White house News Conference with the italian prime minister. President obama i did not get elected because the sponsorship of the Business Roundtable or chamber of commerce. The reason im doing it is because i know this is an important thing to do and i know it sends a signal throughout asia that we are out there competing and we are going to help maintain International Rules that are fair for everybody. Emily obama is seeking to close a deal with 11 other nations that would cover 40 percent of global trade. The u. S. Trade representative is going to tokyo this weekend for talks. My cup to be is testing the waters for a white house run. Huckabee says he formed a president ial Exploratory Committee in early april and he will announce his candidacy in early spring. Pastor turned the minister would join senatorator ted cruz, rand paul, and marco rubio in competing for the republican nomination. Teva pharmaceuticals is said to be weighing a takeover offer. Teva has not made a formal approach, but mylan is aware of the company plus interest. A shakeup at jayzs music streaming service, title. The company is replacing ceo andy chen with peter const at. Peter was under seeing tidal under his previous owner. Cuts have come just three weeks after tidals starstudded launch. It has been an uphill battle for comcast is the Telecom Giant seeks approval for its 45 billion merger with time warner cable. The deal, first proposed last february, faced regulatory scrutiny from the department of justice and the fcc. Sources told bloomberg that staff attorneys are nearing a recommendation to block the merger. What does the news mean for Technology Companies that depend on these Internet Service providers to reach their customers . R bloomberg west editor at law joins us. Large joins us. Susan crawford, thank you for joining us. What does this mean for innovation . Susan in order for anyone to reach a customer, to start a new business in the united states, you need to have internet access. Through this merger, comcast would control north of 50 of high internet capacity in the united states. The Justice Department has concerns about the antitrust elements of the merger. Comcast would be in the position to control can stream squeeze do all kinds of things to online businesses with that amount of power. Cory this is really a look at specifically the competitive issues here but not the issues around Customer Service. We know comcast ranks dead last in Customer Service. Yesterday there was a report on the show that most people would completely give up tv that would never want to give up their netflix. I wonder if thats part of the same thing, or if this isnt something the doj would look at at all. Susan the fcc has defined there is a Public Benefit to the merger not just that it doesnt harm people, but that it affirmatively helps them. Even the Customer Service record of comcast and given the problems with making sure that comcast is passing on any of its lower prices internally to customers, the fcc has Major Concerns about the merger itself. Emily the comcast ceo has been out there, meeting with tech company ceo startups asking them questions about what comcasts role in the future should be, not only if this merger doesnt happen, but the fact they pursued that at all how does this affect comcast . Susan with this merger, it would get added scale, saving a lot of money a year. It already can its footprint has dominant control over all highcapacity connections. Having the merger knocked down still leaves comcast in and extort an aryl powerful position. Cory when you look at this deal, there are two arguments i would like you to comment on. While yes, they would have a broader footprint, they would not actually be on top of each other in any market. They would not be suspending service in any markets. Effectively the choices consumers have it would not be the same choice. Time warner customers would still be [indiscernible] since there is no overlap, this isnt about offering more to consumers. Susan thats right. The argument is because we already divided the country, the competition would not be further reduced through the merger. They are right. They are in an environment in which no one can speak to them other than verizon files on a nationwide level. Verizon has been careful to choose selected markets. Comcast faces neither competition or real oversight at this point. Competition would not be reduced, but its already pretty bad. Emily what does it mean to companies who are trying to break into this market like an apple, or even start up, a Company Started by the former hulu ceo raised a huge amount of money to create a short form video subscription company. Susan this is like Chris Christie and the George Washington bridge. All those Companies Need to cross through comcasts arms to get to customers. That means they will have to pay whatever comcast wants in order to connect their networks, in order to get their packages over to customers. That is a real risk for innovation in america. On a large scale, comcast has no incentive to upgrade its services to fiber and provide that at a reasonable cost. The whole country is stuck at a second rate Cable Service and real risks to innovation and Economic Growth because of the power of the cable industry. Emily that is quite a metaphor, susie. What do you make of that . Cory is not like George Washington crossing the delaware. Its not like George Washington crossing the delaware. Net neutrality and the settling of title ii rules that the fcc decided takes away one of the risks here that comcast can somehow keep amazon or prime or netflix at bay. Net neutrality rules seems like they have cleared that up and said comcast or comcast time warner is one giant company, could not do that. Emily cory johnson, our editor at large. Susan crawford always great to have your very nuanced perspective here