chang in sanily francisco, and this is "bloomberg technology." coming up in the next half-hour, pelletier could reshape the path companies take to wall street. we will discuss the direct listing on deck for tomorrow. plus, president trump and former vice president joe biden will take the stage tonight in their first-ever debate. we will examine what is at

stake. and, one more reason to leave the bay area. devastating wildfires burning through california's wine country again. we will take stock of the damage. those stories and more. vmware shares up today on the back of vm world. overall, the rebound faded today. let's get a complete picture with sarah ponczek in new york. we just got some breaking news out of disney. offcompany now laying 28,000 workers in its parks business. they had been struggling in the midst of the pandemic. many of these workers had been furloughed with benefits but now they will be officially losing their jobs. more devastating news. weit is just a reminder that

could see more layoffs as the labor market improves. on,fact that, as time goes if we do not resume normalcy, companies may have to make amends. and that could mean further layoffs. when you look at the broader market today, it was really a wait and see day. volumes across the major stock exchanges, the lowest trading volume in over a month. onlly waiting and singing top of that news from disney, i will mention that we did see a large pickup within consumer confidence. but, you have to imagine that, going forward, if we continue to see layoffs of this sort, that will affect confidence. listingso big direct coming to market tomorrow. suddenlyand assana

-- setting the reference price for their shares. sarah: this is a big day coming up for direct listings. analysts for palantir have put valuations around $20 billion. we have to remember, this is not your classic ipo. remember, ipos have been extremely hot in 2020. that white line is an index of newly public companies. s&pthis year compared to an up 63% or so. , especially that with a direct listing, it is not likely that palantir will see a debut likely sell recently with snowflake -- like we sell

recently with snowflake, for example. emily: sarah ponczek, thank you so much for that update. billionaire peter thiel will be keeping a tight grip on the company even after shares begin trading tomorrow. as we reported, shares pricing it $7.25 apiece. he will have more control over palantir than any other individual or investor group, and a voting structure will award additional power to him and two other cofounders in perpetuity. i want to welcome in lizette chapman, who has been covering this every step of the way. the price, there has been a lot of concern about valuation, raising it quite a high valuation on the public market. what is -- what is the pricing of the shares tell you?

>> like sarah was saying earlier, this is just a reference price. what the shares actually will start trading at when it opens could be vastly different. we do know that the reference price is considerably lower than the $10 amount some people were bandying about. two said, the only other technology direct listings that , had aglean insight from reference price that jumped up , and up tospotify 156 and even beyond that. but who knows with palantir. its governance structure and other pieces are quite different. it is not your typical consumer company. emily: let's talk about how this company is so atypical. having that peter thiel,

cofounded the company, not present at the roadshow, not doing any press at this listing. talk to us about the voting structure and how this will work. there are three different types of stocks. there are the a-shares that anyone can go by, then there is the b-shares. you guys may know about these super voting rights that were popularized -- work popularized and even criticized went mark zuckerberg did this with facebook. snapchat and we work. that is the second tier. the third super control in part which is unusual, but not without precedent, is called the f-shares. it is kind of similar to how the ford motor company set it up in

1956, where a set percentage of all the votes remained within the family no matter what. when it comes to palantir, the same principle applies, where peter thiel, ceo alex karp, and co-founder stephen cohen, will retain control of 49.99% of all of the voting rights in perpetuity. fromhas sparked concerns expert to have criticized it for enabling peter thiel to have power without accountability. emily: what are investors saying? does it matter what oprah governance experts are saying if investors want to buy in no matter what? lizette: the experts i have been speaking with, one of them a long time investor, his opinion

was, these guys have taken us this far in getting the company to more than a billion dollars in revenue and to turn a profit on an adjusted basis. his take was, i trust them to take us the rest of the way. there were some thoughts from other investors that palantir, because of its sensitive work with government agencies including the department of defense and the immigration customs enforcement agency, which has been criticized by groups including amnesty international, that there is a feeling that maybe it is a good idea to protect the company's decisions in governance, to continue the current track rather than be taken over by people who is agree with the choices making. alex karp famously said multiple times, if you don't like how we

