emily: i'm emily chang in san francisco and this is "bloomberg technology." next hour, from a shut down to a slowdown. how the u.s. government shutdown could delay the most highly anticipated tech ipos in 2019. plus, cracking down on tech theft. u.s. government is using new legal tactics to take on china. and, could elon musk be the voice of reason in u.s.-china relations? the latest out of the tesla's ceo meeting with china

officials. first are the top story of 2019. it's supposed to be the year of big new tech ipos. and more., but with the government shutdown hitting its 19th day, the ipo market could be facing a slowdown. the sec is one of several federal agencies down to skeleton staff. how much of a delay are we talking about? to answer that, we have bloomberg's managing editor in new york. elizabeth, how bad is this situation at the sec. elizabeth: at the end of last year, we were talking excitedly about how 2019 could be this huge ipo year. specifically tech ipos. lyft uber and have confidentially -- uber and lyft have confidentially filed with the sec, but this means it is not getting looked at. there is no one to review them and give feedback to the

companies, nor to communicate what might be needed before they move on to the next step. emily: the ceo of uber told the wall street journal that the uber ipo is on track. that said, even if the government resumes operation, couldn't there still be a delay? elizabeth: absolutely. they will have a huge backlog of paperwork that they work with. focusing on february the 14th. after that date, it's required for companies to provide a new audit for the numbers of 2018. what we'll see in january is a lot of companies getting head of that date and price -- and try to price them before them. between now and then, if things don't clear up over the next couple of days or weeks, or if they do, there could be a backlog pushing us into the next period of companies. emily: what about m&a? there are several pending deals. what happens there? elizabeth: we have seen a few

companies communicate with investors about what happens next saying things like this could slow down regulatory approval, a good slowdown when we could hold a shareholder vote. people are not sounding the alarm yet, but they are waiting for something like an approval for one of the -- from one of antitrust companies. there could be a slowdown there. emily: elizabeth fournier, thank you so much for weighing in. we're watching every day in washington. i want to continue this discussion with alex and mercy victoria grace, partners at likely venture partners of the 300 companies that lightspeed has partnered with. thank you so much for joining us. are you worried about the impact of a shut down in current -- in the current market? >> the sec being shutdown is not

good for business. andipo market is a crucial stage for companies that want to build sustainable businesses. it's important for companies to aim for that in the long term. this was so abrupt that a lot of companies were anticipating there would be an option for them. when that happens, they plan the business to spend capital and hire people and they depend on the proceeds of the ipo. lightspeed, we manage over $6 billion in capital. for a firm like us, we have a backstop for companies at that stage so they can continue to stay private for longer, but these companies will need to find other options unless they are already profitable. emily: you have a few unrealized unicorns. scope, or any of your companies seeing an impact already? onx: we can't comment

whether these companies will go public anytime soon, but i think the nice thing about being at a firmware we have ample capital is we can support these companies regardless of the quiddity -- the liquidity. i don't think -- all of them have a backup plan given any we will go into in 2019. a lot of our companies have put that together given uncertainty out of the government. >> you rent growth before joining lightspeed. he will not share any insight -- inside information, but your company is one company we have heard once to go public. what is the impact on employees of a potential delay like this? >> i can't comment on exactly what the impact would be, because so much is unknown and i have not been there for a long time. iran growth for about three years, so what am exciting about

-- excited about enjoying joining lightspeed is bringing that understanding to the next generation of unicorn. we are going to talk about that, but is the funding environment being impacted by the uncertainty in washington? the trade war? alex:w these delays there's a certain amount of certainty the markets like. ,hen the markets get volatile it's not good for the capital cycle. been a lot more conversations around the boardroom tables and a lot of our companies about had we plan for a contraction in the market, but it is still in the stages of planning. we're not seen it affect the businesses, at least the ones i have been involved with. emily: lightspeed announced five new partners at the end of last year, and three of them were women. it was like a bomb dropping. [laughter] emily: one of them is you, merc i. why did you decide to join lightspeed? what is your focus?

