emily chang in san francisco and this is bloomberg technology. from a shutdown to a slowdown, how the government shutdown could delay the most ant icipated tech ipos. cracking down on tech fest. the government is using new legal tactics to take on china. could elon musk be the voice of reason in u.s.-china relations? we will bring you the latest out of his meeting with the chinese premier.

first, our top story. 2019, supposed to be the year of big new tech ipo's. slack.eft, palantir, with the u.s. government shutdown hitting its 19th day, the u.s. ipo market could be facing a slowdown. the sec is one of several federal agencies down to a skeleton staff. just how much of a delay are we talking about? for that, we have the bloomberg managing editor for u.s. deals in new york. elizabeth, how bad is the situation? >> if you think back to the end of last year, we were talking about how 2019 could be this huge banner year for big ipos, particularly these tech ipos. we knew that hoover and lift had filed with the sec. what the shutdown means is that none of the paperwork is getting looked at. companies can put in basic filings, but with the staffer load there is no one to review them or get back to the

company's feedback or what else they might need for the next step. uber told the of wall street journal that the uber ipo is still on track. that said, even if the government resumes operations, couldn't there still be a delay? elizabeth: absolutely. they will have a huge backlog of paperwork they are working with. the date we are focusing on is february 14. after that date, it is required for companies to provide a new audit for 2018. usually in january, we will see companies announcing ipo's to get ahead of that date and price them before then so they don't have to update financial numbers. between now and then if things don't clear up over the next couple days or weeks, or even if they do, there could be a backlog that pushes us into that next period. emily: what about m&a? there are several pending deals, involving foreign companies, what happens there? have seen a few

companies kind of communicate with investors about what happens next. saying things like this could slowdown our regulatory approval, it could slowdown when we could hold a shareholder vote. people are not sounding the alarm yet, but if you are waiting for something like an approval from one of the u.s. antitrust things or if you are a drug company waiting for one of those fda approvals to come through before you start trying to sell yourself, the could be a slowdown. emily: elizabeth, thanks so much for weighing in. we are watching every day in washington. i want to continue this discussion with alex. of the 300-plus companies that lightspeed has partnered with, one third have gone public or been acquired. thank you so much for joining us. are you worried about the impact of the shutdown on the current market in silicon valley companies? >> i will say first of all thanks for having us.

i will certainly say the sec being shut down is not good for business. the ipo market is crucial end stage for many companies who want to build standalone, sustainable businesses. we think it is important for companies to aim for that in the long term. this was frankly so abrupt that a lot of companies were anticipating that would be an option for them and when that happens, they plan their business to spend capital and hire people and they depend on the proceeds of that ipo. we manage over $6 billion in capital. we have a backstop for some of our companies that are at that stage, so they can continue to stay private for longer. these companies will need to find other options and ways to fund their businesses. emily: now, you do have a few unrealized unicorns. are any of your companies seeing an impact already? comment obviously can't

on whether companies are going to go public anytime soon. at a firmware we do have ample capital means we can support the company's regardless of what the liquidity situation looks like. all of these companies are trying to build sustainable businesses. planf them have a backup given any sort of scenario we are going to go into in the economy in 2019. a lot of the companies have put that together given the uncertainty out of the government. emily: you ran growth at slack before joining lightspeed. in a you are not going to share insight information for us, but slack is one of the companies we keep hearing about going public this year. what is the impact on employees of potential delay like this? >> i can't really comment on exactly what the impact would be because so much is unknown and i have not been there for a long time to i ran growth for about three years. what i'm really excited about

enjoining lightspeed is the opportunity to bring that understanding to other companies. emily: we are going to talk about that, but is a funding environment being impacted by the uncertainty in washington. now these delays. alex: i think there is a certain certainty that the markets like. it is not good for the capital cycle. i will say there have been a lot more conversations are in the boardroom tables about how we plan for contraction in the market. in the stage of planning. we have not seen it affect the businesses that much. lightspeed announced five new partners, three of them women. it was like a bomb dropping [laughter] emily: one of them was you. 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 at slack. i started an organization of women in product. i started that in working at early stage startups. andi'm joining lightspeed about 25% of the investing partners are women. i think there has been a big shift already. emily: how many women at lightspeed have checkwriting privileges? alex: we have five investment professionals on the team at various stages in their careers. see thesen amazing to talented people join in the last three years. it has been an incredible transformation. my partner joined around the same month you joined. nicole has been here for a while. they all came on in the last few years.

