Transcripts For BLOOMBERG Bloomberg Technology 20240712

The most groundbreaking treatment for covid19. The maker of new antibody technologies. More than one Million People now dead from the disease worldwide. Welcome to bloomberg technology. Markets rallying today, tech again leading. Joining us now, abigail doolittle. We were talking about a rally at the end of last week. Is that now going to extend through this week . Abigail it certainly did today. It was not just tech. Rallyeadth of todays possibly more impressive than the size. The nasdaq over this time, the best three days since april. That is the degree of the buying power. Really helping out the nasdaq. Again, very solid again. It was driven last week by apple, which put up its first up week since august, claiming back above the 50 day moving average. The fundamentals not changing so much. Perhaps more technical selling after some technical buying in august. I was mentioning the breadth. Very well. Apple up 2. 4 . Tesla continuing its rebound. Disappointment for another day, up 3. 4 . Virgin galactic, not part of the fang index but i could not avoid putting it on the board. Bank of america and other firms positive today, touting the potential. You see that stock up 25 . I believe there is a greater than 30 bear short interest. Some of the big banks are getting positive on virgin galactic. Emily we are watching some big tech direct listings happening this week. Onantir, we are expecting wednesday data company as sauna as well. What is the environment that will await them . It seems to be the environment we have this year. We have the pandemic and large uncertainty. We have a very strong market for companies to go public. Of course, direct listing is different than an ipo. Up 139 issance etf, from the march low. Direct listing allows private investors to cash in. It does not actually raise money for the company. The fact that we have so Many Companies rushing to get public may suggest that some banks are advising these companies to raise that money, go public while the window is open in case some uncertainty in the future would close that window. Some saying that the ipo amount raised this year could be a record. There is that point that it could reflect some of the uncertainties we are seeing. Right now, really cashing in. It seems right now, with the bullish background at least over the past three days, it would support that. Oracle down on the day, one of the few down stocks on the day. The drama course as intensifies. A federal judge blocking President Trumps band. It seems that not a lot of attention is being given to oracle and tiktok. Investors appetite for this drama is waning until there is more clarity. Im sure you will begin more. Emily we will dig in right now. Thank you very much for that update. Speaking of oracle, shares have accelerated on the back of this tiktok news. But what is happening with tiktok . The Trump Administration suffering yet another setback. A federal judge temporarily blocked the president s ban on new downloads. Tiktok was set to be removed from u. S. App stores by midnight sunday. The judge refused to halt the november deadline for the sale of u. S. Assets. We are joined by bloomberg techs kurt wagoner, who has been following every twist and turn. What is the latest as it stands right now . Kurt you nailed it. The fact that tiktok is able to still operate. That was decided last night by a judge who believed the trump of instruction was exceeding its app. Rity to try to ban the as of right now on the deal, we are still kind of stuck in limbo. We are waiting for approval from the Chinese Government. We are hearing mixed things still around the deal terms. At this point, it seems as are still sides working to get this deal done but there are so many question marks to be answered. Seem as thought the Chinese Government was becoming increasingly hostile towards any kind of deal . Kurt absolutely. There was a time that it seemed the Chinese Government would be happy with this. The deal seemed to call for the Parent Company of tiktok to have a majority control in this new entity. The Chinese Government at first seemed like they might be on board. The view from the u. S. Side was that perhaps this was a bad deal. Since then, we have seen the president and oracle come out bytedance should not be involved at all. And, a turnaround, suggesting this is a dirty deal. I am notoint, it super optimistic that the Chinese Government will come around on board with the deal, notming that bytedance is actually in control of this new company. Emily meantime, we are on the eve of the first president ial debate. You have the election coming up the first week of november. How big a step back is this for the president if he wanted to as some measure of success . I think there is no doubt that tiktok has found itself in the middle of this geopolitical trade war. To go the way it did is not a good look. Ideally, the president would love to go into the debate come into the election and say, look at the hardline i have drawn against china, especially protecting americans