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tv   Best of Bloomberg Technology  Bloomberg  June 17, 2017 6:00am-7:01am EDT

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♪ emily: i am emily chang and this is the "best of bloomberg technology," where we bring our top interviews from this week in tech. tim cook opens up about apple's par ambitions for the first time. more from our exclusive conversation with the apple ceo about the company's focus on autonomous tech and the push into cars. thomas takes an indefinite timeout. why the ceo says he takes a break from the company he
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cofounded and what it means for over ahead. uber ahead.eans for l.a. e you to e3 in first to our lead. after years of speculation, apple is finally lifting the hood on the car ambitions, focusing on the technology that makes autonomous driving possible. for the first time ever, apple ceo tim cook spoke about apple's car ambitions in an inclusive interview and discussed the company's outlook on china. tim: china, for us, we make our decisions for the long-term and so we are not investing for next quarter or next year. we are thinking about many many years out and as i stand back and look at china, i see the megatrend there -- i see megatrends there that make china an incredible market. i don't just mean a market to sell in. i'm -- i mean a market for
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application developers. we have 1.5 million application developers in china now come up probably closer to --, -- china, probably closer to 2 million. it's an incredible marketplace for talent and the size of the marketplace. kinds of economic moves up and down, i don't get too excited about. emily: how realistic is it to expect double-digit growth for apple to continue in china? tim: i think i said last quarter that i think we will do better this quarter than we have the last several. that doesn't mean that we are growing double-digit or that we will grow. it means it will be better for a year over year than the previous ones. i feel pretty good about that. i feel -- ifo 7 is the most popular smartphone in china.
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our year, the size of business was almost $50 billion in greater china. we are going to stick at it because i think china is a huge opportunity overtime. emily: how would you characterize tim cook's apple versus steve jobs's apple? tim: i guess i would point out that steve's dna will always be the dna of apple or certainly as long as i am ceo and i think as long as anyone is, honestly. i think it is deeply embedded in the company. obviously, things evolve over time in some other areas as they would have if you were sitting here interviewing with you today. clearly, i am sure, there are some things, but that is probably a better question to ask somebody that worked for both of us. emily: you said cars are an area ripe for destruction -- disruption. how important is it that apple not miss out on cars?
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tim: i think there is a major disruption looming. not only for self driving cars, but also the electrification piece. if you have driven an all aectric car, it is actually marvelous experience and it is a marvelous experience not to stop at the filling station or gas station or whatever you want to call it. plus, you have ridesharing on top of this, right? so you've got kind of three vectors of change happening generally in the same timeframe and so, as we look at it in what we are focusing on -- what we talked about focusing on publicly is we are focusing on autonomous systems and clearly, one purpose of autonomous systems is self driving cars. there are others. we sort of see it as the mother of all ai projects.
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it is probably one of the most difficult ai projects actually to work on. autonomy is something that is , thatibly exciting for us we will see where it takes us. we are not really saying from a product point of view what we will do, but we are being straightforward that it is a core technology that we view is very important. emily: you are working across so many platforms whether it is tv, the watch, the ipad, the mac, the phone. what do you see now as your vision for the part -- future of personal computing across all these platforms? tim: they are all built on the same core technology, but we have thought through how they are used in the experience that is needed to get the best experience for the user in each of the cases. out of that came watch os, tv
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.s, mac os we begin -- we think that when you begin to merge, the risk is the lowest come -- comment denominator kind of approach -- lowest common denominator kind of approach and i am staying away from that. that is our view and we are straightforward with it. , we wanted to give an update that amazon was joining the tv app and all apple tv's later in the year and we will have more to say about what we're doing in that area later. i will keep you in suspense a while, there. emily: that was our exclusive conversation with apple ceo, tim cook. our interview with cook's commentary and research notes shares ofeditors -- tesla were downgraded in may and the concerns were reiterated after hearing the interview.
