caroline: i'm caroline hyde in bloomberg's san francisco studio. ed: welcome. together back in san francisco. this is "bloomberg technology." how nice it is to have you here. so many headlines to pass over. many in the market moving. one doesn't feel very good with layoffs despite everything going on.

caroline: and all the earnings to come. first we talk about valuations here in silicon valley. microsoft's $10 billion bet is the star of the artificial intelligence revolution. the chief product officer is pitching it as "the defining technology of our time." ed: elliott's multibillion-dollar stake in salesforce comes as a wave of activist investors push companies to act more on behalf of shareholders. caroline: we now know what apple's mixed reality headset is capable of as the company explores a new approach to eye and hand tracking controls. first, let's get to the markets. the mood music turning once again into the green. the s&p 500 and nasdaq both up. big tech on deck. the earnings are to come. people are feeling good about it. we are seeing stocks related to chips getting a bid. up more than 5% on the philadelphia semiconductor index. barclays upgrading views on

qualcomm and other chipmakers helped fuse interest in these stocks. the 1640 working for you again, the bonds selling off. the federal reserve has something in store. we go into a silent period for the reserve ahead of the next meeting january 31, most of the market hoping it will be a quarter of a point rate rise. let's look at what else is getting up. some of the more risk on kind of trades. over the course of two days, bitcoin never sleeps. crypto was trading on sunday and it was down more than 2%. we managed to offset some of that but today was another day of green for crypto, bitcoin on the upside. ed: we are three weeks into the year. speculative, higher multiple tech, the new cycle continues to be a driver. you think of the specific names starting with microsoft.

i thought it was interesting when we got confirmation microsoft is investing multiple billions of dollars into open ai. bloomberg reported it was in the $10 billion range. we saw a pop in the stock in early trading. then there is this idea that from worst to first as one person put it on the terminal, some of the most downtrodden stocks, rivian and lucid, the top performers on the nasdaq 100, really getting momentum as we go into the earnings season. speculative tech has not had much love. elliott investment management according to a source has built a multibillion-dollar stake in salesforce. what was so surprising for me is the lack of surprise around this. very few sell side notes out but

those are saying given the downward long trend, we are not surprised. i'm looking at the forward 12 month pe of salesforce. it is down near crisis level. what elliott seems to be pushing for is shareholder returns and focus on profit. caroline: focus on profit will be the watch word throughout the week and month and year. this focus has had all eyes on the time were here in san francisco. marc benioff, where is his focus and what does the activist stake mean for his business?? swooping in after the layoffs, liana baker has more in new york. as i sit here in san francisco and i think of the worry many had for marc benioff, perhaps as we've seen the other executives shed away, maybe that thought he would be doing more dealmaking. but does investor like elliott mean it is off the cards? reporter: at this point we don't know what elliott is pushing for, that we have seen a public statement that is complementary of marc benioff. so it does not look like it will

be a nasty fight. that said, elliott management has taken on so many big tech companies over time so there could be a range of things they would like. i think ultimately they want the stock to go up and this probably ways for shareholder value to be improved. ed: this time around, salesforce, elliott's name crosses the terminal, monthly seems to be the cadence of their investment. what is their track record? you read the statement from the company, deep respect for mark benioff is the where they used. it does not seem hostile. it seems like they want to work with mr. benioff. reporter: one of the reasons they might be wanting to work in a friendly manner, i've been joking with sources that salesforce is now a hedge fund hotel.

there is a mystery activist we are trying to figure out. cnbc has reported on that. there might be a sense that elliott is the white knight activist to work with. in 2019, ebay fell in the crosshairs of elliott and also starboard and gave them both board seats. that's another example to look back on what can happen. we don't know if salesforce is willing to offer board seats. but jesse cohen leading investment for elliott management has sat on pretty big boards. caroline: to put it into perspective, 2022, the last quarter, we saw so many more activist stakes really being built globally worldwide. how many offenses are there, i can already think like disney and intel. reporter: you nailed it with disney, that is kind of the big one the whole activist community is watching. that looks like it is headed to an actual shareholder vote at some point. elliott doesn't usually get to

that shareholder vote so i'll be surprised if that's where salesforce is headed. right now we are entering what we call proxy season. the nomination windows are starting to open at various companies. we are seeing investors come in and say hey, we want to nominate shareholders. ed: liana baker, who leads deals coverage and investor coverage, thank you so much. caroline, welcome to san francisco. if you jump in a cab and go downtown, you will see the salesforce tower. this is what jumped out to me. the marketing spend is a percentage of its sales. you start to realize what is activist investors might be getting at. they are almost at 50% of their sales spend being on marketing, which is kind of mind blowing a little bit. but then they have potential. this is a software company. margins.

