♪ emily: this is "bloomberg technology." i am emily chang in san francisco. we are halfway through the year and we have seen a number of tech companies hit the public market. ipo's are picking up globally. we will talk about the current and coming up your landscape. bringing tech to trucking. a brazilian cargo company is

getting attention of silicon venture. first, to our top story, microsoft says it has thwarted an attempt by hackers tied to the russian military to disrupt the u.s. midterm elections. domains.own six web the group is believed to be the groupe, that's believed to be responsible is called strontium. is aat we are seeing pattern that come in many respects, is similar to what we saw in the united they to 2016 when certain campaigns and political parties were attacked. it is similar to the pan we sign , when we saw7 every major candidate for the french presidency targeted. we are seeing it again. emily: to discuss in washington, we have jordan robertson.

and david kirkpatrick here in the studio. what do you make of what microsoft said they have done here in terms of taking over and shutting down these six different websites and 84 such sites over the last two years? >> you have to take your hat off to them. this is a masterstroke of marketing more than anything. it is important what microsoft did. they took out these domains that russian hackers are accused of being behind the 2016 election hacks and the united states. what they actually disclosed today is they took down six kind phishing campaigns. this looks more like preparation.

it is great that companies are taking more initiative and taking down the sides, being more proactive about countering russian hacking. but reading the release, it looked more like a public announcement than a real security announcement. that is not to takeaway from the fact that it is important to take these sites out. this is the kind of thing that might have gone unnoticed a couple of years back. emily: during the interview with microsoft, president rod smith, officials in russia called rush on a witchhunt and rest assured there would be no which is at the end and rush is indeed behind this. if so, isn't it important that these sites have been thwarted? and has a thread on democracy been diffused or do you think this is no bigger? >> i think it is really important. one thing to relay nodes, despite potentially some cynicism on some of these issues, microsoft's team knows what they're doing.

one thing that is rare is that microsoft came out, publicly attributed this infrastructure to that russian group. if microsoft's is that, we should take that hearsay because they know they are doing this is all really -- doing. these are all really good advances in cybersecurity and protecting the 20 team in terms from potential meddling. it should just be noted that what was done today was eliminating potential staging areas for future attacks versus stopping an actual attack. it is great that microsoft and other countries are taking this more seriously that potentially in the past. emily: i did ask brad smith why microsoft is doing this, why more so than other tech companies? and why is it their responsibility and not that of the u.s. government? >> this is a moment in time where we should reflect as a nation and across democratic thatties around the world,

21st century democracy will flourish only we take new steps to protect it. these steps can i be confined to one political party or to people in government. we need to come together in the tech sector come across the tech sector, and in partnership with democratic governments around the world. emily: what do you make of this given that other tech companies you know, so early for enabling these attacks in the first place? standhink microsoft does after the seriousness with which it takes the idea of working with society and government in order to do things that protect society. brad smith is one of my heroes in the industry. he is an unusual person. first of all, he is a rare baby boomer leader of the top level of the tech industry. i think he has more experience than some of these other people. what i found so cool about this is that microsoft has been working under the supervision of a judge with a special master in a court in virginia since 2016.

so they has a mechanism in place with a special master's permission to immediately effectively shut down the sites as soon as they were identified. if you think about the things we order in the keep world at the digital economy under attack and 70 ways, we do have to -- in some anyways, we do have to come up with rapid triage when problems are discovered. like the registration of web don't names, as murder -- algorithmically, is a very smart thing that we have not heard of before. emily: they are offering siefert cybersecurity the think tanks, political organizations -- how effective is this kind of cybersecurity support, if you will, for even local candidates? >> i think it's great. like microsoft brings

tremendous resources to bear on a problem like cybersecurity. they just have visibility into so many parts of the digital universe that very few companies have. orn they approach a local state or county government and offer some of that wraparound protection, that will always be helpful. those services can be quite microsoft brings a unique set of capabilities to it. cup in his are trying to pay more attention to the issues. attacking this stuff before it really happens, microsoft has been a leader in that space in trying to create those mechanisms for blocking some of these attacks before they happen . because that affects the entire user base potentially. trump has made it more rubble to cyberattacks.

