emily: imm bleach and in san francisco. this is "bloomberg technology." more evidence of hacking and attempts to metal in the u.s. midterm elections. facebook and twitter have discovered it accounts linked to russia and iran. they warned of an attempted hack into their database. earnings report from two newly public companies in tech firms -- in tax -- in tech. we will discuss. as elon musk basis great need sec, can you--

hold onto the ceo rank at tesla? first to our top story, the democratic national committee contacted the fbi tuesday after it detected what they believed is an unsuccessful attempt to hack into it but her database. the fed facebook and twitter removed hundreds of fake accounts aimed at manipulating global policy -- global politics. the that was this time, another country has been implicated. iran. shut downaid they pages that you originated in a ron and took down an undisclosed number linked to the russian military. mark zuckerberg described the finding a call with reporters. >> we believe the groups and accounts were two separate campaigns. including from iran from ties in the state-owned media.

second, a set of activity the u.s. government and others have publicly linked to russian military intelligence services. we have been investigating some of the campaigns for months highlighting the tension in the reinvestigation removing bad actors quickly and improving defenses overtime. emily: for more, let's go to washington where our cybersecurity reporter is standing by. jordan, let's talk about the facebook is due -- facebook issue. what you make of the fact that iran has potentially been implicated here in broader plans to metal in u.s. politics? here is thatkeaway this is a good sign for organizations, facebook and others taking active measures and the steps to eliminate these kinds of disinformation accounts . this is not a great sign.

what it shows is that we all continue to be vulnerable to disinformation on the web. especially on media platforms such as facebook. the organizations do these things because there is no value in them. going into election season, we need to be vigilant about things that look suspicious online. it might deserve further scrutiny. is there any evidence that these campaigns were specifically designed to influence the midterm elections or to just show general misinformation. it is hard to tell. it is a little bit of both. this is still election season so whether these are campaigns designed to influence a particular congressional district one way or another, that remains to be seen. we are not seen from the data release. what seems to be a parent is that election season is kind of high tide for the organizations and attacker groups to so their information -- disinformation

campaign. this is when people are assessing their own political views and taking their information. it makes perfect sense this be the time of those attacks -- this would be the time of those attacks. emily: mark zuckerberg took a similar refrain and said security is an arms race. take a listen. >> security is not something you ever fully solve. our adversaries are sophisticated and well-funded. we have to constantly improving to stay ahead. the shift we're made from reactive to proactive detection is a big change. it will make facebook safer for everyone over time. emily: facebook discovered these pages acting on a tip from a cyber security firm and we certainly know they bumbled their response to the 2016 meddling. is china doing this as well? could north korea be doing this as well? could north korea be using facebook and similar actions in

other countries? jordan: sure. it's good that we see a different facebook now than we did before 2016. a lot of executives dismissed this idea of fake news as being something that would be relevant. we are seeing a very different facebook. they are being proactive and promoting these efforts. ultimately, it is a really good thing and reminds us these efforts are out there. to your point, there is no reason to believe other countries are not using the platform for the same purposes. from facebook's perspective, this is a hard problem to solve like the russian examples in 2016. they pretended to be black lives matter activist pages. their propaganda did not look to do similar actual promotional materials for black lives matter events. the intentions and motivations were completely different. it is hard to distinguish between state-sponsored propaganda and legitimate activist content. emily: where there may be more

direct links is this developing tory that the dnc reported the fbi and attempt to hack into its voter database, albeit unsuccessfully. walk us through what we know and where this might have originated. jordan: we know a security company called "lookout" alert to the dnc to a fake phishing replicabe an identical of a website that the dnc uses to manage the registration database. baylor to the fbi and a blocked access to that page. they are making it public. thing is, significant again, security organizations and political organizations are threat of the fishing and fake news -- phishing and fake threat of the fishing and fake news more seriously. one of my issues is this voter registration stuff. if you tamper with those