caroline: also, that spend is largely on dream force. last time, lenny kravitz was performing there. basically it is a massive music festival. it does a lot for the san francisco ecosystem as well. they bring people to gatherings that they are taking on the road. the marketing is about being in people and and person. but they probably want to pull back a little bit. ed: and this is a company that had some layoffs. and m&a, absolutely rife. we are watching also microsoft and open ai. a reported $10 billion investment set over a number of years. they have confirmed sort of in a blog. the company saying microsoft will invest in multiple billions of dollars. this is a company that amassed more than one million users within days of launch and we already started the debate. where does it fit in with microsoft and our lives?

it is a fascinating check. caroline: how does it help microsoft gain market share from the likes of aws? we know amazon is the our player when it comes to the cloud. the fact that microsoft wants to intertwine openai in every part of the business, it wants to set itself apart as a cloud offering. openai once upon a time was a not-for-profit. now is a capped profit. the deal, this $10 billion is kind of awkwardly done. it is offering in-kind basically openai, it is able to use the firepower of microsoft's own cloud provision. ed: it is a significant investment for microsoft seven days after they laid off 10,000 staff. the motto is basically any money openai makes, licensing tools to developers, they put into development because they feel it is in the nascent stages.

caroline: after they paid investors, paid their dues, and employees. ed: we've tried to identify, what is the next big company for the next 20 years? there's a lot of debate whether openai is it. microsoft are already implementing this in azure cloud. it is out there in the real world. you and i have played with it to a lesser extent here on the show. interesting. a lot of cash. caroline: that was my podcast learning over the course of the weekend. i can't tell you how nice it is to be back in san francisco. a little known fact that chat gpt world to tell you. my son's middle name is francisco. that's how much the city means to me. ed: despite somewhat difficult news to cover on the show because coming up, layoffs continue in the world of technology, climbing to 57,000

this month. this is bloomberg. ♪ >> we have not been positive n

big tech for a year, year and a half. >> we do believe in 2023 there is still deflation to come out of the market. >> i think the tech sector is one of the few sectors that is really discounting a recession in its outlook.

>> the longer the macro volatility persists, we expect a crunch. >> there will be some amount of normalization of demand. frankly, we in the tech industry will also have to get efficient. we will have to do more with less. ed: that was just some of our recent guests discussing the state of the tech sector. another week, another day, more headlines, all to do with layoffs. spotify, 6% of staff. as we were getting ready for the show, gemini, a second round of 10%. it keeps going. caroline: unrelenting really. again, it's about a ceo trying to own mistakes made. saying, his words were, i was too ambitious. they talked about the fact that they once again invested too far, and there is an executive change, and they want more

efficiency. ed: there's a debate of how much emphasis you put on layoffs announced versus enacted. we had the challenge of christmas data. people say those are just announcements. there are others in the market who say there are bright spots here. and that's why i'm delighted to say we will discuss with the managing partner at tsvc. you invested in zoom in 2011 before they were even a product. that was coming out of a financial crisis or downturn. when you see these headlines crossing the terminal, spotify 6% the latest, as somebody who invests in companies that may still be trying to hire, what is your reaction? >> nobody roots for a recession, but it is good for the seed stage economy. you heard one of your prior guests talk about a crunch. we see the opposite. brand-new company formations are

booming and it has become much easier to hire staff and talent. a year ago we had a double whammy me, hard to hire people and big companies were putting more talent on the street. ed: we are delighted to have you in the studio. it feels like the story is not just playing out here, but the reason you are here is, i tweeted over the weekend, is there anyone actively trying to go out there to hire these people? we do hear that and we are looking for concrete evidence it is true. now is a great chance to get top talent. >> absolutely. we have a company here called zoom transportation that runs electric school bus services for san francisco and oakland.

