taylor: i'm taylor riggs and this is the "best of bloomberg: technology." we bring you all of the top stories from this week in tech. coming up, fears over the spread prompt thenavirus cancellation of the premier mobile industry conference. we will have all of the fallout. plus, we look at how the virus is affecting big tech bottom line as alibaba sounds a warning for revenue growth.

simpson unveiled their new lineup. we take a look at these new devices. there seems to be no end in sight over concerns about the coronavirus. the death toll has jumped after hubei province revised its death toll. thousands have been quarantined on board in the waters off yokohama, japan and the national energy agency warned global demand for oil will drop. paul allen and i spoke with the chief market strategist at cross mark global investments on thursday. >> we are always watching headlines but one thing we tell our clients is we want to look through the headlines when it comes to investments. but day-to-day, yes, the virus

has caused volatility. we saw that a little bit. we saw the markets come back a little bit and gain about 50% of what they lost. a lot of that is because the was because ofes a case of methodology and so it included a lot of people who already have the virus. it wasn't necessarily all new cases. originally, we had a selloff and we saw that come back throughout the day. but yes, coronavirus is driving the headlines now and battling some of the more fundamental things, the earnings and the strong economic reports that we are seeing. paul: we did see small caps bounce today, which reversed a trend. what is your theory on that? victoria: we know that small caps have much more of a domestic feel to them. if a lot of the downside we are seeing in the markets is coming from the coronavirus scare and

from uncertainty outside of the u.s., we can see where maybe small caps are starting to do a little better because they do not have some of those same concerns. we will have to see. one day does not make a trend, as you are well aware, so we will have to see how those things continue over the next couple weeks. taylor: that was victoria fernandez. the coronavirus is starting to reverberate into the global tech space. some chinese manufacturers are beginning to reopen, but no one knows how deep the disruptions go for tech companies. we spoke with our guests. >> a lot of confusion and uncertainty. the benchmark people look to is the sars epidemic years ago, but so much has changed then.

china, as a center of consumption, has ramped up considerably. a lot has changed. we do now that the coronavirus has eclipsed sars. a lot of factories are well cleaning -- welcoming back some employees after that lunar new year. we talked to foxconn's chairman and also obtained an email and they have told workers of the unit that produced the unit to not come in. they are clearly worried about the nightmare scenario of an outbreak. we will see people come back to work much more gradually. taylor: with foxconn creating the majority of the worlds iphones, what is the impact we will see? >> one spot of good news is that this is a soft time of year.

at least outside of china, the upgrade cycles for phones is in the fall, the holiday shopping season is the big time of year for tech companies. so there is a good chance they could make up the shortfall later in the year. but we got an email from the chairman of foxconn who said he was lowering estimates for the year 21-3% growth. to 1-3 percent growth. you see a lot of companies are being cautious in terms of what this means, but foxconn is a great bellwether. if there's a hit, no one knows quite how big it will be. >> we saw a statement from tesla that they were prepared to restart production. at the same time, we are hearing some of these companies are not going to participate in this big, mobile conference.

what is the sense here? can they get back up quickly or will this drag out? >> i think it will drag out for the foreseeable future. i think all of these companies are looking at it quickly and carefully. the barcelona conference is important for the year. the safety of your employees in preventing any unnecessary infections is paramount. every company is waiting to see how this plays out. mention ao want to practicality factor. you have workers coming back from their holidays and facing transportation blockades, quarantines, it is simply impossible to get back to work.