revoking john brennan security clean and -- class means someone not have access of the government level. >> how the trump administration is relating to this set of problems, there were hearings today were angry senators and build already's about the administration's approach to this entire set of issues. why isn't the government the one stuff? the ? why do we have to wait for microsoft to do it why isn't the government more proactively saying, here are the threats we are shutting down? why do we have to see private industry doing it. obviously, it is great that microsoft is that it. i applaud it. but the government should be doing it. emily: why is of the government doing it? why have potential government operations crippled by the way this administration is operating? question.multilayered one of the issues we heard from u.s. officials is that there is --eal disconnect between

historically, the federal government and the states and local agencies that run these elections. since 2016, a large number of state local officials have gotten security clearances they need to talk to organizations like dhs for the fbi and get classified information. but here's the trick with that. when an investigation is classified or indicators compromised are themselves classified, it makes it difficult for the government to scherzer pieces of information. you do this from federal officials all the time, caught between iraq and a hard place in terms of what you share. do you expose certain methods in relation certain data. it took dhs more than two years to formally acknowledge that the majority of states in the u.s., 39 was the number we reported, were targeted by these russian hackers. a big reason for that was more than half of those states where currently under investigation that were classified. it prevents aerial -- a present zero can under for the government as to what they will

show the states. that thath adding to this is not confined to the united states by any means. is research in a number of places, notably in toronto, that have identified scores of countries where the russians specifically are attempting to ,onduct electoral interference whether using facebook, phishing, using false domains. the government is incredibly aggressive and incredibly effective. we have to figure out new ways of combating that globally. whether this was effective marketing or not, do you think this is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the in thethreat right now u.s. midterm elections and other electoral processes around the world? >> absolutely. we will see a lot more of it. microsoft's announcement shows there will be a lot more of this heading into the 2018 midterms in the states. everywhere else as well.

we spend a lot of time focused on voting machines and russian hacker votes. totally valid conversation. but where the russians excel is at these information operations. if you get somebody to give up their him out password and you can donald the contents of the gmail account onto the internet, that is a highly effective operation. you don't have to hack a single all.g machine at these are low-risk, high reward operations and there's no reason for the russians not to engage in more of them. hats off to microsoft are doing a great job and getting some of these domains not down. we will see a lot of those security companies try to do the same thing. that theremore signs will be threats to these elections here and elsewhere. much. thank you so david kirkpatrick, you're staying with me for more

discussion morgan stanley has removed its price target without giving additional details. on top of all of this, tesla -- smaller firms say they have not been paid for months according to "the wall coming up,nal." president trump is speaking out in response to russian meddling in the election. how facebook and twitter continue to navigate choppy waters. news, like bloomberg check us out on the radio, listen on the bloomberg app, bloomberg.com and on years of sirius xm. -- and on this is bloomberg. ♪

emily: after combating its own verification, facebook has begun a credit rating of its own users. it is assigning scores on a scale of zero to one of user trustworthiness. after noticing some users have been putting items as untrue. the move is part of a broader initiative to moderate its own content. this after president trump told reuters that self-regulation by media sites is very dangerous. mars -- tocuss is davidhis kirkpatrick. but i wasst token, saying that i agree with

microsoft using algorithms to identify new domains being created that need to be shut down right away. this is the same kind of proactive work. unfortunately, we have to see it happen more and more the internet. given a must everything facebook is doing these days, you have to question if it is for pr, for effect? do i generally agree that they should be doing it? i absolutely do and you know i can be plenty critical of these people. we have to try new means to use every possible way to keep these systems as safe as they can be. reading people's credibility makes sense to me. emily: the way facebook is doing a article. users flag fake content. it is obvious that users will abuse that system. what is the solution here? >> i actually think it is a , if someoneto say

