♪ this is "taking stock" for tuesday, january 7, 2014. we focus on alternative ways to do this this. if it is site offers an alternative way for consumers to connect. the chief executive joins me in a moment. we will go out to las vegas. i will speak with the maker of -- and move over.

it is a new alternative to melt away all of the recent ice across the united states. we will give you details over the next hour. but first, headlines of carol master. >> thank you. a hefty tax for jpmorgan. they will pay two point $6 million on criminal allegations. u.s. attorney is discussing the settlement. >> jpmorgan never filed a single suspicious at to the report in that you asked and never raised a concern to the anti-laundering department in the u.s.. in other words, the bank connected the dots when it mattered to its own profits, but was not so diligent when it came to its legal obligations. it >> micron technology reported earnings. first-quarter sales topped estimates. 300 $58 million.

in washington, extended benefits for the long-term unemployed. the benefits that expired on december 28 1.3 million far.cans -- it may not go house leaders to not currently plan to build a vote on that issue. back to you. >> thank you. the growth of online video is exploding. it accounts for more than half of internet traffic. it is according to the latest internet phenomenon report. one internet service riding this wave is vimeo. thank you for being here. >> thank you for having me. it is exploding online. explain for people that may be new to this world of television on the internet. >> it is a video sharing service. quality video

sharing platform for both video creators and video viewers. it is internet-based. it started on the desktop, the pc. the migration of internet delivered video to any device, your phone, your tablet, including the television, it can deliver video streams to any one of those devices in full hd quality. >> the you consider yourself a network? way to consider it. one of the interesting things about it is a two-way service. unlike a traditional tv or cable network where it is a one-way stream that viewers are are a platform where creators can upload their own content. it is a network, but it is comprised of video that is added by users. there are two users -- a video creators and viewers. it is a large network of content .

we are reaching millions of viewers a month worldwide. the content that they are consuming is can she be to by other users of the service. that one the ways is pays and one doesn't. rex that is evolving as well. at is evolving as well. bases scripture and service for many years. it launch subscriptions. people can upload a certain amount of content for free, but we also charge for more storage space and other features that creators get. >> if you have a two-hour video you have to pay more. >> yes. you're going to need an upgraded account. plus or pro. you can try it to free and then

pay for the upgrade. that is a nice business for us. we just disclosed without past 400 thousand paying subscribers to that service. the interesting thing is how we also are looking at paid opportunities on the viewer cited. -- side. the creators, we now empower them to charge a viewers intern for their content. turn for viewers in their content. it has created a service called vimeo on-demand where creators can set their own price and the geographic availability, determine whether it is a rental or a download. we have seen incredible traction. we launched at about nine months ago. we now have 5000 titles in the paid catalog and we are seeing exciting attractions. both creators and viewers are paying to use the vimeo service. >> what works best for this new service? >> and runs the range. one of the most exciting things is in the same way vimeo has established a community of high-

quality content, the same as holding true for the paid content. while it is of the highest quality it can be things like action sports content or instructional content as well as independent film, drama, comedies. it is not content you would traditionally see on television. it is very high. we think we are tapping into a huge trove of content that is not fighting its way through traditional outlets. >> will that still involve the videos made by people going on vacations and people wanting to share certain things with their own group of friends? >> vimeo is open to creators of all levels. we have individuals who use it for their personal media. it is less likely they will be

charging for their content. their intent is not to create a global audience. it is to share with people who are relevant. it also works for the more professional filmmaker or creators who is looking for an audience. and is frankly looking for the flexibility to go direct to the audience incident knocking on traditional hollywood doors. >> explain what is going on. >> the on-demand service has been launched for about nine months. today we just launched a new feature that is really a great step forward. we announced an entire rebuild of the player which is the core assets of the entire service. the player is now much faster. we think the interface is cleaner and more beautiful. what it does is it allows a the content to be purchased. not only have to come back to purchase it.

wherever the player is embedded you can also purchase the content right there. they can now do so using the player. >> it reminds me of amazon being on that in between space between the smaller purveyor of goods and the wider audience. >> should we be so lucky to have as comprehensive of a video catalog? i think the analogy does hold. what we provide is a platform that enables creators to connect directly with their audiences. now we are enabling them to earn revenue in the process of connecting with those viewer. whether you are looking to build a global audience or small audience, vimeo provides the highest quality video platform for individuals to do that. >> you can almost create your own custom channel. i am wondering if your parent company would be able to create his own channel.