records, you can cause a lot of chaos. people can go to wrong they are pulling days, they can be targeted with inaccurate ads, things like that. that data is very valuable to hackers and political operatives. haveis case, all it would taken from my understanding is one democratic official, either a local or state or federal, to log into and fall victim to the fake phishing page, which would attackers access to the voter database. what they could do with it is open to question, but it shows it does not take a lot for some of the hackers to be successful. emily: we often focus on whether the vote count could be changed or hacked, but the possibility of hacking into a voter database could be incredibly disruptive. jordan robertson, thank you so much. i know you'll continue to bring us updates as the stories develop. michael:'s -- michael cohen's

lawyer said he had knowledge of collusion and hacking and that the president could be implicated. it is davis told cnn that " my observation that mr. cohen has knowledge that would be important on the issue that president trump would know ahead of time about the hacking which is a computer crime. let's go to kevin cirilli and this is another story developing by the minute. what do we know about what michael cohen could now potentially share of the knowledge of the present of collusion or hacking before the election. >> i asked this to lanny davis when i interviewed him and he was very evasive in terms of saying what exact evidence his client, michael cohen, would be willing to provide. he did say that they are actually expanding their investigation potentially into the trump organization. take a listen. >> yes, the trump organization

was responsible for initiating the idea of paying off stormy daniels and karen mcdougal to keep them quiet. >> this goes beyond the issue of the russian hacking, but also would suggest to was involved as regards to the payment of these two women who had alleged sexual marital affairs. the president is stating the money came from his personal account and not from campaign finance violation. emily: should we expect cohen to be speaking with mueller steam at this point? kevin: he said he will fully cooperate with whenever -- with whoever. ,he prosecution from new york really in terms of this case, did not strike any specific deal with michael cohen in terms of a cooperation agreement. that said, the special counsel, and this is interesting, because

bob mueller's investigation could in fact be trying to use, as a legal frontline, the case in new york. the first trial, literally so to speak, is going through new york. i asked lanny davis whether or not or why they did not strike a deal and he pushed back against that issue. he said his client, michael cohen, will cooperate with whomever will be interviewing him and they are fully willing to cooperate with the special counsel. emily: the president has been responding to this on twitter. he tweeted if anyone is looking for a good lawyer, i strongly suggest you don't retain the services of michael cohen. contrast that with what he is saying about paul manafort two was convicted on several counts "i feel very badly for paul manafort and his family." unlike michael cohen, he refused to break and make up stories to

make a deal. such respect for a brave man. kevin, withsaid, the new revelations coming from michael: or potentially coming from michael: -- from michael cohen, or potentially coming from michael cohen, what could the implications be seeing how a sitting president cannot be indicted? kevin: when the president spoke in charleston, he said show me the collusion. those were his direct words. the republicans i spoke with in the last 24 hours are adamant there is no suggestion -- no evidence to suggest collusion with the trump campaign in russia. the second point i would make is that this has a policy of legation between now and weeks from now with the midterm elections. if you have looked at the polls coming out of the special elections, democrats have seen a resurgence in the bulls. i have had republicans tell me that they noticed democrats are more motivated right now in the special elections to get to the polls. beckett interesting, and

thirdly, finally, should something like the house of representatives split back to pelosi, control, nancy raising the issue of whether or not the president has put them in "legal jeopardy" her words. this sets up a political domino affect of what exactly it would mean on a host of different regulatory fronts given -- should democrats take back control of one or both chambers. emily: there is still mystery around other payments flowing through the shell company that michael cohen created including payments tied to a russian oligarch who potentially had ties to president putin. kevin, would you say what we have learned in the last 24 hours could be the biggest break in the special investigation? kevin: i have to be candid, iran into michael cohen -- michael cohen at the trump hotel earlier and i asked him, how he is

doing, and he said he is trying to stay out of jail. now he faces 43 months minimum of jail time for pleading guilty to this. the new york courts did not strike a deal with them. i think we have to take a step back to your point, and a look at this for a second. longtime trump's personal attorney has pleaded guilty and paul manafort, the president's x campaign chairman was found guilty by a jury of his peers. as someremarkable day of the president's closest men were found guilty and pleaded guilty to significant urges. emily: all right, sobering analysis from kevin cirilli in washington. thank you for reporting. runks are on a historical in funding round for startups are hitting record levels. is there too much money moving around in the market? good things dry up? we will discuss. if you like bloomberg news, check us out on the app, on

