We will hear from the head of west coast listings jeff thompson. Lucids desert oasis just finished a listing in san francisco. We will get a picture of supply and demand with first, u. S. Stocks started the month off by hitting records on stimulus talks and covert progress. Salesforce says it will proceed with plans to buy lack for 7. 7 billion to buy slack for 7. 7 billion. Slack prices up, salesforce had dropped. What do we see after hours . Abigail both shares are down. The idea that salesforce. Com would buy slack, now lo and behold, that is happening. As you mentioned, 27 point 7 billion in cash and stock. Some are wondering about the cash piece. Salesforce. Com does have a lot of cash, so using it here for this deal, and i think the bigger thing to take a look at is the fact that salesforce. Coms Ceo Marc Benioff has made more than 60 acquisitions, as you know, in his 21 years, making salesforce. Com the conglomerate of all these different pieces. Now they have this Communications Platform along with their Relationship Management software, making them once again a big competitor to microsoft, giving them an extra bell and whistle. Going forward, though, it is interesting because they also reported this news, but the forecast Going Forward is slightly disappointing. Not that surprising to see that happen, the Company Giving themselves a bit of wiggle room. As you mentioned, slack at this point, because of this deal and the speculation last week absolutely taking off. The deal price is about 55 above where the stock had been last week. You can see just going up parabolic lay on the report, a little bit of sell the news. Emily put this in the context of what we have seen in broader markets today, given this essentially positive news around stimulus as we head into the holidays. Abigail stocks did not react too much to the news of stimulus, the news that there is a proposal of 908 billion, far 2. 5 trillion dollars democrats want, but stocks clearly in a good mood for the day. Apple having a great day, up 3 . It was not just big tech. It was also small caps. The cyclical sectors, the banks, all in. You do have investors in a bullish mood, and i think a lot of it has to do with the vaccine. A did fall on the day after soaring after the announcement they are applying for eu approval. Certainly a bullish push for stocks, so netthat, the bulls are out once again. , the bulls are out once again. It will be interesting to see longerterm what the reaction is. Emily thanks so much. We will talk a little bit more about that deal right now. We knew this deal was going to happen. We were just waiting for it to be sealed. Is this good for salesforce . Is this good for slack . Quick thanks for having me on the program. I think overall, this is a really great deal. As abigail mentioned, salesforce continues to expand their playbook. They have grown to be a highly diversified company. On even are taking bigger news and a bigger challenge by acquiring slack and entering a market they had previously not been part of it, and that market has some very large competitors, and overall, i think it is a really good move on both their parts. Doing slack has been incredibly well as an independent company, especially in the midst of the pandemic. Do you see slack on a continued upward trajectory, or would some of that growth stop accelerating as we come out of the pandemic, as vaccines are successful, and as they continue to compete with microsoft . Chris yeah, yeah, i think they definitely have an opportunity to continue to accelerate their growth rate, especially now with salesforce helping them and putting the entire salesforce sales engine behind the company. Salesforce already has relationships with all of these enterprises they are trying to help, so that is going to be a big advantage and a big win and probably part of the reason why you see the premium paid. They think they can increase the growth rate and they know slack has a really good competitive product and offering, and they believed together they can grow even faster and generate a really nice return. Emily how big a competitive threat is microsoft at the moment, with their teams product and with teams being a gateway to other microsoft products . Chris it is definitely a very real competitor. I was actually at google when we were competing against microsoft in the communication and collaboration space. Its very hard. They are very good at what they do. The teams product you could not comparable to slack exactly, but the way they offer it is a bundled solution. Its a hard, competitive battle, and thats why i think it makes sense to team up with someone like salesforce where you can now get some synergies between the two, both from a sales perspective but also from a product perspective, and they can Work Together to deliver more innovation and be more competitive. Reminded of microsoft buying linkedin back in the day and how big a deal that was. What do you make of the personalities . Mark any off has a big personality. Has a bignioff personality. Stuart butterfield has a big personality. Hes always on social media sounding off. Chris thats a good question. I feel it can work. Stuart has always been flexible. The whole slack story, it feels they have always been flexible and focused on continuing to build a more valuable company, and mark has obviously proven they can make even large acquisitions like tableau, which was 15. 