what trends are you looking at in terms of what is exciting, but what is also overhyped and not exciting? spent a lot of time over the last couple years trying to think about what is going to happen to the retail landscape in the age of amazon and where technology can continue to sustain businesses in areas not traditionally covered. i like to think about this retail apocalypse as being overhyped. certain categories are more affected. there are other areas where we are seeing a resurgence. a great example is an independent retail. we backed a company called faire, belt -- spelt look the french word. they raised a hundred million dollars from us and they are building a wholesale marketplace between arches and l brands and independent retailers. there are about one million of

these retailers and they do about $1 trillion of diverse merchandise value between all of them. they are tiny, but they are am\n economic force. retail, independent traditionally because the businesses are small, they have not had access to the powerful tools that the larger firms have had. they have the added benefit of being local with great customer service and curated selection. we think that is a resurgent category of retailer. while the big boxes may be suffering, they are doing well. emily: what is next in the future of work? merci: i think the next slack we may actually find in blue-collar industries. number of huge businesses still run on pen and paper and there are a lot of that are blind to the risks facing them in the global supply chain. maybe we're tired of talking about it.

emily: all right. thanks so much for stopping by. we will be watching. anff and mckenzie bezos have announced they are being -- splitting. if you like bloomberg news, check us out on the radio. listen on the bloomberg app, bloomberg.com, and on sirius xm. this is bloomberg. ♪

emily: the richest person in the world is getting a divorce. amazon ceo jeff bezos announced on twitter that he and his wife have decided to split after 25 years.

mckenzie played a significant role at the company in the early years, and was there when he wrote the business plan. according to the bloomberg billionaires index, bezos is worth more than $137 billion. if the couple split their fortune equally, it could leave mackenzie with $69 billion, making her the world's richest woman. i want to dig into whether the split has any implications for the companies that bezos runs. we have part of bloomberg's wealth team with us and our senior tech executive, wrote the book on amazon. as i mentioned, mckenzie was very involved in the early days of the company. tell us about their history. >> they met at de shaw, the wall street hedge fund. i believe she worked with jeff when they met. they got married. she helped him decide to become an entrepreneur. the legendary drive to the northwest to seattle where he was writing the business plan. in those early years, she maybe not firmly, but she did work at amazon. she kept the books, she would

help drive packages to the post office. she would interview. i remember an early employee saying that jeff was friendly, he did not want to hire him because he thought he was playing too much ultimate frisbee and mackenzie thought it was ok to bring him aboard. she played a key role in the early years. not really over the last two decades, certainly in that first chapter. emily: bloomberg keeps great records on the wealth of the wealthiest individuals. you can see the list of the world's wealthiest people. there is a chart here that gives us a different, more visual view. is a possible settlement underway. we have no idea how the fortunes will ultimately be divided. under washington state law, is it true that she is entitled to half of everything he owns, including a stake in amazon, which is 16%? >> what we know so far is that

the washington state law is set up to divide things quite equitably among spouses when it comes to property that is retained during the marriage. how is it is actually going to play out will essentially have to see. the could be a prenup that is in place. if that is the case, they have already decided what is going to happen. there is the law that things should be split equitably if there is no agreement already in place. we have seen in prior divorces when there have been couples that are worth quite a bit of money that there are many ways you can slice and dice fortunes that are that large. emily: so, brad, bezos owns a couple of other companies. blue origin, the washington post. this presumably impacts all of this, right? his interests over the years have changed. >> it does, but i think we have to take their statement face value, that they continue to be

partners as parents, in future initiatives going forward like philanthropy. i see this is probably an amicable and very mature separation. it is also true that if this were a different company, essay city activist shareholders were circling and there was a question of kind of control that this would be a bigger deal, but it is amazon, the most respected and admired company in the world. you don't even hear activist shareholders being in the same breath as a company or its leadership. i don't see any potential dilution of his control is being significant. emily: i do want to emphasize that they say they will continue to live their lives as friends, if they could do it all over again, they would. that said, we can't avoid the conversation about the wealth. anders, is it possible that if -- depending on how this shakes out, she could become the world's richest woman? >> she could. the stake right now, bezos' net worth is about $137 billion.

