>> from pier 3 in san francisco, welcome to the best of "bloomberg west," where we focus on innovation, technology, and the future of business. i'm emily chang. every weekend, we'll bring you the "best of west," the top interviews of the week with the power players in global technology and media. a massive hacking into sony warns the company of more headaches. emails depicting the death of korean leader kim jong-un in the movie "the interview" were

personally approved by the sony ceo kazuo hirai. other e-mails are giving us a glimpse of politics. producer scott rudin wrote to sony pictures' amy 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 well-known 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 well-known. i don't know if you're 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, i'm 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. >> it's 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. today's hollywood is all about worldwide, pre-existing 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 they're 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 doesn't 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 jong-un.

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 it's 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 can't answer.

there is a distinction that has to be made about what's 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 everybody's 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, don't 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. uber's 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 doesn't or facebook doesn't. 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 trade-off? 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 people's 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 six-year-old girl. right here in san francisco, she was walking in a crosswalk. >> uber has become a lightning rod for many people's 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 don't 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 don't 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 uber's 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 company's 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, he's 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 amazon's 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? >> apple's only problem is android and google and google's willingness to be aggressive. apple should've 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 no-brainer. they should've found a way to buy nest. >> should they have bought twitter? >> i don't 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 risk-taking is an abundant amount of capital at the late market. pushed into startups. the problem is it's much easier to run a company that's losing

money than one that's 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. i'm not so sure because they have not passed the test of proving that the business model has legs in the long-term. >> which companies are you not sure about? >> there are certain sectors that are more prone to arbitrage. a lot of the e-commerce is dangerous. no one really gives up. no one says our numbers aren't 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 long-term 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. ♪

>> you're watching the best of "bloomberg west," the top interviews of the week from the movers and shakers in technology and media. i'm 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 i've seen in the last 15 years. >> i know you've been thinking about this, what will your next move be? now you are going back to your startup roots. why? >> i'm 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 fast-growing 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 it's like to scale a company that is growing as quickly as we've 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 jay-z 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 haven't even thought about it. >> oh, come on. yes, you have! >> nothing more than in the shower.

nothing seriously. there are no plans. >> we've had one conversation about that. >> people say that zenefits is a rocket ship. i was looking at the competition, and there really isn't 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 an integrated approach. it is unique about us. there are a lot of people with point solutions, but nobody is taking this all-in-one approach for small businesses below 1000 employees in the united states. >> a lot of people out there have sounded the alarm about startups saying valuations are too high and companies are operating at burn rates that are too high and they could vaporize disappear. you just raised money. given your long history in silicon valley, how are you concerned about valuations and becoming one of those companies? >> i think it depends on the company. in this case, the company has real revenue. i have never seen anything like it. >> david sacks is the new coo of zenefits and the ceo parker conrad. the best places to work in technology, we will tell you which ones are on the list and which ones fell off it next. ♪

>> welcome back to the best of "bloomberg west." i am emily chang. glassdoor is out with its list of top companies to work for. this year's winner is google. the search giant is known for his generous company perks, free food, laundry services, even massages. other companies include facebook, apple, and linkedin. noticeably absent off the list was twitter. i spoke with glassdoor ceo robert hohman and asked him why twitter fell off the list. >> twitter was the top ranked tech company last year. they are still a great place to work very and they are well above average in terms of their ratings. they did not make the top 50. they were ranked really high in the year that they went public. that's common. there is a big halo in the employee base.

the year after, it's not uncommon to see some fall off. twitter has had more than most. they have a new coo and new vp's, a new cfo. employees point to new things. as a result, satisfaction has fallen. i personally think twitter is going through adolescence. dick costolo is an amazing leader. we will see them back next year.