7 billion, i believe, very successful. That was a wellestablished company, and it seems some of these others like velocity are going to continue to grow, and a lot of those leaders are helping to grow, and i think they will find a way to make it work. Emily interesting to hear your perspective, especially about your time at google. Thanks for stopping by. We will be talking about this throughout the show. Coming up, diversity in the boardroom. One of wall streets biggest names rewriting the rules. Next. This is bloomberg. Emily nasdaq is joining Goldman Sachs in an aggressive push for more diverse board for companies that want to list on its exchange. Under its proposal, most firms would have to include at least one female director and one who identifies as an underrepresented minority or lgbtq. Todaq now seeking approval implement the proposed rule. Joining us now, the head of listings for nasdaq. Thanks so much for joining us. What was the impetus to do this . This was not part of a national law of any sort. Why did nasdaq decide to take this big step . Nasdaq has been focused on diversity for a while now. We signed up for various frameworks like securities pledge, 30 coalition more recently. The board challenge. It has been something we have been looking at as i while at something we have and looking out for a while as a National Stock exchange. One of the things we focused on his corporate standards for our company. It was not long ago, back in 2003 when we said we wanted to see the majority of directors be independent. At the time, it was controversial. We decided now was the time to put forward this new disclosure framework where companies have a consistent way to report their Board Composition as well as their Board Diversity philosophy or all their stakeholders, including investors. Emily now there will be a Public Comment period. What kind of pushback are you expecting and have you gotten so far from companies themselves who might say this is a pipeline problem . We did a lot of research on this issue before we put forward our proposed rule. We also spoke to dozens of organizations such as the aclu and naacp. We feel really positive about the way we structured this rule filing, and be pink its going to be a really nice way to be a first step in this journey to bring more diversity into the boardroom. We also announced today a so candidates can join us on the journey to have a more diverse board. Isly the way the rule written, nasdaq has given companies and out. They can simply give reasons why they dont have four meet these requirements and move forward. Goldman sachs on the other hand drew a firmer line. Do you think you might actually make this an official requirement, and what would the impetus to do that . I think the one thing everybody we spoke to about this agreed on was there is a lack of disclosure, and that is really the first step in addressing the issue, making sure there is a consistent disclosure framework. A number of states have enacted legislation to require certain numbers of either female or diverse directors, but there has not been a consistent national framework, so that is one of the things that this rule proposal highlights. It allows investors and Company Stakeholders the ability to see what companies have in terms of their current level of diversity and what their goals are for the future. We think by taking the first step in making these disclosure standards along with a compliance framework, that will give companies the ability to articulate their position on the issue. Emily if this is a first step, do you see nasdaq taking more steps . I think we have been on the journey for a long time in terms of what is the right structure for Corporate Governance for all of our listed companies . It is something we are always looking at. One of the big trends in the Capital Markets these days is the topic of esgfocused funds and investment. Investors now are looking for much broader disclosure. Rather than just the financials, they want to understand how they are addressing things like the environment, society, as well as governance standards. I think this is part of a broader trend for investors looking for more and broader disclosures. Emily about to ask you about this salesforce slack deal. Obviously, slack is a listing you fought hard for as the head of west coast listings. What is your take on the deal and your views on Software Consolidation in general . If you look at what has happened this year due to the pandemic, theres been this huge work from home trade that has been on. If you look at the nasdaq 100, we are actually up 40 this year versus 4 for the Dow Jones Industrial average. Part of that is starting to reverse with the announcements of some positive results from vaccines from some nasdaqlisted companies, but overall, you can see companies that are leading Digital Transformation and that are innovative in their sectors are the ones investors are really rewarding, and now we are starting to see the next phase in that growth in terms of acquisitions for high flyers. Emily when you talk to startups, how do you convince them that going public is the way to go in this environment persists acquisition . It is obviously something every company has to decide for themselves. It used to be there was a dual track. Now we are seeing the triple track. We have had over 50 billion raised on nasdaq this year for specialpurpose Acquisitions Companies looking to merge with private companies to bring into the Public Market, so theres no more ways than ever for private companies to access the Public Market and the liquidity and ability to raise capital that it represents. Emily nasdaq will also be the home for every and be when it gets to the Public Markets later just anth, potentially week from now. What are you expecting as we end the year, and what seems to be a lot of pent up demand for ipos in this environment . We have an incredible lineup of ipos coming this december between airbnb, wish, just to name a few. We are actively discussing with a number of companies targeting some pretty big ipos in q1 and q2 next year. We dont see any signs of this slowing down. Emily the longterm stock there are reports airbnb could do an additional thatng on another exchange also plays to care about sustainability. We also have a focus on longterm value creation. Thats one of the reasons we move forward on this whole initiative around order and diversity. I think any innovations in the Capital Market that drive the longerterm mindset is a good thing. All right, always good to have you on the show. Thanks so much for stopping by. Coming up, bitcoin hit an alltime high yesterday, just short of 20,000, but is