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called meve publisher to discuss carmakers having to make room for apple. >> i think eventually it could lead to the apple car that we have all been thinking about and hearing for five years, different rumors. in the near time, it is more likely to lead to collaboration between apple and current carmakers, similar to what waymo is already doing. i do think you could easily see a world where just like our phones are almost all either androids or apple phones, we could have a circumstance where our car technology, especially the autonomous versions are all powered by apple or google-based technology and operating systems. emily: as apple potentially goes to market, do you see them partnering with a manufacturer, licensing technology to a manufacturer, or more likely, coming out -- coming to market with a car of its own? karl: probably all three in
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sequence. i think they will partner with an automaker and help them power their own autonomous vehicle eventually they could become a final producer -- a final holder of car design that the automakers make for them, essentially making the automakers a tier 1 supplier for apple. emily: there are two mobile operating systems that are dominant, ios and android. the you see the same for cars or more? : that's a great question. i think we could end up with more at least initially. i would guess we could end up with somewhere between 5 and 10 at the initial stages, but it down tot kind of peeled maybe two or three kind of like our phones are now. i think that is likely what we will see in the next 10 years. emily: apple is pretty far for all we know when it comes to cars. this is something google has been working on for a long time.
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can apple really catch up? karl: i think they can because it is not like the hardware situation. if you've got the brain trust and the focus on the technology side, you can get there pretty quickly. you have to be careful how you do it. you don't want to take information from other companies already working on things. we know some other players are claiming that is what happened to them. i think apple has been working on this for years and they have changed direction on how they want to execute it, but i don't feel like they are starting on -- at ground zero. they have a lot under their belt. negativeter a month of headlines and serious investigations into harassment, uber ceo and founder takes a step back. we discussed the fallout. ticket inhottest gaming. we hear from the nintendo theident and take2 ceo from e3 conference in l.a.
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this is bloomberg. ♪
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♪ ceo -- founder and ceo travis kalanick is taking a leave of absence from the company. the board will move to diminish his role by giving the ceo -- some of his response abilities to achieve operating officer, a has beenfor which uber actively recruiting. he wrote a memo to employees and 2.0 toor over -- uber succeed, i need to work on travis two point become the leader this company needs and that you deserve." a managing partner at greenbrier partners and former head of communications at uber bent -- gave their reaction -- and -- gave the reaction to this news. >> it all sort of began with susan ballard, the software
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engineer at uber who wrote a blog post detailing her sexual allegation -- sexual misconduct allegations and the general culture. it culminated in a public report of the conclusions of today and this past sunday of more private and exhaustive version to the board of directors. and now travis is stepping aside at the same time, so clearly taken aback by some of the results of the report. emily: more than 20 employees have been fired as a result of this investigation. taking ananick indefinite leave of absence. what is your reaction to this news having worked there and knowing travis firsthand? >> i think today is bittersweet for a lot of employees. it's great news for the company overall. emily: why? >> while there are hopefully a lot of things coming in the future. we want the company to get back
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on track. we want some of the positive news about the company to start coming out and we will look .owards an ipo that is what the former employees are thinking about. i don't think we can get there until we start course correcting. the flip side of it is travis is wonderful. there are people there who really believe in him. he is brilliant and he founded the company. it is sad for him to be leaving. see early warning signs about the company culture and challenges that might lie ahead> were there any attempts to course correct years ago? >> i think the company has been growing dramatically over the past couple of years. there has been a lot of course correction. the reality is there is over 14,000 employees there now and half of them joined in the last two years. it's pretty hard to say there is a bad culture with 6000 employees that were not there at the founding. i say there have been a lot of changes, but probably most of what we are seeing now happened a long time ago. emily: talk to us a little bit
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about this leave of absence. is travis coming back and when? >> there is a lot we don't know. at first we heard it would be three months and now it is described as indefinite and we don't really understand how the management committee is going to run when they have to decide how much money to invest on autonomous cars and who makes that decision, that is not clear. some of it will definitely go to the board, but i think a lot of people are just waiting for this chief financial officer who has of a mystical figure. whoever that person is, we need them to make these key decisions. i think it is sort of a holding pattern until they can find that person. emily: using travis leaving is the right call? >> i think right now it is the right call. we cannot underestimate how tragic the past few weeks have been for him in the personal toll it has taken. one of the worst things happen to him that we can imagine happening and he needs to take time. emily: his mother was killed in atragic boating accident
