cory: shares of linkedin heading higher. ♪ cory: i'm cory johnson, this is "bloomberg west." ea reports that the videogame company continues with news of a blockbuster new franchise. silicon valley was not the only game in town of self driving cars, general motors is ready to make it a race.

first, linkedin shares jumping after hours after a strong quarter. they reported revenue of $780 million. linkedin raise revenues for the year, saying they will taken $2.98 million on topline earnings, fueled by stronger demand. james, when you look at these numbers, i feel like i don't pay enough attention to this company because it does so well so often. guest: essentially, what we saw this quarter was then able to move past a lot of the challenges we saw during the first half of the year during the salesforce reorganization. on top of that, the accounting issues. they were firing across all cylinders.

they expanded relationships. on top of that, the sponsored updates, which is their mobile advertising. putting that together, it was an encouraging quarter. cory: that salesforce reorganization was interesting because it didn't seem like they were having a lot of issues. the ceo just decided that he needs a cleaner grasp on what is going on. guest: yeah, i would say, it wasn't -- it is something that they have done every year. the issue was the magnitude of the reorganization they did. the issues they had were not on retention, but the ability to upsell products. you are putting your sales in front of new customers. it illuminated their ability to expand.

as they strengthened those relationships, got more comfortable with each other, the customer account is now around $40,000 and growing nicely, now you can leverage the enterprise as well. it seems a lot of the issues -- they have moved past them successfully. cory: sequential growth of users, pretty good. they said in a press release they were already at 400 million. guest: the number rates, 400 million, compared to facebook. clearly, they are doing something right. one thing to keep in mind, this is not a one trick pony. you had recruitment and advertising. on top of that, you had the ability to get in front of sellers. this is something that i think will be on the desk of every salesperson in the world because

social selling will be increasingly endemic to the sales process. cory: let's talk about their main business, getting companies to use it linkedin. it is really growing. the company is 10 years old. a group 46% year-over-year. is that about the salesforce reorganization working? guest: it is partly attributable to that, because you are segmenting salesforce into different types of accounts. smaller, faster growing, slower growing and getting the right people in front of the right accounts to drive greater wallet share. now, you have lynda.com.

that has not been talked about that much, it is something due to them and they paid a lot of money for it. it caused a lot of accounting hiccups. as you think about hr function and automating a lot of the things that hr has to do, on top of that, putting those products in front of professionals to boost, that is something that can become a new growth lever in its own right. cory: let's talk about marketing solutions. this is a business that publishes stuff, people go to linkedin to read things and it is maybe important with people using it more often, 20% year-over-year growth in publishing, i have for it for a long time, if you were to the magazine you would kill to see that growth, what are these guys getting right the most media companies are not? guest: in one word, native advertising. their sponsored update projects.

think about your newsfeed within linkedin. these are advertisements that look like content and that is incredibly engaging and very much conducive to mobile. that segment is half the revenue at that point. the reason it is not growing faster is because you are seeing the headwinds on the display side. secularly, desktop displays have fallen. it is only 15% of their business now. as you see mobile eclipse that along with their new product which changes the whole b2b marketing, that is a segment although impressive, can it maintain? cory: really quick, i want to ask you about messaging. you had a intriguing comment

about linkedin, china to get us to think of them not as a jobsite but as a message inside. guest: what they are doing right now is changing the way you interact with each other on linkedin, new messaging tools, new collaboration tools. as we think about the companies that are successful in social right now, are the ones that really optimize for communication. you can see that with facebook and you are seeing it with linkedin. as you think about the future of linkedin, it is increased communication and collaboration in publishing as a destination for reading things that are all things this and is related for whatever interests you may have. so that is really what i mean about the messaging and collaboration aspect that i think is underappreciated.

cory: fantastic. great to see you. good stuff. the new york times reporting that theranos restructured their board of directors. they have created a medical board for additional advice. a board of directors, board of counselors, and a medical board. interesting stuff. coming up, ea gets a boost from fifa and madden. project balloon lands next year in indonesia, next. ♪

cory: sports games. ea said monthly average users for madden and fifa up 30%. those monster games could get

some company. a new star wars battlefront game are hitting the stores in november. they could sell 13 million copies. shares are down a little bit after hours. joining us now to discuss ea, the founder of digital world research. when you build a business, when you look at the world of games, is ea the company where you want to be? >> yeah, they have been incredible on the gaming space here not only through console games but mobile development. they are the one of the top five publishers in mobile and in regular gaming. cory: fantastic. we have been talking about this company for 15 years. they went through a fallow period but the stock went up 215% in two years. it seems like they have fixed a

lot of things. what stands out the most? >> of the sports titles are alive and well and they are driving online usage, which has been a bugaboo for them. with the advent of the playstation 4, and these guys are clearly riding the coattails. cory: when you stand inside of the ceo's office, there is a giant screen, i giant monitor not showing a game but all the statistics about what is happening on online games, wait times for customer service, and it lets in see this in real time with a cool info graphic. is that focus on customer experience winning? >> they really had to get that right.

it had been a problem for them for several years. they have gotten it right input a keen focus on it. the star wars beta did not have that many problems, they had tons of people playing it, and it is a great experience for them to use it during the game launch. cory: i want to get back -- let me stay with you on star wars. the star wars numbers were really incredible in terms of people trying the beta of just a tiny part of that game. i wonder beyond that, what does that tell you about sales? >> there is no question that this is one of the largest ip in the history of entertainment. there have been 10 million people who have watched the advertisement campaign with the guy jumping out of the office building on youtube. they raised the numbers to 13 million and that is still probably conservative.