the rally sustainable . We will talk to someone who predicted the current price point next. This is bloomberg. Restrictedhas a very supply, even more so than gold has, and investors are finely tuned into the fact that this is a way of protecting the value of their money. Bitcoin is being used as a store of value. People are worried that Central Banks around the world are debasing fiat currency. You are seeing the rise of cash and you are seeing more and more digital forms of payment. It has been going up at a compound annual growth rate of 10 for 10 years. Thats my forecast. I think it will keep doing this. Im not a strong believer of bitcoin. You dont know who owns it. You dont know how much it exists today. Theres nothing tangible behind it. Emily bitcoin just shy of 20,000, bringing a new outlook. O the currency market the bloomberg crypto index, which is designed to measure the coins traded by the u. S. Dollar, up over 50 . For more, someone who andicted this level predicts there is still more room for growth. How much more room is there . I think next year is going to be even more exciting. Im going to give you another price prediction. I think bitcoin hits 3000 within the next six months. Emily really . How do you get that number . Right now, you are having is attritional having institutional fomo. Once it gets past when he went out dollars, theres very little pasttance once it gets 20,000, theres very little resistance. When people see the numbers and revenue behind coinbase, thats going to get people like e trade and Charles Schwab to really jump in the space. I think you hit 30,000 pretty quickly. Emily what about nonbitcoin believers like gary cohn, who i just spoke to yesterday, who said for all the reasons it is successful, those are all the reasons it very well might fail . He is welcome to short it going. That is what makes a great. Institutions believe they could hedge to the u. S. Dollar because the fed is printing money now and all that, or it is a good gold trade if you believe in gold. Can find another goldmine tomorrow and increase supply, where bitcoin, the supply is decreasing every year, essentially. Paypal and square are buying more bitcoin, and bitcoin is being produced every day. Institutions are buying more, which is obviously happening now, due to the price going up quite a bit. When institutions hit 80,000, i think that is when they might taking chips off the table. We have never had individual sales pressure before. Emily we saw visa partner with a startup to offer bitcoin rewards. Will see theme moving in on credit cards . Yes, i do. We have actually had a visa card as well as a mastercard launch in the last couple of years, so we see a lot of these cards launching all over the world, and their rewards are making it even easier for people to get crypto back. They have done a great job marketing these products around the world. This is youraid, business. You have to think about the risks. What are the risks you are most concerned about . What could slow this rundown . The risks are always around regulations. That has been the problem that keeps me up at night essentially. Exchanges during Money Laundering rules, if it becomes too burdensome for people to actually make purchases. That is what i think is the big regulatorsi think know bitcoin is here to stay, and they are trying to make sure they pass rules that are agreeable to everyone and still userfriendly for consumers to keep coming back for more. Emily this may be a rhetorical question, but what is better whats a better store of value crypto, bitcoin, or gold . Thats a great question, and honestly, it depends on the user. The thing about gold, it is a store of value. Crypto has many other uses. Some use it as a store of value, some as a currency hedge, some four minutes. It has many different uses around the world, and that is what makes crypto so great. Emily where are we going to be this Time Next Year, a year from now . Again, i think the price will hit 30,000 fairly quickly, and i think institutions will start selling a little bit. Im not sure where it will end up after that. It could easily hit 40,000. It could be back at 25,000, but i think somewhere between 20,000 and 40,000 next year is safe to say. What is first data, what is strike going to do . The movement is happening. You are seeing Companies Buying bitcoin on the Balance Sheet now, so it is definitely here to stay now. Emily thank you so much. We always love your predictions. Coming up the grand canyon state is becoming home to the electric. Ar we will take you there. This is bloomberg. [narrator] this is kate. Hey. [narrator] she takes two prescriptions. Kates son jack, takes one too. Kate works hard, and thought she had good insurance. But she still pays too much. Thats no good. So kate downloaded the goodrx app. Now she can compare prescription prices, to find the best discounts. She even beats her insurance price. Good for you kate, good for you. Goodrx, stop paying too much for your prescriptions. Download the free app today. Wannits timeight and for aerotrainer. A more effective total body fitness solution. announcer aerotrainers ergodynamic design and four patented air chambers create maximum muscle activation for better results in less time. It allows for over 20 exercises. Do the aerotrainer super crunch, push ups, aero squat. It inflates in 30 seconds. Aerotrainer is tested to support over 500 pounds. Lose weight, look great, and be healthy. Go to aerotrainer. Com. Thats aero trainer. Com. Emily welcome back to bloomberg technology. A company which brands itself as offering luxury electric cars is building an arizona factory from the ground up in less than a year in anticipation of production starting next year, but when the Assembly Lines firing up, can lose it keep up with them with demand, and with the euphoria around ev stocks, can they keep up . You built this factory in arizona from the ground up in less than a year. How challenging was that to do, in a pandemic no less . It presented many challenges, but ive got a hugely p