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couple of weeks ago. they have been working for this coo for a long time and it has been a difficult search because you have to find somebody who is willing to take the job and someone that travis excepts. hideo think -- travis accepts. who do you think this person is? multinational corporation and me to be looking at fortune 500 companies for the type of leadership and that is probably who we will see coming in to help course correct. emily: do we have any idea of who they have been talking to? >> we reported investors were interested in people like tom staggs, the old ceo at disney. i think that is more reflective of the candidate -- category of person. there have not been any leaks about it. they have been able to keep the search quiet. i think there is an expectation that hopefully this will calm relatively soon, but there isn't
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much i can say and we are all waiting to see. emily: on that note, the executive bench is not very deep as part of the problem. they don't have a cfo, they don't have a coo. >> they needed general counsel. emily: exactly. how do you imagine the organization actually running by committee without people in these key roles? >> i think it is important to look at the uber not as a startup, but a multinational corporation. there's a bunch of department heads doing excellent jobs and making money for the company, expanding to new markets, running the business. i think those people continue doing what they are doing day in and day out. emily: do you think travis will come back? >> i think it is good to look at other companies like uber. at google, we had two dramatic founders that are still very involved. i think that is a good model for what happens next at uber. emily: that was lame castleman lane kasnewcomer --
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selman and eric newcomer. companies like ford, gm, and toyota are asking congress to expand the cap on how many cars can be deployed under waivers from safety regulators. the automakers are also asking congress to clarify state and oversight roles and update vehicle regulations that implicitly require a human driver. coming up, our exclusive interview with london mayor and how he expects brexit do impact of the loveman -- london tech scene. this is number. ♪
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♪ emily: this week, tech leaders came to the u.k. capital to celebrate london tech week, celebrating london's role as a leading global tech hub. sadiq khan has big plans to push for more innovation. caroline hyde spoke with khan
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and asked his vision for the future while addressing brexit and his relationship with president trump. it is europe's largest tech festival and it shows london as a hub for adjuvant doors and innovation. since brexit, we have had companies from facebook to google, snapchat to square announcing record investment in -- and shows the confidence they have in london, but london tech week will see more than 300 events across london, more than 55,000 visitors from across the globe coming to london because they recognize we are europe's tech capital. talk to me about the vision you have for technology helping to adapt london. mayor khan: we got to be smarter and use technology to help deal with issues in the failure of transport and how we deal with
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the issues of climate change, the clauses -- causes and the effect. the global disability, helping those who have issues around disability to have access to better transport and jobs, export -- access to better skills. the great thing about london has been our ability to attract power and venture capitalists and join the dots and -- we have aened plexor, which will be massive connected business campus, the largest in europe making sure we can help startups incubate, florist. it is important for people around the world watching this to recognize the system we have here that will help you florist and thrive. caroline: you are also hiring new team members. mayor khan: what i have learned from other great cities around the world, we see what new york did and chicago and others and what i advertised for is london 's first ever chief digital
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officer because we need a chief digital officer whose focus is making sure we are better connected, focus on making us smarter. how can we use open data to allow the private sector to pioneer? how can we make sure the local authorities across london use public services provided ?echnology with got to learn from others. why do you think the concerns around brexit haven't put off entrepreneurialism in london? mayor khan: i don't want the world to think because we voted to leave the e.u. the country that we are going to stop being open-minded, outward looking, that somehow we will change and become inward focused and the world must recognize that is not the case. theon was the one region in
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country that voted to stay in. one of the things i am doing is negotiating with the government a different deal for london if we trend -- london. in the meantime, we will be open to talent, innovation, aspen doors -- entrepreneurs. we are open to different backgrounds and different ideals and that will not change. the key thing for us is to make sure the wrecking -- the government recognizes the immigration deal. otherect that people in parts of the country voted to leave the e.u. and one of the concerns was immigration. parts of the country do not want immigration. london voted to remain in the e.u.. immigration and want it. london will recognize --