regularly reports something as fake news or false and turns out to not be false repeatedly, then their credibility and reporting that should be lower in the future. conversely, someone who is regularly identifying something that really does have to be taken down, that is the kind of person who should have marketability. they need to find tools, in a system like 2.2 5 billion users, they have to sort through the wheat from the chaff. and it is very hard. at the same time that president is continuing to beat the drum that social media site should not be in the business of relation at all. he called out twitter for shadow banning a prominent -- shadow banning prominent republicans. we've heard about how difficult it is and twitter does not have the resources of facebook. so you get what you get. >> i am sympathetic for the way jack dorsey has been handling it. i do think there is a feeling of

arbitrariness to the way that facebook and twitter, to some extent, have been acting, although twitter seems more consistent with the language jack has been using. president trump says is "very dangerous" that these companies are shutting down any voices, that's not the way i think it should be viewed. the way it should be viewed is it is very dangerous that we have systems that have emerged in society run by for-profit corporations that are effectively where speech is happening in society. . that is the problem we need to address at emaar must that adding -- at a much more macro level. we need policy here. we need the companies to participate in policy. and we need voices, citizen voices in civic society to get involved, too. in anwas an advocate op-ed this week saying we need a citizens council of some sort to help these platforms regulate

what is and what is not allowed. that is creative thinking. we need more of that creative thinking. it is way too opportunistic and short-term and essentially meaningless to criticize facebook for shutting down alex jones and not looking at the bigger picture. atly: meantime, looking facebook user activity, we see the plateau. this is daily active users in percentage of monthly. it is a stunning flatline. at the same time that facebook is try to navigate these very seeingissues, we are saturation on the platform. >> it would be interesting to know, which only facebook could tells, which they won't, whether that plateau has to do with basically less content being available that is truly incendiary, which is the kind of thing people are mostly to click on and keep them engaged. this is the devil's bargain that

facebook and twitter having gauged themselves and by the design of their services. they created systems where they effectively benefit in activity where people respond with fear or anger. that is one of the fundamental problems we have to get a grip on and that facebook did not truly anticipate when they designed and grew the service in all geographies, no matter what. i don't have a lot of sympathy for them. i think, to some extent, when it comes to investors, it is buyer beware. zuckerberg and his team have been very clear in the last earnings call that profitability is going down and growth is going down. that is because of many of the very smart and necessary actions taking. it may be connected to that. analytical and facebook shares have not recovered from that $100 billion wiped out in market cap post earnings. now it is down again. david kirkpatrick, thank you for joining us. >> did to be with you in studio.

uber streetg up, fleet is going as it finally ceo in- hire is its three years. what does this mean for the ipo? this is bloomberg. ♪

amalie: after three years, uber has announced its news ceo. chai will help guide the ride-hailing company in its public offering. finally cross this task office to do list. chai? is nelson >> a very experienced, wall street bank executive, who worked at the parent company for the new york stock exchange,

getting stock exchanges electrically trading on the internet, and then moved over to merrill lynch survived the financial crisis,. merrill lynch sold to bank of america. morris -- really, he has been a warranty company that sold. emily: why did this take so long. -- travispernick was kalanick was there for three years. >> he came in in september and reinvigorated the search. in the beginning, it seemed like you wanted to report -- recruit, excuse me, a female cfo. that did not happen. he made public remarks saying they would try to develop women from inside the company and not try to get the sugar high of recruiting senior female women necessarily. talks withot into

the and where cfo. that fell apart. it's been a challenge to recruit a top candidate. now they have a cfo. they have a chief operating officer. they brought a tiny westerly, so they have a chief legal officer. a lot is getting filled out. they just hired a chairman of the board. they have some vacancies on the board they need to fill. but they are getting close. they might need a cmo still, but a lot of the bench is getting filled out. emily: another story just crossed that uber is paying out damages to 56 of its employees over sexual harassment issues. >> yes. but it is a super small settlement or person, somewhere just above $30,000 ahead, i think less than $2 million overall.