data. That has yet to manifest for him. I am sure that he will continue to fight this. It is possible that this could be elevated to another court. I would not be shocked if that happens. Your point, not a great look for the president as he is trying to use this as a real pillar as he is heading into the election. Emily tiktok users, some of them have had a field day with President Trumps campaign. What is happening on and inside the platform as we approach election day . Kurt it is funny you mention that because you may remember the president s rally a few months ago where kurt claimed where tiktok users claimed they oversold the rally and no one actually showed up. I think what will be more important is what they do for me company standpoint. We have seen facebook, twitter a snap about with hard lines around misinformation. Voting registration efforts. Tiktok has a chance to do some of that stuff as well. That could be a benefit for them if you really think that perhaps taking a hard line against misinformation around the election might win them some favors in the u. S. You bring up a good point that the content has not been very flattering to the president thus far. I dont think that will change before election night. Er,ly bloombergs kurt wagn thank you so much for that update. Games up apple and epic in court this morning. Here . S happening how will it play out for the Gaming Sector . This is bloomberg. Lawyers for apple and epic went headtohead this morning in a Virtual Court Healing Court hearing over the app store and its fees. Epic has sued both apple and ,oogle in the name of fortnite accusing both companies of being monopolies and robbing developers. Now, laura, who covers apple, google, and the Gaming Sector. The judge in court this morning set that she believes that should be taken to a jury. If a jury decides who is right, apple or epic, it is less likely for that to be repealed. Who do you think is in the right . Epic games launched in june of 2017 and within 12 months, there were 78 million users because apple and android but that app into everyones hand with no cost to it virtually overnight. Apple and android basically allowed that content to be viewable. If apple andworld, android did not have free to use platforms. Makingrs later, fortnite they are mad about that. What they really want is a volume discount, like we used to have in the cable treatment. The company that wants to displace fortnite. The reason why they have no advantage is that they pay the same fee and now they pay big and they have to cover the costs , and epic is like, we are too big, so we want a break on the. Rice, which is anticompetitive somebody has to pay the 40 billion. Emily there is a rising chorus of big in Small Companies that say the cut is unfair. Smaller, new startups saying this is not fair. What about their argument . Laura i think this is a contractual debate, just like in cable. This is a contractual, negotiated problem. Of course, you should be arguing that you are overpaying, because what is the downside of that . Everybody wins. I think both apple and google will win, it is their platform. Important for the future of consumers that these coverrms be required to their costs. Emily what about the proclamation that apple and google are monopolies, and that these are incredibly important platforms for any developers, and that a 30 cut is just too steep . Laura again, economic difference of opinion. Consumers to adopt them. The reason there was an oligopoly. Now, what is great for developers. All 950 million of their phones with one set of app designs. Apple has made a product that consumers care about. Dont underestimate the time to market advantage that has versus the old world when there were competitors. That would have been costing App Developers a lot more money as they had to have different teams to develop apps. Emily lets talk about the Gaming Sector. The ceo of epic has been very couple mentoring about xbox. This new Gaming Service luna. Are there enough competing platforms that a Gaming Company could be as successful without having to rely on apple or google . Ecosystem, 950e million, is two times higher, so i would say it would be nearly impossible for a game company to actually economically work. Ithout the apple ios ecosystem mobile games is where all the growth is and the best mobile games are on the apple store because apple sends it back until it is good enough for the consumer. Apps, to make sure they are best practices on these apple phones. Consoles are a rich persons niche. The console is expensive, the Screen Committee games are 60 each. It is lovely that they think xbox is doing great work. Talk about the richest of the rich. I just dont think that is competitive relevant to most consumers in the world today if apple reaches a billion consumers. Emily always appreciate your show. Ns on the huge as been such a we are coming into the holiday season, people shelterinplace with nothing to do. They are going to want to play even more games. What is your outlook for amazons platform in an already crowded market . What amazonlly like is doing in the videogame space. I like this notion that streaming types of sensibilities seeing coming to the game space. We have a number of existing streaming services. Ea origin access is the most interesting one to myself. Amazon has one. Contact i would say is suboptimal. It is six dollars. Expect amazon to integrate over time. The important point for amazon is that it owns twitch, which is the dominant viewing platform for video games. And it owns the dominant server farm that allows speed of play for its new streaming service. When it gets more content, it closes the content cap. Any other streaming game service, which is twitch users. Lower Customer Acquisition costs and server farms can be faster for iws. Emily laura martin, always great to have you on the show. Thanks so much. Nikola trevorw milton went to disgraced founder. Why early investors might have seen it coming. This is bloomberg. Omberg. Shares falling today after news that some key investors had concerns about his founder. They raised concerns about Trevor Milton. Embroiled in scandal and setback. And accused nikola of lies deception around its technology. Ludlowrg reporter ed joined me now. What did investors know about Trevor Milton before the company went public . Ed head of that june merger and listing, investors basically knew that trevor was not the best for of hands to take the Company Public and execute on the things they are trying to do. Of elon muskr sort levels. They wered not think anywhere near sort of elon musk levels. They pushed for a change to the chairman of the board, which ended up happening. Completed itskola reverse merger with that blank check company, mark russell took over with ceo. It kind of raises questions about what Due Diligence partners like General Motors did and did not know. Even with Trevor Miltons departure, his presence still hangs over the company. Another key piece of information ,his week is that an accusation a claim that Trevor Milton sexually assaulted her in 1999, a train with a claim which Trevor Milton disputes. He no longer is on the board, no longer holds any operating positions. There are questions about his business savviness, his background. He started a number of startups over the past two decades. Companyed an ecommerce in 2009. He told me in june that they pioneered the Online Shopping cart. That business fails because he simply could not keep up with demand and raise funds. There is a sense that the time of this merger that he was not the best person to take this company forward. Emily one question, what did gm know, or why didnt they know any of this . Ed sources tell us that gm did know quite a lot, especially on nikolas technology. Due diligence basically unveiled that the General Motors fuel cell Battery Technology was actually superior to nikola. But they knew that. Nikola displayed an ability to raise funds. Working and do have two fuel cell prototypes. The idea was that General Motors would leverage that, use their own technology and the foundation of what nikola set up. We also know that talks with energy giant bp are still ongoing over a Hydrogen Infrastructure partnership. Chair of nikolas board, he made the introduction between the two companies. It is hard to tell. Ludlow, i know you will continue to carry this one for us. Coming up, we will look at what to expect out of tomorrows first president ial debate. In a viral news cycle, there is no room for error. This is bloomberg. Emily welcome back to bloomberg technology. Trump and biden hit the stage in cleveland tomorrow night, marking the very first time the two will debate each other. Tomorrows event will be the first of three president ial debates leading up to the election, leaving little room for error on either side. With us on the phone to look ahead to the event, wendy benjamin. What is at stake tomorrow . Obviously, it is a huge night. Both of these candidates have a lot on the line. Wendy they absolutely do have a lot on the line. It is tomorrow night, the first debate, as you said. And each one has to make sure that they dont make an error that can change the very few votes that are still undecided in this election. One Million People have already voted. There are fewer and fewer people they can persuade and theyve got to try to get some of biden has to get some of trumps voters and trump has to get some of bidens voters. Biden has to make sure he does not slip up. Have one of those moments that feed into trumps narrative that he may be a little too old for the job. And trump has to not be too offthecuff and in rally mode in this very sort of formalized environment. Emily how important is it in this news cycle, which is relentless, when five seconds five seconds can clinch or seal your fate . Wendy thats exactly right. In any debate, that has happened. Incumbent president s traditionally dont do that well in the first debate for their reelection. Its a weird thing. Jimmy carter between jimmy carter and barack obama, the incumbent president s, i think they are overconfident or they think they can wing this, which