taylor: that was brad stone. as we just heard, several big companies announced they were pulling out of the mobile world congress over concerns of the virus. then, organizers scrapped the event entirely. in a statement they said concerns regarding the outbreak make it impossible to hold the event. we spoke with mark gurman for reaction to the news and implications to the companies involved. >> it is significant in that it will have a true economic pact on the city of barcelona, which does everything it can to support the conference. basically the city becomes the conference for that week. it'll put a delay or hold on a lot of business meetings and potential deals. at the end of the day, the

overall impact on the industry will not be significant. we are in the year 2020 and of these things can be rescheduled. taylor: what were we expecting from that conference? >> we were expecting a lot of hoopla around 5g. from a consumer perspective, i know motorola was set to announce a slew of new phone. none of the major giants, nothing new from apple, samsung, or any of the big players. we are in a time with lots of companies like to make these big, splash announcements on their own timelines. >> it does give an opportunity to get people in the same place talking about development.

more broadly, will this have implications for things like 5g rollouts or other deals? >> any deals of major importance will be rescheduled. i feel that if there were any critical meetings, they would have happened already. i know personally if i need to meet something -- someone to get something done, it will happen asap rather than at a unscheduled conference. i feel like if verizon and major meeting scheduled, they could do it over the phone or just have met separately. that is more fantasy than reality. taylor: that was mark gurman. plenty more to come, including breaking up big tech. u.s. regulators are demanding data on acquisitions big and small.

that is next. if you like bloomberg news, check us out on the radio. you can listen online and in the u.s. on sirius xm. this is bloomberg. ♪

taylor: the ftc wants to know more about big tech and its acquisitions, specifically some that may have eliminated emerging competitors. the ftc has told five large companies to provide information about deals that were not reported to antitrust agencies. that companies include alphabet, apple, amazon, alphabet, facebook, and microsoft. we discussed this with michael levine. >> it is probably facebook at the top of the list. i am looking at that in

conjunction with them basically seeking an injunction trying to stop facebook from tying together different messaging platforms. if we had written about this, there would have been a lot more this energy's than people appreciate. taylor: are we talking about whatsapp, instagram? >> i think that's it. those are the ones that are needle-moving. taylor: what are the implications? a threat is one thing. real breakup is another. what are the odds of real action? >> my guess is that even if they bring a case, it would take years in the courts to play through.

obviously we have gotten more negative on the stock on the basis of fundamental work we have been doing combined with a disappointing outlook for the year. it's been one of the things that is kept on the sidelines and i think will continue to act as an overhang. if we are right on the fundamentals, i think you will see multiples conceivably grind even lower. >> is it possible there is simply nothing to see here, and more broadly, does regulatory risk just come with the territory nowadays? >> i think there actually is something to say. there is pretty clear dominance within the social space and one thing that has been so remarkable about facebook is this ability to leverage data across platforms. they probably are the pope -- most monopolistic i of

comparison. -- by way of comparison. to your earlier point, taylor, we are obviously positive about google. i don't want to brush under the covers conceivable issues, but we saw chatter a couple of weeks ago suggesting it may be used as a means of appeasing the regulators. taylor: that was michael levine. t-mobile and sprint have been steering their merger through a regulatory maze for nearly two years. they got one step closer to reaching the finish line. the two companies say they expect to close as soon april 1. we got reaction with jennifer reed. >> i think the decision was a surprise, particularly amongst the antitrust analysts and lawyers.

it was an unusual decision. rather than taking a presumptively anticompetitive deal, based on market shares and a commonly used index, no defense met the test set forth in the doj guidelines. instead, what the judge said was if you take them all and put they rebutgether, this presumption the deal is anti-competitive. also, the judge accepted the remedies to divest assets to dish and set it up as a another competitor in the market. taylor: who needed this deal more? >> absolutely sprint. had it not gone through, t-mobile would have continued its profitable path. it may have been difficult, but sprint was definitely in a

difficult spot. they have reputational, network problems, they had debt. they were really in the possession, especially with the advent of 5g, they were not ever going to get to a place where they could compete with the other three. so the biggest winner here is softbank and sprint. >> to build on taylor's question, masayoshi son has had a richard year or so. retched year or so. >> absolutely, and i think this was really needed. they should thank john legere for this. some of his genius came through. the judge decided that the maverick and corporate culture he had built was really going to