most of the people who are involved in that class-action are accepting that settlement. so it is resolving some of the fight around uber's toxic corporate culture and coming together with a relatively small settlement to close that out. emily: this income about 500 email minority engineers areging pay discrimination getting paid as part of another class-action suit. >> movers problems are everywhere. not surprising to see them -- problems are everywhere. nasa prizing to see them try to close us out. emily: the market for high-end fashion -- going public on the new york stock exchange. a look at the ipo so far and ahead.

this is bloomberg. ♪

emily: this is "bloomberg technology." i am emily chang in san francisco. we are halfway through the year and we have seen a number of tech companies hit the public markets. all these are making their debuts if the pace holds, the number tech ipos in the u.s. will have returned to levels not seen since the tech ipo miniboom in 2013 and 2014. then there was the drought. how will the rest of the year play out? joining us now is ipos leader. you set down and said you spent the last several months just trying to tackle this market. what has been so unique about

the last six months in particular? in particular has been exceedingly active. we have been waiting for this to come back. the last couple of quarters have been exciting. are definitely seeing technology companies themselves and tech enabled businesses in general really, really igor -- eager to get out. been in a strong economic market for a number of years and everybody wants to make sure they access this window emily: will it continue -- window. emily: will it continue? jackie: q4 will be busy markets for us. emily: this market has been going on for so long that conditions have not changed outside of that hiccup in 2015. why are these companies deciding now is the time when i think that to last year, the year before when everyone said it would be next year. what is different? jackie: valuations were high at the beginning of the year. there are now almost backup at this level.

folks are saying what is the chance this will happen again. markets are great. i hearing it from a lot of companies watching their competitors. >> are we talking recession concerns? jackie: i think there is a little of everything. they said the economy is strong for so long, can we hold on. we are talking about hitting the longest running history. there is a feeling of will -- will the market be this good a year from now? emily: 2019 is the year of the unicorn. what do you mean? we ask, when are the unicorn's coming. i think they are coming in 2019. emily: uber and air b&b? we work with a lot of those companies and they are really preparing themselves. a lot of talk about the dynamics. interview wep an

did with a venture capitalists in february. talking about how venture -- because of the competitiveness they have hesitated to put pressure on companies to go public. take a listen to what he had to say. >> hyper competition has made it so that the majority of the biggest fears is missing out on the next investment. to have afraid reputation of someone who asks too many questions or pushes too hard. it has led to a situation where there is not a lot of stewardship for discipline and results and that kind of thing. emily: are we in that same state? >> it seems like folks are coming to a reality check. you have people coming to the realization that that comfortable space in private probably are not pushing you to get public or it is not the same scrutiny of public markets. that dynamics is changing.

he was in last week at our players tech conference and he was happy you and out and is ok with the scrutiny. that is a very different message than that very different message for silicon valley three years ago. emily: who knows of 2019 would have been the year if travis was still in charge. nope, we will do this by 2019, we think. what is the role that you see venture capitalists actually playing an encouraging or a hands-off approach? jackie: i think investors play a significant role and many are encouraging their companies to look at if they are ready to go public. especially those were they have been in the deals for 7, 10 years. many of these unicorn companies is starting to reach that range. managementallenging to dictate -- to be ready. we do ipo readiness assessments where we say, are you ready to operate like a public company? that functional readiness

combined with a strong growth story, which management owns that, especially leadership, can you execute on the strong story and operate a predictable business? if those things are in alignment, yes, you are ready to go. talk about theto tesla part of the story and elon musk saying how hard it is to be a public company ceo china take tesla private. -- trying to take tesla private. most investors have given it zero chance of happening. zero. alex: we still do not have a plan from musk. you have to have a plan, something that goes to the board to be considered. right now it does not seem like there is in actual office of -- offer specifically on the table. that could change but it has been so if -- it has been so interesting because he is touting ideas that private companies that struggle to get touting, no are fault at the bottom line. investors have become more

