quest consumer inflation rising. prices remaining sip do. -- prices remain subdued. yahoo! shares surging after it was confirmed it will scrap plans to spinoff alibaba. and under pressure from ofestors who are tired

waiting for the company to turn around. the bank of china has raised $17 billion. the move coming ahead of the planned ipo. wise, aarket composite adjusting inflation numbers up by one third of 1%. .his is the picture there we go. a volatile number. sentiment.t changing the nikkei is off by 1%. an hour. in half time for bloomberg west. emily: i am emily chang and you

are watching "bloomberg west." cisco hopes a push in the cloud will move for bigger profits. and what would you invest in if you are one of the richest companies on earth. i set down with a man who runs a venture and of the company. first to our lead. a decision that could define the legacy of the troubled internet startup. yahoo! is bailing on plans to sell its stake in alibaba and will look at the plausible sales of its web business. yes, the stuff that makes yahoo! yahoo!. joining me now is cory johnson.

we have an investor in yahoo! and alibaba, and a managing partner at a venture firm. also, the former ceo of the huffington post. corey, i want to start with you. what do we know? cory johnson: they have decided not to go forward with the spinoff of alibaba. this was the great hope of shareholders. alibaba is worth so much more than yahoo!, the spinoff could happen in a way that would give shareholders of core yahoo! and a share of the spinoff, and therefore not be considered a taxable event. shareholders would therefore not have to pay for the capital gains. as a result, the taxable problem was left a mystery by the irs. the irs would not grant yahoo! a promise that shareholders would not be taxed.

shareholders looked at it and said i don't want that if i am going to have to pay attentive taxes on it. so they are cutting off the head to keep the body. emily: mark, as an investor in both companies, what is your reaction? what are you going to sell? mark: we are actually buyers here. we like yahoo! we like alibaba. we like the long-term story in alibaba for their commerce and business in china. i think this is a nice development. this moves them closer to more of a $.10 model. they can spinoff the core business and realize cash that way. we think there is a lot of unlocked potential here that could be freed up by making a

good decision. emily: eric, how about you. as an early investor and former ceo of the huffington post, which was bought by aol, what do you think about this idea that they are going to sell off their main business? eric: it makes a ton of sense. i should've actually predicted that when the irs refused to rule on the taxpayer initiatives. we are talking up to $10 billion in taxes. this decision, if it turns out to be true, is the right one, because without being able to see the value of the remaining business, the core business, what three remaining in yahoo! is ownership and alibaba, yahoo! japan, and maybe some other assets. it's the only way to do it

without incurring massive tax liabilities. emily: is this an admission of defeat for melissa meyer? cory: this is been a very slow way to come to this conclusion. the irs would not tell them there will be no taxes. that means there are going to be taxes. after all the time with investors, and they hired experts from around the world to help them go through all possible outcomes, you would not expect them to come to a decision a lot faster. they have been slow to do this, but the web business is worth something. i don't know what. if you want to go 2.5 times operating profit, it is probably worth $2 billion. the cash we can value as cash and add it to the alibaba assets. as a stand-alone business, it

might be worth something. the problem is it is rapidly slowing down and his weakest in the places it needs to be strongest, most decidedly mobile. emily: let's talk about that. gene munster of piper jaffray was on recently and said yahoo! made a decision to push forward as a tech company when marissa mayer came on. we think it's a media company. listen to what he had to say. >> yahoo! made a decision to be a media company. in our -- to be a tech company. in our opinion, they are a media company. i think that's the point where it has been difficult for

yahoo!. they need to get back to their core. how would we feel about yahoo! as a standalone if they got back to their core content? we would be excited about that. if not, we wouldn't. emily: the huffington post was bought by aol. for ryan might be -- verizon might be a buyer of yahoo! news core business. what do you think yahoo! becomes? >> they are a website with hundreds of millions of eyeballs that should be run as a media business. there is no need -- they need to run it as a media business, determine who is the audience, what kind of content they want. you have to look at it as a media business. i have been associated with yahoo! from the days of the ipo. are we a media company? are we a tech company? are we a media company with a tech arm or a tech company with a media arm? they could not make up their

minds. today, it is definitely a media company. this is why verizon potential he wants to buy them. they have the pipes to deliver content. emily: mark, you said you guys are buyers. would you buy more yahoo! or more alibaba? mark: we took a position of a few months back and it has been a nice return for us, which was the swap where we went long on yahoo! and shorted alibaba against it. then we felt the opportunities were too strong for alibaba, so we swapped that short.