trump has been saying. It looks like he was having mock debates over the weekend. They go into this and they lose the debate, they dont always lose the election. They moments can morph can go away very quickly, too. Emily absolutely, especially in an unforgiving news cycle. That said, biden did not perform so well in the primary debate. He has struggled with public speaking. The convention, his speech that night, that final night was very well received. Do we know how much he has been preparing . Do we know how wellprepared he is for this, and what are you expecting . Wendy he is, we believe he is wellprepared. Hes a very traditional politician. He has spent the last week and a half in debate prep which means he is locked in a room or on zoom with his senior advisers. Bob bauer, a longtime washington republican and husband of one of his senior advisers, has been playing donald trump in mck debates. They have been reviewing the facts and figures. Hes going to come armed with facts and figures. The danger is whether he gets any of those facts and figures wrong because the expectation is if he gets it wrong, that will be looked at as a bigger mistake than if donald trump gets a fact wrong, because like him or not, donald trump is not always get the facts right. It is expected for donald trump. It is not expected from joe biden. Emily that said, bidens campaign has been given a gift which is this reporting about 48mps tax returns, just hours before the first debate. How much will that feature tomorrow night and how are you expecting President Trump to explain this and biden to attack him . Wendy its really interesting because it is not one of the set topics. They have the topics already set so the candidates can prepare for it. Clearly, it was not a set topic. Probably on the first opportunity he can to mention it. What we are hearing from the Trump Campaign as they welcome it, too, because they believe most voters will say, yeah, stick it to the irs. Wouldnt it be great if i can get away with paying that little in taxes . Certainly trumps believe that. They voted for him in 2016, knowing that there would be suspicion he may had cheated on his taxes, did not pay the full amount. Trump is actually looking forward to it coming up so he can pivot it to his claim that biden will raise taxes on middleclass americans and say, yeah, i outsmarted the irs, look at me, which is what he said in 2016. Emily here in california, we are in the middle of another heat wave. More devastating fires have broken up. The air quality is horrible. Yet, Climate Change is another topic not on the agenda. What is on the agenda tomorrow night . What are the topics they have planned to cover . Wendy it is very likely Climate Change will be in the agenda on future debates. This first one, they will examine trumps and bidens records, so Climate Change could come up. The pandemic, the economy, the supreme court. Racial justice and violence in the cities. And election integrity. Those of the six topics that are set for tomorrow night. The candidates can dodge and wea ve and bring up just about anything they want to. Bely all right, ill busting out the popcorn. Thank you so much, wendy benjaminson, forgiving is that preview on what to expect tomorrow. I know you will be watching with laptop in hand. Bloomberg will be bringing you special coverage of the president ial debates tomorrow starting 8 30 p. M. Eastern time right here on bloomberg television. Coming up, a bridge to a muchanticipated vaccine. We are going to speak to the ceo potentially groundbreaking antibody treatment, next. This is bloomberg. Trump todaydent announced plans to distribute millions of abbotts covid19 rapid results tests and urged they be used in schools. He said 100 million doses will be available before the end of the year. Earlier today, tom keene and Francine Lacqua spoke to joshua Johns Hopkinsthe Bloomberg School of Public Health about what is needed for a successful vaccine. Vaccine acceptance is extremely important because you can have a great vaccine, but vaccines do not save lives, it is vaccinations that save lives and people are going to have to want to take it. So, what thats about is the confidence that people have in the process. Unfortunately, i think the white house has undermined that confidence by putting in such a political context. I think there are number of steps that others are thinking of taking to depoliticize it and make it about the science in a way that can inspire doctors to feel confident and people to feel confident about it. Tom this came up four, five, six times this week. Lets get an update from you on a monday as it gets colder out there. Roller be a shortage of other vaccines shots, like a socalled flu shot . Joshua in a way, im hoping there will be a shortage because that will mean everyone is getting a flu shot. We want to get as many people as possible to get a flu shot, particularly people at high risk for flu, and particularly for people who may not have gotten the vaccine before and can get used to getting vaccines through the flu shot which will protect