merci: my focus is on investing in the future of work, which is probably not surprising for someone who ran growth. i started an organization that is called women and product what has become -- which has -- a global movement. lightspeed and about 25% of the investing partners are women. there has been this big shift already. emily: how many women have checkwriting privileges at lightspeed? alex: we have five investment professionals on the team at various stages of their careers. it has been amazing to see these talented people join within the last three years. it's been an incredible transformation. my partner joined around the same month you did. nicole has been here for a while and natalie lou came on in the last couple years.

emily: what trends are you looking at in terms of what is exciting, but what is also overhyped and not exciting? alex: i can tell you where i'm spending my time. i spent a lot of time thinking about what will happen to the retail landscape in the age of amazon, and where technology can continue to sustain businesses in areas not traditionally covered by amazon. we like to think of this retail apocalypse people talk about as being overhyped. there are certain categories of retail more affected, department stores for example. there are other areas where we see a resurgence. a great example is in the independent retail category. -- wempany called faire backed a company called faire and they are building a whole so marketplace between artesia brands and independent retailers. there are about a million of these retailers around the country.

they are all tiny, but they are a very powerful force. faire is giving them the ability to buy inventory limit leslie. we think independent retail, traditionally because these is this is our small and have small balance sheets, don't have access to the tools the larger firm have -- firms have. that is a resurgence category of retail. while the big boxes might be suffering, they are doing well. emily: what's next in the future of work? next area wek the might find is in the blue-collar or pink color industry. there are a lot of businesses that a relatively blind to the risks facing them in the global supply chain. i think consumer is asia and of enterprise is something -- cons umerization of enterprises something they are tired of

talking about. emily: all right, alex taussig and merci victoria grace, thank you for stopping by. jeff bezos and his wife are to voicing. what does this mean for amazon, blue origin, and the washington post? -- and could she become the world's richest woman? if you like bloomberg news, check us out on the radio. listen on the bloomberg app, bloomberg.com, and, in the u.s., sirius xm. this is bloomberg. ♪ u.s., sirius xm. this is bloomberg. ♪

emily: the richest person in the world is getting a divorce. jeff bezos announced on twitter he and his wife mackenzie have decided to split up after 25 years. mckenzie played a significant role in the early years and was

"there when he wrote the business plan." according to the bloomberg index -- billionaire index, he is worth more than $137 billion. if the couple split the fortune equally, it could make mcentee the world's richest woman. i want to dig into whether this has any implication that the -- implications on the company's bezos runs. redstone wrote the book on amazon. as a mentioned, mckenzie was involved in the early days of the company. tell us about their history. brad: they met at de shaw, the wall street hedge fund. i believe she worked with jeff when they met. they got married, she helped jeff decide to become an entrepreneur, the legendary drive to the northwest to seattle where he was writing the business plan. in his early years, she really -- maybe not formally, but she worked at amazon. she would keep the books, helped

drive packages to the post office, and interview. he wasy employee said friendly with jeff because he n't want to work with him because he thought he was playing too much ultimate frisbee. , notlayed a key role really in the last two decades, but in the first chapter. great bloomberg keeps records on the wealthiest individuals. if you go to rich go, you can see the list of the world's wealthiest people. -- chart heretier that gives us a more visual you. there's a possible settlement underway. we have no idea how the fortunes will be divided, but under washington state law, is it true she's entitled to half of everything he owns including the stake in amazon? >> what we know so far is that,

according to state law, it is set up to divide things equitably between spouses when it comes to property acquired or obtained during a marriage. how this will play out will essentially -- we will essentially have to see. there could be a prenup in place, which ultimately would decide what happens. we have seen in prior divorces, when couples are worth quite a bit of money, there is many ways you can slice and dice fortunes that large. also owns a bezos couple of other companies like blue origin, the washington post, and this presumably impacts all of this, right? his interests have changed over the years. brad: it does but we have to take their statement at face value. partners ase to be

parents, future initiatives going forward like philanthropy. i see this like an amicable and very mature separation. that ifso very true this were a different company, city active shareholders were circling and there was a question of control, that this would be a bigger deal, but it is amazon. the most respected and admired company in the world. you'll see activist and shareholder in the same breath as a company or its leadership. i don't see any potential delusion of his control being significant. emily: they also continue to live her life as friends, and if they could do it all over again, they would. that said, we can't avoid the conversations about the wealth. that,, is it possible depending on how this works out, she could become the richest woman? anders: she could. bezos's net worth is about $137

