possible. There will be changes, we think this shift is generational. The adoption of email in the 1990s. We are just at the beginning of that. Are you thinking about reopening right now . You said september. Is that the case . Are you thinking about letting employees work from home forever like jack dorsey . Stewart there is complexity there. I cant imagine going back to normal. I think we will have a higher percentage of people working remotely. What we have seen, people want flexibility. I like coming into the office sometimes. I dont love my commute. Week. To come into days a or maybe we get together for planning sessions to come up with a plan and then if we have worked we stay home. It is too soon to know. Definitely not before september. More likely to extend that further. I cant imagine opening offices for those employees that would prefer to work there because they are going crazy inside their house or they dont have the facilities in their home. Going back to normal, i dont know if we ever will. It wont be soon. Emily you are incredibly active on social media on social justice. I have to get your thoughts on this twitter versus facebook call about the president s tweet and the call facebook made, or did not make, who is going to be on the right side of history . Stewart im glad i dont have to make that choice. More on tendency to be the side of twitter. I dont understand the longterm ramifications. Speech, i am the not sure the right response and what will be most constructive in making a positive change. The situation now is intolerable for every citizen. I dont think anyone is happy right now. Youve been vocal about these issues. You have created one of the most diverse workforces by comparison in Silicon Valley. Now we are hearing Companies Making commitments, doubling down. Are you worried it will be more words than action . Going off think script a little, i saw someones screenshot from hulu. Blackad done their lives matter post and somebody said you lost me as a customer. The response was, thanks for the update from the klan meeting. It sends a message, that is an intolerable opinion. You cant argue against black lives matter and be a member of civil society. I dont know that was the case when black lives matter entered the lexicon. The words do matter to some extent. I believe we have seen some serious followup action and slack is no different in that respect. We have plenty of work to do. I hope people are held accountable is through increased transparency and a shift in what acceptable, what is the minimum standard. As that increases, the pressure increases for people to meet it. Emily absolutely. And black lives do matter. Nothing partisan about it. Stewart butterfield, always appreciate your thoughts. Thank you so much for joining us. Coming up, we will speak with the cfo of zoom. Another pandemic supposed winner. Also soaring growth. Kelly joins us next. This is bloomberg. Zoom reported a 170 increase in firstquarter revenue and maintained a forecast for the year, expecting 500 Million Dollars in revenue. I spoke with the chief Financial Officer Kelly Steckelberg about how the company will love up to High Expectations the rest of the year. Kelly we are fortunate we added 500 customers in a market with greater than 100,000 of annual recurring revenue. These are customers that commit to annual or multiyear agreement. So we do have greater visibility than some companies do in future revenue. Indicated,as we have q4 could be flat because half of our Customer Base were on monthly contracts. Theres a little more potential volatility around those customers and uncertainty around how long the pandemic will last. Is there Economic Uncertainty . It is uncertain as to what the longterm economy looks like. That is why we are guiding flat for q3 and a4. Vaccine,til there is a and people are tired of zoom, at what point is that . What does it mean for zoom . Is there a point where growth plateaus because of a pullback . Kelly how could anybody be tired of zoom . We have seen, Video Communications has been integrated in all aspects of our life, social and personal. People have seen how effective it can make us. Maybe you dont want to spend all of your day on zoom meetings. We are going to see a mixed approach to that. We want to keep in touch with family and friends around the globe. If you cant with them personally. And we also have many products, we have this broader Customer Base we can delve into. Is aloudbased product great match with zoom meetings. We are looking forward to sell that as well as as people think about going back to work, we have zoom room, which is a Conference Room solution. That integrates nicely with zoom meetings. Its a great way to connect people from home and in the office as well. Emily you only see an upward trajectory. Kelly for the long term, yes. Said you wille not offer and to end encryption to for users. Have Consumer Reports asking zoom to reconsider. It created controversy. Is it something you will reconsider . Elly kelly currently we offer 256 encryption to all of our customers, free and paid. We are in the early planning stage of working on building an end to end encryption product which has not in done. We are excited about doing this. About who and to end encryption will be available to, we are trying to balance security and privacy of customers, and also the safety of groups like children. That is the consideration. Thinking about offering encryption for users we can identify. That is the balance we are trying to strike. Emily the ceo said zoom would work