we have a company called ebots. angle health is hiring. a year ago, it was much more difficult for them. caroline: i suppose this is why the relentless headlines we talk about, tens of thousands being let go, are not showing up in federal data many would say anecdotally they are snapped up quickly, have a great severance, they become a talent at zoom or one of your new ventures, or are they becoming entrepreneurs themselves? i'm yet to see charts on new business formation. if they are let go, are they willing to take on a risk and build something? >> it's a huge point and i think it is fueling the entrepreneurial activity. as you said, you have folks who have a little money, they have a severance and they've been doing well working for larger companies. in some cases, the silicon

valley spree and what's happening in san francisco, so many people you meet here have another startup going on on the side. if you think about who will get laid off, some of these people maybe were not rated as the best employees by their big company employers because they were given half of their time to the company at half to their startup. now you say i've got a little extra cash, all my day free to work on my start up. not a bad situation. caroline: is there an element that you are seeing this worldwide? the talent you are seeing hiring from, do people want to remain remote? where is this all going on? >> it is much more remote than it used to be. i've been in silicon valley since the 1990's and it was definitely you set up a facility and everyone would come and you even had companies like facebook

where they were relocated by their investors to silicon valley because the story is we love you but you can't do it from where you are. it is not so much a destination for companies. a lot of companies are formed here still. the ones that are formed here have done more with remote talent. some of it is offshore. more of it is onshore but outside the area. ed: the conversation we keep having is across the startup curve, the opportunity of 2023 will be seed stage and earlier stage investment. actually, it is the growth phase keeping it powder dry. even though they raised capital in the last two years. is that a fair interpretation of where the industry sits? >> i think so. at tsvc, we do seed stage because we feel the market is coming to us. it is hard to make money at late stage right now. if you have a company that was overfunded at too high of a valuation a year ago, you can do a down round. you can get a better price. but then the employees are not

happy. you lose momentum in the business. even though you might normalize or rationalize the pricing of the company, that doesn't mean it will take off and be successful. i would hate to be writing $100 million checks right now. caroline: what size checks are you writing? >> we write $1 million checks. if you think about zoom, there a photograph of the zoom founder, two engineers in our offices in 2011. that was the company. himself and two engineers, a powerpoint deck. fantastic ambitions. those are the folks we are funding. ed: send us a tweet after the show. caroline: you have not been a one trick pony. tsvc managing partner, spencer greene. nice tweeting from you to get him on as well. coming up, apples headset, is it going to be controlled by your

hands or eyes? the details and price point, next. this is bloomberg. ♪

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getrefunds.com has helped businesses get over a billion dollars and we can help your business too. qualify your business for a big refund in eight minutes. go to getrefunds.com to get started. powered by innovation refunds. caroline: new day, new week, new scoop from mark gurman. the highly anticipated $3000 mixed reality headset by apple, according to sources, boasting an eye and hand tracking system. tell us how this will be different. reporter: this is apple's next big thing. they've worked on it for well over seven years, well over 1500 engineers on the project. they are getting ready to unveil

it. the factories are going to start churning them out at the end of next month in china. the eye and hand control, some devices on the market already can read your eyes and have hand control, but with apple's device, it is the way they work together that makes it special. the touchscreen on the first iphone was a big differentiator. let me give you an example of the way you'd control the device is, you would just look at something if you want to launch an app, sweep through a list or toggle a setting. you look at it and then you pinch your thumb and index finger to launch it. just like on a touchscreen, you tap what you want. or in a mouse, you point the cursor and click. this one, you look and tap your fingers together. pretty nifty. ed: how'd we get a $3000 price point? how does this headset differentiate itself from meta's

quest? as an iphone user, i'm thinking about emojis and memes where you use your face to interact with the technology. is this an extension of it? reporter: in terms of the price point, it has 14 cameras. you need cameras that can look forward and up and cameras that can look down. down to see what your legs look like and what your body looks like to re-create what you look like in virtual reality. for that feature you alluded to in facetime. there's also cameras and sensors in the device to read where your eyes are looking at. there are two 4k displays. there are two of them, mini ones inside the headset for virtual-reality. ar usually uses clear lenses but in this case it is cameras to

create a fake ar or vr mixed reality effect. pretty cool in practice, i'm told. the other thing is you will be able to replicate a lot of the features of an ipad. you will get safari, mail, maps, calendar, health tracking. you can hook it up to your mac. you can see what the mac's screen looks like in virtual-reality while using your keyboard. caroline: how much is this moving the needle from apple valuation perspective? do people think it will be a game changer? reporter: in year one, they want to sell one million units at $3000. in terms of overall revenue, it will not move the needle in the short term, but long-term it could be a multi-$100 billion market. and given the layoffs and hardware changes, they seem to have a clear runway for not only vr but other hardware products.

ed: mark gurman, another day and another big scoop. coming up, the showdown over censorship hits the supreme court. this as state laws in florida and texas challenge editorial discretion of big social media. caroline: plus, no more access to tiktok at universities in texas. but what exactly are these cybersecurity risks associated with it? that discussion is next. this is bloomberg. ♪ introducing the new sleep number climate360 smart bed. the only smart bed in the world that actively cools, warms