billion. split in half, that is about $69 billion they would each end up with. that would put her ahead of multiple women and would make her the richest woman. emily: what's the presidence here with past breakups? anders: we have seen things go both ways. bring -- sergey brin of alphabet kept all of his shares there. coin, other side of the splitis steve wynn who amicably with elaine, but things turned sour when steve got remarried. they eventually ended up in court. billionaire an oil who went through nasty divorce proceedings and cut her

a $900 million check. while in court, he was fighting to keep an even bigger share, roughly $17 billion -- share of the roughly $17 billion fortune. emily: there's a question of what she will do with her newly independence. emerson collective now has hundreds of employees. what you imagine she will do? brad: i don't think we know enough to say. in a conflict novelist and has written two well-received books. she runs an anti-bullying organization. she's been a private person for the last decade or two. we haven't heard much from her. emily: she has actually talked about how she doesn't love social gatherings. interview the one vogue magazine before one of her

books came out, but she has been a private person, so we don't know, other than what they said in the statement, which is they will continue to be partners in some of these other philanthropic initiatives. emily: we will continue to watch this. ,rad stone and anders melin thank you so much. coming up, we speak to the seattle-based hospital group planning a digital future for its patience. and we're live streaming on twitter. "bloomberg technology" is livestreaming on twitter. check us out @technology, and be sure to follow our global news network, @tictoc, on twitter. this is bloomberg. ♪ ♪

emily: america's third-largest health system is looking to technology to lower costs for patients and improve care.

st. joseph's health is starting a second venture fund to invest in startups directly helping its digital strategy and patients. the ceo spoke exclusively to in san francisco and explained where the money is going. we have the first fund for 150 million, and that was so successful, we are going to open a second fine at 150 million along the same lines. digital consumer solutions hour at the top of the list in terms of our interface with patients and consumers out there. -- oures, and the criteria is looking for companies that we would do our self. generally, there are things that we would do ourselves and we want to invest in and be part of. >> how much more money do you want to raise this year or the next two to three years. at 150 million. we have the initial 150 million

committed and will have the additional 150 million for a total of 300. >> this has been all about the consumer. on your end, what are you doing to help lower the cost for the consumer to create a better consumer experience? >> for us, it is all about the consumer. .e are in amazon country we have hired a bunch of their people. aaron martin has of our digital solutions. his focus is how do we make things easier for the consumer. all the weight consumers can access online, and we want to meet our consumers where they are. come into ourd to office. we give them telehealth visits, so we look at consumers and that is the next way for us to meet our patients with -- >> talk to me more about your digital strategy, including digital technology disruption.

>> i think consumers want to go on their iphone and schedule their own appointments, pick their own doctors, come in when they want to, where they want to. they want their information online. we invested in something that and put doctor to click an application into a record see you can use it. communicationes between the clinician and the but also lets the patient determine what they want, when they wanted, where they want to be. >> how are you planning for any change or repeal of the affordable care act? >> we've already put that into our financial plans for the future. i think that has already been accounted for. the big issue on our side is where 343 is going, farming --

and pharma.g, >> finally, talked to be about consolidation. in 2019.n megamergers how do you view them in day 2019? >> 2018 was the year of consolidation, we look at 2019 as the year of coalition. rxt year, we had the first where you have intermountain, providence st. jeseph health, hca, all coming together to form a drug company. i think we will see more of those combinations where you don't have to go through all of the pain and regulatory environment of a total consolidation, but you can still get a specific purpose. so things around medicaid, programs around medicare

advantage, around pharma care, those are the things we will see. i will go out on a limb to predict we will not see any mega consolidations. none of the same scale as 2018. emily: that was providence st. neseph health's ceo, rod hochma with taylor riggs at the jpmorgan health care conference. apple gets a bit of relief as morgan stanley gives it a boost of confidence. what does the banksy in the iphone maker in the midst of a first-quarter forecast cut? we will discuss. google is coming after alexa with its upgrades to its own virtual assistant. us toesentative joins discuss what is new. this is bloomberg. ♪ bloomberg. ♪