i think we are at a decision point. we probably would be neville spurs here and start to increase the state -- nibblers here and start to increase the stake. any time you can lie an asset for less than its intrinsic value, that's a good thing. if you could have the ultimate, which is run this company like a $.10 model, use the core acid as a war chest to build the content and the thing the guys were just -- use the core asset as a war chest to build the content, and the thing the guys were just talking about, that could be a good thing. emily:, ceo of morden creek management, and our editor at large cory johnson in new york, thank you all for weighing in. now to another developing story we are watching, spotify may be close to a concession with music labels.

they are going to allow some authors to make service -- the move comes with artists like taylor swift withholding albums. i recently spoke with the ceo of the adams factory and an early spotify investor. take a look at what he had to say before spotify made this decision. >> i don't know if spotify needs to get over the taylor swift problem as much as it is people have to see the future. you know because free already exists. it's a flawed argument when you say i don't want my music on any service that offers free one free already exist. emily: is taylor swift wrong? is she on the wrong side of history?

>> i want say wrong, but it's a flawed argument. emily: maybe, but now spotify is giving taylor swift sword of what she wants. a former talent manager for lady gaga will be on studio 1.0 tomorrow right here on bloomberg television. coming up, cisco switching strategies. we will explain, next. ♪

emily: cisco is changing course. replacing collaboration tools that sack. their words, not mine. the move follows a similar one from microsoft to add voice calling and conferencing features to its cloud software. the space is crowded. here with me to discuss is the general manager of cisco's collaboration technology. you guys said they suck. why? >> people experience this all the time with meetings that don't start on time, inability to connect with people. the legacy technologies are not that great. we have seen a total revolution with cloud and mobile over the last few years. we are moving everything we do into the cloud. we are expanding into the cloud. emily: you have had growth. why would you compromise that? >> it is not compromise. we think we can accelerate. emily: does it make you more vulnerable to startups? >> no, they can buy our cloud service. we have a free version as well that will now include calling.

you can plug in a phone. we have conferencing devices. that part of our business is growing strongly. our customers are saying we want the complexity to be gone. we want to get it from the cloud. emily: i am going to elaborate a little because we use a lot of your services here, and honestly, a lot of them leave a lot to be desired. what are you doing to improve things on the software side?

>> part of rise of -- why the business is growing so strongly is because we have made huge improvements in the quality of the experience. to move beyond where we have been, we had to step into the cloud in a big way. that is where the business is. we have web conferencing, telephones, and videoconferencing. these things are not hosted in the cloud. there is software infrastructure in your business. by putting all of that in the cloud and redesigning the experience, we think we can totally transform it to make it magical. emily: what do you think of a company like slack that is giving away collaboration software for free? >> we're doing the same thing. cisco spark is free. this is an incredible trend. whether it is slack, spark, or any of the companies in the space, it is transforming the way people communicate on a day

in and day out basis. e-mail was a terrible way to communicate. i think everybody knows that. is this messaging is a much better way to communicate. -- business messaging is a better way to communicate. emily: so why spark over slack? >> we want to not just message people with text but see their faces, have conference calls, to voiceless communication. that is what we have. you can hit a button and be in a live hd video call. emily: you wanted to be like 90% that have video. >> 100%. emily: how? >> one, make it affordable. two, make the whole experience affordable. over the last year, we totally refreshed our endpoint product lineup.