what do you think he watches? >> i will not speculate in terms of -- >> he is a great content producer. >> he is. he is excited about the traction vimeo has been specifically what we are doing around the vimeo on-demand service. we see the possibilities in terms of the types of content and the geographic distribution of that content. it is incredibly exciting because you are not restricted in either respect. we think we are tapping into what really is a largely undiscovered trove of high- quality content where creators can go direct to their audiences and retain control. an exciting thing is they may not have access through traditional means but even if they do, they can get to market a lot faster.

they do not have to wait to do traditional deals. >> you providing them with the toolkit. -- tool kit. >> it is instant access. >> you say how can you continue to grow this inside of iac? is this the next generation of the parent company? you just did this whole revamp of the vimeo site. what is changing? >> iac has been a holding company for digital assets for the 10 year anniversary this year. iac has been very successful acquiring assets, growing them organically. vimeo is one of the cases of the latter. we are entering an exciting phase of our growth. i think this is a really exciting sign of just how

bullish we are and just how bullish it is over all in the role that the asset can play in bringing value to the overall company. >> is there any schedule as to when you would want to be independent? >> no. it is a very transactionally oriented company. it is about creating value. we agreed the best place is that it continues to grow where it is we are pleased with the access to resources that we get. our goal is to grow it as quickly as we can. >> thank you very much. coming up next, sweaters that can tell you the temperature. how about cameras that can record your polls? -- your pulse? we will go to the consumer electronics show in las vegas next. ♪

>> the consumer electronics show in las vegas is underway and features more than 3200 exhibitors all showing off their cutting edge goods. john ehrlichman is in tech heaven because he is checking out all the gizmos. the next generation of wearable devices. >> we have heard of google glass and samsung smart watch. we are entering a world of wearables. there are a lot of wearable devices. why not wear myself out? this is a wearable camera. the sensors inside tell it if the light has changed or if i have changed my speed and it can take new pictures when i have made these changes. this measures heart rate variability. it costs $75. it knows when i am ready to work out. if i did a heavy workout the day before, it will say hold on a

second. wait for your big workout. this is not on the market. it measures fitness and your sleep. it also has got an emergency button which i can push where if i fall it will alert somebody that i am in trouble. we set it up so it will text our producer if i get into some hot water. this is for kids or for their parent depending on how you look at it. this is 190 nine dollars. -- $199. 10 dollars additional per month to place calls to your parent from this or to have calls from your parent to this. you can also create the gps safe zone. if the kids go out of the states -- safe zone, you can send them a text and say where are you? this is wearable health measuring things like blood flow

and how sweaty i get. it is $200. on my right wrist i have the fitbug. it cost $50 but they encourage you to buy a plan to get you in shape. i am feeling a little worn out. >> jon ehrlichman joined us from las vegas. i do not want to send next to you when it rains. >> good idea. look. we wanted to talk about wearables because it is a product category a lot of are wondering about. they wonder if the success from smart phones can make its way to different devices, especially as we highlighted the attention to google glass. all the big technology companies are in some way trying to get on the wearables bandwagon. intel has spent a lot of time talking about how it wants to be involved empowering -- empowering this world of wearables.

this chief advice guy is supposed to talk about all the things they can do to protect themselves about new trends. here's more about what he had to tell us. >> this is something we can brother give other companies. let's talk about wearables. one of the things we announced yesterday was a partnership with the designing opening ceremony and the council of fashion designers of america to work with them to partner and how to build great wearable technology. it is what they do. we bring the technology. they bring the customer knowledge. together we go to market with something great. >> a big companies pushing wearables. it is really interesting to see in the sense that we do not really know where things are going but people are trying to guess what the demand will be. >> maybe they should have an app

to figure out what everyone will buy in the future. >> good idea. this is big. it is an important time. it is very difficult to know. that is part of the story. >> thank you very much. our senior west coast correspondent. norway is the world's most wired country. denmark, sweden may come next followed by the united states. down in 13th place. you can get more details. more on the world of wearable devices as well as gaming tablets. i will tell you about the company that won best in show at last year's consumer electronics show in las vegas. it is looking for more accolades of this year. ♪