are running it, pay different company. again, they are not looking to raise any money, so they don't need the cash. they: let's talk about controversial aspect of the company. it's work with the u.s. government. peter thiel's relationship with donald trump. how has alex karp addressed some of the concerns? clear in hisrystal f1 letter to all shareholders. held a couple of weeks ago. "chosenat palantir has sides" and it will only do work with the u.s. government and western allies. it said point blank that it will

never do work with china, nor will it do any business operations there. this echoed some of the criticism that teal -- that peter thiel launched against companies like google. he suggested that google had been infiltrated by chinese that they should be investigated. google dismiss that. larger ilay into the think national narrative taking place right now on the presidential level. emily: we should mention, peter thiel, longtime facebook ward member of early facebook -- facebook board member, early facebook investor. facebook and google are tech rivals. lizette chapman, we will be following a love your coverage tomorrow and will have more later this hour with kathleen

smith of renaissance capital, talking about their choice to do a direct listing instead of an ipo. coming up, fleeing silicon valley for cheaper living amidst a pandemic. the founder of vmware, one of the companies shaking up pay packages for remote workers. this is bloomberg. ♪

as millions continue to work from home around the world, vmware and nvidia are working together to deliver new security recommendation -- new recommendations. the new partnership was unveiled today at the virtual vmware conference. for more, vmware ceo.

this is your first virtual vmware world. i have come to visit you in person in the past. it was a huge event. what was it like doing this and what will he impact be given that enterprise software bigrages are typically a time to drive sales? can you hear me? it's emily. hiss like pat is getting earbuds in. looks like we are having trouble getting to pat gelsinger, the ceo of vmware. we will be right back. ♪

emily: disney has announced it workers tied28,000

to its theme parks. these workers have been furloughed, still getting health care benefits through the pandemic. now disney saying they will officially after layoff 25,000 workers. bloomberg chris palmeri. it is no secret disney parks have been struggling. but disney is of course well-known as a company that treats its employees right. what else do we know here? that thea sign , if you aresumer not comfortable going to movie theaters, crowded spaces, and theme parks are a big part of that. emily: talk to us about what attendance has been like. do we know if they have even been hitting the caps on

attendance in general? >> there are a few things that work. social distancing, even the parks that are open and capacity limits of 30%, 50%. then there are the technologies requiring less people. selling a ticket a ticket anymore. they require less people. alaska, thend original disneyland is not reopening. they want more data. they have gotten very vocal, we have been open since july in florida, around the rest of the world, why not california? parks,disney's head of you and i both spoke with when

disney reopened in florida, he said, as heartbreaking as it is to take this action, this is the only one that we have. general, shares are down. plusneral, how is disney , how is it all adding up in terms of disney's bottom line? have streaming efforts been able to make up for the park's shortfall? chris: not in a bottom line profit cents. but overall stock performance this year, billboards, advertising agencies, these people have gotten whacked a lot harder for stock performance. if you have to ask why, disney has that streaming service, 60 million plus subscriptions in

the first year. amanda lori and season to -- 2 coming upseason next month. emily: we will continue to follow that story. off00 people getting laid at all levels of disney's parks division. thank you so much for that update. vmware ceoet back to pat gelsinger. there working to help organizations build a workforce ready for the future. we lost you for a second, one of the challenges of all the remote technology we are dealing with. this is the first for about vmware world. how did it go and how will this impact sales given that these conferences are actually a big deal in your world and drives a

lot of business? pat: thank you. at our physical event, we might peopled 25,000 or so would show up. now, they have 50 people joining online, a much larger audience worldwide. hourours into our 48 worldwide event. , the nvidia announcement, , every enterprise able to provide. so far, a very exciting show. poised to be is spun off by dell next year. how will that impact future m&a,

hiring for example? pat: the dell relationship is great, we want to make sure we keep that going on the other side of a spinoff should that occur. we will not use our equity for m&a, only out of cash proceeds. we expect this will be a positive thing. employees looking at vmware. overall, the debt markets, the equity markets. we have a long way to go before we get to that five-year anniversary. emily: what is the status of the spinoff? are you still on track for 2021? pat: we formed a special committee. work is underway. i cannot see a whole lot else at this point in time.