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emily: this is "bloomberg technology." i'm emily chang in san francisco. "and we are calling it iphone" -- those iconic words were uttered by steve jobs 12 years ago this wednesday to introduce the world to apples now flagship product. jobs introduced what is now the most recognizable smartphone on planet. apple has sold one and one billion iphones and last year became the first publicly traded u.s. company to hit a $1 planet. trillion market cap. since those highs, it has been a bumpy ride as the company recently cut its forecast, but

morgan stanley just gave apple in positive endorsement. and analysts said a slowdown in services revenue last quarter looks "temporary in nature" and mostly related to applecare -- analyst said.- an 'swant to bring in wedbush managing director who currently has an outperform on the company . >> this is an installed base story. 750 million iphones active. dark two to four , irters, but ultimately think apple will emerge from this with a focus on the services business. and price cuts with china front and center.

emily: samsung also reporting disappointing news this week. sales down, especially in the chip business, but also in the smartphone business. they don't specifically mention china but talk about a broader economic slowdown. perhaps this is not just china related, this is industrywide. could that mean longer-term problems for apple? mr. ives: that's a good point. smartfunds continue to mature -- smartphones continue to mature. you saw that with samsung and with apple's earnings to buckle last week -- earnings debacle last week. we are focusing on the services business, which we think are the some of the parts. that is why you are bullish on apple. right now, this is going to be a

pivotal six to nine months ahead apple outo help get of what we view as the darkest period in the modern era for the company. emily: can the services business still grow if iphone sales plateau? people are still using iphones and buying services for them, but if the market does not grow, does it still get to $400 billion, $450 billion, as you say? mr. ives: right now, it is about can the install base increase, which we believe is in the realm of possibilities. then it is about more services, more content, more subscription into that flywheel for apple. the will be key, monetizing customer base. we think that is only about 15% penetrated. as you further monetize with more services, which is why we believe a significant content

acquisition is going to come down the road as apple tries to -- you know, fuel tank on -- fuel in the the services side. emily: thank you for calling in today. tradethe latest round of talks between china and the u.s. concluded with a cautious sense source in san francisco is highlighting a different approach to fighting the stealing of tech secrets by chinese firms. the justice department is using tactics against chinese ip.anies to safeguard explain what is happening here. >> stepping back, the big to begin with, an indictment, a criminal prosecution of trade secrets theft against a chinese company for theg to manufacture

chinese market and united microelectronics corporation based in taiwan. this is a criminal prosecution against those companies from -- for trade secret theft from boise-based micron. alongside the criminal prosecution, there is a civil the evoking a provision of criminal espionage act that has been in the law since 1996, but this is the first time it has ever been used. that is an interesting development. we will see how those work together. as you mention of the outset, it is also in the context of a trade war with china. emily: what could the benefit of a civil suit the? -- the benefit of a civil suit be? right, that is what we've been scratching or head over. the civil suit offers some

experience. it offers the ability of the united states to get an order from a court that blocks sales the unitedips to states much more quickly than a criminal indictment would. that is kind of one piece. an other piece is it is attempt to layer the suit to throw different things at these chinese companies, to try something different. the trade secrets theft prosecution has been going on for three administrations now. i think this is an attempt to try to mix it up a little bit. emily: the companies were just in court. what happened? joel: today was an arraignment. they were formally told with the indictment contains, the penalties they may face. both companies entered a not guilty plea, but this, by itself, is a big difference. it's a big step for prosecutors because normally even getting to this step takes time. emily: is there anyway to say if

this is because of the trade war or the new stance on china by the administration? joel: like i said, this has been going on for at least three administrations. prosecutors, justice department officials will tell you know, this is something they are doing independent of the white house this istell you no, something they're doing independent of the white house. it is hard to believe there is not some coordination between the white house and the commerce department, which has played actionsious role in the against these companies. prosecutors will tell you they are prosecuting trade secret theft on their own. emily: could we see more tactics like this, more cases like this? joel: i think so. we will see how this one goes. this is the first time they have invoked this provision. we will see how quickly it moves, if it makes a difference, but i think we probably will see

that. emily: thank you so much for heading over here to talk to us. coming up, google as a slew of new features for its digital ds ae assistant -- google ad slew of new features for its digital voice assistant to take on amazon's alexa. this is bloomberg. ♪