we won eight product awards for industrial design and user experience, and our video business is booming. by the way, we increased revenue when we reduced the price. emily: ok. well, i hope it gets better. thank you so much for joining us today. later on in the show, we are going to get an update on the cisco-ericsson partnership. also coming up, david's as loft runs one of the largest cable companies in the world. what is he doing to stop cord cutters? ♪

emily: amazon is upping the ante in the battle for court cutters. today it said it would offer programming from channels like showtime and stars for as little as $8.99 a month. today's announcement indicates that streaming video is more than a hobby for the retail giant as the company battles both netflix and hulu for market share. the deal could also lou or new subscribers to the $99 a year prime program. -- lure new subscribers to the $99 a year prime program. discovery is expanding and growing its international exposure. we asked the president how he sees the cable business evolving. >> we are seeing subscriber growth throughout latin america, eastern europe, and big parts of asia. western europe and the u.s. for the last two or three years were flat. the u.s. started to turn down a little bit.

for the first six months of this year -- nine months -- we started to see down a little bit. for a time, it felt like it was going to be down 1.5 percent. 98 million or so. the question was was that a blip or have we made it to? the answer is we don't know yet. we haven't seen it yet because there is a three or four month lag before we actually get paid, but in the last quarter, there were some increases. household formation in the u.s. has been at it all time low. we don't know if this is a just asian, if it will stabilize, or if it will turn a little bit.

-- if this is a gestation, if it will stabilize, or if it will turn a little bit. the best thing for us is tv everywhere. tv everywhere is a product where, as a consumer, you can get anything you want from your cable balks. the commercials are in there, and they are measured. -- cable box. the commercials are in there, and they are measured. comcast is a leader in that. we launched a new product called discovery go. it's nine channels.

if you are a cable subscriber, about 30% of the u.s., you can download and watch our nine channels. you can watch them on a linear basis. you can watch a number of shows. it's early days, but we developed a relationship directly with the consumer. >> we saw nbc taken interest in buzz feed. we saw disney and hearst taken interest in vice. >> we are doing it ourselves. we bought a digital company in san francisco and we built it up. we have 92 channels, 300 million streams a month, which is about 70% of what device is. it's all categories, exploration, science, adventure. it aligns with our brand. right now, we are making a little money or breaking even, but it is a big millennial generation, and we think we can continue to grow that.

eventually, we will have enough scale to be able to monetize it. when i look at the u.s., the key that differentiates us is we have done the majority of our distribution deals in the u.s. we have double-digit or high single digit guaranteed. we have 14 channels, about 12% of the viewership in the u.s., and almost all of our distribution deals are done it double-digit. even if viewership declines, we will have growth in the u.s. almost no matter what. emily: walt disney is doubling down on digital media, boosting its stake in vice to $400 million. the company will use the extra money for programming and expansion.

the deal is valued at $400 million. up next, our exclusive interview with ge ceo bill maris discussing their new strategy. ♪

>> we are seeing signs of stabilization and inflation rising more than a affected. due tovegetable prices an unusually cold winter. number wasr price down 5.5% after a year of growth. hoursemical surging after after talks to merge. the deal isn't finalized that could by next tuesday.

it would be the second biggest chemical company and lead to a breakup. china is widening the state sector. $96merger will combine billion in sales. the company will come out of the deal -- in extendeds trading, they will scrap the long planned spinoff of its stake in alibaba. marissa mayer has been under serious pressure from investors and those tired of waiting for a turnaround at the company. it is a day when we have seen a lot of red across our screens. of selling. a lot

still a switch out here in hong kong. quite a lot of the selling coming through in taiwan today. they are having a hiccup following the fact that we had actually seen some losses over the last couple of sessions. some goodespite machine numbers coming out for the month of october. australia seeing that commodities rally, down half percent in trade. a pickup in the region and oil and gas, and some bargain hunters moving in on those stocks that have been heavily hit over the last couple of sessions. a weaker oil price helped. and all six ipo's reaching the

price limit of 44%. down in hongng kong and china at the top of the hour. emily: i am emily chang. china has no domestic player in the game. we have nearly $2.5 billion and what can you tell us on the latest on this? >> this is another example of escalating bids for semiconductor companies and we have seen deals.

