Transcripts For BLOOMBERG Bloomberg West 20141119 : vimarsan

BLOOMBERG Bloomberg West November 19, 2014

The tech inside cars and the tech used to buy them. The two things weve noticed andmost is price discovery price confidence. At ability to discover what others are paying for a car educates the first car buyer. Then they going to the dealership and they are more empowered and more satisfied and more confident and have a better experience. He believes the future of buying car by carbine will happen on your mobile phone. Ying will happen on your mobile phone. Greenpeace gave amazon and ask for not using renewable energy. For not using renewable energy. Telecom says its making progress toward electing qualcomm hass been losing out on millions of dollars. Qualcomm did not say when it expects to collect the money. , just hours after bloombergs ceo tweeted that tracking journalists is not part of the cubbies values and ideals, there is a new allegation. Ubers ceo tweeted. Uber sent bloomberg this statement. S issues. Ne of uber another is a lingering saga. Onr can dig up dirt journalists unfriendly to the company. Some investors, including Ashton Kutcher supported that view. What is wrong about digging up dirt on a shady journalist . , ending his 14es tweet rant on the subject with the following sarah lacy, the focus of a proposed investigation joins us now. Obviously, its been an incredible 48 hours for you. More than that. I first heard about this the story is really focused to me and travis. Said not forget, this is at a table full of journalists. Area on huffington, michael wolff. Honestly, when he called me, i was on a business trip in london and i stepped out to talk to him because i have enormous respect for him and i could not imagine what was so important that he needed to talk to me immediately. I was terrified. We are talking about a Million Dollar budget. Team following my kids and parking bans outside my house. We are going to go through her family and destroy her through her family and we are going to do it until she backs down and no one will ever know that huber uber did this. T thanked god he said into a real journalist. Thank god he said it to a real journalist. The point is for my family to be safe. I have two young kids. Lets hit her at her one vulnerability, her kids. They succeeded. Im terrified. We have had to hire security at my house. Right now, we are in this Media Firestorm about this. Has not been fired. Right after travis apologizes, they have their celebrity investor come out and label me as shady. I am now labeled as a shady journalist. They are starting to shift the narrative. You can see what travis bragged about at the conference in may. This is a political campaign. They have hired political operatives. When this dies down, there are no repercussions. Investors are supporting it. They are going to either go forward with their plan or do something worse. The story i did that warranted a 1 million Smear Campaign got nowhere near this amount of press or people saying they were going to take the app off their phone. Something bad is going to happen. Do you think emil should be fired . The bare minimum we could all agree on is that he should be fired. This is a deep problem within the company. Whenever we would cover these stories about assault a female passengers and call the company had asked them, they would say that she is dressed provocatively or she was breaking. It was a classic blame and shame the woman psychology. Imagine a woman is attacked in a way that could dent the company s valuation as much as my first article did. She does not have the resources of private security. She cant call you guys and get her side of the story told. This is not about me. This is about journalists and women getting in their cars. The Company Culture that thinks it can throw money to destroy peoples lives and families in the name of a greater valuation. Its about every single board member and private investor stepping back and being ok with it. People who admit my kids and been to my house. Have met my kids and been to my house. Would there be any outrage if phone records were cap . Were tapped . This is a known tactic of political campaigns. Emil michael has spent time in washington. What should someone be doing to manage this companys reputation . How is it different when its you and not an aspiring elected official . Im not in the political world for a reason what should he do . It depends on what his goals are. If he wants uber to be recast as a friend the company, perhaps they should start changing the executives. You cant just put a new ribbon on that. It depends on what his goals are. Uber is notitician, running for office. This is a company we are trusting with our lives. Dresseds they are provocatively or have had something to drink. If someone raises a question, their personal lives get destroyed . This was sent to a group of journalists so that they would disseminate the intimidation . It was not a guy shooting off his mouth. He articulated a plan. It was a plan. I think it was primarily about me. I was the first target because im a woman and im highprofile. Its one of two things. Either they were putting the journalist world on notice it would work with a lot of people. Was that they dont think there is anything wrong with it. What plans would they not brag about at a dinner . Question to get this about on versus off the record. If both parties understood this , if you hearecord something this extreme, do you break that journalistic code . Yes. Come from the old world of journalism. I dont know whats happened with online media today where journalists are confused on where their loyalties lie. They think their loyalty lies to a rich guy that they are covering who is going to lie to them or Say Something horrific and illegal bu. Its off the record and that responsibility to the reader i want to be clear to any source of my listening to this. My responsibility is to the readers. It is not to you. If you confess a crime to me off the