Radio cohost, carol massar. Thank you. The ceo of Sony Entertainment america is the down. Sony says it was a a mutual agreement to not extend his contract. He oversees the Playstation Game console. Boeing will pay pensions for 69,000 nonunion employees and an executive. They are shifting benefit payments to a 401 k style plan as it works to cut costs. The changes will take effect january 1, 2016. And these headlines are just crossing that allergens is buying safeway for about 40 per share. Albertsons is owned by cerberus capital. Back over to you. Thanks, carol massar. I want to move into the business of the airline industry. Air canada and others operate in north america and they have had to deal with Winter Weather. Just last month, the airline forecasted a drop in First Quarter profit because of the storms. Also, theres the weaker Canadian Dollar. The president and chief executive officer of air canada joins us now from our toronto bureau. Great to have you on taking stock. Outlined for us what the strategy is for air canada in order to deal with the severe winter storms and the effect it has had on the financials of the air carrier. Thank you for that. We have had the dynamic in the past two or three months, which has been probably the most severe Winter Weather that we have seen in two decades. This is in terms of our network approach and has had an impact on our bottom line. We think, mercifully, it seems to be over. We have had some Flight Cancellations and when you cancel flights, you do save on fuel. We have tried to minimize the denied boarding, and we have announced a Mitigation Program and by the end of the year we do expect to have a 50 million impact to our december results, and perhaps a similar number in our First Quarter. We think that is capable of being mitigated, but the second part of your question was around the Canadian Dollar. I just want to know whether any part of that Reduction Plan is any part of that at risk right now . Know, we are fully on track and expecting our 15 target that we put on the marketplace. It is a 2012 chasm comparison. We are using that 2012 chasm and expecting to reduce that by 15 over a fiveyear time frame. And we expect to mitigate both the impact of the Severe Weather as well as the Canadian Dollar impact to achieve it. Can you give me insight into some of the things you are considering, revenue, additional fees, for example. We have put together air canada vacations with a u. S. Dollar surcharge. In some markets that has stuck. We are looking at other markets at the appropriate pricing modifications. We have also seen some improvement in the Canadian Dollar in the last little while. And our stock rebounded somewhat in relation to it. The u. S. Canadian dynamic is such that we received a billion dollars in u. S. Dollar revenue. We have about 1. 5 billion in hedges in place. Whenever the Canadian Dollar is low, it is best to have inbound visitors to canada. We are looking at some cost strategies. Tell us a little bit about roush rouge and how that figures into the strategy of air canada right now. We built this leisure brand as a separate carrier within air canada. The idea behind it is not to create some form of ultra lowcost carrier, because we fully appreciate that is not feasible in the context of a fullservice carrier. What we are looking to do is to reduce our costs on some leisure routes where we always he where we already have a good presence. Fun destinations think of the caribbean, florida, california, arizona, las vegas, places like that. And internationally, places like athens, barcelona, lisbon, etc. These are markets that we are either not making inadequate margin or we are losing money. What we have done we are either not making an adequate margin or we are losing money. We have done some things to that our costs and we are bang on expectations. What about hiring . We are hiring flight attendants. Our approach at rouge is to build a distinct altar from the mainline brand. A distinct culture from the mainline brand. We have been training with disney world. We have a partnership with disney world, who has been training our employees. We think they have a very superior Customer Service dynamic. We have been launching rouge in western canada and the overall expectation is that the rouge aircraft will deliver 21 lower cost on the narrowbody and 29 on the widebody 3com through a configuration of labor savings. Of cutting costs and labor savings. At least as far as joe biden is concerned, you fly into and out of laguardia would air canada. I wonder what your response is to his or marks that laguardia is a third world operation. Look, i wont get into a bashing of laguardia right here. But i will say that laguardia is one of our very important destinations in the United States and the eastern seaboard. It is often depressing to see the level of delays that arrive there. A rise there. The level of delays that arise there. One thing i could say is that we would certainly like to see some improvement there. Lets talk about the actual aircraft for a moment. Airbus a319 as well as the boeing 767 , and the move over torouge. What can you tell me about adding capacity, adding more seats into the aircraft . Clique that has been a good strategy for rouge, as i said earlier, the higher density configuration, which is more consistent with a vacation brand. We have put extra seat on the airplane. We have introduced a premium economy product for people who are per pair to pay more then just the economy fare. And through this process, we have now started to, as i said earlier, convert into a profitable picture. We have two other aircraft issues that are coming up, which are not the mainline. We are bringing in the 787 dreamliners and we have also had the boeing 777 aircraft with a very dense configuration. The