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if they want us to carry on being a success story, we need to attract talent. caroline: are you able to do this in the current political environment? -- i aman: i am host hoping theresa may and the cabinet recognize the results. the company rejected a tory -- the country rejected a tory brexit. the government is going to recognize that because otherwise they will be forced with the consequence. the consequence is not good for anybody. the consequence is businesses are not choosing to come here and it is not good for the government or london. caroline: you were just referencing an old adage that was david cameron's. mayor khan: being in london is a
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full-time job. i am not sure of other people's priorities. i do not have time to deal with tweets from trump. the moment theresa may decided to invite donald trump on a and offer him the red carpet i said was wrong. wrong for a number of reasons. wrong because of his views and wrong because of him changing the long-standing, well respected policy of the usa relationship to refugees. at the time the red carpet was not the right thing to be rolled out for donald trump. emily: that was london mayor sadiq khan with bloomberg's caroline hyde. general electric shares rose in tuesday's session after the company announced jeff is stepping down as ceo. he will be replaced by john flannery, ending a 16-year tenure in which he dramatically
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reshaped the manufacturing powerhouse. flannery encouraged his staff to finish what his successor started. >> we've got a track record we can be proud of and a window into the future where we are going to be better. we got to build on our strengths and make sure we are more -- known as a execution company and deliver for our constituents especially customers and employees and shareholders that end the company -- own the company at the end of the day. we are the vehicle to get there. emily: just last month we spoke to ge's cfo who, with these changes, will become vice chairman of the company. hear what he had to say about the big picture at ge. >> we are a global company. we serve global customers. we have a global workforce and that is the company we are and that is the company we are going to run. up, bloomberg publishes an exclusive reports
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that russian hacks on the u.s. voting system could be wider than previously known. all episodes of bloomberg technology are wide streaming -- live streaming on twitter. this is bloomberg. ♪ . .
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which is why comcast business delivers consistent network performance and speed across all your locations. fast connections everywhere. that's how you outmaneuver. "best welcome back to the of bloomberg technology." i'm emily chang. additional plans to tighten monetary policy despite concerns over weak inflation. is more costly to real in and how will it impact the tech ecosystem, specifically venture capitalists? -- however that trickle down how could that trickle down? trumps the macro. capital or fed rate
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hikes is a lot less important than things like do we believe in the team and the vision? they can build something that's going to create new habits for people. almostsoftbank raised $100 billion, but there's so much capital buildup in the system, how does that change the competitive landscape for you? is really theoney latest stage companies that are going to be affected. almost a substitute for the public offering. at the earliest stages, it's impossible for a covenant of the $100 billion $1 million or $2 million or $5 million in a time. emily: do you see an impact on valuations longer-term? >> over the next few years, we continue to see the fundamental of the micro.
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the team in the equality and idea and technology changes create new disruptions, this one be a much bigger impact on valuations and opportunities than anything else. emily: you are the first venture investor in snap. snap shares are near their lows. can they fend off this competition from instagram? using innovation the pipeline -- do you see innovation in the pipeline? emily: snap has continued to focus on its vision of being a camera company and that idea of additional functionality through lenses is, ar, something that continued to push forward to the public offering. they made it easier for companies to spend money on them. advertisers are spending more ways and easier ways to spend money on.
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those are two important factors that will continue to drive the value of the company. their user growth issues, especially abroad. can they really accelerate user growth and if so, how? >> evan has been consistent talking about a focus on the developed world markets where the opportunities for advertising are the greatest. emily: you and i last spoke when we were trying out snap spectacles. you were sharing your pair with them. they haven't really gained the traction some people expected. what are your thoughts? >> at the time evan characterized the spectacles as a toy. you should think about it in the context of a camera company. it will make more experiments and tried to figure out different ways to engage with users. i think you're going to see more interesting product launches
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ahead. emily: when it comes to other exciting consumer facing investments, that is your focus. are you seeing opportunities out there? are you seeing the next snapchat? or is there a drought in terms of the pipeline? >> we believe consumer technology has become popular culture. because of that, the key driver is not the technology itself but rather, the insight into behavior that can precipitate a new company. we are seeing that disseminated not just from silicon valley but companies with those insights in new york, los angeles, anywhere in between. i've been to arkansas to visit companies, i have been to illinois, i've been to tennessee. one of the things we are excited about is the democratization of entrepreneurship.
