>> 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. to our top story. nightmare.ing the fbi has confirmed north korea was behind the devastating cyber attack was for sony to

cancel the christmas release of "the interview." movie theaters refused to show it. the movie tells to story of a journalist hired to kill korean leader kim jong-un. the cancellation could cost sunny more than $200 million. matt miller talked about it with the vice president thompson and kathryn arnold. he asked catherine how upset the community is. , the creativet community is up in arms. it is hitting us where american stance from a cultural perspective, freedom of speech and expression. the question is not only is it a horrific situation and is one and step the how will it a fact movies going forward and books and magazine and comedies? it has far-reaching affects and everyone is concerned because we do not know where it will end.

>> if the north koreans can do it, anyone can. does it surprise you that have the capabilities and is a well-known in the security? >> it is amazing. over the past 30 or 40 years you have seen building this capability on the defensive side but also cyber and offensive capabilities under training people and getting tools. we have seen on full display. >> if all they have to do is call in a 911 correct, can we expect countries to get any film council? >> you show what you have. there is a lot of uncertainties that sony has a whole was it really that launched the attack? what if folks from the government -- was it falls from

the government? there are pieces we will be finding out. >> kathryn we will get you to weigh in. could hack and get a counsel. it is a slippery slope. -- can get it canceld. most than hollywood which they would continue on with it or net flicks or amazon. of the studios will have to work with third cyber security units and find a way. and figure my area out how to get the movies out. it can come from any country. these are not logical people. aree are people who cultural fanatics and trying to censor the united states who has have freedom of speech as one of our most important tenets. we do not see other

studios rally around sony? the hollywoodsee community gets behind this company and say if you can shut them down, you can shut us down? >> well, that's a good question. seeybody had a wait and because they do not want to make the first move because it sets such a dangerous precedent. other studios are trying to rally and saying we want to -- nobody wanted to make this the first move. if something happened, they would've looked as far of the liability. we are in uncharted territory. >> what would you do if a studio came and said we had these threats of violence but will go ahead and put this film out because that is what we do in this country? how do you prepare? >> it is challenging.

on display, the capabilities that this group has. can achieve some level of security and recovery. and do a full forensic investigation and how did these guys get in? what kind of tools did they use? it is a wake-up call for a bunch of different industries that have not focused on security to say that in those industries are potentially at risk. there are a lot we can learn from this attack and certainly a lot of great cyber security capabilities out there in the market lays. a call to the company's to bring the capabilities. >> how often do you see the threats cross over from the virtual world and real, physical violence? i have read incidents and i was really surprised to see a come from the internet to a gunshot.

>> if you look at what is happening online assad sony, think -- outside of sony, all of these connecticut devices to a network connection and moving parts that can do things. serious issue a of how to we get those things, those devices and companies secure online? they are making a lot of progress in the space but with this attack and several others over the past year, it has shown us we have a lot of work to do. >> secure strategist and vice president hugh thompson and kathryn arnold. defensive after a driver is arrested after allegedly raping a female. is the company doing enough to protect customers? that is next. ♪

>> this the best of west. a alston man who works as an uber driver was accused of taking a passenger to is a fluted location and raping her. a spokesperson tells bloomberg west it is a despicable crime and our thoughts and prayers are with the victim. has been working close with law enforcement and will continue to do everything we can. this comes as a they said they will do more background checks and my colleagues spoke with former chairman of the taxi and limo association. been lobbying and spending hundreds of millions of dollars on efforts to have less of background checks and do it themselves when every other taxi tlc withlike we did at

a fingerprint which is more accurate. and i do believe we need to do that. it is good uber is looking to acknowledge. >> uber have announced even before today's case came to light they will do more background checks and at least deeper background checks but also weird things like lie detector test. >> first of all, the expense they will go on is crazy. the government can do it for you and they can get more information that uber can. the government needs to do it. they are trying to have a special exemption so they can do it themselves. they have enough money. that can pay for the drivers to be vetted. it is unfortunate that all of these terrible tragedies and our hearts go out to california to chicago and now boston.

