Personally approved by the sony ceo kazuo hirai. Other emails are giving us a glimpse of politics. Producer scott rudin wrote to Sony PicturesAmy Pascal Rudin also railed against Angelina Jolie calling her a minimally talented spoiled brat and later apologized. I was joined by a consultant and veteran executive and i started by asking joe if it is the way hollywood does business. The main thing i would say is scott rudin, who is wellknown and a successful producer, has strong opinions and uses colorful languages and speaks in hyperbole, is about as newsworthy as it is cold and rainy in new york today. The way that people speak this way in hollywood and act this way is wellknown. I dont know if youre familiar with an industry column which was run by nikki finke, a notorious gossip columnist. This is the kind of fodder that would get into her column all of the time. Will it have major impact on the world at large . Probably not. Will it provide inside people with inside information that can be used as leverage . Yeah, maybe. As far as the public, im not sure what the revelation is other than hollywood is a very complicated business. I think i am glad i do not work in hollywood. I speak with the writer of the steve jobs movie, aaron sorkin, and he told me how excited he is about the film as one the best things he ever written. Take a listen. This is the first time i felt at the end of the script like i wrote exactly what i wanted to write. I got to the end and managed to get from my head to the piece of paper in tact. We know that there have been a lot issues surrounding the lead character, leonardo dicaprio, Christian Bale dropped out. We do not know who will definitely play steve jobs. Kathryn, is this movie ever going to get made . Like all big movies, sometimes you have a long way. This is a movie that hollywood wants to make and it will be at matter of finding the movie with tom hanks, it took 12 years to get made. And other moves equally as long. It is about finding the right combination. It will be a very important movie. They will find the actual writer, director and stars that will make sense. Its not unusual that a movie that is not a big popcorn movie based on a comic book or themepark ride is having a tough time getting made. Todays hollywood is all about worldwide, preexisting movie ideas that can be all over the world and make billions of dollars like batman. Aaron sorkin is a talented writer. Eventually, somebody will figure out how to get the movie made. I have worked with executives and producers and i am in the middle of stuff and theyre always called issues, is it is creatively strong . I am sure aaron did a great job. Who is the audience for this movie . Is it big enough to justify the expense it will take to make the movie . How do you market and sell it all over the world . Those are all kind of factors. Financing is tight and having second thoughts about it doesnt necessarily reflect negatively. They are trying to make the best decision that works for them financially and creatively. They made a movie called social network and they had partners. Those were challenging movies. I would not fault sony on the jobs movie. What about the interview . We are seeing the ceo of sony, kazuo hirai, very involved in the death scene of kim jongun. Seth rogen has said we have not dictated what it has to be. Seth rogen follows up and said this movie, the potential reason why all of this information is out there. Somebody is very upset. Kathryn, how unusual is it for the Parent Company to get involved in specifics of a scene . Most times, the Corporate Company hires people they are confident in and let the executive team make the decisions on the creative options for the film. In this case, is a highly sensitive, highly politicized movie even though its a comedy. We are dealing with a country that has the issues around the world. It is a unique situation. A situation that has bigger impact than just a creative movie choice. As we see, maybe the reason why the hack started. I do not think it is something corporate does all of the time because they have a lot of confidence in the directors they put in place. North korea has denied responsibility for the hack attack even though they praised it. The people behind the attack, they wanted the movie not to be released. Is there any chance that sony would pull the film . I cant answer. There is a distinction that has to be made about whats behind the leak. If it was perpetrated by north korea, what can you say . It is a corrupt, morally bankrupt regime. Unfortunately, it is not surprising that would do Something Like this. I think what is more troubling is the leak is by an american citizen and for some reason is trying to get this movie or sony. This leak goes against the fundamental basis of our country, which is everybodys right to privacy. Whether somebody is making 20 or 20 million, it is not that big of a deal for the public to know. Longtime studio executive Joe Pichirallo and Entertainment Consultant kathryn arnold. Up next, uber, the problems keep coming. We address the safety challenge, coming up. This is best of bloomberg west. I am emily chang. Uber has suspended services in new delhi after a driver is accused of raping a passenger. Ceo Travis Kalanick called the incident an abhorrent crime. Cory johnson and i spoke with our contributing editor, Paul Kedrosky and sonia ossorio, National Organization for women new york chapter president. Rape is a problem everywhere, globally. We are talking about uber. Will they put finding drivers in front of passenger safety . You can open a cupcake shop and open too many and go out of business. We are talking about the safety of people. Everybody should be aware. All consumers have to think about it. When you open the door and get into any car, dont have a false sense of security. We have to hold them accountable. Uber, what kind