split in half, that is about $69 billion that they would each end up with, and that would put her of the others and would make her the world's richest woman. emily: what is the sort of precedent with past billionaire breakups? >> we have seen things go kind of both ways. for example, sergei brin at alphabet divorced and kept all his shares in the company. larry ellison of oracle has been divorced several times and still has a stake in oracle. on the other side of the coin, nn whois steve when -- wy split seemingly amicable, but things turn sour around 2011 when he got remarried and they eventually ended up in court. then there is the oil billionaire harold hamm, who went through a rather nasty divorce proceeding in court with his wife, and ended up cutting

her in $972 million check. while in court, he was fighting to keep an even bigger share of the roughly $17 billion fortune. emily: then there is the question of what she would do with her newly independent wealth. she has become quite a force in philanthropic investing. what do you imagine she will do? >> i don't think we know enough to say. right now, she is an accomplished novelist. she has written two well-received books. she ones -- runs an anti-bullying organization. we have not heard much. has talked about how she does not love social gatherings. she gave one interview to vote magazine before one of her

books came up, but she has been a private person. she said they will continue to be partners in some of these other philanthropic initiatives. emily: we will continue to watch this. coming up, we speak to the seattle-based hospital group that is planning a digital future for its patients. and, we are live streaming on twitter. check us out. this is bloomberg. ♪

third-largest's health system is looking to lower costs for patients and

improve care. they are starting a second venture fund to improve and startups that can directly help. the ceo spoke exclusively to taylor riggs at the jpmorgan health care conference and explain where the money is going. >> we have the first fund for $150 million and that was so successful we said we would open a second fund at $150 million along the same lines. a digital consumer solution at the top of the list in terms of our interface with patients and consumers that are out there. and our criteria is to look for companies that we want to use ourselves. we don't look at companies that we say, this is an for us. generally, they are things we use ourselves and we also want to invest in and be a part of. taylor: how much more money do you want to race in the next year or the next two or three years? >> we planned at $150 million. we have the initial $150 million

committed and now we will have the additional $150 million. taylor: this has been all about the consumer and consumerism. what you doing to help lower the cost for the consumer and create a better cost for the consumer? inour headquarters is seattle. we are in amazon country. if anyone knows the consumer it is amazon. we hired a bunch of their people. focus has been how do we make things easier for the consumer? digital solutions. flow. can access consumers us online. we also want to meet consumers where they are. them onlineg telehealth visits. we look at consumers as the next wave for us to meet our patienaq where they are. tough to me about digital strategy and talk about

the disruptions that will drive the change in your business. >> i think consumers want to go on the iphone, they want to schedule their appointment, they want to pick their own dr., they want to come in when they want to, where they want to, they want their information on why. company thatn a allows for a doctor to click and put an application into your medical records. that really facilitates that communication between a clinician and the patient. patientlets the determine whether want to be. taylor: how are you planning for change or repeal of the affordable care act? >> we have put that into our financial plans for the future. i think the big issue on the cost.er side, pharmacy

i think the other big variable aboute provider, it is with the states are going to do on medicaid. taylor: talk to me about consolidation. how do you view and an day in 2019 in your space? i think of 2018 with the year of consolidation, we look at 2019 as the year of coalition. you have hca coming together to form a drug company. you are going to see more of those combinations or you don't have to go through all the pain and regulatory environment of the total consolidation, but you can still get a specific purpose. things around medicaid. programs around medicare

advantage, around pharmacy are going to be the things we're going to see. and sayo out on a limb we are not going to see any of the mega consolidations. we may see some smaller ones, but not the scale we saw in 2018. emily: that was the providence withoseph health ceo taylor riggs the jpmorgan health care conference. coming up, apple gets a bit of relief after morgan stanley gives it a boost in confidence. what does the banksy in the iphone maker? plus, google is coming after alexa with upgrades to its own virtual assistant. google's vice president of search and assistant joins us to discuss what is new. this is bloomberg. ♪

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

morgan stanley gave it a vote of confidence. they say that the future looks positive. apple rose. to discuss, i want to bring in dan ives, who currently has an outperform on the company. do you see the positives? dan: yes, i continue to view , 750 million iphones active. in upgrade of those opportunity over the next 12-18 months. this is been a dark two-four quarters. ultimately, i think apple is going to emerge from this with a focus on the services's nest. that fundamentally speaks to our thesis that they are going to focus on services and price cuts with china front and center. emily: samsung also reporting

disappointing news this week. sales down. in the chip and smartphone business. they don't specifically mentioned china. about a broader economic slowdown. perhaps this is industrywide. could that mean longer-term problems for apple? dan: it is a good point. smartphones continue to mature. andsaw that with samsung with apple's earnings debacle. right now, it is about can you start to see some girls on iphones over the next 12-18 months. with the focus on the services business, the services business lot.rth a that is why you are bullish on apple.