on bloomberg west. Coming up next, the runaway train of late stage startup funding. Plus brian grazer on how he stays curious and creative. Emily this is bloomberg west. Im emily chang. The video startup vessel run by the former hulu chief just raised 58 million to fund raise its business for short form video. This brings vessels funding to more than 50 800 million. Here is the crazy thing. Back in october he told the wall street journal he was raising money not because he needed a, but because the company was in such high demand with investors that it would take 60 years to burn through the 120 million he had at the time. Today he told the New York Times he felt he had a fiduciary responsibility to take the money if it was offered on favorable terms. Richard hendrix pondered the question on the latest episode of silicon valley. I was thinking, what if you had asked for less . What . What if you had gone to someone and asked for less than what they offer this first round . [indiscernible] we would not have had to settle for acquisition. All that money emily this is actually happen . I spoke with our partner and read Point Ventures at red p oint ventures. Guest our Fund Structure is such that a handful of Companies Need to pay off a handful of winners need to pay off for the companies that dont generate revenue. We encourage our companies to be aggressive and grow quickly. The only time you would be in a position where you would give a smaller amount of money to down run is when you are trying to support a company for a relationship. Emily what is your take on vessel announcing 57 million round . This might be the Fastest Growing startup of all time if youre looking at the valuation number alone. Guest its the Fastest Company to 10 million in recurring revenue. His companies are growing fast they are potentially disruptive. That is a phenomenal positive attribute of the environments. The questions about the environment are, theres three times as much capital being invested by Venture Investors last year than there has been over the last 10 years. The size of these rounds are the size of these ipos. We found there were 211 ipo sized private financings last year compared to 15 to 20 ipos. Now you have 15 or 16 times the number of private financing. Cory when of the big differences in the ipo market isnt the size of the deals, its the collapse of the growth action. The city used to be full of alex brown, all those firms are gone. Those are the firms that used to do 100 million ipos and help companies launch. Those banks are gone. The research has stricter and better rules. There is no way for companies to go public [indiscernible] guest the further complication is the private markets are valuing these businesses at twice the multiple that Public Markets are. Emily you call it the runaway train of late fundraising. Guest companies should be raising capital. Stewart when he said its my fiduciary responsibility to take this money at this valuation, hes being right. I think hes totally right. Emily how concerned are you that valuations are getting so high they are untenable . Guest there are definitely forces in tension. Theres a lot of positive forces and lots of negative forces. On the whole, we are going to see an unbelievable exit environment over the next couple of years. We are going to see great and enormous business is being built great we are also going to see a lot of cory when i talked to founders and stuff, its interesting to me when you have more experienced founders, they will think about subsequent rounds and they will dilute themselves more and do smaller rounds because they are thinking, we need up site for our employers. We need our Software Engineers to believe they are going to get rich by working here. If we do round at 30 billion how is uber going to hire their next head of software when there might not be a lot of room to grow after 30 billion . Guest this competition inflation. We saw that salaries have increased by 50 in the last eight months. Cory thats huge. Guest salaries across the board have increased 25 to 50 . One there is increased competition because of the number of companies raising capital, and two it creates much more demand for these employees. Im sure theres a component of it, which is the equity part of these compensation packages arent nearly as attractive they would be with a lower valuation. Emily what makes you say, that is just too much . Is that the trend . Everything is so expensive. I talked to many investors on and off the record who are saying, we are not investing in anything because its too much right now. Guest bill gurley called this the risk bubble. When i joined the venture business, red point in 2008, price the amount of money we would pay for a company was around 10 to 15 million dollars. We would put in 3 or 5 or by 20 to 25 of that business at 12 million to 15 million. There has been a 4x to 6x expansion. Cory you still making those investments. Emily are you thinking that there are startups out there that are overpriced were you think, that is not wise . Guest its about how much risk and investor wants to take. Theres lots of investors in the market that are taking lots of risk. If you have a bull market, a phenomenal ipo like you have in 2000, i think they will be handsomely rewarded. Emily coming up next, we sit down with brian grazer to talk about how he stays curious and creative. Emily curiosity may have killed that cats, but it can also make your career. For the past 30 years the man behind classic films like apollo 13 and a Beautiful Mind have been hosting weekly curiosity conversations with individuals he admires. Brian grazers chats with steve jobs, . 