of background checks are they doing . A background check is basically what you decide is going to be. If a Company Wants to spend 10, it is not much of one. Yellow cab services are regulated by agencies in major cities everywhere, and they use a Service Called life scan, which is a Background Service that goes to the fbi. And it Updates Companies if crimes are committed. Uber is facing criticism they do not do a good enough background check. Others are saying uber was able to give the authorities his name and his identity and where he was lived and it maybe safer than riding in a traditional taxi. How do you respond to that . It is an impossible situation. Like Travis Kalanick said, it is an abhorrent crime. Looking at statistics is yesterday from a study in 2012 from the London Metropolitan police showing in london, 22 Sexual Assault crimes by cabs in one of the most regulated cities per week. It is a widespread problem and the volume is horrific. Ubers hardly alone. In india, it is essentially impossible because you can buy the reports you need. Doing it in the scale that uber needs is very difficult. Maybe they cannot grow as fast in india because you cannot use background checks. It makes me wonder if these issues are so different because the service involved people and a physical being in ways that google doesnt or facebook doesnt. When we have businesses like google and facebook growing, whether google being shut out of china or yahoo deciding to do business in china despite the censorship there, that was somewhat ethereal. This a physical person. A different kind of service. I wonder if the globalization of these Technology Companies are going to require u. S. Values and standards and being impose on countries that are not comfortable having them. I think that is entirely likely. A suggestion i saw where someone was suggesting one way around perspective background checks for the services in india would be to go out and find friends and family and interview because you cannot trust the officials. Not an ideal to the way we think of background checks, nobody is interviewing friends and family. The suggestion that maybe what is necessary in other markets. And it sounds almost condescending with respects to introducing a service. On the other hand, the consequences can be horrific. Sonia, it strikes me that there is a business problem here. Uber could make more money and spread more widely if they are to adopt local standards. On the other hand, that could adopt the highest in the world of background checks, making safe for the customers in ways we would expect in the first world and spread of this global level of safety but her to their business prospects. Is that the tradeoff . A competitor would come in and say we use the method for checking backgrounds . Sure they could. After the end of the day, they have to answer to their customers. It will be customers that are holding uber and other Companies Accountable for the type of safety that they put into the service. You cannot get away with it, saying we are just a platform when you are dealing with peoples lives. So that is really a question for them. Right now, uber has got a lot of things to think about. Their next steps here are really important. Will they be able to compete with yellow cab or will they implode . This is a situation that could drive down customers by a big margin because women are going to think about this. A lot of times we do not think about this. At the end of the day, you are opening the door a getting into a car driven by a stranger. You are talking about real people in the real world they are different from using facebook or google from your computer. How does uber manage this moving forward, moving fast versus moving smart . This is a different kind of problem that Companies Like facebook or google. We had an uber driver charged in the death of that sixyearold girl. Right here in san francisco, she was walking in a crosswalk. Uber has become a lightning rod for many peoples dissatisfaction for these services, and as a result, almost any issue that comes up that may not be widely publicized were it a yellow cab, it may be a giant story when it involves uber because they have a halo. We dont address the ongoing problem of Sexual Assault with yellow cab. I give the example of this tightly controlled and regulated market in london, but i dont see stories popping up about the two dozen Sexual Assaults that occur there. It is a species of double standard but uber brings that on themselves because of their brass knuckle tactics. Cory johnson and our contributing editor, Paul Kedrosky and sonia ossorio, the National Organization for women new york chapter president. What do ubers early investors think . I speak with one of them, bill gurley of benchmark, next. Welcome back to best of bloomberg west. I am emily chang. Bill gurley invested in uber before they raised their first round of funding. One of a handful of outside investors on the companys board. I spoke to him on my show studio 1. 