continue, even when it was a larger company combined with sprint. sprint was really lucky in this decision, given what they have been going through. >> in terms of masayoshi son and the vision fund, softbank is being urged to go ahead with a buyback. does the completion of this deal make those things likely? >> i would think so. it is stray little bit out of my area of antitrust analysis, but looks like it will start putting things in place for softbank. taylor: coming up, lyft came out with results that beat expectations. we dive into the numbers next. this is bloomberg. ♪

taylor: u.s.-based ride-hailing app lyft results this week narrowly beat analyst estimates, it was not enough to impress. stock fell afterwards as the company admitted it could not promise profits sooner. we broke down the numbers. >> uber had the advantage of having its earnings first, surprising investors by moving up profitability targets. to be clear, we are talking about adjusted profitability. it cuts out a lot of things. but yeah, they are still growing impressively. they got to a billion dollars in revenue but they have the

disadvantage of being smaller and uber has just had more time to become a huge business. uber, in particular, is focused on business customers. it seems like lyft just does not want to commit to the same timeline. taylor: i think you hit it spot on. you said the profitability targets are adjusted. do analyst care that it is supposed to be ebitda? of the otherall expenses that are not being included. >> on some level, it is shocking to be talking about uber getting to profitability. if we just look at the 2019 losses, i think it was something like 8 billion on a net income basis.

uber is losing a ton of money, but the reason we focus on these adjusted numbers is because they give investors some way to get their head around how the company starts to make money. that is sort of the framework that the markets are paying attention to, so that is what we have been talking about. it's important to remember there have been huge stock and other expenses that are still going to be a problem for these companies. >> part of the problem here is that the market is simply saturated. do they start to find new ways to make money? >> they have the advantage of growing into the market. uber investors have said they are going to follow the law of

large numbers. they have gone into food and other industries in a way lyft hasn't come and so far, their message has been focus. i do not think we have seen any sign that they will veer from that. for the time being it seems like they need to show they can run a profitable ride-hailing business and make it work as a smaller company. >> how about on the cost side of things? they have said they will cut jobs. is this potentially just the start? >> corporate jobs matter, but at the end of the day what matters is price competition. how they are digging into prices to gain ground relative to each other. that is why these stocks have been so related. investors react to an announcement for the other because there has been a price

war going on and i think they said q1 would be peak loss. the big question is if subsidies come down, what is the total adjustable market and does that limit the number of people who will take a ride? taylor: samsung unveiled its latest device this week. it is a foldable phone that will set you back about $1380. it is also smaller than its predecessor. the new device is a signal that samsung is committed to developing the foldable business. also out this week is motorola's new device. we got our hands on the new razr. take a look. >> this is the new motorola

razr. remember the phone from 15 years ago? it was the standard pretty much everyone had back in the day. instead of being a normal phone, it is a foldable flip phone. it has a full touch screen , soing and road -- android now it is a smart phone. it has plenty to like. it is minimalistic and has the high-tech features all phones have. but the technology is still superduper early. you can field bumps and lumps on the screen. there's a noticeable sound when you open and close the phone, just the hinge mechanism. and even though it is $1500, it does not feel reliable. it's to be seen how well this thing goes. the ability to put it in your skinny jeans and make it easily

accessible. the nostalgia of having a phone that flips open and close. but the drawback of a normal candy bar phone, the cameras are behind the times because of the thinness of the mechanism. the hinge makes that noise. we will perhaps have to use this longer-term, but at this point, it's cool. it is one of the first true potable phones, but i don't think the technology is quite there yet. we will see where this goes. taylor: and an unlikely duo. masayoshi son makes changes pushed by paul singer. we are livestreaming on twitter. check us out and follow our global breaking news network on twitter. this is bloomberg.