sensible about profitability and musk has gotten a near full. emily: is it an anomaly or d.c. this issue having a broader impact? -- or do you see this issue having a broader impact? jackie: companies are at a certain point of maturity that they ought to be able to run the predictable business. they have growth stories that they can communicate to the market. companies that are going through changes and dynamics, sometimes they take a pullback and that is not a bad thing. i know a lot of people have said, why is it taking so long for them to get out? the reason is because they are trying to figure out how to operate like a public company before they go forward. emily: i want to flag an interesting method. ipo's 350 million. if you think that to 1999, it was an average ipo size of 105 million. the maturity level of these companies is different than it

was a couple decades ago are we have the last tech ipo boom versus where these companies stand when they go out. emily: at the same time they just raised $400 million at a valuation. i just recently sat down for an interview and stewart butterfield said he is in no rush to go public. he said that is the most likely outcome, but will we see more of that too. jackie: we are really fortunate ,n the united states especially. how robust are private and public enterprises are up it we attract more companies from around the world than any other exchanges around the world. we have robust private equity, venture capital, large corporate to created venture arms and the list goes on and on. just individuals who are willing to make investments. i think we are going to continue to see funds pumped into private and public this year. alex, i knowry own

you will keep us posted. trucking industry is getting a shakeup from a company being compared to bloomberg. our conversation with them is next. this is more. ♪ -- this is bloomberg. ♪

they brazil they are used to dealing with systems that are handwritten. if you companies are attempting to disrupt that industry with a goal to -- trucking. uses technology to link drivers to companies in need of shipping. has 7000nclude -- and drivers registered. backers include goldman sachs, george soros and the founding cto of uber. they're also finalizing a $60 million series defunding round in new york. to tell us more we have cargo x ceo and founder. thank you for joining us. as i understand this comic you connect drivers with excess capacity with companies that need things to be shipped. travers get paid more money and

shippers pay less. how exactly does it work? a basically we are building n electronic platform. that driver is on his or her own track. we enable the frieder -- the freedom of the driver to choose where they want to go and which load they want to pick up. on the other side, we enable the shipper to work with a trucking force, which is the owner operator. in a way we are enabling the .arkets capacity at the end of the month, the trucker separating the platforms make more money and the shippers are decreasing the trucking costs. and we add interest in the level of service. they have real-time looks at the operation. emily: your focus is on brazil

now, what are your plans to expand? federico: we have been operating for just over two years. today we are one of the largest trucking companies in the latin american market. the main operation happens in because it is our fourth largest trucking market in the world but we are moving loads to argentina, paraguay and other countries. uber, you canke also run into government regulations. i understand the government there has now instituted a minimum freight rate in response to a trucking strike. had he plan to navigate some of these regulatory issues? federico: the difference with uber, i would say we are more like this for trucks. we are not building a new industry. a very antiquated off-line

industry the has existed for a long time and we are bringing technologies that already existed. bringing those technologies into this industry to make it more efficient. the regulations apply to the whole industry. 70% to 80% of the brazilian economy is moved by the trucking industry. of like we adapt to the regulations and we are always working in line with the government. mainnt to achieve the objective of cargo x, which is into -- which is to improve the life of the truck driver, not the company, but the driver. with the regulation, the brazilian and the government or any government will adapt and work with the governments together. the good thing about this, there in the government implemented some regulations. the purpose of the regulation was to improve the quality of life of the trucker.

which is our objective. you have 7000 drivers registered. you do have a competitor that has 550,000 drivers registered. their office is only 10 minutes away from yours. what you have on them? federico: we would prefer to talk about cargo x. you're talking about active drivers moving freights across the country. what i can say is that, with 7000 drivers today, the amount of drivers in revenue, we are one of the largest trucking businesses in the latin american region. we are going beyond brazil. something about competition. i believe that any company that has at the main target to improve the quality of life of the owner operator, which by the way, moves the brazilian economy and most of the domestic economies across the world, they could be our best friend.