record, it will become on the record. The are critics who have said that your coverage of uber has been unfairly critical. How do you respond to that . Its the one thing everybody goes back to. Sherman is a close friend of travis. Koppelman is also an investor. S boardre people on uber that are investors in pando. The notion of being upset about on the record or off the record youhreatened me in a way go after them. I go after them under my name. I dont get into their personal lives. I do it in my name. What they were going to do was dismantle me in a way that their finger prints would never be on. We will continue this conversation after a quick break. I want to talk to you about god view. Of panda sarah lacy daily. Welcome back to bloomberg west. We are back with sarah lacy, editor in chief of pandodaily. Talking about the ceo of ubers comments about targeting journalists. That is not the only Public Relations storm surrounding the ridesharing app. One journalist was tracked by the companys internal god view feature. , coryitor at large johnson is still with us. What is your take on this whole thing . Uber says only certain employees can see this data. For legitimate business purposes. They included legitimate business purposes, including going through my garbage and having me followed. I dont have a lot of confidence in what they consider a legitimate business purpose. Did they actually go through your garbage . As far as i know, they havent. I dont know. I have no way of knowing. Do you think this is something that is pervasive of their Company Culture . Its somewhere between the two. We started raising questions about the companys ethics and moralitys since 2012. Appill use the ridesharing used the ridesharing app up until recently. Even though travis is morally corrupted and has a board who will not stand up to him, i thought they were doing some good in the world and i did like some things they were doing. They are employing 50,000 new people in month. We have covered startups long enough to know that culture comes from the top. The Senior Executive sets a tone. When uber gets in these pr masses, they never fire anyone responsible. I get rewarded for taking more risks that frequently involve putting womens lives in danger. Have Young Children we all have Young Children. Dot does a threeyearold when they are expressing bad behavior that does not get checked . It escalates. None of the other stuff has ever been checked. Wishing theyeople had invested in uber calling travis one of the best tech ceos ever. He is very passionate. Is there something wrong with his strategy . There is always something wrong when no one questions a founder. The board and investors are terrified of him. This is the first time in Silicon Valley i have ever thought a company would be served by going public immediately. Public Market Investors would not let one person have this much power and control unchecked. Unfortunately, this company has gotten so valuable so quickly and the big multiMillion Dollar home runs are so rare that people simply are terrified. A this Company Already hit home run. Why do they have to resort to what some people have called i know the plan of what was going to be done to my family. A lot of the investors have Young Children. They see travis as this guy they dont want to cross. The ceo was concerned about a week and one of the Board Members hired private investigators to legally get phone records of reporters. There was a criminal investigation. Do you think there needs to be an investigation based on what happened to you . I dont think we are at the point of a criminal investigation it. Yet. Vestigation im preparing for the fact that no one has been fired, no actions have been taken and s and as down, they will come at me. Is not the First Company to struggle with handling customer data. How should they handle the data they are getting . See thewe examples of misogyny in this company are astounding. Tracking the Data Patterns of who was having one night stands and just bumping and highfiving people virtually over this. This is a company that is clearly not just looking at Company Customer data to route cars more effectively. If you talk about the data they have on you, they are making assumptions if you are sleeping with someone. In terms of privacy, you can imagine how People Struggle with these things. We are in a different era where mobile phones and people are getting in touch with you in ways they did not before. Does there have to be a new way of privacy . This story is fascinating because its a litmus test for Silicon Valley investors. Its a litmus test for journalists. Its also a litmus test for the public. In the past, people have voted with their feet. Uber is very different because its the real world. You are getting at peoples cars. Facebook, there are other alternatives. When i take any of the Ridesharing Services in San Francisco, they have 23 phones on the because they are driving all of these services. I have been through this myself. Thereare journalists out or covering isis who have faced actual death threats. Thats on a different level. Frankly, if you are a mother and there are threats made against her children, is how to imagine anything worse. Im convinced about that. Its easy to be a tough journalist but not get that involved. Ashton kutcher was sing on , sayingthis morning journalists should be held to the same standard. Its not really about that. This is how they are trying to reframe it. I have never gone through peoples trash or followed their kids or hired a team of opposition researchers to go to their family and destroyed them. Its not clear that they actually hired . s spokesperson has said we do not do this. Then why havent they fired him . If what he says does not if theyis views are horrified, if they found inhuman,ments o why havent they fired him . This is one person who has said that. Are no secondhand accounts. Do you think travis was at this dinner he was at this dinner. My question is, what was heard . Michaeld