29 million ps4's, you can take in a ratio of 15 million and upward. cory: there was criticism a couple of years back that ea was not doing enough in mobile and online. they recategorized results to make those numbers look a little bit bigger. when you look at these guys and what they are doing, what their -- what are they good at? >> they have been really incredible -- they have a lot of titles apathy have an incredible job monetizing that. they have been able to constantly create great titles that people love. you see companies like zynga that have faltered a bit over the past couple of years. cory: when it comes to game

play, how are they doing? you don't need fancy graphics to make a game good. tetris proves that, candy crush. but it seems like in gameplay, it must be working. >> yeah, i feel like they do have great graphics but also the user experience of the game and a lot of loyal users, you can see in their sporting franchises, every time they release a new fifa or madden it always goes to the top of the charts and they have a loyal fan base him on the titles that they have. cory: i want to change here and talk about what is going on with nintendo. what is going on? there is discussion about a mobile app expected today being pushed off again. >> if you look at nintendo historically, it is not the right experience they want to have. they have 32 games that tanked

because of the gaming experience. it is not much verizon the history of doing this and it sets up for a calendar in 2016 with mobile games in 2017 to be that much better and to have a partnership with [indiscernible], have more time to be fully backed before they have time to show games. cory: and not really a company that is known for doing a lot of partnerships, too. >> yeah. i definitely agree with that. one thing i would point out, a lot of people in the industry were confused on why they didn't go with the mario franchises. i would like to see than pushing for mobile next year for what they are really known for. cory: i have to ask you one last question, over your left shoulder, is that vinyl? like lots of vinyl? >> that is lots of vinyl. the analog world is still alive and well in some pockets of america. cory: i thought you were a digital guy.

it is digital world research that he has vinyl. thank you very much, both of you. developing story, alphabet. their growing dominance of mobile computing and represents the unification between two software platforms. dividing lines have been blurred. google announced plans last month to run a tablet running android with a tablet also doubles as a laptop. he planted dated the you the new operating system in 2017. staying with alphabet, getting ready to blow up balloons. project balloon is alphabet's plan to give the world access to the internet via balloons in the stratosphere. the president of the project will get its test next year in

indonesia. currently, one in three people are connected to the internet in indonesia. coming up, tightening the race for self driving cars, next. ♪

cory: american automakers have been dreaming about self driving cars since the days of franklin delano roosevelt but lately, silicon valley looks like it is close to making that dream into reality. google and tesla have been leaving detroit in the dust. we take a closer look at what general motors will do to tighten the race. keith, first of all, terrific story. i encourage everybody to check it out. you get a sense that gm sees itself as an innovator, a company that knows how to build cars better than anyone. guest: they are trying to live in both worlds, showing that they are veterans and experts are car building. as i interviewed mark royce, he used the word disrupt 14 times. he is trying to speak the language of the valley. cory: that sounds irritating, actually. guest: they are certainly in a race with google and tesla and apple.

what they are trying to do is be an innovator in driverless cars when the share at the moment is with google. cory: google -- i was down there a couple months ago and they took the presentation secretary around and gave him a ride in a self driving car. what is it about google that makes them seem like they are in the lead? guest: when google talks about what it is doing, it describes it as a moon shot. the cars they are showing, it has no steering wheel or pedal. they are going the full monty. they don't want drivers at all. whereas, gm wants to do incremental improvements, one step at a time to get us to autonomy. that is the contrast. two very different models.

cory: the top of your story gets at that, quoting the gm guy saying, i like driving cars. i interviewed the ceo of maclaren at the pebble beach car show. i said, are you ever going to do a self driving car? he just laughed. two carmakers fundamentally believe that anybody will actually want a self driving car? guest: mark royce, who loves to drive and race cars, believes that eventually we will have mostly a car sharing economy and that we will be driven and that cars will be for hobbyists. for a race car drivers on the weekend. they do see the change coming. if gm sticks with their model, they will be out of business. he wants you business with google rather than against them. cory: tesla has a beta release

is something they are calling, self driving-ish. there are some scary videos that show people using it in ways they were not supposed to. it makes me think of the ethical issues for the builder which is, you have to assume that your users are not always going to be smart, they will do dumb things. in a world of self driving automobiles, does that leave room for dumb users? is it better? guest: the ultimate would be if the user was not involved at all, that is google's point. robots will drive more perfectly than human beings. that will reduce road deaths. carmakers, like the tesla autopilot, still requires you to have hands on the wheel. gm lets you take your hands off the wheel. i drove with mark royce and he put his hands on his lap, and off we went.

that requires a higher level of sensors and technology. they have high scanners and face scanners to make sure you are still looking at the road so they can tell you to come back and he will be ready. cory: there are other things about decisions that cars make that take it out of human hands. you have a terrific story that it's the cover of bloomberg businessweek today. i encourage everybody to check it out. [indiscernible] would realize more cost savings and projected from its acquisition of orbitz. the travel website saw as much as 18% in after-hours trading. that does it for this edition of bloomberg west. we will see you back here tomorrow. ♪

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