>> this is "taking stock" on bloomberg. let's go to las vegas and the consumer electronics show. i want to check in on a company with a focus on the gamer. at last year's consumer electronics show the edge tablet won best in show. for more on the excitement, i am joined by the chief executive of razor. thank you for joining us. start off by explaining that gamers live in a different world when it comes to the requirements they need from their computers. >> absolutely. gamers are really demanding when it comes to the computers, the

gear. it is a whole new world. >> to give us some ideas of what they wanted from last year's consumer electronics show. you one with the edge gaming tablets. >> absolutely. it was the first time ever we have designed a something to allow the gamers to bring the games anywhere. it was always the holy grail to bring it where ever you are. what we did was we designed all of the power into something fan and super light. it took the world by storm. it has been a huge success for us. >> as far as this tablet goes, are you going to improve on that version or create something brand-new? >> we will be working on it. this time we have a whole slew of new products. we are trying to live up to the expectations. winning the best of ces -- we have times of fans writing in an

voting for us. the expectations are superhigh for us. >> can you describe how the tablet differs from more conventional desktop models? >> pretty much tablets tend to be great for consuming media, watching movies. the problem is traditional tablets do not have the horsepower to run some of the latest games. the kind of machines that be able to run some of these games tend to be really thick and heavy because of the amount of power required. we combined that amount of power into something superthin and put it into a form that gamers can bring along. that is the razer edge tablet. >> your party produced a bracelet. this is moving into a different form factor.

tell us how that fits into the whole system. >> expectations are superhigh. this is the razer nabu that we are showing off for the first time. what we are trying to do is to help users to live smarter. i can talk a little bit about about what it --about what it does. it is not a smart watch that some of you might have heard of. it is not a fitness band. it is a smart band. it does notifications from your smart phone to your wrist. i've got a message coming in. you can see a little envelope to say i have a message coming in. if you look at -- >> i will send you my message of thanks.

chief executive of razer. this is "taking stock" on bloomberg. ♪

>> this is "taking stock" on bloomberg. we want to go right to my radio host. >> energy companies are feeling the strain as the record cold weather has affected many parts of an structure. -- of infrastructure. the cold snap is pushing oil prices higher today and boosted natural gas on the stock market for a third day. the weather is affecting some oil refiners and pushed the trade deficit in november 2 its love is low -- lowest level in four years. the economy is becoming more energy independent. they expect the u.s. to surpass

russia and saudi arabia as the world's largest oil producer by 2015. comcast added paid tv customers, marking its first gain in more than six years. brian roberts said it modestly grew at an investment conference. it sent shares up 3.5%. back to you. >> thanks very much. another big story, jp morgan's two point 5 billion dollar price tag to resolve criminal and civil allegations regarding bernie madoff's allegation scheme. it is good to have you both here. we were just talking. you said we're going to talk about j.p. morgan. we are still going to talk about jp morgan. how long has this been going on? >> they had a pretty busy year in 2013.

they had close to $16 billion for various wrongdoings. we're starting off the new year with a $2.6 billion fine for issues related to madoff. >> what did they admit to if anything? >> j.p. morgan has deferred prosecution agreement. they admitted to and were able to skirt criminal charges even though they are guilty of criminal wrongdoing. for failing to filesystem issues activity reports and failing to flag people. they knew there were returns that were too good to be true. they do not run it up the flagpole or alert the proper authorities. in the end they had to pay two -- $2.6 billion.

>> is there a breach of fiduciary responsibility? >> absolutely. it is failing to comply with the bank secrecy act, failure to comply to laundering controls. a lot of this is control space. >> it is real money. >> there is mortgage investigations for the whole party. another gaggle of billions. >> 1.1. for the whale. >> it is always curious to see how these get gerrymandered. in this case you had the bank supposedly commit criminal statutes but no criminals at the bank are getting pinched over this. then like the london whale cays. -- case.