Star Alliance, give us an update picture of what is going on with Star Alliance and what innovations you can see for the future. In Star Alliance right now, it continues to be the largest and most comprehensive alliance in the world. We have 26 carrier. We had announced last december that we were looking at inviting india potentially into the fold, subject to their meeting our requirements on safety and operational integrity. That review is underway right now. India was an opportunity for us. We are also looking at opportunities in brazil. And at this moment, we have announced that we are going to expand our brazil product by inviting one there into the fray. The main driver of the Star Alliance is the Loyalty Program sharing that exists between carriers, as well as the connectivity. Our objective is to deliver a seamless product to the customer. While that is very competent it to do with 26 carriers, we expect to have some fairly significant Technological Advancements over the coming year. I want to thank you very much for joining us. Calin rovinescu is the chief executive of air canada. Coming up, what would you do to earn straight as in school . You will meet the president of study blue, an online study business designed to put your materials in the cloud and then in your head. This is taking stock on bloomberg. Im pimm fox. Cristina alesci joins me with more of what we were saying at the beginning of the hour, that safeway is being bought by albertsons. Tell us the details. Server leads an Investor Group that brought albertsons, and now is buying safeway, combining the two supermarket chains to create a massive Supermarket Company with 2400 Stores Across the country. It is a 9 billion deal that amounts to about 40 per share for shareholders. Most of it will come in cash, some of it funded all of it will come in cash, actually, i should say. Some of the funding will come from previously announced asset sales, about 3. 65 per share. 32. 50 will come from directly will come from cache directive from cerberus. In looking at the geographic footprints from both safeway and albertsons, there is some overlap. We could see some costs being taken out, very significant cost. In the release, they talk about how maybe reducing costs for customers is a positive outcome of this deal. No doubt about it, since private equity is involved, therell probably be a bit of store closings in the work. The fact of the matter is that the supermarket business has gotten tougher and tougher with the specialized competitors and the higherend chains like whole foods pushing into this supermarket business. At the lower end, you have the walmarts of the world getting involved with selling food. That has squeezed the supermarkets in the middle and made it tough for them to operate. The theory is, by combining you get leverage and maybe a better way of operating efficiently and that is really what is going on here. I want to thank you very much, cristina alesci, reporting on a deal between safeway and albertsons by cerberus. Worth about 1 billion. Coming up, a company that makes robotic furniture and the challenges they face. Also, a programming note full stop tomorrow is International Womens day. At 10 40 5 a. M. , the International Speedway chief executive and at 11 00, the chief Technology Officer of cisco. It is time for another installment in our series entitled small to big with lots of Companies Looking to make it big. One Company Makes chandeliers and tables that move by themselves. Jessica wants everyone to feature her robotic furnishings, but she first has to figure out how to massproduce her pieces while maintaining creative control. Rock paper robot is a design firm that specializes in invention and fabrication of kinetic furniture. Rotating tables, robotic chandeliers. I truly love and physics concepts and i want it to make new connections in the brain. Rock paper robot is currently in a transition timeframe. I think we started with personalized Handmade Products because that is what i was capable of. And i would hire the cheapest person to do the job, which is most than myself, and then i would do it. This is not a Good Business model. You have to pick between the artists had and the entrepreneur hat. I can sell a highend piece, or a highend piece for 10 times more than i do if i was considered an artist. But i could only handle putting out one piece at a time. In order to be able to get to all these other people that i want to be able to do, i need to have some way to produce that volume. One of the big challenges for me is to be able to start to delegate what i need to have done to run the business, so i can move back into a more creative wall rate of roll. If im not ceo, that is fine. I did not want to just have a company. I wanted to make beautiful things. Our latest product, we decided to massproduce it. It comes down from the wall any length. We have 500 preorders for the table. Now, we are about to increase our output by probably 1000 times. That is a tremendous amount of growth. From one Small Company looking to expand its operations to another that is followed focused on quality rather than quantity, rat furniture was started in 20 2009 for the purpose of creating furniture with readily amenable readily available materials and processes. Joining me now is the founder, ryan anderson. Lets start off with how you got into the business. You go to college in san diego. Did you always want to make richard echo no idea. I started off as a business major because i thought it would be a practical thing to do. My father is an architect. I assumed i would never follow in his footsteps. Three years later, i found myself obsessed with the idea of going to Architecture School and being an architect. Three years after that i was deep into Architecture School. University