them during the flu season. Unfortunately, that probably is not enough flu vaccines for the entire population so people should go out and get the flu shot. If we run up, we run out. Hopefully we run out early so we can try to protect as many people as possible. Tom explain the medicine of a given virus or bacteria overlaid on the likelihood of having great harm from the covid virus . Joshua having both together . Tom yes. Well said, thank you. Joshua no problem. There are a couple of problems that could,. There just many more are some heres the flu fills up the hospital by itself. On top of that, you would have a pandemic. Thats a really scary scenario. J i think it is less likely if people wear masks and keep their distance. The same thing the key people from getting covid also keep people from getting flu. The countries in the Southern Hemisphere where people are taking a lot of precautions, theyve had very mild flu seasons in their winter. That is what we are hoping. If people disregard masking and are going out and doing their things, the flu could start circulating and you will see worse problems both with covid and flu. The process of getting medical care for flu, bringing people in contact with covid. I think neither places will do very well on both or poorly. Francine what are monoclonal antibodies . As far as i can make out, they are made in a lab and protect against infections. What do we know about these monoclonal antibodies to fight covid19 . Joshua it is a little bit like plasma. Plasma is all the antibodies people have. Antibodies are taking one or a few of those antibodies that are thought to be the most effective to protect against covid19. They make a lot of them in they produce them. It is not taken from somebody. The idea is they can be given to people who may be are just exposed to the virus but have not gotten sick yet. It can keep them from getting sick in the first place. It also could be used as an early treatment. There is some hints out of the studies that they may be effective, so we will have to see when the studies get reported. Thats another tool in the toolkit to protect people. Sharfstein,oshua Johns Hopkins vice dean for Public Health practice at the Bloomberg School of Public Health. The school supported by aiko bloomberg, the founder of bloomberg lp. For more on potential antibody candidates for covid19, dr. Anthony fauci has set an effective antibody treatment could be a bridge to a successful vaccine. Joining us for more is jennifer immunoprecise,f a Company Working to develop therapies against covid19. Talk to us about your antibody technology, which you believe is the most comprehensive covid19 treatment out there. Jennifer absolutely. Thank you for having me on the show. Therapytarted our approach all the way back in january. We did so really believing we were wellpositioned to launch a program with the scale and rigor that was required to produce the diversity of antibodies that were needed to produce what we call an antibody cocktail. Cocktail therapies are very widely believed to be the most promising approach to addressing viruses, like sars virus, especially rna viruses in particular, that are known to go through what is called virus escape through mutation. Launchedrocess, we what we think is actually the most comprehensive program. Without going into the details, what we ended up with was what we believe is the most comprehensive and broad panel of potential therapeutic antibodies we are aware of. That supports a full cocktail therapy approach for sustainable therapies against sars cov 2. The aim of doing this is to put together a cocktail of three or more antibodies that work in a synergistic fashion. It means that one plus one plus one does not necessarily equal three. They enhance and improve the capability of the cocktail and the capability of protecting and treating covid by using them together in this formulation. Right now, this is the only cocktail therapy with three or more antibodies we know of that has been moved forward. There is one right now by regeneron. It is verystrongly, important to incorporate three or more antibodies into these cocktails. If you do so with a focus on safety in particular and efficacy. Emily so, if youre a patient who has been infected, you have covid19, you take your antibody cocktail. What happens . Jennifer so, initial applications for patients will probably be iv administered. But basically what happens is if you are a patient who is already with the disease, hope it is it will prevent the virus from spreading throughout the body by of infecting any new cell. Emily talk to us about what this means. As we work towards a vaccine, if we have a successful antibody treatment now essentially, then the urgency of a vaccine we dont need it right away, correct . How could this change the game . Jennifer we definitely do believe absolutely both are important, but there are some ways it does change in terms of how we respond to a number of different scenarios. One is patients or individuals who might have been exposed to the virus but not yet showing any