i am reasonably optimistic. but, a long way to go. new world, you have a lot of workers leaving silicon valley, wanting to honor those flexibilities, but figuring out how to deal with pay packages and logistics. reported vmware will be cutting pay for some of the workers leaving the silicon valley area. what more can you tell us about how you are managing this transition and what lessons there are for other companies? beginning our work force the future now. we are not waiting until next year. we have seen such benefits that we are implementing those policies now, which allows people to decide where they want to work from.

weree the pandemic, we maybe 20% work from home. maybe 20%people to be office dwellers, maybe 30% hybrid, and 50% work from home. that is a dramatic shift. we also said, if someone is hired in the midwest versus the bay area, when they moved to the midwest, they will be at the midwest pay packages. when they moved to another country, we hire them into the pay ranges of that country as well as if they would relocate. it is a very normal and fairway to view that transition. starte say people can making those decisions now. it also gives us more reach for diverse workforces.

now,'s -- now, diverse areas, you can work from there and be part of the vmware team. it reduces carbon, gives people more flexibility. overall, we think this is a win-win-win. emily: how many employees are taking you up on this and how will this shapely talent wars in silicon valley? pat: i think this helps a lot. we started to see a trickle. people have been going home to their family and said, should i relocate? my chief of staff just relocated. it is starting to build up as people consider their own life decisions. where they want their kids to go to school, where they want to be near parents and other choices. today, i have to bring people to some of the most expensive areas on the planet. now i get to say, you want to work in the midwest?

we are good with that. i think it allows us to reach more and give more flexibility. we see this as a competitive advantage as we are aggressively leaning into this work from anywhere approach. emily: interesting. something we will continue to follow. off youron pulling virtual vmware world. pelletier to go public -- palantir to go public. set to hit the public stock exchange tomorrow. why is this public offering different than the rest? we will take a look, next. this is bloomberg. ♪

really interesting

companies and they are taking a route that is really not that well tried and true. investors that participated in a direct listing really did not see -- basically, they saw lackluster returns. imprintart to make an on your mind. has not beenord very good so far. it would be nice if we will see whether these companies can do a better job of it. the structure itself does not work so well for investors. the companies are seeking the highest price possible. to be able to sell shares without a lockup.

typically, you would have a lockup enforced -- the company would demonstrate a couple of quarters of results before those are released. it is good for the company but week, i asked a similar question. they went public three years ago. take a listen to what he told me. >> there's a reason why hundreds of companies have gone public a certain way. you have to think hard about trying to innovate around your ipo. you have to get a fair price, a stable group of investors. you have to get a stable stock price as much as possible. get your employees comfortable then get back to the business of building your company. that's one thing that gets lost in this. think why reinvent

the wheel which sound similar to what you're saying. i definitely agree with his comments. what i would like to see is a lot more attention on how to make better our existing ipo process. you certainly don't want to see so much money left on the table. there has to be other ways to do it within the existing process. more,d like to see a lot we are finding that the regular ipo process is a quick one. restricted. have, when i am direct listing, mi seeing the forecast for the company but not in a regular way ipo? we have to look at our regular ipo process and approve that because there's a lot of very good things for investors in it.

we need to take a look at that. that experimentation, let's see how it goes, it is really the companies who are willing to take the road and i am wishing them the best. another what has happened before has not been the best result. when it comes to airbnb which could be the best -- biggest listing of the year, the actual route to the public gets whether it is an ipo or wrecked listing, how would you advise them? airbnbdvice is that should take the regular approach to going public. all along, it's interesting because we heard that airbnb was going to do a direct listing way back one. it was interesting that they were willing to be out by stec. i have not heard anything to that. i just heard that they filed confidentially and i think

they're going to tap the regular ipo market. the results are best by doing it that way in terms of the long-term price and shareholder base for the companies. of verys going to be exciting company and the challenge is going to be the travel industry has been hit by project goingto forward, how to make the right valuation. it's not going to hold up under current circumstances. it will be an interesting ipo and i hope they get it the normal way. mcafee also just filed for an ipo today. you were saying about going the normal route? >> yes we constructed ipo

indexes the track the returns of companies going public over the last couple of years. we have an etf that tracks that and performance of these regular way ipos, once they start trading, it has been very strong. much better than other methods of going public including the [indiscernible] method. on mcafee, that is an exciting one. we will think -- we think it will be a couple billion dollars. a profitable company with moderate growth, but a good position in this industry, i think it will do a successful ipo. with others, there are so many in the backlog that are going to tap the market. the ipo activity we have seen this quarter is as much is anything we have seen since the dreaded internet bubble. there's a lot of activity.