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taylor: welcome back to the "best of bloomberg: technology." i'm taylor riggs in for emily chang. we had more tech earnings out this week, including alibaba on thursday. while beat estimates the cfo set , of and growth for the quarter will be negatively impacted by the coronavirus outbreak. the epidemic has already caused significant delivery delays for the chinese tech giant. we spoke with john freeman and a portfolio manager at newberger berman. >> my takeaways were, wow, that was a pretty good quarter. revenue growth was higher than

expected, user growth was particularly impressive. 60% of new users are coming from the rural areas. there's a couple hundred, 300 billion who could join so there is more headroom to a lot of the growth drivers. the story really is the coronavirus and overall economic growth and to what degree that will impact earnings going forward. >> to that point, i would like to bring you back. looking backwards, a great set of numbers, but going forward, overall negative impacts. how negative is the question. >> they did say it will be negatively impacted, low to mid

single digits. they are seeing a lot of supply-side dislocations. logistics, networks are down, there is obviously a lot of confusions around various cities, so moving people is different. second, they are supporting the infrastructure in terms of remedial effects. they are providing medicines free of cost, providing services and food to the doctors in the hospitals. third, they are actually helping the ecosystem by reducing the platform fees, providing discount fees. i think they are taking a short-term hit but building goodwill in the ecosystem. more importantly, i think one thing we walked away with is the consumers are now beginning to trust digital services more. as you know, movement of goods and people is severely curtailed, and therefore people rely on digital services, which i think bodes very well for the

long-term growth of alibaba. the last thing i would say is that the data point we have from the sars virus, whenever it got curtailed and we think this epidemic at some point be cured, we would see a spike in growth over the long-term. so, we have to go through a bit of a short-term pain, but we are positive on the future of alibaba over the long-term. taylor: that was john freeman and a guest from newberger berman. masayoshi son is opening the door to making at least some of the changes championed by paul singer. this, after a reported second quarter of losses. matchbox joined romaine bostick and scarlet fu. >> i would say he was striking a conciliatory tone. it sounded amicable and he was paying lip service to the things singer wants.

stock buybacks, improved governance at the vision fund. he nodded to the fact we might address some of these things. he is saying the right things elliott wants to hear. he is also saying it in a favorable tone. he describes singer as his important partner. he described himself as the largest shareholder in softbank. they are naturally on the same page. sonali: elliott puts more money to work than anybody else. he is the most feared investor in the world. masa did not say he would do exactly what he wants. it is that $20 billion buyback. do you think what he did today was enough to ease some of those tensions? matt: we are in the early stages. these things move at their own cadence. elliott the news broke a week , ago. i think he did that because he knew earnings were coming out. it is going to take several weeks for them to continue engaging. was it enough today? i did not know if we were going to see that on the buyback. he said we are open to the idea

of buybacks. the time and size of that is going to depend. he also said in terms of transparency, he said we are open to having some transparency in the vision fund, but he will not disclose the value of the private companies. my take away is that masayoshi san is his own guy. he is going to do what he is going to do. scarlet: some strong personalities. elliott is a feared shareholder here. has it been able to work out deals with the companies it has targeted in the past or does it always tend to get adversarial? matt: somebody wrote about him the other day and called him the boss who tells bosses what to do. when he puts his weight behind something, he often gets his way. i expect things are amicable. i probably suspect he will get a board seat or two. if things go that way, it is going to be another win for him.

taylor: coming up, mike rogers, a former house intelligence chairman, joins us to discuss how he thinks the u.s. can win the global race for 5g. wework brings in a new ceo. in hopes of turning itself around we discussed the challenges facing the real estate veteran. this is a bloomberg. -- this is bloomberg. ♪

taylor: the trump administration wants to develop a cohesive 5g policy, but there is widespread disagreement about how to get there. last week, william barr dismissed the effort to use homegrown equipment, instead suggesting the government should work with nokia or ericsson to