>> to be clear, even a yellow cab driver has and can commit terrible crimes. sometimes they do commit horrible crimes. driver.t just an uber there was an attack this weekend that may have been a different company. >> what consumers need to know is there is a greater risk for lyft, they do checks that are not asked secure. a u.s. attorney general did a report of florida employees and license applicants and over 10% of them, people who had prior convictions. you will never catch every body. if you do catch somebody a people have a right to rehabilitation, first series crimes, they should not be behind the wheel. we have control over

our destiny. we have alternatives. others that do government background checks. we have the options. this but cyberly security issues, we talked about sony and the things going on. senator al franken is really questioning the alleged, not just the alleged rape but the alleged spying and tracking a use of data by uber. i don't know was really going on above hopefully we know in the future. the bottom line is when i put the gps in new york city yellow the, we cut a deal with liberties union where we said by law, we have to have security provisions of the data and any driver will not know any owner where your are going in a new york city cab. we have laws that say it's

illegal for the new york city taxi cap vendors that run the system to know where you are going a using the data. we should do the same for uber. will call you up and ask for your advice. i want to read a statement. they said in november, the safety team began a global review to assess the areas where greater investments are required and we will build new safety programs. so -- >> well, if they call me i will answer. >> matthew daus with matt miller. for more on uber, matt spoke with bill merrick. he started by asking about uber 's recent pr challenges. >> anytime you have a company growing as quickly as uber and

probably the fastest growing have ever seen adding 50,000 jobs a month, you will face scrutiny of we are optimistic about the future. it has the potential of being one of the most transformative companies would have ever seen. fornd absolute home run google. how was 2014? how are you doing? >> it was extremely busy. as of this morning, we had a company go public just this morning. we have quadrupled our investigation -- investment in life sciences. a $125 milliond fund for europe and israel and on top of all of that, i managed to get married. >> congratulations on the wedding. investment,sciences health care, 1/3 of what you invest in now.

is it the biggest growth area you are looking at? it is. personally, an opportunity to make a profound impact on the world. life sciences is in information technology. there's a real chance to have an impact on the world they goes beyond just making people look at their phones more but help people live longer, healthier, happier lives. >> we all wish you luck because everybody wins if that is the case. for you to win, you have to have a good exit. .hat was more difficult was it the best year for you as far as ipo's? >> it was a great year. we had next exit which was the third-largest. exits including the one i mentioned this morning. i am proud of the work the team has done. >> what are we looking at as far

as on a deck? >> it helps small businesses get along that may not otherwise be rhythmsusing their own -- algorithms further risk. >> what do you think when somebody comes to you and say i have a company that is the uber of this? how do you react? all ofet those pitches the time. we listen when people have an idea. the line between crazy and genius is a pretty thin line. we see that a lot. that is our job to listen to people who are telling us about their hopes and dreams. >> listening to david last week and he was saying, most people are, the pitching me than the people and then the idea. is that basically true across the vc?

>> ideas are cheap, they are free. ideasold you i had 50,000 and you should not pay a dollar for that. someone whou i had can execute on that and build the company, that is worth a lot. that's what we are looking for. >> does it matter if somebody helps out the google business or work on android? >> it doesn't matter. if it is competitive and help google stronger that way, that is even more interesting. 2015, are you going to be focused even more on health care and life sciences since that was your biggest this year? >> that will continue to be a huge focus on our time, energy, and dollars even more than 2014. >> you were instrumental in recruiting and drew. what does it mean for google in

the larger sense? >> and he has been a friend of mine for 10 years. i was proud of all the work he has been doing. andy has been a friend of mine for 10 years. buts not just a trend important direction that the world is moving. looking at health care at something as important as a mobile and delivery of internet services to the global population. health care is really important and it makes a lot of sense that google ventures are investing. >> global venture is not lifting to make strategic and i am assuming you will work closely with andy and google x. how does it play with the other google properties? >> i have known andy and sergey and we work closely with them. i have a huge amount of respect

for them and their intellect. all of the people at google and will work closely to understand the innovative areas they are working on. and where opportunity is. managing partner of google ventures. on solvinge money some of the world's most personal problems? we learn about it, next. ♪