what will they do with the money in the new era? joining me is the ceo, in person. what is behind the evolution of the strategy? guest: out for that has -- alphabet has changed things and we thought it became important to become gv to remind people of the past and move forward. emily: what does larry want you to do? guest: about the name? emily: you are your own separate entity. guest: we get into the details of micromanaging and how you can do those things. emily: do you feel like you have newfound freedom or autonomy in the structure? guest: we have always operated independently and we hired our own team. it is business as usual, apart from a new website. emily: your interests are not

aligned with google. your interests are aligned with entrepreneurs. why should entrepreneurs go to gv? guest: i would rewind that. the interests are aligned, in the sense that we are utilizing and working with the people at google and the other alphabet companies. we lean on that a lot. it is important. emily: we saw a third of your investments in science, data. what do you want to do more and less of?

guest: it is hard to tell, in advance. life science and health care will remain important to us. i suspect that it will be, in terms of numbers of investments, a top category. emily: let's dig into life sciences and the kinds of life-sciences you are prioritizing. are you more or less interested in digital? guest: we look at a full spec from from diagnostics to therapeutics, to payment systems. emily: one of the areas that is evolving is a gray area the fda could regulate in the future. it is risky and it could be a

breakthrough. guest: innovation always front runs innovate -- regulation. no one wants to live in a world without the fda. when you have a partnership with a company like 23 and me, you see a great outcome. it is an area of disruption we want to invest and we encourage the entrepreneurs to work within a framework to make sure the innovations see the light of day. emily: you are not afraid of the investments, is that what you are saying? guest: that is right. there is always a want to err on the side of safety and transparency. that is how we encourage the companies. it is not that different than drones. the faa wants to find a way to

regulate. nobody wants to live in a world where there is no regulation on drones or there are no drones at all. 23 and me is a great example. they were shut down for a couple of years for their project. there is a lot of work that needs to be done behind privacy and how to store genome information that can be used for patients. emily: what is important is liquidity is frozen. the number of ipos is lower this year. do you have any concerns about over funding? guest: in general, yes. not so much with life sciences. so much happened and it will change the entire health care landscape. emily: like what? guest: the convergence of technology with health care.

we can now decode the genome. 10-15 years ago, it was not even possible. there are a range of companies that will remake this. guest: it is hard to come by now. not just life-sciences stop what is the approach their -- not just life-sciences. what is the approach there? guest: the exits are the product. you will find great exits if you hold that point of view. emily: a stand-alone venture fund for this area, you are going head-to-head with them. it would be interesting to partner with them. guest: we talked about this and look at it side by side and not head-to-head. we talked about investing $200 million a year or more in life science this. -- life-sciences. we would love to have them as a

partner. emily: any other firms you would consider syndicating deals with? guest: polaris. we have worked with great funds in the past. great partners. emily: how do you see the valuations and trends differ from the enterprise trends we might understand better? guest: you can go into a garage and create an app in 18 months. in life-sciences, we are not there. these companies take longer, raise more money, do significant things, but it takes phd's and people who have invested their careers and something new. it is not as heated and competitive. guest: all right. we are going to continue the conversation after the break. we will get an update from the ceo on the partnership later on. ♪ emily: tomorrow, do not miss a conversation with the ceo of

qatar airways. we are back with the ceo of the former google ventures. what makes yahoo! yahoo!? guest: marissa has a tough job and it is a tough problem to solve. not having worked there, it is hard to know what to do. it seems to me the public market undervalues the core business and i know that marissa is incredibly smart, having worked with her. low expectations help. they were high when she entered and the lowering of expectations may help. emily: why'd you think it is

undervalued? guest: i have respect for the ad engine. there are a lot of great people there. i would not underestimate that. emily: doubling down on yahoo! as a technology company, some say this is the admission of defeat that she could not execute her strategy. guest: i think it is too soon to tell. it is easy to play armchair porter back and everybody has a magnifying glass. time will tell. being a technology company is not a ad that debate. -- not a bad bet to make. emily: what do you think happens with marissa meyer? guest: she is young.