of texas in echo university of texas at austin. I was in my late 20s and thinking about what might path in architecture was going to be. The Great Recession came about. My friends who were graduating ahead of me were not getting jobs. There was nothing available. I recently had learned how to weld on a project in school. We built a house as part of the solar decathlon, which is a competition in washington, d. C. And i was one of the several team members to learn how to weld to build this house. After that, i found myself obsessed with the idea of welding, sticking no little sticking metal together and creating functional items. What a novel idea, functional items. For me, it was the tangibility that was important. I had a hard time wrapping my head around the service of architecture and how i would differentiate myself and live an exciting life in a career. I saw that passed through furniture, because it is a tangible thing that i can sit down and draw and build in the same day and get a reaction from others. You actually see people using it. At night, sitting around the barbecue that night and sitting on that furniture and enjoying it. I mentioned diversity of texas at Austin Pacifica because much of the furniture is made in austin. The university of texas at austin specifically because much of the furniture is made in austin. Yes. We have focused the Steel Production there at a small shop. An Architecture Firm that was there was happy to take on the Steel Production and my wife and i were able to move to brooklyn and keep up the business and. That way we could stay in austin and not outsource it. Outsourcing is collaboration. Give us the results of all of this collaboration by telling us about your pieces and how much they cost and what sets them apart from other types of furniture. The business was founded in formally in my garage seven years ago and then couple more years after that more formally. When i was learning how to stick metal together, i was forced to come up with simple designs that could be built simply. Having a business degree, i saw an opportunity to create designs that could be readily produced by others, not just me. Someone who can make these pieces. What are some of the pieces that are may be defined that may be defined the rat furniture line . Up to this point, it has been our steel tables and bar stools. Our barstools are somewhat unique looking. They use limited material and they are a very straightforward, simple design, but they have an elegant sophistication to them. Does google use them . I know they are one of your customers. Cool does not use the barstools. Google does not use the barstools. They bought some accessories for the cafe on campus. Would you say that you are getting their success that you wanted . I hope so. It started with small jobs and i hope it will lead to bigger jobs with other companies. Ryan anderson, cofounder and designer and rat furniture. Coming up next, you will meet the person who made a billionaire impression last year. Ever wish you could study for something without actually having to lug around the big textbooks or even flash card . Our next guest says it has the solution. It is an online storage where you can upload setting which uriels store them in the cloud. Horning as is the president and founder chris klundt. How do you describe study blue to those who have never ventured online . We are an online application on iphone, ipad, android, and on the web. We allow students to go online and create content and share that with their classmates and others trying to learn the same material. One of the things about testing is you are not supposed to look at the answers before you take the test. Youre supposed to learn the material. How do you make sure that people are absorbing the information and not just copying from those who took the test previously echo previously . We think it is a learning experience where they try to see explanations and see ideas from those who are trying to master the material, but then also absorb it internally. Take practice quizzes on your own, review the material, study it while waiting in line for the bus, while in bed, or after school at a coffee shop. A lot of people have taken to this. 2. 7 million users. What is the percentage of College Students that use study blue . We are crossing the 5 million user mark. We created over 220 million pieces of content. We like to say we are middle school to medical school today. About 66 university and 33 high school and middle school. What about the contributions that students make in an ongoing way . Is there something to encourage them to stick with study blue . We really think it is about bringing in the power of the crowd. When students go online and they see that other people who have been there before them learning the same material have left a mark and they can see maybe how to fill the gaps with the information they are missing from the lecture, that encourages them to come back more. They can use it on their mobile device or on their laptop. At whatever point in the city process they are, they have access to the material. Fill in the gaps about making money. What is the profit picture . How will you do that . We have two great fx going on. We have a content effect and a network effects. One thing we can do really powerfully is create an ultimate study guide, for example. If there are bunch of students in the course, they can all add their content and we can organize that material and eliminate the duplicates and give them a city guide that updates automatically. We charge nine dollars for that, or it is part of our subscription offering, which includes advanced tools for people looking to get more out of the platform. Any plans to go public . What is next . We are just focused on building the best learning a