bloomberg.com, and in the u.s., on sirius xm. this is bloomberg. ♪

emily: deal momentum is not slowing down. one company closed a million dollar funding pushing the valuation to $7.1 billion. i want to bring in the cohead of tech investment banking at rbc capital markets to talk about the broader landscape. it seems like there is so much money flooding into silicon valley in particular from all forces whether it is softbank or private equity. do you expect this about to continue -- this spout to continue? >> this talk about traditional

private equity. last year was a record year. is about another 300 billion of capital being raised. and is alternative corporate have their own venture fund. you're talking about the venture capital community, corporate, and family offices, with others. you are asking if this will continue in terms of fundraising. i think there is a lot of dry powder, being capital raised as well as assets in portfolio private equity firms out there and available to be put to work. and i looking for returns do not see an end in sight. emily: you'll see when the powder will dry up? michal: it's not a matter of the powder being dry, there is a lot of capital on the sidelines. if you are a disciplined investor, the big question is where do you put the money to work. do the valuations justify making

the investment at this time. that is the bigger question. one of the data points coming out that there has been a drop in capital goals. folks have been raising money, yet capital goals, meaning actually asking investors to fund the commitment has been dropping and distribution has been exceeding capital goals. emily: what does that mean? michal: a lot of money on the sidelines and folks are looking to put it to work. emily: i want to talk about tesla here because it is super controversial with a sovereign welfare fund. elon musk wants to take his company private. most people we talked to think it is not going to happen. in fact, there is a zero chance. how does that play into the current dynamics we are seeing? is there enough money to even fund a buyout of that size? michal: the answer is, over the last couple of years, we have seen lbo's of all sizes that i would say a record levels.

we saw the buyout of the mc, -- vmc, we have seen thompson rotor , so capital is there. company,ng 20% of the you have employees or other investors willing to roll over, that will be a whole needing to be plugged. i see there are some in a more questions beyond capital. i will tell you capital is a question, not the question. emily: what are the odds you would give such a deal happening? michal: given -- i can't comment on that given i am in tech bank and -- banking. i think there are a lot of obstacles out there. i wouldn't put -- i would never say never. today, i would put them rather the -- rather low. emily: what other the pros and cons of giving another entity like the sovereign wealth fund

as an example that kind of control? take a 5%en this fund stake in the company and also seen news leak about some of their other investments. because of the large stake and has luck, they are completely vulnerable to any news coming out about the wealth fund and other prospects. michal: there has been news out there they are looking for funding of their actual public investment fund. they put money in uber as well was one of the leaks you alluded to. i think you're looking at an economy looking to go more into a tech focused economy. it is an opportunity to try to leverage some of their poor competencies. i'm not thinking about it from those regulatory. i think there are benefits to going outside of your traditional pools of capital whether it be through corporate's or saudi's access to their region of the world.

there could be benefits having them be part of an investment. emily: what about on the public market side? we saw stocks in general on a historical run. will they continue? michal: that is like the $1 million question. depends.ly in terms of the overall valuations, one may argue we are at a point where valuations are kind of at a -- we are fully valued. it is an incredibly receptive market for new ideas. ipo's have been -- four new new ipo's.r one of my big concerns were as valuations run-up, at some point you are being a disciplined investor. will you continue to want to play in the market? -- you as the funds

asked the question will he continue, from where we sit today, corporate earnings have been doing well and the vix is 12 times. haseems like his bull run some moved to it. emily: all right. thank you. michal: think you for having me. emily: coming up, stantec excites investors with its first earning report. we discussed next. this is bloomberg. ♪ -- we discuss next. this is bloomberg. ♪

emily: one company made a big splash when it launched its ipo and is keeping up with investor expectations after posting a strong first earnings report. the company what processes payments for many companies, saw i 67% increase in revenue. here is more -- saw a 67% increase in revenue. here for more is natalia. walk us through this.