emily: step aside, alexa. google assistant is catching up. google announced its general assistant will be available on one billion devices by the end

of the month. the company unveiled several new assistant partnerships at the electronics show, including integrations with kitchenaid appliances and samsung television. aogle also introduced new interpreter mode that can translate live conversations between two people speaking different languages. walk us through how your strategy is different from amazon's. mr. fox: we are really focused on the assistant being the best way to get things done. people are busy and have a lot of things going on and we think the assistant can be really helpful. if we can get things done for those people, we can focus on giving people time back to get things done that are important to them. emily: there also seems to be a focus on getting the assistant everywhere, right aqua is her fox: we think about the home, the car, and your phone.

we want the assistant to be there for people as they go about the day -- about their day . people at home in the morning, getting ready for their day. toy might get in their car get ready for their commute. we want the assistant to be there and be available so it can be the most helpful for them all day long. emily: talk to us about some of the new features -- language translation, flight check-in. this are fox: let me start with the home, where the assistant got its biggest start. one of the things we are excited about this year is the smart clock, which is a device we isked on with lenovo, which a nightstand device focused on the morning and evening routines . it is a smaller device that focuses on the alarm clock functionality, focuses on music and podcasts and also

--trolling your smart phone smartphone. we brought the google assistant into google maps. a lot of times when people are driving, they are using google maps navigation, so we have integrated the assistant directly into google maps both and phone.stant you mentioned translation, which we are also super excited about. there is a new feature called interpretive mode, and you can tell google to be your french interpreter or a number of other speak in, and i can english, and the assistant will speak in french. someone else could speak in french, and the assistant will speak out in english, and the assistant is being my interpreter to enable a conversation that i might not have been able to have otherwise. that is coming to the google phone hub as well as google

speakers. what do you think is the biggest advantage google has over amazon? mr. fox: we have been focusing on where google's strengths are. that starts with a really deep and strong foundation in ai and machine learning. if we look at the translation feature i just talked about, google has been working on machine translation for many years, probably more than a decade. we are able to do those types of features on the basis of this major investment we have been making -- he sustained investment -- the sustained investment we have been making over time. there's also the breadth of the android system as well as chrome and others, so we think we can be more present for users and others across their devices, so we really focused on bringing

the assistant to the devices that matter most to people as -- theirbout the day day. emily: what is the roadmap to monetizing google assistant? mr. fox: a moment, we are really focused on building the right user experience for people -- at the moment, we are focused on building the right user experience for people. it is still a nascent space. we think really nailing and getting the user experience and product experience great is what our focus should be at this point in time. emily: right, but at a certain point, you are going to have to make money. do you think about how you can bring ads into people's homes without turning them off? mr. fox: as i said, we are very careful about that. we do not want to do things that would be obtrusive or get in the way. google's philosophy of around advertising has always been that the advertising should be added .o the experience

.e do not want to do things we do not want to do things that get in the way or feel uncomfortable for users as they bring the assistant into their homes. emily: on that note, privacy is a huge and growing concern, and companies like google and facebook have been under fire for how they use customer data. this year could be a pivotal year. you have more attention coming from congress and lawmakers on big tech companies. are you giving any extra consideration this year about privacy issues and how all of this data you are gathering in the home in a more private space is being handled? mr. fox: privacy has always been a major focus for us and will continue to be. we realize people are bringing this device into their home, and it needs to be comfortable, and it needs to be something they would actually invite into their home. we make sure users are in full control of the data. the assistant only activates when you say the hop word, when

you say "hey, google" or "ok, google," and that is how you make sure it is not listening when you do not wonder too. we make sure all the information is clearly available in your google account, so you can remove the data and have full control over it. -- make sure it is not listening when you do not want it to. an ideaan you give us of how many active users there were last year? mr. fox: we have not shared that specific number, but even last year, the assistant had already been out for a meaningful period of time. it is off of a meaningful base, so the increase is even yet more meaningful on top of that already strong starting point. the billion devices that will be out by the end of the month is also a meaningful point that gets the ubiquity and scale of