jp morgan with the sec. >> two people were charged in that case. >> lower-level employees. >> this is interesting. the deferred prosecution agreement is a very useful tool in cases like this. it allows prosecutors to say this bank day criminal activities but they do not charge or have the collateral consequences of what will happen if you criminally charge a bank which could be the end of that bank. jp morgan is the biggest bank in the u.s. nobody wants to see the biggest bang in the u.s. go down over criminal charges. >> on paper the way it is supposed to work if they violate it within the next two years they have this brought up again and they can prosecute. that is what they mean by deferred prosecution. will the government actually bring charges against j.p. morgan? they have a nonprosecution agreement two years ago over some muni bond related stuff. there was another case that came

up with energy trading where you looked at the pattern and it seemed like they have violated some federal laws during that two-year probationary period and that case. do they want to go open it all over again? no. if they get caught, they get caught a lot of times for doing so. if they got caught again, with the justice department had the nerve to go and open this case all over again? i have a hard time believing that. >> in covering all this, have you experienced any changes in the way the bank does its business? >> i think that is a question people are asking. does this drive customers away from the bank. i think it is way too early to tell from that. >> has this been good for the legal industry? >> this is a lot of time and

energy. >> some people say it is the cost of running the biggest bank in the u.s. they say this is too much. it really comes down to when they clear out these cases what it will happen. will they go back to record earnings? is the stock price going to go back? we have to see what happens on this. >> are we going to see another knockdown, drag out over jamie diamond? that is a few months away. >> we do not get to draw the line over this and say let everybody go back to business. let the sec go do it job. >> nobody wants a more than j.p. morgan chase. they still have some other probes going on. you will have this constant

threat of stories about what is the latest thing in this chinese hiring probe. >> it is unusual for the most part. i think these things happen. j.p. morgan has managed several of these over the last 12 months. they are still operating. their stock price is pretty steady. it does seem to be business as usual. i think it is a case of if that ever shifts. >> the stock is up nearly 30%. i want to leave it there. thank you very much. my thanks to jonathan mile. always a pleasure. the weather is extreme. let's give you some details about some new ways to get from a to b next. ♪

>> this is "taking stock errico

i'm -- "taking stock." i am pimm fox. it is day two of the so-called polar vortex that has been gripping much of the united states. many cities and towns have been combating icy road conditions. they are finding beets might be actually a better option. beet juice has been used to save money and proves more environmentally friendly than road salt that has been used throughout the united states. here to understand more about the business of using beet juice to beat the snow is the owner of a company that manufactures a beet juice blend from long island. his product is used by the new york state freeway. he joins us in the studio. thank you for coming in. it is supposed to be a very busy season for you. tell us about the idea of using beets to de-ice roads. >> everybody uses sodium chloride, magnesium chloride,

potassium chloride. they put a lot of chloride into the ground and it leaves a big residue everywhere. we came up with a project made from beets. when they make sugar out of sugar beets what is left over is a byproduct. we found out it freezes at 55 below zero. it has positive ions which act to protect steel. it is not attack steel like chloride. if you mix it with salts, it accelerates your salt. salt only work at 20 degrees. beet juice is the only non- chloride accelerator. you can either coat it or remake it in a liquid. you spray it.

what it does is it basically brings the freezing temperature down. you use less of it. and neutralizes the corrosion. you still need chlorides. you cannot melt it without chlorides. >> you do not need any of that with the chlorides. >> all they're doing is cutting the sodium out and adding more chlorides. we do the opposite. we are accelerating it so you will not need as much sodium which is what is bad for your feed and the water table. this is possible. you can drink it. it takes the rest right off your tools. it is an incredible project. >> how look if you been doing this? >> four years. we have not had any snow so it

has been a little tough. new york state has two uses on the freeways. >> i want to introduce someone else to the conversation to verify. joining us on the telephone from the chicago suburb of arlington heights, snow commander scott. it is good to have you here. >> thanks for having me. >> as the snow commander, northwest of chicago? >> yes. we are 25 northwest of chicago. about 77,000 people. >> what do you use to deice the roads? >> five or six years ago we were just using rocksolid with calcium chloride to de-ice. we were using a lots of it. when there was a salt shortage we had to look for alternatives. we started, we heard about this beet juice. we used this blend of that is a combination of salt brine and