she has had an incredible career, so far. i would want more time to execute and i think she has faith in her team. as a longtime user of the homepage, i know there is a lot of incredible content there. i am not as negative as everyone else seems to be. emily: what does yahoo! become? guest: a good question for marissa. emily: private is why we are seeing a lot of companies not go public. you are focusing on mature companies. what is the advice ongoing public? guest: the pendulum has swung. as the internet company ceo, i saw a carnage of companies going public too soon. the pendulum has gone the other way and companies could well be public entities are deciding not to. there is a happy medium.

there is pressure, rigor, and discipline that comes and can be valuable. it is underestimated, in some cases. emily: they went public at nine dollars a share and it was below the valuation they raised. why do you think it was a success? guest: there was a fund-raising round and they underpriced the expected range. it could have filled a book.

there is a market of liquidity's for the employees and the shareholders and it has established them as a public company and a brand. emily: uber, gv is an investor. is it dangerous? guest: it speaks to the expectations and the impact it is having on our lives. you can use it as a public service. emily: any concerns they will not live up to the valuation?

guest: they have a lot of work to do. if they do not live up to the expectations, the company will get hurt. i know the quality of people they are hiring and i have a lot of confidence in that. emily: what about companies that are in the red for the violations they got? guest: you see people who invest in the public market investing in private companies and there is a surprise that they are being treated like public companies and they are being

market down. that will cause some entrepreneurs to because his. emily: we have a conversation with mike morris about why sequoia has no women partners. >> we have women working in the china business. why is this the case? high schools. women, in america and europe, they tend to elect to not study sciences when they are 11-12 and the hiring pool is smaller. emily: you think it is a pipeline problem? some say you are not looking hard enough. >> we look very hard. we hired a woman from stanford

who is as good as her peers. we are not prepared to lower our standards. emily: what is a reaction to that? guest: i think he cares about these issues and i would not jump to conclusions on that. i think we can all do better. we have one female general partner at gv. emily: why? guest: because we are not good enough. it was easier to find men. that is not a good answer. emily: he says he does not want to lower the standards. is there a double standard in venture capital with a higher percentage of women, 80% have degrees and 61% of men have them. men can be hired on potential and women have to prove themselves. is there a double standard? guest: i think so.

everybody has biases. i think it is a fact that women are treated differently in the workplace and, at google, names with female names were treated and evaluated differently, versus if they had male names. we all have these biases. emily: what are you doing about it? guest: we are not hiring general partners right now. the next general partner should the a woman. -- be a woman. emily: we will hold you to it. guest: please do. emily: thank you for stopping by. ♪

emily: cisco and ericsson are in a partnership to increase competition. they stopped short of a merger. it has similar aspects. here is how it is working so far. thank you for joining us. why not a full merger? guest: this is a next generation strategic partnership to get moving from day one. to have the leader of transport networks and the enterprise networks that combined with our mobility is where we want to go for our customers to come across this. we want to do it from day one. emily: what are you doing to grow with the equipment business slowing? guest: we will add more value.

i went out earlier to media events and talked about a slow transformation we need to's heat up. we think we can speed it up and it will lead to new revenue opportunities. emily: what do you do to pick up slack? guest: today, we will reach one billion subscriptions and, if you look at the 2021 edition of the mobility report where we can say we are reaching the subscriptions, i would not say it is finished. it just started with the capacity. emily: i was speaking with bill marist about the lack of women in venture capital and you are working to create a more equal workforce and making a big commitment.

guest: with 116 employees, it is key for us to get women in leadership positions and in high positions in the company. we have a goal of 30% female in the workforce. it is an aggressive target. emily: how big is the company? guest: 116,000 employees. emily: how difficult is it to find women? guest: it is not about that. it is about making people interested outside and we are focusing on a transition with leadership teams. my own leadership team is 35% women. emily: glad to hear that you are doing that. thank you. that does it for this edition of bloomberg west. we will see you tomorrow.

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