with Law Enforcement, which did not hit the right note given the protest. Is that something you will reconsider or clarify . There are situations where Law Enforcement is looking into unfortunate situation such as child abuse, we do comply with subpoenas and support those investigations. Emily talk about the progress in terms of security and privacy. I know youre lost some customers as a result. Have you had any government inquiries or investigations announced into the security and privacy issues around zoom you can share . Kelly security and privacy is something we have been focused on the last two months. We are two thirds of the way through the 90 day plan. Someincludes remediating situations. We set up a counsel with talent from around the Technology Companies that want to give us input. Doingas been available weekly webinars so we hear back from the community on what else we can do and answer questions. We are spending time individually with our customers and prospective customers to hear from them what we can do to further our privacy and security stance. This is something that will be forever integrated inhouse zoom approaches our design, thinking about our privacy and security with reliability as a product. Will foreverng we be focusing on. Cfo kellym steckelberg. Coming up, an hourlong call with Mark Zuckerberg left some frustrated. We will speak to one of the civil rights leaders on that call next. This is bloomberg. Save hundreds on your wireless bill without even leaving your house. Just keep your phone and switch to xfinity mobile. You can get it by ordering a free sim card online. Once you activate, youll only have to pay for the data you need starting at just 15 a month. There are no term contracts, no activation fees, and no credit check on the first two lines. Get a 50 prepaid card when you switch. Its the most reliable wireless network. And it could save you hundreds. Xfinity mobile. Emily welcome back to bloomberg technology. Mark zuckerbergs inaction about one of the president s posts on facebook has angered employees, former employees and civil rights leaders alike. Participants on a call with the facebook ceo this week said zuckerberg cannot fully understand why a handsoff approach is a problem. One person adjoined that call is vanita gupta, president and ceo of the Leadership Conference of civil and human rights. I spoke with her earlier today. Vanita we told mark that those tweets and the posts the president made actually violated the four corners of their Voter Suppression policy. A policy we helped create with thought was insufficient and have been working to strengthen. Even on the data they have, the tweets violated them. On the looters and shooters comment, it violated their policy of incitement for violence. He disagreed and doubled down on that position and try to its plain his reasoning. To us, his reasoning made no sense. Actually, they approach trade a lack of it portrayed a lack of understanding in voting rules and the like. I think it showed why we think is so important for mark to have the right people in the room, have civil rights expertise in the room when he is making these decisions. Emily i understand there was a lot of pushback. Do you feel like you heard you . That he understands your position . Vanita i think he understands our position. I think he disagrees with it. I worry that he has a different view, as i said, about the understanding of what is happening in voting and what the existing voting rules are. But, i also think he heard a lot from his own employees this week who had a lot of things to say about all of this as well. So, you know, he is a smart guy. Hehink he knows that understands the position, but i dont think he fully understands voting in america, the rules. But i think he believes he disagrees. He views this through a partisan lens and somehow democrats versus republicans. But for the civil rights community, this is actually about the Voter Suppression policies, the nonpartisan efforts that we have built with facebook pretty painstakingly and over time, that basically he is not complying with. Emily how many times have you met with him and Sheryl Sandberg previously . Do you get a sense that their views are changing in a certain direction . I understand you have been meeting with them quite frequently. Vanita we have a fair amount of engagement. I would say less with mark, more with sheryl. In the past year, it has been a little bit more with mark. Team at the our Leadership Conference and other civil Rights Groups have been working with the company on a range of different issues through the civil rights audit. There have been some things they have made progress on. Weve made progress on the fact they have been allowing for unlawful targeting through their ads and they stop doing that. They settled ongoing litigation. We helped craft their policy to prevent misinformation and interference with the census. It was a pretty robust policy. We have pressed various times around the enforcement of that policy where they have not caught major disinformation that they subsequently have taken down after i had to flag it for them. Weve had some progress, but i would say on voting and elections, they have moved far too slowly and then have failed to really understand what they are allowing on their platform and the harm it creates. This isnt about free expression. I worked at the American Civil Liberties union. Backer of the first amended, but the company chose to develop policies after 2016 to fight Vo

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