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it is easier to build an app now. or to set up an e-commerce site. it is generating a new wave of interesting companies. emily: life speed partnered with apple on its foray into original content. it did get mixed reviews. why should viewers give this show a shot? >> one of the things that is compelling is that for this new generation if you are in chattanooga, tennessee and you in building an app you don't have a good view into the silicon valley ecosystem. what sort of questions you might be asked. how you should be thinking about market size of competition. the last 20 minutes of each episode gives people a view into what it is like to engage with a venture capital firm. we made investments in more than a dozen companies and it gives people an opportunity to watch exactly what those conversations look like. where did we asked for questions
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for more information? , where were we ok with the risk? for an entrepreneur trying to raise capital to realize the huge opportunity, it is going to give them a dry run as to what that is going to look like. emily: that was lightspeed venture partner jeremy lou. in washington, u.s. attorney general jeff sessions testified before the senate intelligence panel about the firing of former fbi director james comey and the investigation into russian hacking in the 2016 presidential election. this is what attorney general sessions had to say about his participation in any collusion. gen. sessions: the suggestion that i participated in any collusion, that i was aware of any collusion with the russian government to hurt this country, which i have served with honor for 35 years, or to undermine the integrity of our democratic process is an appalling and detestable lie.
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relatedly, there is the assertion that i did not answer senator franken's question honestly at my confirmation hearing. colleagues, that is false. emily: bloomberg reported that russian hacking during the u.s. presidential election was far wider than previously reported, with the voting systems of the 39 states hit by cyberattacks. jordan robertson covers cybersecurity. he joined us from washington. jordan: a lot could be made about jeff sessions' refusal to answer almost all the material questions put to him, but we did learn a couple of really critical things. for one, for what may be the first time, a trump administration official has acknowledged that russia tampered with the election in a pretty critical way. but at the same time, attorney general sessions said he never received any briefings regarding cyberattacks on the u.s.
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infrastructure in 2016. which is remarkable when you consider he would be the person responsible for prosecuting and charging any potential perpetrators behind those attacks, if they were arrestable. emily: jordan, you have been reporting on this russian hat ck into the u.s. presidential election. you say that 39 states may have been compromised. talk to us about the extent of what you learned. jordan: this is a pretty big deal. as we reported today, as many as 39 states across the u.s. had indicators of compromise, showing that portions of their electoral systems were infected by the same russian group responsible for attacking the dnc and hillary clinton's campaign. these were not all statewide systems. some of these were county systems, some of these were local systems. but that doesn't mean they weren't important. in fact, some of those local and county systems are the most
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important electoral systems you can have in a state, because those are systems that actually run elections. the big point is this. the previous number we knew, with systems in 20 states reported by nbc, now we know it's as many as 39. the real question for us as a country is, how do we know how deeply these attackers have burrowed themselves into our electoral system? the fact is, we don't know the extent of it. unfortunately, the government doesn't know either. that is a pretty scary prospect considering we are going into another election cycle. emily: on that note, do we have any evidence to show this actually affected the election results? reporter: we don't. former fbi director james comey testified previously there's no evidence the hackers actually changed votes in this election. but we do have evidence out of illinois, the canary in the coal mine that alerted the government
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to the ongoing hacks, that in that state the attackers tried to alter or delete voters' names and addresses. that is a big deal. if you tinker with enough of those data fields, and people go to try to vote and they are not in the voter rolls at their precinct, they will not be able to vote. or if they can, they have to vote on provisional ballots, which takes forever and creates chaos at the polls. the idea of tampering can take many forms. it is pretty apparent that the hackers in this case were experimenting with a few different varieties of how to tinker with electoral systems. emily: coming up, it's game on this week in a leg. sexre going to e3 with a from nintendo -- with executives from nintendo and take two. this is bloomberg. ♪
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emily: instagram is trying to make it clear to users when influenced her post are paid ads. it will let the social platform to tag a brand within the post. they confirm the relationship, it will be marked as an added. a handing tested with full of celebrities and will be rolled out more widely offensive -- more widely if it is successful. to the biggest videogame conference of the year. e3 is underway. among the biggest announcements, the xbox one x. and nintendo in particular stirring up serious competition unveiling pokémon and metro for the switch.