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caroline: welcome back to "bloomberg technology" right here from san francisco. i'm caroline hyde. ed: i am ed ludlow. it's a pleasure to have you back out west in the bay area. we have to talk about social media and regulation. it has been a big theme in the show a number of days now. the federal government and several states have raised cybersecurity concerns around chinese owned tiktok. as we reported last week, dozens

of u.s. schools and universities have moved to ban the app from campuses, hoping to prevent it from spying on students, asserting that the chinese government could access private information of users. let's bring in micki boland to talk the potential risks. she's global cybersecurity architect and security evangelist at check point software technologies, a cybersecurity solutions provider. you heard the back story. caroline and i have tried to make sense of this for a number of days now. campuses move to remove the ability to access tiktok on campuses through the wi-fi network. what we are hearing from users is they don't understand the risk that is being warned about here. is there a risk? >> yes carefirst i want to say thank you for having me that checkpoint, we believe everyone deserves the best cybersecurity. for the end-users that don't understand the risk, yes there

is risk. this is why we are seeing organizations come together so agencies, enterprise, nonprofit, doing a joint responsibility. we need to approach risk as we have privacy and security, privacy for data, protective data and the end user data and points, and for corporate assets. we also have to protect networks. people are writing networks to get to these applications and the networks are vulnerable to attacks. then we have corporate assets and university assets to protect. it is a joint responsibility and we do need to help students understand the risk and educate everyone. ed: going back to basics, their argument is that ultimately, personnel in mainland china

might be able to access the personal data of tiktok users in the united states. the proposed solution from tiktok is to house data of u.s. services on oracle services based in the united states. is that acceptable mitigation of risk from industry professionals like yourself? >> i hate to speculate about that, but i will tell you how are checkpoint research, we did extensive testing. we were super curious and 2020 about was tiktok delivering consistent policy and security? we did find several vulnerabilities. the research team found cross site scripting for ads, we found a way to circumvent registration using a mobile device and use sms spoofing for registration. there was api vulnerabilities. ultimately what i'm saying is we

need to demand of organizations offering social media applications and other applications for mobile devices, that they have consistent and secure privacy policies that we can trust. caroline: compare tiktok to other virally growing social media companies of old. how many does it have vis-a-vis competitors? >> across-the-board, i referred to the research team for that. i think tiktok, to their justice, they actually did fix the vulnerabilities that checkpoint research presented to them and we worked together in 2021 to help them test the vulnerabilities. ultimately what we understand is from an attack surface, these applications are going viral. i think tiktok now, i just

installed it again to test, there's over one billion installs. there are over 100 million active users in the u.s. and globally it is billions. i think we have to think these platforms will be like a huge attack service for malicious actors. we also have to take responsibility for our own personal data. caroline: yes, talk to us about that. you say yourself complained -- self proclaimed global national security warrior. if i cannot leave it up to tiktok what do i need to do for myself? >> thank you so much. i am a lawyer. i wish everyone would be and we are asking more people to join the warrior bandwagon. when you download, anyone, if you go to the app store and download a social media application, read the details. what is the security policy and privacy policy? what kind of data are they

collecting on you? are you actively looking at the permissions you are granting to this application when you install? just click, click, touch, and i just gave access to my phone and camera. you are doing video on tiktok and other applications. your camera, microphone, location, contacts. your calendar. this is probably too much information to share. you also have to read the fine print. what are they saying they are doing with analytics that are being collected from you? and then, who do you trust? ultimately you have to have a trust in the application. any software can be exploited. they will never perfect. caroline: micki boland. keep being a warrior. checkpoint global cybersecurity architect, great to have you with us. let's go and talk about d.c. now.

we are going to talk much more about regulation in social media you -- social media. the u.s. supreme court is asking the biden administration for input on florida and texas laws that could alter social media platforms. greg stall has the latest on the censorship concerns on either side of theseisles, talk to us about what the supreme court wants to hear from the administration. greg: the supreme court wants to hear advice on should we take up the appeals, there are appeals for both sides. one in texas and one involving florida. these are laws where the conservative governors and lawmakers of those states are saying we are worried social media companies are discriminating against conservatives, so we are going to oversee their content management and impose a lot of new requirements on them. the social media companies are saying that is a violation of our first amendment rights.