. >> one of the big>> factors would be the -- >> one of the big factors would be the global e-commerce boom which is boosting semtech firms worldwide. in this particular case, as you pointed to changes in shopping behaviors and also mobile -- they, they also made also pointed to important deals , dunkin'with valve donuts, and ebay. the bulk of the driving factor was their existing merchants. those will start factoring in in the near future. emily: who are their competitors and what does the company have on them? --in: natalia: adyen says they consider the payment advisors are the biggest competitors like worldpay and chase merchant.

they also compete with companies like alibaba and amazon which offer their own payment solutions. adyen says it differs itself ,rom the pack because it can overall, make it easier and cheaper form rich and's online payments. they do that by streamlining the payment chain so everything from check out to the payment settlement is streamlined and a one-stop shop the solution for merchants. they also provide data analysis tools and, crucially, they can transfers in currencies and more payment types than competitors can. as a result, that has helped businesses spread around the world. emily: they are also reporting they see a lot of opportunities in hospitality. they have a new deal with ebay. the tell you, thank you so much

for sharing that report -- natalia, thank you so much for sharing that report. it seems tesla to move on without its ceo constantly on the factory floor. we will give you evidence, next. this is bloomberg. ♪ is bloomberg. ♪ this isn't just any moving day.

this is moving day with the best in-home wifi experience and millions of wifi hotspots to help you stay connected. and this is moving day with reliable service appointments in a two-hour window so you're up and running in no time. show me decorating shows. this is staying connected with xfinity to make moving... simple. easy. awesome. stay connected while you move with the best wifi experience and two-hour appointment windows. click, call or visit a store today.

emily: this is bloomberg technology and i'm emily chang into and for cisco. during elon musk's interview, he defended his work ethic and made mention of his quick trip to spain. bloomberg -- tesla -- elon musk arrived two hours later and we pieced together his trip from mosques own tweet. he attended his brother's wedding in spain and took his ofs so they can see the set game of thrones. for five days, tesla survived without elon musk on the factory floor.

should musk's work ethic be defended. i want to bring in ashley. you know a thing or two about the ceo and wrote the bio on elon musk. you saw all sides of the line. is this new? >> in some ways, it is new and in some ways it is not. history, back in his in 2008, it was really a crisis sort of like where we are at. he went after the press that was banking on tesla. i think he was not as famous

back then. companies were not as successful , so there was not as much attention on this. this time around, you have eli on twitter. this was the first time the public has seen all sides of the line that only his employees and family used to see before you tesla being miss you to access. there's a lot more pressure on publici think it is this strange thing to witness. emily: there's also a level of untruthfulness that he seems to be walking into. er's wedding. strange. experience this time, it's

different and he's getting up.ht in making things there is another interview on cbs. he talked about i would never go posts tion and he had where he took his kids to israel and jordan. match up he ard to should be able to sleep. >> absolutely. works harder and it's like why is he all of this stuff is "new uld you say this to york times"? y to stitch s eas things together. bes time around, it seems to too much, or there is too much to be n and it seems

overwhelming. tesla hit that milestone so there is a question. tesla need him to be there? plus, hours per day? >> it's hard for me to separate tesla from elon and hard to keeping up this and hitting this milestone. checking e-mails and letting people have it. a lot of now if he has this personal responsibility to company succeed.

i don't think the company would push himself. about he looked, a few times and never been able to find one. before 't think so ne ryl and before that, o point to be he thought was the tesla and elon envisioned role. type disconnect that fell through. so this has been going on forever. to this is funny, if you look a

quinn shotwell, the president of space x she's been doing that and it worked great. pace x is the more consistent company of the two. >> at the end of the "new york times" interview he talked about if you can find another coo they can have the job. that.sn't mean does he? >> it's the same thing. you know? pr s gone through a lot of people and brought in top people the industry and he ends up doing pr himself and it on.s to take

>> there are people he had friendships with. does this board have control musk?lon recently ow, i think up people as taken you'd consider more independent. s that there were the one within with elon so i think they've seen this guy, this company would not exist. i think at this point, just stay ut of the press for a while.

inflicted these self wounds. >> a large part of your tesla ng was done by ideas. >> the feeling i get from a lot of former esla employees is the feeling of shock. they feel there is a different what is going on now. or them, and in the bigger be in a real ld difficult situation now.