50 and hundreds more have inspired his films. He shares his stories in a the New York Times best dollar bestseller. Brian i been sitting here watching your show for the last half hour and you are in San Francisco and it involves technology, but im in the movie business or the storytelling business and everything is a story. Whether it is your previous interview which i watch, or its a narrative like empire or any show im producing, there is a story involved. Stories get created out of curiosity. Even Apple Computer has a story that tries it. There is a story that is part of his legacy. I do these oneonone meetings. I done them for over 30 years every two weeks with no agenda and no ask. I will every two weeks meet someone who is expert in science, medicine, technology, religion, all art forms and i do it for my own edification, to expand my world. For 20 years i never told anybody except the person i was trying to meet but its just to enlarge my world so i can curate my life or story or stories better. To create or find more original stories, instead of living in your bubble, you want to get outside that bubble and learn more. The book itself can teach you immediately how to put that to action and expand your life emotionally, intellectually, or your relationships beterter orbiting around you. Cory people talk about the conversation. We want to continue the conversation. But its never a conversation. It is iterative throwing something against the wall and walking away from it. What do you think happens in a conversation that does not happen when youre on facebook or texting with someone . Brian the internet is the most fantastic tool in the world. In a conversation, theres a question and answer. Between the question and answer, there might be an hour of conversation. In that conversation this possibilities for disappointment. You read more information. You create a connection with somebody based on that information by the nuance, body language. Your best dates you ever had did not come between you and your computer. It came between you and somebody else. I wont make any judgment about that, but your best date comes from that interaction that becomes biochemical. It changes your molecular structure which doesnt really happen between you and your iphone. I think they work so well together, but i think you learn different information when you are having a conversation beyond that conversation. Beyond that, youre creating it messy and chemistry between someone you are with whether it is with someone youre working with indy in the tech business. Not until i asked my son something specific, where something builds between us, do something connect and i get real answers. Emily brian grazer ward Academy Awardwinning producer there. Companies defect from internets facebook. Org for fear it could undermine net neutrality. Times group withdrew from the process, expressing concern to choose which acts apps and services would have access. Mark zuckerberg saying in a blog post that internet. Org does not undermine neutrality and some activity is better than none. In february he told that it would be good for local operators. Mark zuckerberg calling you offer a little bit of the internet for free, and more people access the internet. More people start paying for data, once they understand what they would use the internet for and people understand why they would want to pay for data. These operators end up making more money. They can take that money and reinvest it to build that better infrastructure for everyone in their country. Repot reporter by now you know his story but Mark Zuckerberg may not be finished changing the world yet. Spending billions expanding his empire into photos, messaging, even virtual reality. Internet. Org may be his most audacious bet yet, featuring an epic battle with google drones, lasers, and stratospheric hot air balloons to bring the internet to the furthest corners of the earth. When billions of new users winning billions of new users in the process. Our guest today is facebook founder and ceo Mark Zuckerberg. Emily first of all, you are a year and a half into this now. Tell me your vision, and tell me what inspired you to do this. Mark zuckerberg would people are connected, we can do great things. We have the opportunity to get access to jobs, education health, the medication. We bring the people we care about closer to us. It makes a big difference. The internet is how we connect to the modern world. But today worldwide, only a little more than one third of people have any access to the internet at all. It is around 2. 7 billion people. That means that 2 3 of people dont have any access to the internet. That seems off to me. There are all the studies that show in developing countries, more than 20 of gdp growth is driven by the internet. If we connected one billion more people to the internet, there would be 100 million more jobs created and more than that would be lifted out of poverty. There is this deep believe at facebook that Technology Needs to serve everyone. Connectivity cannot be a privilege for people in the richest countries. We believe connecting everyone in the world is one of the great challenges of our generation and that is where we are happy to be able to play what ever small role we can. Emily chang what has been your single greatest achievement and your greatest setback . Mark zuckerberg what we have really learned is there are a few Major Barriers to connectivity. They are not necessarily what you would have thought up front. The first one is a lot of people dont have any access to a network. Even if it had a phone and could pay for data, there would be no equivalent of a cell phone tower near them to access that. Thats what a lot of people think about when they think about not having connectivity. There are projects like satellites and drones we are working on that can help create connectivity in areas where there are not that today. Thats important. 15 of people are not connected because of a technical barrier. The next barrier is affordability. A lot of people