what emil said. We dont know. I know travis very well. I emailed them as soon as this story came out. I said i need to know, do you support this Company Using 1 million of your money to smear me . Not a single one has called me back or emailed. Amazing stuff. The lessons of hewlettpackard its amazing those lessons were not learned. These Business Executives dont seem to appreciate the role of journalism. Why journalism makes their businesses better and makes their society better. Helps their Companies Get attention when they come up with these great ideas. Here is a question travis anyone can and should be given the opportunity to learn from their mistakes. Should any of this be forgiven . No. You have to earn forgiveness. And the apology is not enough . There is no action. No one has been fired. Today, you see political strategy 101. A celebrity investor coming out calling me a shady journalist. The same thing they do when women drivers say they happen attacked and cars. I thought it was telling that in traviss twitter blast that he used the term folks. That he of people noted apologized to me at the end. Does this affect their business . I think that is the only hope. I do want to add that we did reach out to uber. They gave us those statements. Sarah lacy, thank you so much for joining us. You have a lot going on right now. More bloomberg west after this. It is 26 minutes past the hour. Bloomberg televisions on the markets. Lets get you caught up on where stocks are trading on this wednesday. Benchmarks are down. By. 1 . Off we count down to the release of those all important fed minutes. The first mover we are watching his target. Hitting a new alltime high today. Reporting better than estimated thirdquarter earnings. U. S. Sales grew faster than they expected. Expansion in canada showed signs of improvement. Look at shares of tesla, falling after Morgan Stanley cut forecasts for the company. Cutting earnings and delivery estimates seeing the previously delayed model is critical for the automaker. You are watching bloomberg west. Im emily chang. Ere with cory johnson last week, president obama went public with his call to the federal Communications Commission to adopt tougher rules for Internet Service providers, calling for them to be regulated like phone companies. Now, the fcc says there will be no decision on that reality until 2015. How will this impact legislation on Net Neutrality . Michael, thank you so much for joining us. What is your position on this . We needosition is that strong enforcement of Net Neutrality rules to prevent isps or gatekeepers accessing the internet from blocking websites or slowing down websites. There needs to be full transparency. These rules need to apply to mobile as well. Is netflix the loudest voice in this . Its something everybody is talking about. Anybody that cares about the internet. Who should pay for bandwidth . Iesuld be the company for me . Everybody is paying. Your expectation is that you want higher internet that you are paying for. The isp cannot say if you want the site, its going to be a bit slower. Question is how to govern that. Says is section 706 that the providers can do what they want to regulate. Then there is titled to. Title two. Its a public utility. At one has to equal right to the information. That carries a burden to comcast anothers because they will have to support services and make the charge to the highest bidder. There is the legal jurisdiction the fcc has. That is the Legal Framework the fcc can defend in court. What matters most is what rules yet to see and laments the fcc implements. There should be a situation where they reclassify under title two. Our focus has been on the actual rules. You dont need to hire an army of fcc regulatory attorneys to figure out whats going on. What is your sense of where the ftc will come down . They dont report to the president. Where will they fall . If they have heard from over 4 million americans who care about this issue this has never happened before. This is not an easy process to navigate the fcc website crashed. 4 Million People thought it was important enough to have their voices heard. We would like to see the fcc act this year. This has to be addressed right away. It they will go against what the president wants . I think they will do the right thing to protect internet users. The right thing are the kinds of roles the president outlined. Include mobile, make sure there is not this commission or blocking. The jurisdictional question a company like comcast feels like they are the victim. I dont think comcast is a victim. The victims are the users and the new startups trying to reach their customers. You guys are backed by facebook, some of the biggest companies. Including netflix. To benefit from using their power and their money to keep a new competitor from showing up at the front door at the same time as their juggernaut. Its a tribute to them and it shows there commitment to internet users. They are doing the right thing here. You cannot have a gatekeeper in the middle of users and the edge providers. What are some of the legal challenges . Republicans have control. This has been an uphill battle. The sec is an independent agency. The chairman will have to come up with a proposal. There will be oversight in congress and legal challenges. Conversationsour we have had a number of meetings. He seems a bit frustrated with the process, but he has said to us that he is committed to doing the right thing. He is trying to figure out the right way to go about it. The former fcc commissioner was on bloomberg west yesterday. He had some interesting things to say. One of the things he said to me after we got off the air, which public utility do you think comcast and cable providers should emulate . Rhodes, electrical system, sewers . He i dontnk think those are fair analogies. In most markets, there is a monopoly. Most of the regulation people nobodysabout talking about regulation or making the

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