0, and i asked him which tech ceo travis is more like . If i look along a vector, hes most like bezos. The business is much more like amazon. It is not a facebook. It is an operational intensive business, but i find him to be most like jeff. The thing to be understood about travis is he is an insanely good recruiter. Jeff was always going to walmart and getting their cio and getting the best people he possibly can. That is what travis has done. Gurley has not commented on allegations of uber targeting journalists or misusing user data. I asked him about the four horsemen. Google, apple, facebook, and amazon. Who does he think is the most dominant . Take a listen. I would say amazons position with prime is pretty remarkable. I would put them in the safe camp. Google with the profitability of the search business and the insane footprint of android, i would put them in the safe camp. On facebook, i think they are working through a challenge. That lost the trust of their user. If you ask someone, do you know who is seeing your Facebook Content . My guess is 90 of the people would say no. It creates anxiety. I think it created anxiety that made room for snapchat, which we are an investor in. That lack of trust limits what you can do next. And apple . Apples only problem is android and google and googles willingness to be aggressive. Apple shouldve paid anything for waze. Just flat out. If you are going to pay 3 billion dollars for headphones, 2 billion for a maps company is a nobrainer. They shouldve found a way to buy nest. Should they have bought twitter . I dont know if they would know what to do with it. That is where i would probably say no. Twitter is one of your companies . Yes. I think twitter has one of the most amazing moats. They have the most important people in almost any field in the world. Remarkably committed to their own persona within the system. Peter thiel, the venture capitalist, recently criticized twitter, calling it a horribly mismanaged company and probably a lot of pot smoking going on. How do you respond to that . I think he is on a book tour. Once you make a statement about a Management Team that has created a 30 billion company, taken it public and it grew revenues to 1 billion, i think you lose all credibility yourself. You recently sounded the alarm about fundraising saying Silicon Valley is taking on an excessive amount of risk. Unprecedented since 1999. Why . The cause of this risktaking is an abundant amount of capital at the late market. Pushed into startups. The problem is its much easier to run a company thats losing money than one thats profitable. We have a lot of companies that have raised money at high valuations that everyone says, these companies are going to make it. These are the breakout winners. Im not so sure because they have not passed the test of proving that the Business Model has legs in the longterm. Which companies are you not sure about . There are certain sectors that are more prone to arbitrage. A lot of the ecommerce is dangerous. No one really gives up. No one says our numbers arent working and we should take off. They keep hoping it will get better. What are you most worried about . Bad actors in that ecosystem. Companies that maybe not have longterm economic models that are out there perverting the rents that people pay and the cost for employees. The market that they may be in against the competitor where they may try to spend. You can catch more of my interview with bill gurley on studio 1. 0, thursday nights. Paypal, why would david sacks take a coo role again . He tells us why he is now working at zenefits coming up. Youre watching the best of bloomberg west, the top interviews of the week from the movers and shakers in technology and media. Im emily chang. Human resources start up zenefits is one of the Fastest Growing startups in Silicon Valley. They have a new coo. The new coo is david sacks, the founder of yammer. I spoke with sacks and Parker Conrad and asked sacks why zenefits . I just got introduced to parker. He was raving about the company. I met parker and he got me more excited about what he was doing. His vision for the company and his ambition around it is unlike any company ive seen in the last 15 years. I know youve been thinking about this, what will your next move be . Now you are going back to your startup roots. Why . Im an addict, and hypergrowth is the drug. As i look back at my career, the times of my career that were the most fun were when i was dealing with fastgrowing Companies Like paypal and yammer. I was going off and becoming a vc, i liked startups better. It was more fun. Zenefits has done in one year what it took yammer three years to do. This is been an extraordinary and unique company. Before we go further, parker, the highlight of my day was a picture of david sacks being compared to lebron james. You guys have compared him to lebron james, and i am not disputing that fact, but really . Why the comparison . There are so few people out there who have seen what its like to scale a company that is growing as quickly as weve been growing, who run businesses and built them in 2 billion companies. David was the first person out there who saw that Enterprise Software could be approached with a Consumer Software finish. This is been a unique hire and someone uniquely talented. We needed great people like that in the company for us to take on the challenges that we are taking on. Somebody compared you to jayz and jt. So no pressure, david. I mean really. I have no athletic ability whatsoever. I will not be playing on the zenefits basketball team. I also have no musical ability. What are you going to do . What is number one your list . Whatever parker wants me to do. The company is growing so fast there is more than enough to keep us busy. I see david as a partner in the business and someone who is going to go wherever the fire is hottest. Initially, he will take on our Operations Organization and product and finance. Over time, that will change. Is david here to take this Company Public for you . We havent even thought about it. Oh, come on. Yes, you have nothing more than in the shower. Nothing seriously. There are no plans. Weve had one conversation about that. People say that zenefits is a rocket ship. I was looking at the competition, and there really isnt a comparison. There are smaller competitors. Where do you see your niche in the market . We take all of these systems related to hr, there are 20 of them that a lot of companies have. There is payroll, insurance, time tracking, vacation tracking, we connect them and give the employer and employees the single place to do everything. That saves them a ton of administrative work so they can focus on people rather than the paperwork. That is