counter away. -- counter the threat of huawei dominating the next-generation networks. i spoke with former house intelligence chairman mike rogers. >> huawei, zte, two chinese companies backed by the chinese government are not dominating the market. china wants data dominance they understand the need for building these networks. the government of china has invested in r and d. as well as financing deals. zero down zero payment for three years and recover all the buildup in the engineers. no western company can compete, so we should be asking ourselves why they want to do that. taylor: should we be investing the way beijing is investing in theirs? >> attorney general barr had an

interesting take, which was to nationalize a company. ericsson and nokia are companies that we wants to compete. -- want to compete. i would do it differently. instead of assembling a hundred and $20 billion to buy a company that is headquartered in dash, couldn't we help them on the r&d front? find grants we can do to help them overcome this mess chinese r&d? secondly, how about financing loans that would allow them to compete against companies around the world? to me, that's a better way. the government gets their money back and they are helping make sure we have western valued to the comedic asians out there. taylor: how concerned are you that the u.k. did not ban huawei?

>> i think it is terrible. there's this crazy notion that they could protect the core. 5g is all about edge computing. that is how your communication is going to happen, out at the edge. i don't know anyone that believes that is even possible. what it means it will change the way that the intelligence services share with great britain. we share more with them in real time than any other nation in the earth. given our other intelligence partners we share information with. that is going to change. not only that, but you have given china the ability to turn off things when there is a disagreement. why would you want any foreign adversary to have that capability? that leverage anywhere. and you can't kick them out. there's an old saying in the

intelligence business it's not , where you get in, it's how you move once you are inside. once you are in the network anywhere in the country, they can move around to places you don't want the chinese intelligence services. taylor: that was mike rogers. wework has named a new ceo in a bid to salvage the embattled startup. a real estate veteran, he took a shopping mall operator out of bankruptcy and was the ceo of a partner property retail group. they have been remaking the management team and added its first woman to the board. i spoke about the strategy with a da davidson senior analyst. perry oxford. >> i have read reports about we work. i feel this is one of their

first really positive moves. they have been through a couple of changes but you hit the nail on the head when you said they have a real estate person at a real estate company. k-fed, this is not a tech company with a real estate band. this is real estate first and he is the person to lead this company to profitability. taylor: what can you glean from his previous work about turning around bankrupt companies? that you can now clean forward into any future work that he could do at we work? >> sure. sandeep, being the ceo of a real -- a public company, bringing them through hard times, i think he's the person to lead this company. i think he is the person to bring this company public. i don't think it is 2020, but i think he is the person to bring this company public. he has the reputation and credibility with investors.

i think softbank has funded enough money that they could complete what is needed to be done that's already in the pipeline. once a lease is signed, you have crossed the rubicon and needed to move forward with that entity. taylor: his first day is february 18. what should be his number one job on day one? is it getting out of unprofitable businesses, what would you like to see him do? >> i think the ipo has got to be sixth on his list, but number one is getting out extraneous businesses that adam got into. on wind of those, generate whatever cash you can for those businesses and get back to the , crux of what wework is. it is temporary lease spacing

and that's what will make this company successful. taylor: that was da davidson's barry oxford. still ahead, a possible solution to childhood blindness. we take a look at what experts are trying to achieve with gene therapy. that's next. this is bloomberg. ♪

taylor: this seven-year-old has a rare genetic disorder that limits his vision. scientists have developed a medication that has the potential to substantially improve his site. -- sight. ♪ >> defects in retinal genes

cause a devastating form of childhood blindness. gene therapy is at the forefront of treating retinal degeneration. there are over 20 clinical trials addressing diseases in ways we did not think possible before. >> having to make a decision on his behalf has been a real struggle. this treatment could change our lives. it could stop a truly terrible disease. >> as we tackle the problem of childhood blindness this will , make a real breakthrough and help us tackle problems we never thought possible. >> maverick is my first-born child. he has been the most amazing child since the day he was born.

i did not have experience with babies before, but i noticed he had a blank stare. i checked his tracking vision and it was nonexistent. we went through all of his genetic testing, looking for specific genetic markers. rpe 65. rods in thethe eyes, they don't allow for light perception. he is legally blind, specifically lowlight blindness. he does not have peripheral vision where vision below his waist. it is almost tunnel vision. >> we are here in my room. this is my eyepatch.