deals can get done. this is a good time if you are a private company to tap the ipo market. emily: we will see how long the window stays open. good to have you back on the show. we appreciate your thoughts. coming up, millions of acres continuing to burn and wildfires across california and other regions of the west coast. we're going to have the latest update next. this is bloomberg. ♪

emily: california has been battered for weeks i extreme weather which has been fueled by climate change. almost 4 million acres have burned in the process. for more, i want to bring in ed ludlow who has been following this for us. we have friends and family who have been evacuated. wineries have burned to the ground. what is the latest on the damage of this fire? >> across the state, 3.8 million acres of fires earned -- burned. when it comes to this fire, we in napang evacuations county, sonoma county, and

senate -- calistoga. that is one country. there is concern from people in the industry that not just the potential damage from the fires themselves in terms of winemaking operations, but smoke damage. right now, the wine industry is testing the chemical compounds in the grapes and in crushed grapes to see how much of the wine is salvageable. this vintage could be a complete write-off. there is more concern across the industry, there have been 26 fatalities attributable to different buyers. what we are seeing now is utility providers like pg&e take active steps to cut electricity to basically avoid and d risk the possibility of damaged power

lines that could spark new fires. the risk of spark fires is still high. householdsnesses and are without electricity as of tuesday. emily: it is harvest season. there are emotional social media stories of people picking grapes in the morning and fleeing wildfires in the afternoon. the winds are picking up in the southern part of the state. gettingthe outlook on this particular fire contained in the midst of continuing hot and dry weather? is that it'sk going to be a matter of weeks. they expect the existing fires will have a containment prospect of sometime around mid october. at that excludes the two new fires. aret of the growers, there 1500 grape growers.

they made every effort they could depict grapes early, but there is only so much you can do. now, it is time to assess the economic impact. 25 counties have seen fires throughout california. what is astonishing, that accounts for more than three quarters of the states gdp and workforce. the state of california has an economy of three chilean dollars. that is a staggering impact. fromow the insurance costs 2017 and 2018 were both north of $20 billion. i spoke to the san francisco federal reserve bank and they say the level of damage we have seen year to date indicates we could also see an economic cost that the same as prior years. meantime, it seems like every year is just getting

worse. we have the first presidential debate coming up. climate change is not on the agenda, but it is a huge and growing issue. is it going to be our lives for the next several years? has putnor newsom climate change at the forefront of this. he has instructed state agencies to accelerate their timetables to move toward sustainable energy. he believes climate change and the fires are directly linked. if you talk to anyone here in california, it is front and center of their thinking. the fed today said they could only look to the future and think that in the 12 districts, climate change will play a role in the impact of these fires. >> thank you so much for following the fires for us.

still ahead, the stage is set for the first u.s. presidential debate between president trump and joe biden. we spoke to a dnc chair and got his take on what to expect. that is next. this is bloomberg. ♪

emily: tonight marks the first time president trump and joe biden will hit the stage together on a night that could lay the tracks for the rest of their campaigns. att is joe biden's message the first debate? what should we expect? westin talky, david to the dnc chair. >> joe biden is going to talk about his vision for america. how do we address the crises we are confronting? the pandemic, the economic

collapse, civil rights challenges, the failures of this president are in stark contrast to joe biden's vision. he sees the world through the lens of scranton, pennsylvania. people across america struggling to deal with the coronavirus. 200,000 deaths. this president has given up. health care health care health care will be a big discussion. 3,the ballot, on november what's on the docket on september 10. there will be a lot of discussion about that. in the middle of the pandemic, donald trump wants to do away with coverage for people with pre-existing conditions. joe biden wants to do the opposite. that we address the pandemic, we expand access to health care coverage, we build back america better by investing in our human capital by building an economy

that works for everyone. these are the things that joe biden is going to talk about. they are two diabetic -- diametrically opposed visions. joe biden believes everyone should have a fair shake. the income should never determine destiny. joe biden has people's backs. i am here in cleveland. people in ohio and michigan and pennsylvania member that barack obama and joe biden saved the industry. >> that might be exactly the question. i know that joe biden wants to appeal to every single american. who is his core audience? it may be the manufacturing workers. or is it women in the suburbs around cleveland for example and dayton and cincinnati? who is his core audience? >> joe biden has said i want to