if our role target is to improve the quality of life of the trucker. what we have seen in the world, take alibaba for example, there are massive companies building technology platforms to improve the lives of the s&p, or the population. the person does not have to work for corporate in order to make a living. cargo x ceo. thank you for joining us. hastime, one tesla investor a big dream for the company, even as some question musk's leadership style. i have spoken with the ceo who said he would absolutely be furious if anybody tried to get rid of elon musk. he spoke to bloomberg and had this bold suggestion on who musk could bring in to help. >> it is the perfect person. >> dream big. >> literally. tesla, if tim bought

that logistical expertise is exactly what he did for steve jobs. it is like a perfect match. emily: cisco is reportedly in hot water over firing practices. we will talk about that next, this is bloomberg. ♪

emily: singapore's food delivery its verys rolling out own advertising services. it will be incorporated into vehicles and over 200 plus cities in southeast asia were drivers and delivery partners can earn as much as 10% additional income. they will have three categories, including mobile billboards, digital displays an in app advertising.

cisco is in the hot water over some of its hiring practices. company allegedly discriminated against u.s. workers by favoring immigrant visa holders for job openings. this according to a new report from bloomberg law. i want to bring in chris, reporter at bloomberg law who broke the story. what was cisco doing here? allegations ofo discrimination. first the labor department investigators are saying the company favored foreign visa holders over american workers for jobs at the company's headquarters in california. number two, they are saying foreign workers that they hired then paid less than american cisco employees. emily: cisco says visa holders are paid on the same as american citizens. that everyone who works for cisco is paid fairly for the job that they do. that cisco evidence did otherwise?

chris: this was part of a random audit done by the labor department's audit of federal contract compliance program, which is essentially a government watchdog over contractors enforcing an executive order that bands pay discrimination in the workplace. they performed these audits, they look at records and based on those records their reach conclusions. in this case, the investigator said there was enough information from that data to issue two notices of violations. those notices are currently being discussed in a sort of settlement. is one of several ongoing investigations into possible discriminations i theral contractors against visa holders. what else do we know about these investigations? chris: this is the first one that we know about in which the a contractor discriminated on the basis of visa status. we'd do know that the dol is looking into similar allegations

at a similar number of contractors. we do not know who those contractors are. we have seen that the dol has taken a specific interest in tech companies, especially silicon valley companies who have been getting in on the federal contracting game. it is safe to say that they are looking at those companies and they are currently embroiled in pay discrimination cases based on race and gender at oracle and google. they are continuing to look at tech companies and they will start, and already are looking at the visa question as well. emily: is there any influence from the trump administration? chris: it certainly fits into the overall goal of the administration to crack down on immigration to bring back american jobs. it is ironic in that it comes at the same time, a month or so after the trump administration asked for 61 h two b visas for low skilled

workers. they have requested those for the mar-a-lago property. some folks are saying they are having a hard time squaring those two things. on the other hand, it follows the rhetoric we have heard from the trump administration all the way back from on the campaign trail. emily: chris with a bloomberg law. thank you for that report. xiaomiartphone maker reports results wednesday in hong kong for the first time since going public in july. the company has raised 5.4 billion dollars by selling investors on its promise. of being a high-growth internet company. some are losing faith. bloomberg's chief north asian correspondent stephen engle has a preview. more than a month after its billion-dollar debut in hong kong. xiaomi is still trying to convince investors it is more than just a handset maker. a high-growth internet company facebook, alibaba

or tencent is what they want you to believe you in a 70% of fromue comes from's -- selling smart phones. investors need more convincing as it has traded lower from what many say was an overpriced ipo. the quarterly results will give billionaire chairman another chance to sell his narrative of oflding out its system services, like video, music, financial offering. china will also ramp-up offerings to overseas market. with global smart phone demand on the wave against the backdrop of an escalating trade dispute with the likes of the united shortageiaomi faces no of challenges. stephen engle, bloomberg news, hong kong. emily: we will be checking xiaomi's report. that does it for this edition of "bloomberg technology." coverage withore xiaomi's results along with alibaba later this week. this is bloomberg. ♪ retail.

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