>> it has to be the right lighting to see. once the sun goes down, the world is very dark. we take him inside and turn on all of the lights until it is time for bed. maverick condition is degenerative. there is no timeframe of when the degeneration will take place, but it is a well-known fact that he will be completely blind in later years. >> it took some time to descend into fire and sulfur. they torched landscape. >> in december of 2017, the fda approved gene therapy for his specific condition. we went and spoke to a doctor

shortly after it was approved. >> maverick was six years old when i met him. this family had struggled with getting a diagnosis and were excited to hear there was a treatment. this is a gine replacement therapy whereby we are delivering a healthy copy of the gene to patients with defective copies. this medication is a virus which has essentially been modified. it's only job is to deliver genetic material. we deliver this virus with a fine needle underneath the retina. then, we have a healthy copy of the missing gene. unfortunately, the cells that absorb the light are constantly degenerating. it gets the point where there simply are not enough cells to

function, even if we were to deliver the gene back. so it makes a lot of sense to treat patients earlier when they have the cells. and they just need the normal copy of the genes to make the protein and function again. treatment early in children is really the way to achieve the best results. here at children's hospital los angeles, we have treated 34 eyes. it is stable without any loss in function. five years ago, there was no treatment for this disease. and for the bulk of patients, if lucky, got a diagnosis, but beyond that, there was not much else we could do. aside from get the most out of the vision they have. since fda approval of this gene therapy, it has opened the door to not just treating this rare degeneration, but essentially any retinal degeneration.

>> this has been probably the most difficult decision that i have ever had to make in my entire life. >> it makes me nervous because it is so new, and if it does not go well, it is my fault, because i chose to do this my child. i feel like i hit the jackpot when i had never. maverick. i don't know any kid who could go through what he has been through with such appreciation for life. he is willing to do or try anything. after today, our life could change forever. >> love you. >> love you, buddy. >> he might go back home, and for the first time, have fun his

friends by the pool at desk, go trick-or-treating. these are the improvements that changes a child's life and the motor confidence that comes with ambulating and interacting with their environment in a way they could not complete lifelong consequences. ♪ >> it takes seven days for the corrective dna to be absorbed.

at seven days, he could potentially see again. it just comes in very small doses and it could take up to four months, they said. ♪ his twoick had surgeries and we are home. the first day i really noticed something was different was riding in the car he said, mom, i'm looking outside and seeing what is outside. i've never been able to see through the windows. it seems so small, but it was life-changing for him to be able to look out of the window. >> one more game of tag.

ready? >> i'm coming! [laughter] i see! >> in the past seven years, we don't even come in the backyard at night. it is a true miracle. you cannot stop me -- >> you cannot stop me! >> tag, get maverick! >> come here, get him! [laughter] >> he has a whole new level of independence and he is ready to conquer anything that is given to him. ♪

taylor: that is part of our series prognosis, the future of health and the business of health care. for more, you can go to bloomberg.com and follow liver -- that does it for this edition of the "best of bloomberg: technology." we will bring you all the latest in tech throughout the week . bloomberg technology is livestreaming on twitter. check us out and follow our global breaking news network on twitter. this is bloomberg. ♪

francine: mark carney will soon end his term as governor of the bank of england. carrying the u.k. economy through crises and years of brexit-related uncertainty. a high-stakes, divisive issue that has been impossible to forecast. good preparation for his next job, tackling climate change. born in 1965, the young mark -- born in 1955, the young mark carney dreamed of greatness in the world of economics, getting a doctorate at oxford. carney spent 13 years at goldman sac,th