>> i am emily chang. is to make investing money, but what if you could combine profits and purpose? a twitter founders hoping to do that with obvious ventures and will focus on what it calls world positive investing and will pour money into early stage companies. for more on what it is, cory

johnson spoke with cofounder james. >> we are excited about it. we think the simple idea of combining profit and purpose is a great one and found it on our hypothesis they're really big companies will be billed by talking grand challenges in the world like climate change and chronic disease. we think there is an enormous amount of work and profit to be made and those are the company's world focusing on. >> does twitter solve a massive world problem? >> twitter have given hundreds of millions of people a voice and we can point to social change that happened through that. that is positive. >> it is interested in the case of twitter going back to blogger , media focus. you are talking about things far beyond and giving people voices through technology. >> we have three things.

one is sustainable and that is for-profit solutions to climate change. new kinds of sustainable resources. we invested in a company called beyond meat and are taking plant protein and craving protein products that are an alternative to eating animals and that is good for the climate. >> it is huge. protein is the most expensive part of every meal and hard for people to get. what is the second? >> we call people power. an opportunityis to use cloud and mobile technology to empower individuals. we have almost 30 million small businesses in the u.s., where job creation happens. those businesses have been underserved by technology. with the advent of the small phone, new businesses that

actually give small businesses a full stack of services that their run on their smartphone. it is a great san francisco startup and they make software for plumbers, carpenters, people run their business out of their truck. they can do ever been from scheduling to accepting payments on the smartphone. chris sounds like a huge opportunity. >> we think so. piggyback on these fundamental changes in technology, mobile and the cloud and social. >> we call it a digital democratization. everybody has a supercomputer in their pocket is fundamentally game changing. >> does it mean someone will walk in with a pitch and add one more page and say we are a do-gooder or fundamental way of thinking about it? >> one we have written about is ventures for us is the opposite of corporate philanthropy.

not about running a traditional business and doing some good on the side. not that we are against it. we are looking at businesses where it is integrated. >> every company should do what salesforce is doing, a certain percent of revenue to profit -- to charity. >> we love for companies to do it and we want to go one step forward. we look at companies were each dollar of revenue has social benefits. >> does it change the way companies -- let me ask. when you look at at your career when we met a long time ago, you did young something, think about in terms of what it meant socially? that was not the purpose. myit was the beginning of world positive journey. i would get e-mails from

customers saying thank you so much and i never met my granddaughter and i just opened a photo envelope and saw pictures. a woman in guatemala sent me that note. >> it was a photo sharing service. >> one of the first. >> it was taken over by kodak. [laughter] >> you had that happen to you. it did it change the way you did your work? if the companies have a different sense and proceed to do it in a different way? >> i think so. i taught much more about what is the meaning of the business i am building? anddo i combine money building? that's another of our dualities. we are seeing a wave of millenials that want to work on something that matters. >> james joaquin, cofounder of obvious ventures.

making money on your smart phone by playing games could be the next frontier for gaming companies. ea founder about the potential, next. ♪

welcome back to the best of "bloomberg west," where we focus on technology and the future of business. i'm emily chang. practically everyone plays games if they have the time. of what if you could win some money while killing time? that's the goal of a company called skill. they allow cash tournaments on a bunch of mobile games. hiringst got a boost by trip hawkins. we spoke with him. >> we operate a platform inside each game.

it's the games you know and love and now you can compete inside them for virtual currency or cash. it's legal. if you are breaking the law, live television is not the way to announce it. >> it's like the pga tour. we only operate skill-based games. this is in jurisdictions where it's legal. the new york marathon is an example. the pga tour, there are a number that areg companies virtually organized. historyyou see in the of games where this fits and why it might be attractive? >> i think after defining and sports, i think there are two big trends. i does want to comment. the first is running a little

company. there is a chance for us to do something for kids with game technology and a lot of ea sports fans have kids. we just launch this on the iphone a few days ago. it's an emotional iq game. you can search for in the app store. the other trend we are talking youngis i am helping entrepreneurs like andrew build new companies. he is a great example of this next generation of entrepreneurs that are going to carry the game industry forward. the idea of hard-core gamers that want to battle for prize a very big idea. it makes sense that sports are finally going to segue into the virtual world. this has the potential to be an enormous market. i got involved because they have a great platform. in a scaledng this

and fundamental way to mobile devices. >> we have reached this point where we have been talking about would this be competitive? would people compete in public? people playingf games for money. is mobile the right platform for that? >> we care about what our culture values. i get into sports by watching sports on television. are more likely to be playing video games. they would much rather watch attornment of their favorite video games being played by professional gamers and if they want to compete -- it's like the rock 'n roll revolution. everybody wanted to be in a band. video games are a big industry. >> i was more of a rapper. our kids important to this? what tripp said when i first