this is going to be a pivotal 6-9 months ahead to cook, to get apple in the modern iphone area. emily: can the services grow to if it plateaus? doesn'tphone market grow, can it still get to 450 billion? >> right now it is about, can you install, stay where it is, or increase? we believe that is in the realm of possibility. then it is about more services, more content. that is going to be the key. thes about monetizing customer base. which is why we believe a significant content acquisition

is going to come down the road. emily: we will see if apple continues to respond to some of these more positive reports. thank you for coming in today. while the latest round of trade talks between china and the u.s. concluded with cautious optimism, a court case in san francisco is highlighting a different approach. the justice department is using new tactics in its case. in an attempt to save cared american i.t. and one move is bringing a civil suit against those companies. explain what is happening here? this is anpicture is indictment. againstal prosecution jen want.

and united micro corporation. big picture is this is a criminal prosecution of those from boise idaho-based micron. emily: now there is a civil suit. alongside the criminal prosecution, there is a civil suit invoking the economic espionage act. that is an interesting development. it is unusual. we will see how those work together. it is also in the context of a trade war with china. emily: what could the benefit of a civil suit the? >> that is the big question. my sources are scratching their heads. they spent months digging. the civil suit offers some

expedients. it offers the ability of the united states to get an order from a court that blocks sales to the united states much more quickly than the criminal indictment would. that is one piece. it is an attempt to layer the suit. to try something different. secret theft has been going on for three administrations now. emily: what happened in court today? >> it was the arraignment. both companies entered a not guilty clear. this is a big difference. even getting to this step has taken a very long time. emily: is there any way to say whether this is because of a

trade war? has been going on for a least three administrations. this talk tough attitude. prosecutors, justice department officials will tell you that this is something independent of the white house. believe there is not some coordination. prosecutors will tell you this is trade secret theft that we are prosecuting on our own. emily: could we see more tactics like this coming down the pike? >> i think we will see how this one goes. this is the first time they have invoked this provision. i think probably likely to see that. emily: joel, thank you, we will send you back to court.

coming up, google announced a slew of new features. how they could help take on amazon's alexa next. we will take a road trip across europe. this is bloomberg. ♪

emily: step aside, alexa. google assistant is stepping it up. it will be available on one billion devices by the end of the month.

the company unveiled several new assistant partnerships at the electronic show, including integrations with kitchenaid appliances and samsung television. it will also introduce a new interpreter mode. business neck fox. think you for joining us. walk us through how your strategy is different from amazon. >> we are really focused on google assistant being the best way to get things done. emily: there seems to be a focus on getting the assistant everywhere. think about the home, the car, and your phone.

we want the assistant to be there for people as they go about their day. asit can be helpful to them they go about their daily tasks. people are home in the morning, they are getting ready for their day. as they are going about their day, they have their phone with them. we want the assistant to be there and available so it can be the most helpful for them all day long. talk to us about some of the new features. >> maybe i will start with the home. the home is maybe where the assistant really got its biggest start. one of the things we are excited about this year is the smart clock, a device we worked on with lenovo that is focused on your bedside table and is a nightstand device focused on the morning and evening routine. device.smart it focuses on the alarm clock functionality. it focuses on the music and

podcast and controlling your smart phone. , it it comes to your car comes to google maps. a lot of times people are using google maps for navigation. we have integrated the assistant directly into google maps on android and ios. that is rolling out this weekend we are excited about that. you mentioned translation. we are excited about the new feature called interpreter mode. it is like a google, be my french interpreter or a number of other languages. then i can speak in english. it will speak out and french. the assistant will speak out in english. the assistant is being my aterpreter to enable conversation i might not have been able to have otherwise. we are really excited about that.

had first mover advantage. what do you think is the biggest advantage that google has over amazon? general with the google assistant, we have been focusing on where google strengths are. a really deepth and strong foundation. if you look at the translation feature i'm talking about, google has been working on translation for many years. able to do those features on the basis of this major investment we have been making over time. the ecosystem, we think we can also be more present for users across the devices they use. devices inis on the their car or in their home.

it to focused on bringing people as they go through their day. emily: what is the roadmap to monetizing google assistant. we are really focused on building the right user experience for people. and building it out and that is the main focus for us. it is still a nascent space, so we think really nailing and really getting the user experience great is where the focus should be. emily: right, but at a certain point, you are going to have to think about how to make money, about how to bring ads and peoples homes without turning them off? >> we are very careful about that. we don't want to do things that would be obtrusive or really get in the way. google's philosophy is that the added tong should be