>> you mention people who a been turned over. i speak to a lot of twitter employees who seem happy. how did you put the list together? how many people did you survey? how do you come up with these rankings? >> every month, tens of millions of people visit glassdoor. we collect reviews and ratings from employees who work at these companies. they tell us how much confidence they have in their senior leadership. what the work-life balance is like in a quantitative way. they also write in words what it's like at these companies. the rankings this list are based mostly on the quantitative analysis of it. we exercise no discretion. it's really the people's choice awards for companies. >> google is on top. why? >> it is interesting with google. they are sort of building agile hr. the hr team is surveying the employee base very frequently and then trying to respond rapidly to things that they need. what is standing out this year is as the workforce has aged, employees more support for a work-life balance, in particular families. they have stepped up maternity and paternity leave. they have day care. >> i wish. >> they have managed to make google a place where you can both have a life and give your best to google. employees have responded well. >> facebook has dropped a few spots. why? >> it's still an amazing place to work. they have fallen about 10 slots. employees point to the ability to impact one billion people around the world and they point to iconic leadership with zuckerberg and sandberg. on the other hand, it is becoming a really big company. >> you are seen more non-tech companies. tech companies have been known for the massages and the free

food and ping-pong tables. other companies are wising up. >> it's true. one of the most interesting things is we have more diversity than ever. the number of tech companies is down and we have more pharmaceutical companies and retail companies. we have more consulting companies. we have two auto companies on the list. ford and toyota both made the list this year. >> what are they doing? >> they are borrowing concepts from tech as the economy has recovered. the war for talent has moved into their vertical. they have introduced free food. they've introduced flexible work hours. we are seeing flexible work hours at places like ford, which previously was the germaine of tech companies. i think it is really interesting.

>> what are the issues that will define the list next year? >> that's a good question. as the war for talent heats up, we will continue to see this trend where companies will go to the mat for the best talent. then it's going to be about retention. there is only so much great talent to go around. we have seen this in tech, and we will see it in other industries. it's going to be about how you can go from the surface level perks like dry-cleaning to the meaningful deep perks like a real work-life balance. that is what causes retention. >> that was glassdoor ceo robert hohman.

up next, he is the forgotten cofounder of apple. i talked with ron wayne, getting the inside story on what apple artifacts he is putting up for auction. ♪

>> welcome back to the best of "bloomberg west." i am emily chang. you know steve jobs and steve wozniak, but there is a third player responsible for getting apple off the ground. he is ron wayne, and the reason he is not a billionaire is he

sold his 10% stake in apple for $800, 12 days after the company started up. this month, he is selling memorabilia like this apple i user manual. i spoke with wayne about the auction. >> what is up for sale is a set of documents, which is in two parts. one are the galley groups of the original apple i manual. they consist of the drawings and pages that i made and the graphics i made for the manual. the second part is actual documentation of the first apple ii, which was the first production unit made by apple. the documentation was something that steve jobs asked me to put together. he wanted me to design an enclosure for the apple ii. this includes concepts, sketches, some of the detailed drawings and sketches and prints of the assembly drawings that were used for the apple ii, the first production unit. >> remind us -- what was it like working with steve jobs and steve wozniak for those first 12 days, and why did you sell your stake?

>> to begin with, it was an absolutely fun time, particularly working with somebody like wozniak, who is a very whimsical character. and a lot of fun. he did everything he did because he enjoyed it so thoroughly. at the beginning, i was in my 40's and they were in their 20's. i worked with steve jobs for two years at atari. we had become rather chummy and he wanted me to help them set up the original apple environment. i did. there were several reasons why i separated myself from the company. not the least of which was the fact that i was a product development engineer in my own right, but i knew that i was standing in the shadows of giants. i would never have project of my own to work with.

in addition to that, steve jobs had seen me set up the documentation system at atari and was very impressed with it. i'm sure he would have wanted me to run the documentation department for the new apple enterprise, and as a product development engineer, i could not see myself spending the next 20 years in a back room shuffling papers. i had my own passions. >> ron, you've admitted that you are not a wealthy man. you are at peace with the decision that you made. >> absolutely. >> how many times over the last 30 years have you thought, what would my life be like if i didn't sell that stake? >> to be candid, there were many reasons why i separated myself from the company, all of which seemed good.

i've never regretted it. to be quite candid with you, i was in my 40's and they were in their 20's. they were whirlwinds. it was like having a tiger by the tail. if i had stayed with apple, i probably would have wound up the richest man in the cemetery. it was that high-speed enterprise that i was not prepared to be part of. it's true that i have never been a monumental success in my lifetime. i've never been rich, but i've never been hungry either. i'm not going to waste my tomorrows worrying about my yesterdays. >> apple cofounder ron wayne. baby got bucks? access to free music is forcing musicians to explore new revenue streams. sir mix-a-lot, an artist whose music is going viral again, joins us with his take next on the best of "bloomberg west." ♪