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we talk about the outlook for the gaming industry. >> we've got a great lineup of new games coming. coming for the nintendo switch console. a brand-new franchise, arms. we are going to be hosting a tournament here at our booth. the highlight is a new super mario game. the lines of been around the booth and consumers have big smiles on their faces. things are going well for us. emily: there was a lack of third-party gaming announcements. should we expect other games to be announced later this year? >> we announced here a number of different games for nintendo switch. we have a new game coming out this summer. there is a franchise we have announced a new addition coming later on this fall. we've announced well in development a new metro game. game.roid
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we have a wealth of games. plus great third-party games from ea and bethesda, a lot of content coming not only for nintendo switch, but for nintendo three ds as well. emily: why stay in the race for the fattest, hottest console in the market? competitors think it's all about processing power and beautiful graphics. nintendo believes in fun. to playe grandparents with their grandkids, and are content focuses on a fun and enjoyable experience. for us, the technology is a small part of what we deliver. we deliver smiles and we deliver fun. mobile gaming continues to be a big growth driver for you. what are the lessons you learned from mario on the iphone?
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>> is interesting. super mario run on the iphone and android, we are selling this application and games that have never been able to enjoy nintendo content before. countries like india, china, korea. all of these markets are enjoying this application. mario is reaching new types of consumers. we also launched a game called fire emblem heroes. this is a game doing exceptionally well, continues to be in the top of the charts for android and ios. what we learned is how to bring our content to smart devices effectively, how to monetize it, and that bodes well for our future efforts including our next application, which will be in the animal crossing franchise. emily: apple ceo tim cook visited japan last year. how did that go? >> it went incredibly well. this visit happened as we are
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doing the planning for the launch of super mario run. we had our key game developer they are at an apple conference about a year ago. what we have been able to foster is a strong relationship with apple, with google and android as well. we offer these marketplaces a type of content that consumers love, that consumers have fond memories of, in terms of the electoral properties. that is important to them. that's important to us as well. emily: when can we expect mobile games to be a majority of nintendo's revenue? >> great question. today, the vast majority of revenue is driven by our dedicated games business. mobile is one of two other key platforms as we think about our growth. the relationship we are doing with other companies in the broader entertainment space,
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like universal studios, is going to be important to us. i would say what we are doing with the licensed merchandise area, like the shirt i am wearing enables consumers to show off their love for i.t., then important growth driver. area, these are all of the different areas nintendo is going to drive revenue and profitability into the future. emily: you have more than $8 million on your balance sheet. do you plan to use it on m&a? >> it depends on the opportunity and how we can do something that would structurally add value to the business. we have been a highly profitable company. we are sitting on some cash. we are not eager to make any type of move. to the extent it can help us drive our strategic focus areas there is the possibility. emily: what about virtual reality? we talked about this over the years. how bullish are you want the are now -- on vr now?