and it would be sad to see it crumble at this point. >> if it doesn't work out which most people have told us they think there is 0 chance, what musk?ns to elon he is the right people to run this company? hat argue.re people t no and the biggest problem is blem.manufacturing pro look at apple, tim cook made sure factories were humming along and apple doing and to have the same

value. >> an analyst suggest tim cook to work for elon musk. this is suggested. >> thank you for the great perspective. >> thank you. story. ng >> coming up. h 's been a little over mont showme went public and a self improvement quest. of this will change a style leadership there? we'll discuss, this is bloomberg. bloomberg.

mrap . apple and google face a of the app t out

store tests. netflix is trying to bypass app stores. t a dentves up it can pu in profits. showme ended up being anticlimactic. revenues a profit and billion.p 68% to $6.6 and so mark, how did they do this? > it comes down to smart phones, right? showme saying i think

phones if a ton of to we sell them close to what they cost to build. things at to sell nd set ourselves up for success long term. mean for es this apple? beating them in places like india. and does this mean it's to apple? >> in the u.s. there is not much threat. threat apple's big yet s samsung but showme is a real player. have msung and apple serious competition and it is a

apple.hreat to a bigger threat than they should be. >> what else does showme have to prove here? ipo is s a reason lackluster. to be seen as long that lasts and they're going to have to pivot that into a services business z another thing to take a look at is that numbers, theyt the reported on property but it's a $1 billion operating loss and the reason it came out as a profit because of how they adjusted existing stock holdings but much better than what woe wo have been expected well, looking ipo situation.

so what samsung unveiled how do you expect next year in sales out?lay and. >> elsewhere, and i think apple is going to have compelling officers this fall and they have el that is phone mod more thane about $500 these phones so we're playing in two different playing fields. high end and one, low end. us.hank you for joining >> thank you. >> alipaba reports it's

this ial quarter date and report on what to expect. mroomberg says the chinese e commerce giant probably ustained revenue growth in the and that is only and inventory ry t sts and supermarkets and tha will likely pressure growth margins. the consolidation of the this ics business with it could hold n un more pressure.

and at a time of intense t may force tha alibaba to step up marketing fors and we'll be listening any clues down the line. one more thing. that brewing trade war with the united states? hear going to hopefully impact it's having over e tomerce and what alibapa had say. lots to digest with quarterly earnings. >> coming up, sthaping back, how ny is al media compa looking to regain success this, is bloomberg. ♪

hutch of the blame for snap hat troubles have fallen on kevin himself. and seigel lost or replaced his heads of engineering, legal, product and sales. sarah you have spoken to him. fixed? seem critiques of the

that say there is a way of keeper he's a secrets that is is onse to and he hired a management coach, rying to do all hands with employees. basics. ust the >> it's not just about the perception from outside but from ee. own employ he told you i had a pretty serious christian upbringing and i remember taught to be small. be a turtle. thinking why would i walk around the company

and chat with people? saying oh, myails god it's awesome you came by. sense of culture of the company is change something. may be the space that used of scattered s buildings in had the beach town, dennis and they weren't allowed o visit each other and have now they're in santa monica and seems more corporate. they have monthly all hands meeting those ways gets getting better. former employees said this is change.ng to evan is who he is.

you u read in the story that this point have been snap's moment to shine. why not? >> evan thinks snap hasn't how different they are. >> isn't the product supposed to do that for them? >> it's very, it's one of those things that, it's coolness comes trying to figure it out and unicate with to comm it. they've added someone they think them tell this story.

seigel has been talking with his he says n the board he's committed to trying to make that clear to the public but so far hasn't worked. sers wonder with snap u itting a plateau there is, can they reaccelerate growth, right? people thought twitter is going to be the next facebook and now, hey sort of become okay with a niche product.

and it's where they have to put them in the media portion of the app and their users are using it ith friends.ating w they have to make sure users stories from see s. lic yesh >> we've seen facebook users and hit a ion of how we social media peak in general? these , to note about this company is smaller and declining in usage. >> thank you for stopping by.

and that does it for this oomberg of "bl technology". from san francisco, i'm emily s bloomberg.i ♪

at home and abroad. >> markets are also wary of a from the fed. and showing a readiness to continue raising rates. >> australia set for more political turmoil.