the platform and a product that we don't with the assistant as well. emily: right, and as i thanoned, 900 million more alexa. -- a product that we built with the assistant as well. emily: tencent is creating its own digital assistant. the company will soon introduce a siri-like virtual assistant that will link to several of tencent's services as well as third-party apps. while assistants from google and amazon fight for dominance in the united states, they remain largely nonexistent in china. beis unclear when it will rolled out. still ahead, could elon musk be the answer to easing tensions between the u.s. and china? the chinese premier seems to think so. we will discuss next. this is bloomberg. ♪

and china tensions are at a standstill over trade. could elon musk be the answer? thetesla ceo met with chinese premier, who says he hopes tesla can become a better promoter of ties between their countries, and he also hopes musk can expand the market for electric cars. this is an interesting new potential role for elon musk as diplomatic liaison or at cachet -- attache of sorts. >> it is interesting -- it's easy to forget, but right at the beginning of the trump administration, there was talk that elon musk was sort of the perfect spokesperson for trumpian nationalism because he was making products in the u.s.,

bringing them to the world, and that kind of fell apart amid various controversies, and musk left one of the business councils, and news kind of overtook that, but we have a .all back to that if you squint your eyes, there tesla as a see bridge between the countries because china is trying to bring electric cars -- make them bigger deal in terms of the automotive market, and of course, tesla is a big u.s. manufacturer that is growing. there'sther hand, obviously a lot going on, and we have seen especially in the world of tech these china stories evolve quickly, so i'm not trying to put too much stock into it, but certainly something worth watching. emily: an interesting in the context of tim cook not being able to accomplish this, especially in the short term, so what makes anyone think that elon musk could be more

successful? >> i think we should look at things coming out of the chinese , right? t as strategic i'm not sure anyone thinks that if apple cannot make of a go of it things will be better for tesla. on the other hand, any big tech company, if it wants to grow, especially mature tech companies -- i would say tesla is not quite in that category yet -- are going to need the chinese market. tim cook andnt on elon musk and the founders of every big global company to pay attention to that market. when there are trade tensions, they are going to be hurt. emily: larry ellison joining tesla's board, revealing a $1 billion stake. will larryf attache ellison be for tesla and the rest of the investing world? takes aime a rich guy

big stake in a company like tesla, you have to view that as first and foremost a seal of .pproval larry ellison and elon musk our friends, so perhaps you could argue he is not bringing the most levelheaded thinking to the investment. is goodther hand, it news for elon musk. there is a sort of weirdness -- maybe that is not quite the right word -- that larry ellison is the newly added independent director of tesla, which was part of that sec settlement. there is something a little funny about he does not seem especially independent. on the other hand, i think elon will take the win for now. emily: certainly a question about how independent he will be. always good to have you here. bloomberg tech decided it was time for a road trip across europe.

she decided to make a battery-powered voyage in none other than a tesla. >> recently, i went on a very special kind of road trip, my first road trip with a full electric vehicle. i'm used to driving an electric car around the city of paris where i have lived for years and are has been a car sharing seen for years, but driving hundreds of miles outside the city is definitely something i'm not familiar with. i rented a tesla and j-roll from paris to mannheim in germany, which is the home and birthplace of the automobile. -- i rented a tesla andfor years of drove from paris to mannheim in germany. in this case, it's not running out of gas but running out of battery juice and finding somewhere to recharge the car, and that is a lot of the anxiety iran into during my trip. that of the difficulty was i could not just fill up the tank and keep driving to wherever i wanted to go.

in most cases, i had to plan my trip around where charging stations were and where i knew i would be able to stop alongside the highway or at hotels to refill my car. when you ask people, this is what they are anxious about, and most of that is something you will run into in reality. if a charginglan station will be available, if it actually exists in some cases, if it's fast or slow, and as some of that infrastructure electrica adoption of cars will keep people nervous. that is definitely true from what i found out. emily: what a fun trip. that does it for this edition of bloomberg technology." we are, of course, live streaming on twitter. check us out. this is bloomberg. ♪ amazon prime video is now on xfinity x1.

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>> a very good morning. australian markets have just opened for trade. >> good evening from bloomberg's global headquarters in new york. sophie: welcome to "daybreak: asia." >> out of stories this thursday -- the latest fed minutes indicating a more cautious approach to rate hikes. a policy cause is likely. trade talks wrap up