the experience. to the extent that we can find ways to do that to the assistant, we would be interested in that. we don't want to do things that will make users uncomfortable. privacy ishat note, a huge and growing concern. facebook and google have been under fire for how they use customer data. this year could be a pivotal year. you have more attention from congress on big tech companies. are you giving extra consideration this year about privacy issues and how all of this data that you are gathering in the home in a more private space is being handled? >> yes, privacy has always been a major focus. we realize people are bringing this device into their home and it needs to be comfortable, something they would actually like to invite into their home. with the assistant as an example, we make sure users are data.l control of their the assistant only activates

when you say the hot word and that is the first step from a privacy point of view. ,hen you speak to the assistant you make sure all the data is available within your google account. data andemove the delete the data. emily: global said that global active users have grown four times year-over-year. give us an example of how many active users they were last year? we have not share that specific number, but last year, the assistant had already been out for a meaningful period of time. the increase is even more meaningful on top of that. after the already strong starting point. and ofe are at by the the month really gets the ubiquity with the assistant as

well. 900 million more for the number amazon gave us as well. thank you for stopping by. tension -- tencent is creating its own digital assistant,a siri-like virtual assistant for we chat that will link to several of its services, as well as third-party apps. assistants from google and amazon fight for dominance in the united states, they remain marginally -- virtually nonexistent in china. it is unclear when it will be rolled out. still ahead, could elon musk be the answer to easing tensions between the u.s. and china? now that his giga factory has broken ground in shanghai, the chinese premier seems to think so. we will discuss next. this is bloomberg. ♪

emily: the u.s. and china tensions are a standstill over trade. could you love must be the answer desk elon musk be the answer -- could elon musk be the answer? the chinese premier wants elon musk to expand the market for chinese cars. tesla just broke ground on a factory in shanghai. this is an interesting new potential role for elon musk is diplomatic liaison or at tesh a of sorts. >> it is easy to forget, but right at the beginning of the trump administration, there was talk, this is going back almost two years, there was talk that elon musk was the perfect spokesperson for trumpian nationalism because he was making products in the u.s., bringing them to the world.

that kind of fell apart amid various controversies and elon musk left one of the business councils. can of overtook that, but we have a sort of call is, if that and there you squint your eyes, there is a way to see tesla as a bridge between the two countries because china is trying to bring electric cars, make them a bigger deal in terms of the automotive market and tesla is a big u.s. manufacturer that is growing. so, you never know. on the other hand, there is obviously a lot going on and we have seen especially in the world of tech these china stories evolve very quickly. i'm not sure i put too much stock in it, but something worth watching. emily: it is interesting in the context of tim cook not being able to accomplish this, at least in the short term, given apple's recent quarter and sales falling off a cliff in china specifically. so what makes anyone think that elon musk could be more

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

especially a successful rich guy, takes a big stake in a company like tesla, you have to view that is first and foremost a seal of approval. larry ellison and elon musk our friends. perhaps, you could argue that he is not bringing the most levelheaded thinking to the investment. on the other hand, this is good news for elon musk. there is a sort of weirdness or maybe that is not quite the right word in that larry ellison is the newly added independent director of tesla, which was part of that sec settlement. so, there is something a little funny about, he does not seem about, he does not seem very independent. on the other hand, i think elon will take the win for now. emily: certainly a question of just how independent he will be. max, always good to have you here. bloomberg tech recited it was time for a road trip across europe. being a resident of paris,s he is not blind to the idea of electric cars.

she decided to make a 715-mile 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 fully electric vehicle. now, i'm used to driving and electric car around the city of paris, where i've lived for years and there has been a car sharing scene of electric vehicles. but driving hundreds of vehicles outside the city is something i'm not familiar with. so, what i did was i rented a tesla and i drove from paris to mannheim in germany, the home and birthplace of the automobile. when you ask most consumers, they will tell you what they are most worried about is running out of gas and not finding anywhere to plug-in. in this case, it is not running out of gas, it is running out of battery juice, and finding somewhere to recharge. that is a lot of the anxiety that i ran into during my trip. a lot of the difficulty in planning the trip was that i could not just fill up the tank and keep driving to wherever i wanted to go.

mymost cases, i had to plan trip around were charging stations were and where i knew i would be able to stop alongside the highway durant hotels to refill my car. when you ask people, this is what they are anxious about, and most of that is something you run into reality. it is hard to plan whether a charging station is going to be available, whether it exists in some cases, whether it is a faster slow charging station. until that infrastructure evolves, the adoption of electric cars will keep people nervous about heading out longer distances and that is definitely true from what i found out. in paris for bloomberg. .mily: what a fun trip that does it for this edition of "bloomberg technology." we are live streaming on twitter. check it out. follow us on tictoc on twitter. this is bloomberg. ♪

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