liquid housing chloride in beet juice. it has allowed us to cut our salt use in half in the last six years. >> cut your salt use in half. how much a beet juice do you need? you may not need as much salt. how much do you need to produce? >> everybody has spread is. you can get 80% of your salt. what you do is you pre-apply. when you pre-applied before the snow, when the snow comes town, the first half inch does not freeze. you do not need any salt after work. that is one advantage. i can take the beet juice and coat regular salt which brings the freezing temperature down and you can cut 30% use on your salt. >> what kind of machinery are

you using in order to deliver this beet juice brine? >> we have 25 salt trucks. they are equipped with liquid tanks. we applied this to be too juice blend right on board as we apply right to the rock salt as it is going out to the payment. -- pavement appeared we were using about a hundred pounds of lane mile of salt. >> is this refitting the various units all over the country that are charged with making sure the roads are clear? >> most have sightings. -- side tanks.

they accelerate their granules. they have their spreader and the sighting. -- side tanks. that is a great way to do it. they are also now building special spray unit just with the juice that you would spray see you do not need to also put the rocksolid down which knocks peoples windows out. the problem is refitting the trucks. i have these 11 hundred gallon units. they are $1500 any four wheel drive truck can be a sprayer. it kept almost the third the cost of using salt. >> what has it been like to get this introduced? >> the municipalities are open because they save money. private industries are using it for their parking lots for highways. they get paid per ton of salt. they do not want to convert because they get paid $200 a ton

to spread salt. when i say you're going to cut your salt use, they say i'm not going to be able to make my money. i have to say you are going to cut it out. >> it has to have an effect on where? >> bb juice is great. you can actually drink it. it is the only product that you can pour right in the drain. it has been approved by the dec. >> how can people find it more? >> you can go to my website. we also make it out of the midwest and we ship it out by train. we bring it to pennsylvania and distribute it from there. >> have you got all bb juice that you need? can you see this moving over completely? >> i do not see us moving completely over to it. we are using a lot more beet juice and less salt. we are trending in that direction. >> thank you. scott rowader joining us on the

telephone and the owner of east end ready mix. they manufacture a beet juice mix. i bet the trucks are benefiting. next we have an executive from one of the world's top natural gas engine manufacturers. we will tell you what they are doing next. ♪

>> with temperatures of 20 or 30 degrees below zero across the united states, did your heart skip a beat when he try to turn your engine on this morning? i want to point out that in numerous american cities it was colder than the south pole today. my next guest joins me from chicago where it is certainly a few degrees below zero. he's the chief operating officer of power solutions international. he is one of the largest meaning manufacturers of gas powered

engines. thank you very much for braving the cold to be with us. tell us first of all about the challenges of using alternative fuels in combustion engines. >> one of the challenges right now is that there is not a large availability of engines. most of the engines run on diesel. very few engines are available. what we are coming out with is a whole line of engines that can run these vehicles on natural gas. one of the challenges have been availability. we worked through that. we can set up the infrastructure and we can get a really nice savings. >> what about the actual technical issues of using

natural gas as a fuel? >> one of the technical issues you formally had was a did not deliver as much power. natural gas does not have as much density. in the past it had not been an economic viable solution. being half the price of diesel, even though it might be 20% or 30% less energy efficient, it still provides tremendous savings to the end user. >> give us some examples of companies that are using your natural gas fired engines. >> one example locally is a company that set up a trial with our engines on natural gas and propane and saw about a 50% savings in their vehicles on a gallon basis with no loss of performance or range. >> what about the availability of natural gas in more conventional vehicles? >> you starting to see companies offering trucks and pickup trucks with natural gas options.

>> can you connected to the explosive growth of fracking? >> it is a direct link. it is incredible. i was recently looking at a photograph from space. it showed the light coming from gasping flared off. >> can you connected to the explosive growth of fracking? >> it is a direct link. it is incredible. i was recently looking at a photograph from space. it showed the light coming from gasping flared off.

it is brighter than the metropolitan of austin. you have an energy policy right now where america is importing $1 billion a day in gas. we have a very large, over 150 year supply of gas. it allows our engines to capture the gas that is currently being flared off. >> can you give us an example of how many vehicles are using your technology currently? >> since we have crossed so many verticals between vehicles and equipment, we probably have installed a fleet of over half a million engines out there. >> i want to thank you very much for joining me. eric: is the chief operating officer of the company. good night. ♪

..