>> welcome back to the best of "bloomberg west." i am emily chang. sir mix-a-lot's 1992 hit "baby got back" is in the limelight again after nicki minaj sampled the lyrics. with the rise of itunes and streaming services, the music industry has changed dramatically since the 1990's. how much of the revenues will artists ever see? cory johnson spoke with sir-mix-a-lot about the changing world of the music biz. >> a record label is nothing more than a fat wallet and a huge staff. i am not trying to demean them, but it's true. today, if you are an artist, you are a brand. if you don't subscribe to that, you will not succeed. social media is everything. >> james brown would've said

that in the 1960's. that was the case then, too. >> not necessarily. i came up on that model. you create a record and you run warner bros. and you tell me it's time to go on tour. >> you came up rick and russell with def jam with your first record. >> my deal was with rick -- >> rick rubin. >> yeah -- when he splintered off. he signed me. it was fun. it was cool. >> what do the labels not do now? >> they did all of your marketing and pr work. they had people that scheduled tours for you and were on the road with you. they paid for your videos to be shot. everything.

ask now the music distributors now are these companies in some cases, specifically at spotify -- i want to talk about spotify for a bit. the ceo of spotify came out and said some strong words about why artists need spotify. he said they started spotify because they love music and piracy was killing it. you see spotify is something protects the artist? >> i do agree with that point, fans that grew up with free music don't expect to start paying for it. i support with taylor swift is doing. it's not about her making another $10,000. she is doing fine. she is trying indirectly support an indie band. your revenues are going to be relatively small. >> wait a second, i do not agree with you. you think she is really not thinking about making money for herself?

you think she is trying to help indie bands? come on. >> how much money would she make? let say she had 2 million plays, is that worth it? could she leverage that elsewhere? i'm only saying that for a small band that gets a million plays, i know one that i produce, there's not a lot of money. they can't put gas in the car to go on tour. >> what artists are making it work without working with major labels in a big way? >> a perfect example is macklemore. not because we are from the same city, but we are from the same hometown. >> he has the perfect weather, what more do you want. >> he exemplifies what you have to do now. he is his own walking, talking brand. he has a huge loyal fan base that he engages with daily. >> he is very active in social media. >> yes, twitter, facebook, whatever. he understands that the song is not the end run anymore. macklemore will surround a song with all kind of content.

a song is added advertisement for something else. imagine owning a corporation and being able to engage with potential buyers daily. >> you mean the way t-mobile is using macklemore to get their message out. >> sort of, kind of. >> look at the revenues. it's not about the music and selling a track, where are the big bucks in it music going forward? >> content creation is huge. nicki minaj has over 340 million views on youtube. i don't know what her cpm rate is, maybe $20? >> do you think? >> i am guessing. >> that's a big number. cpm is the rate that advertisers are paying to be on that video. that "anaconda" video that samples your truck from way back is getting huge play.

young people were not even born yet. >> even though youtube is going to take some ungodly number, she is going to make huge revenue from that some people are going to get product placement. within the videos. instead of a fan tuning in and having to look at a 30 second commercial that they hate, they will place the stuff in the video. >> beats is featured prominently. there is revenue coming in from that, too. >> she also has miss moscato. it is genius. >> talk about sampling and where that is going. you came up when sampling was beginning. now you are being sampled in a postmodern way. >> for me licensing is everything. i don't worry as much about selling music anymore as i do licensing. >> that is cory's interview with rap icon sir-mix-a-lot. that does it for this edition of the best of "bloomberg west." you can catch us monday through friday on bloomberg television.

we will see you next week. ♪

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>> progress isn't always linear. sometimes it is exponential. new innovations create newer breakthroughs. >> it is very exciting to think it might change someone's life someday. >> being able to make devices that are millions of times more powerful. >> in 2015, our race for the future continues, from the food we eat -- >> we are talking about feeding the planet. we need a new paradigm of how we grow our food. >> to the way we interact with technology. >> it lets you control any device through hand gestures. >> to how we communicate.