met him before he became our is we are at a point in time or video games have been around for about order years. you need a game or set of games before they can transition into national sports. look get videogames in the 1970's, the first cash competition was held by atari for space invaders for $20,000. games like that are iconic and they have lasted for that timeframe. now games are part of the same opportunity that professionals .r cyclic or a basketball >> i remember betting on the side, that was probably illegal. when you are counseling these people coming into the gaming is this, is her a common mistake that they tend to make in terms of building a popularity around certain games? telle of my jobs is to

guys like andrew not to fall into the same traps and holes. there are so many things. building the culture of the organization and your hiring decisions and how you motivate and reform -- reward people. the basics. one of the things i like about andrew is he's already gotten off to such a great start. he is going in a fundamentally sound direction. you need to have a big idea. this is a very big idea. has he given you any good ideas? >> there been a number of moments like that. it's interesting for me because growing up playing games from electronic arts, it was so exciting to work with a legend like trip. he pioneered a lot of my favorite games. the idea of him pioneering

sports and bring that to mobile in a new way was compelling. table stakes. as we started to work together, trip has been so insightful on things like human resources and how to build a great team and to inspire and lead them. -- an amazingan experience for us. trip hawkins and and your paradise. coming up, john chen talks to me about the company's earnings. is blackberry really on the comeback trail? that is next. ♪

>> welcome back to the best of "bloomberg west." i am emily chang. blackberry is it hit right keys with investors.

they had disappointing revenue as cash turned positive earlier than expected. i spoke with ceo john chen. to turn outing positive cash flow before we get to revenue growth. we are going to launch a lot of products. it will come sometime next year. >> new phones are showing progress. you have the passport. tell us about who is buying these devices. how many of these are new blackberry customers? how many are upgrading from old blackberries? >> i think you see a lot of people using two devices. , have a new product year around june. it will make -- i want to convince people to go to one device.

in the case of the cloud space, more uptick from the in-store basin people who have used the 9900 product. the older blackberry product. i think those people will be resonating with that. is mixed.rt there are new users. they come from other devices. there is some win back. there are people who came back. there are a lot of loyalists. is good for current users. -- software sales are up. i am hoping both go up. the one reason that people need to understand and they need to

go into it, i understand the impatience of the revenue thing. it was the quarter that was important for us to clear out our old inventory. year over year, 93% of our inventory was cleared out. pleased with where we are positioned. we have very little inventory. i can't produce the old phones anymore. that is clearing the way to get to the new phones. i'm not concerned about it. the investors have a different view at this point. >> apple and ibm just showed off their apps geared toward the ipad. what do you think? how much of a threat are they? >> that is always something we have to take seriously. we are aiming in the same as space. it is not very deep.

the one thing about their collaborations, they are very much on a proprietary system, the iphone and the ipad. that is nothing to ignore. solution, we have business solutions, are more open oriented. they can be run on any device. we can manage all of those devices. the partnership we strike is broader. i think we're going to continue -- to stay open. >> what are the chances we see another acquisition in the next six months or so? what area of the company do you think could be bolstered by another acquisition? that is certainly something of interest to us. another we have the ability to

generate cash from operations, we have $3.1 billion in cash. i shouldn't comment on acquisitions myself. if there is one to be done in the future, i'm interested in the iot world, the internet of things. we have a lot of partnerships in handheld and the medical world. interestede us more in progressive world. >> i know we have talked to you about the internet of things. you are going to unveil the internet of things strategy. what are the chances that we see a connected hub for the home device? not a connected hub for the home device, but something we are strongly interested in and working on.

we have strong connected cars. models, ie of those think it's going to be the maserati. you gave yourself a better than 80% chance of turning the company around. what would you give yourself today? what are the chances? hope we are going to be here to stay. i don't want the headline to be 100%. anytime you say that, you might jinx it. i will give it 99%. how is that? hampton creek, the start up behind eggless mayonnaise just raised any million dollars. -- $90 million. we asked the ceo what he plans to do with all the cash. coming up next. ♪