signs or symptoms. So, anybody that has a positive test for the virus, we can treat prophylactically with the antibody, which means we can help prevent the onset of the disease. We could also treat, as earlier mentioned, not just earlystage patients, but later stage patients as well. It does definitely reduce the risk of mortality and morbidity in those patients. I think also Something Else that should not be overlooked is you couldnt minister prophylactically antibodies to people who are highrisk individuals. Elderly, responders, mnu compromised individuals, people ideal candidates but also candidates who most likely would not respond to a vaccine quite as well for elderly and and then you compromised. You have some protection you can put forward for people that are most at risk before a vaccine is available. Emily so, when will a comprehensive, you know, tested treatment be available to the public . Would it come out before april, which may be the soonest we get a vaccine . Regard letwith me clarify your question. Immunoprecise therapeutic or any therapeutic coming forward . Emily immunoprecise. Your antibody treatment. Jennifer yeah, absolutely, we do anticipate it will definitely be available by april. Right now, we are in manufacturing for the preClinical Trials which are already established. We are doing parallel manufacturing to produce whats called a cell bank that will actually go into the clinical manufacturing for use in humans. From our perspective, we are hoping to be aligned and prepared to go into Clinical Trials this winter. Emily all right, fascinating stuff. Jennifer bath, immunoprecise ceo. We will be tracking your progress. Thank you for joining us. A logistic startup is going up against amazon, ups and fedex. You will hear from the ceo of shipbox, fresh off new funding from softbank, about how they are planning to meet the holiday rush, next. This is bloomberg. Emily shipbob, logistic provider, has received 68 million of new funding from softbank. The company is working to take on household delivery names like amazon, ups and fedex, by managing more of the logistics process and building its own Fulfillment Centers. Shipbobs for more is dhruv saxena. What is it you have that you think instead of against amazon, ups and fedex, which of course, have all been working for years on their logistics operations. Dhruv yes, thank you for having me on the show. Shipbob, what we are doing is effectively providing an amazonlike experience, but for small to midsized direct to consumer ecommerce brands. Our customers are really the mom who buildands their own websites and dont have the scale by themselves to provide twoday shipping experience on their website. What shipbob does is we have a network of Fulfillment Centers across the country. Brands have two day shipping experience at the price point that makes sense. Emily talk to us a little bit about the demand you have been seeing in the middle of the pandemic and going into the Holiday Shopping season. Dhruv yeah, we have seen a significant surge in demand from our customers customers. Out acrosss spread different spectrums from hotels to jewelry and apparel. A majority of the customers on our platform range from anywhere from 500,000 and we have 50 million a week. We were not sure how these small brands would respond to the covid, but we have been surprised and happy with the resilience of these small brands. Across the entire network, we are seeing cyber monday volume starting from april and continuing all the way up to october. And we dont anticipate it slowing down especially as we head into the holiday season. Emily you just took on of this additional funding from shop has softbank Division Fund struggled with some of its investments like wework, for example. Did you consider that when deciding to take money from softbank . Dhruv absolutely. Over the last few months, we got an opportunity to lead meet the team with softbank treated we got to interact. Their approach to Company Approach to the space was aligned with how we were approaching things that shipbob. Hassecond thing is softbank a portfolio of Companies Across the world. As with thing about expanding our Global Network abroad, having relationships in those companies stood out. We thought softbank could be a great partner for us. Emily all right. We will keep our eye on your progress. Shipbob ceo dhruv saxena, thank you so much for joining us. That does it for this edition of bloomberg technology. A reminder, we will be bringing you special coverage of the president ial debate tomorrow starting at 8 30 p. M. Eastern time. Im emily chang in san francisco. Bloomberg daybreak australia coming up next. Thanks so much for joining us. This is bloomberg. Haidi good morning and welcome to daybreak australia. Im haidi stroudwatts in sydney. Shery good evening from bloombergs World Headquarters in new york, im shery ahn. Haidi these are your top stories. U. S. Stocks after four weeks of declines as Global Markets push higher. S p leads the biggest rise. New details about why a court blocked the tiktok band in america. A judge