be the president for everyone. he is the uniter in chief. his vision for america, when they talk about addressing the covid crisis in a real way, that is talking to everyone. kobe doesn't discriminate. covid has touched so many people. discriminate in the sense that everyone has been affected in one way shape or form. aboutoe biden is talking how to address the covid crisis, he is speaking to everyone. when he is talking about health care, there are so many people with pre-existing conditions. republicans, democrats, suburban,ts, rural, white, nonwhite, these are the issues he is speaking about. these are the things and people who want a leader who can bring us together. i am sitting here in a state where sherrod brown, a

progressive democrat and john kasich, the former republican governor of the state of ohio both support john biden. it illustrates that joe biden, his coalition is very diverse and it is growing. >> it's important that you bring that up for other reasons. ohio is he. no republican has ever won the presidency without winning ohio. what are the chances that joe biden can win in ohio? polls that have the most rigor, the last two or three poles that i saw had joe biden up two points in ohio. that is a margin of error. emily: that was the dnc chair with our own david westin on

balance of power. for more on what to expect tonight, we are joined by our clinical contributor who was also the campaign manager for john mccain. we are interested to hear what you are expecting tonight. president trump has a big tax story having broken in the last 48 hours. of course, the pandemic. joe biden didn't perform that well in the debates. what do you expect tonight? >> is interesting. this has been at a fever pitch for the last couple of days. saidd trump's team has sleepy joe, don't expect much. he's probably going to be taking drugs. he is the most uncanny political expert and he will do well in the debate. there's a mixed bag going on. in a few short hours, we will all see the real deal. we have seen donald trump in debates. we know what he's going to do.

he is going to do on the debate staged what he does in the white house every day. he's going to attack his opponents and he's going to look the other way when he gets attacked. he doesn't defend himself. he will never admit fault, but he will always go on offense. you can expect at least his portion of the program tonight to be all over joe biden. what joe biden does in return is going to be interesting. a lot of democrats talk to don't want joe biden to engage with donald trump. they want him to stay as far away as he can. just what chairman perez said which is to try to have his own conversation with voters as if donald trump was even at the debate. note can accomplish that, only will he survive, he might do himself some good. emily: i am curious given that you ran campaign 12 years ago and technology into the world of social media has advanced so

much since then. how different is a misstep on the debate stage today when five andnds can go viral potentially define the next few weeks of your campaign? >> it is changed dramatically. four years ago, you had 84 million people watching the debate but probably almost an equal amount probably watched the debate via memes and other downloads and youtube and platforms like that that carried it long after the debate had occurred. we know from poland that the real winner of the debate doesn't usually appear until two or three days later when the component the media which declares a winner or loser actually happens. you want the best performance, but you have to control the message coming out. this debate will be the first one where there is not a message

center. where the campaigns go in and try to spin who won and who lost and what were the points they made after the debate. there is more dependence on social media to do that. you know that the fact checkers on social media have a heyday tonight with donald trump on for 90 minutes unfettered. it's going to be an interesting conversation for them throughout the night on social media. watching thember 2016 debates at live events. we are all going to watch from our catches -- couches trying to catch up. how do you think the passing of ruth bader ginsburg and the explosion of the new partisan battle over getting a judge nominated and on the court before election day, how does that change the game? >> it does one thing. when david westin asked chairman perez who you think they're

going to be talking to tonight, it republican voters for both of them. the biggest subset of people who can affect the outcome of this election are republican voters who supported donald trump and 2016 but voted against the republican party in 2018. it is a substantial number of people that could swing the states easily. we have all identified white suburban women voters as a key component of that. since the convention, he has been defense on everything. this is the first good news to happen to him. this is an opportunity to open up a conversation with those voters that ran away from him and they came to say i have the chance to put the court on a conservative basis. emily: it is right around the corner. rick davis.

of't miss our full coverage the debate starting at 8:30 p.m. tonight. daybreak australia is next. i'm emily chang. this is bloomberg. ♪

♪ >> good morning. asia'scounting down to major market open. >> i'm shery ahn. markets head into the end of the quarter. sees two stocks falling for everyone that rose.