>> welcome back to the best of "bloomberg west." i am emily chang. hampton creek is hoping to change the future of food. the company behind egg free mayonnaise just raised $90 million from some big-name investors, including marc benioff and eduardo safran. cory johnson sat down with the ceo josh tetrick to talk about the company's plans. >> it starts the basic premise that 99% of what we eat isn't any good at all. it's not good for our bodies or the planet. >> that leaves a pretty big market. >> we want to bring out products

that we have the ability to make better. in the case of mail, how do we make something that is more affordable and has better health . we like to pick products that connect with people emotionally. cook you know, there is a natural authenticity to it. we like markets that are large. we are going to come out with austin next. that should be toward the end of next year. >> i am so conflicted about your business. it sounds like frankenfood. the way you talk about it, it is the opposite. there are natural ingredients instead of processed food. tell me about the conflict. >> let's talk about what it actually is. there are 400,000 plant species. only about 4% of them are researched. but we do is search to the plant. we picked the best of them and

then we use the best of them to make food better. take this cook you know, it is certified by the non-gm oh product. there is no chemical engineering. we are using plants from the open and we make food better. >> why not do genetic engineering and use the best the chemistry has to offer? >> its perception. that is part of the reason. it's important to us we connect deeply to everyone. we don't want to get political about this. we don't need to. we can just use plants. without engineering them, they are good enough. that allows us to what we need to do. >> it's a marketing decision? >> it's both. it's a bit perception and also can we do it without doing that, i think it's good to do that as well. >> the most intriguing thing about your business is the product itself. using notions of how to develop product from the

technology and math world, that's a different universe. choiceyou codify that how you run your business? use datar point, let's sites. is we screen plants. we get all the data and we put them in a database. we have computational biologists and food scientist that take it and bring it together to make better food. the reason we take that approach is i tried a different approach when we first got funded. i thought we would run out of money. the approach was let's order lots of commercially available ingredients like kellogg's or nestle or general mills area let's see if it works. let's see if we can make cook you know with it. i got nowhere. i burned at hundred $30,000.

this was my dream to start this company. we did not get anywhere. what if we bring in biochem and data science? with each discipline we brought in, we got better. if you think differently about it, it's almost as if we didn't know any better. that's when progress happened. >> the you have a roadmap to get stuff on the shelves. ? not yet. we have been fortunate with the retailers that we work with. that is not a part of a we do. we are the number one selling mail at whole foods. that was the first company to introduce the mail. our most important partnership is not in retail. it's with the food service company. appear -- theeals year. the scale is massive.

it's not just about creating template taste better, we went a cost structure that enables us to sell these things at a more affordable price. >> josh tetrick with cory johnson. leaving los angeles, will the adult film industry funded and home after losing an appeal over portrayal of unprotected sex on film. larry flynt is next. ♪

>> welcome back to the best of "bloomberg west." i am emily chang. a federal appeals court has upheld the los angeles longer wires adult film stars to wear condoms in movies that are shot in the city. the industry claims it violates free-speech rights. it seems to be having an impact.

l.a., there film has been a 90% decline in the number of x-rated productions in the city. matt miller spoke with larry flint. >> we're going to appeal it to the supreme court. i've been there five times , it's still a good batting average. as far as the photo shoots themselves, as token with all of the adult houses in the city. they are either doing it in mexico or canada. there are other venues were you can go shoot. it's not really increasing their overall budget during if they go to mexico, they do two to three weeks instead of two or three days. the whole thing about this is

the public is not getting the truth about this. this is not protecting actors from disease. it's an orchestrated effort to try to shut down the adult industry and this is the way that they are doing it. when all the testing that we have in los angeles for the actors that star in these films, you would be more likely to get a one night stand the new wood from being a born star. porn star. we have had half a dozen cases of hiv. compare that to the national average. >> some companies are playing ball. vivid uses condoms and a lot of its films. >> we have done marketing

testing with this. so have all the houses i know of. is, whether reason it's a psychological thing, people do not buy films or the actors are using condoms. larry, how much are people buying anyway? i recently asked a millenial about foreign viewing habits. she said it should i ever buy anything? or you can download it on cable or get it off the internet. that's true. doing why publishing is poorly and the dvd businesses doing orlie. there will always be a market for born. delivering matter of a quality product to people. ynt, first amendment

advocate. that does it. you can catch us monday through friday. see you next week. ♪

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