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>> here is what is interesting. i would say the amount of vr content this year is dramatically down. we have said all along that virtual-reality needs to be fun and social. it hasn't and able to do either of those things yet. in our view, we think that augmented reality is potentially a more interesting space. obviously, pokémon go and what that did in the augmented .eality space that was important to our company. we are continuing to look at these technologies. in the realm of virtual-reality we are continuing to evaluate , whether or not this is going to be an important trend for the consumer. emily: that was nintendo america president from e3. up, more coverage from e3, the ceo behind some of the biggest blockbuster video games in the world joins us for an update. strauss telik from take two is ahead. listen on the bloomberg radio and in theerg.com,
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u.s. on sirius xm. this is bloomberg. ♪
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movie and tv studios continue to be disrupted by digital entertainment, videogame companies have come through looking like winners. take two is handily outperforming the market. we caught up with strauss nelnet and asked exactly what is driving video games stock. >> there are a couple of things driving the growth. the first is the promise of the business is beginning to be translated into the reality of how these companies are doing. the promise has been interactive entertainment is the most rapidly growing part of the entertainment's nest. -- entertainment business.
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and has been for some time. with a cohort of consumers that is 37 years old on average, only skewing slightly more male than female, there's growth ahead. we have the explosion of new gen platforms. we expect that to nearly double in the next few years. the launch of nintendo switch. and most importantly, the ongoing engagement of consumers in between big releases. what we call recurrent consumer spending. consumers are only buying big video games now. they are staying engaged in the products they love. we and our competitors are able to monetize that engagement. emily: some of the biggest announcements at this year's e3 -- microsoft's new powerful console, the playstation 4, how are you positioning yourself for these announcement? >> the machines are backward compatible. they are effective for titles that are tailored for them. they are also playable for titles already in the market.
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every time there is more technical room for our creative artist to express themselves they are excited by that and we pride ourselves on making the most immersive quality experiences in the business. having a more exciting and deeper canvas on which to paint is always good news for us. twoy: big news from take was the delay of red dead redemption 2. what is the reason for that? >> we are always trying to put out the highest quality titles. while it is difficult to slip a title, when our teams feel more time is required to deliver the best possible experience, that is the decision that is made. it has paid off for us over and over again. we are in the business of delivering the highest quality titles to the market.
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emily: nba 2k continues to grow, but there's a chance ea is going to bring back nba live this year. how concerned are you about renewed competition? >> we are always looking over our shoulder. we don't take anything for granted. i'm fond of saying arrogance is the enemy of continued success. our nba title nba 2k 2017 is the highest rated sports title of new generation consoles. we are really proud of that. our current consumer spending is up 70% year over year. there's a lot to be proud of. our development folks will also tell you there's a lot more that we can do, and we believe the title coming up this fall is going to be nothing short of extraordinary. emily: you and i have talked about the prospects of virtual reality over the years and you , have taken a wait and see approach. what are the biggest challenges
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that you see that remain to virtual-reality going mainstream? >> i think i'm an outlier in expressing some concerns about whether virtual-reality would be an appropriate market for the entertainment business. it is there he exciting technology for military uses, for health care. for entertainment there is some challenges. we put out a title for vr, we have the nba experience and the market is still small for us and our competitors. the market is still small for us and our competitors. if there is a market, if consumers want the our experiences we stand ready and have the technical abilities to bring those titles to the market. i am skeptical. emily: why are you skeptical? >> there are any number of issues with regard to what is
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currently the vr experience. the fact that the experience is solitary, it can create with those in the industry call discomfort. the rest of us call it nausea. there are all kinds of problems associated that make it somewhat inconsistent with the way people consume entertainment and specifically interactive entertainment. 's ceo that was take two zelnick. it was the highest ratings for an nba game since 1998, the second-most streamed nba contest with an average audience of 500,000 viewers. the only other nba game with a larger streaming audience was the decisive game seven final of the 2016 season. that does it for this issue of
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"best of bloomberg technology." tune in every day, and her member, all episodes of "bloomberg technology," are streaming on twitter. that's all for now. this is bloomberg. ♪
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oliver: welcome to "bloomberg businessweek." i'm oliver renick. i'm coming to you from the magazine's headquarters in new york. in this week's issue, apple ceo tim cook talks about doing business with president trump while western union finds itself in the crosshairs of the white house. then, fallen hedge funder phil falcone is making new bet on vietnam. all that ahead on "bloomberg businessweek." ♪ oliver: we are here with

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