ed: looking at your reporting on the bloomberg terminal, you have this texas set of laws and florida set of laws. the texas set seems to be the most sweeping in terms of the actions against social media platforms. tell us what they are based on. what do they require social media platforms to do? >> the biggest provision would say social media companies cannot discriminate on the basis of viewpoint. there are a few exceptions, but basically you cannot take something down if it is coming from a conservative voice just as you would not take something down coming from a liberal voice. social media companies are saying it might make it impossible for us to stop bullying, stop spam, things like that. there are other provisions involving disclosure and operational environments. the florida law has a whole series of requirements that are in some cases the same and some

cases different. one of the ones that are federal appeals court struck down said social media companies have to provide a thorough rationale every time they make content management decisions. caroline: to that end, so far the laws have been put on ice. what is the next step? when do we hear ultimately from the supreme court? greg: they are on ice although a federal appeals court upheld the texas law. if the supreme court turns away from that, the law would go into effect. we wait for the biden administration to say one or what things the supreme court should do. possibly at the end of the court's term in june, but more likely when they come back in october, the court will tell us whether it will take up these cases because of the widespread impact and lower court divide, there's a good chance the court will take it up and those will

be huge. caroline: a lot of work cut out. we thank you for your time. we will continue this important conversation. later this week, we will have the fcc commissioner brendan carr. all about the focus on tiktok, social media in the u.s. ed: meanwhile, and coming up, how one startup managed to raise funds and secure a multibillion-dollar valuation, spicing down rounds and despite a tough market for startups in the last year. this is bloomberg. ♪

caroline: welcome back to "bloomberg technology." we do so much in terms of public market coverage, but get us up to speed on the world of venture capital. ed: talking tech, we need to focus on that side of the world. there are so many headlines of starting with sequoia's regional arm in southeast asia. it is weighing up a special audits of several investments in the region, following allegations of financial irregularities. some portfolio companies. in europe, highland has raised a one billion euro fund to invest in private software and consumer internet companies. the firm got a focus on growth stage companies. interesting they have raised and closed that in this environment. fintech to hr outfit deals says it reached 295 million dollars in annual recurring revenue by the end of 2022.

that was a jump of more than 400%. the company also confirming the valuation has reached $12 billion. caroline: fascinating that we are getting more focus on valuations and where they are held after the funding from last year. let's talk about it with the cofounder and ceo. it is great to have you on. i was on the website. everything you need to scale a global team. talk about the need for your services in an environment where we talk more about layoffs than scaling. how is your hr offering being scaled in and of itself by other companies? >> of course. first of all, thank you for having me today. i am excited to be here. the deal started as a --deel started as a company that enables you to hire globally. let's say bloomberg wants to hire someone in south korea but you don't have the structure. we are able to hire someone over there and give you the best benefits in a day.

as the company grew, we realized we could do much more. expanding globally is key. with the latest release we have become an hr solution to really go global. caroline: i'm looking at the global companies. calvin klein, nike, u.s.-based. you have forever 21, shopify, canadian business. where do you look to increase your own footprint, in an economy that worldwide is slowing down? >> we've always been agnostic when it comes to regions. we want to have the best companies. over 50% of our business comes from the united states, and we have a global footprint. as a global business, being european myself and my cofounder being chinese, we want to cover most companies from the get-go. that's what we've been able to do. you have companies from all over the world and all segments using deel. ed: i want to go back to the numbers and timeline.

there were reports last may that you are raising funds. you closed last year over the summer. you announced a valuation of $12 billion. that is completely at odds with what caroline and i are hearing everyday. founders finding it hard to raise money, down rounds being more common than valuations growing. was it a difficult environment for you? >> for us, we closed that round in june. the idea was not to raise money for the capital. we get to work with the team at emerson which is impact driven. that is what we wanted to do. the mission of the company is to have hundreds of millions of people work for the best companies in the world. it was less about the money and more about people. that is why the valuation was easier to get to. we announced from september we started being positive. we have a lot of money in the bank and it was about getting to the right number and bringing the right people. ed: that's interesting. you are saying from very

recently, you started to be profitable. the other disclosure is your annual average revenue jumped 400% from the end of 2021 to the end of last year. are you worried that when you see layoffs and freezing of expenditures that you might see a delayed response from your customer base as well? >> not exactly. the way we think about it is, there are two trends happening. the first one as -- is more and more are cutting software and they want to consolidate hr infrastructure. with this new technology, it help them by being that solution. not just global hiring but everything for them. the second part is as a lot of businesses are growing globally, they realize they are hiring engineers at $500,000 did not make a lot of sense. for their business. thinking about expanding their footprint and hiring people in a location that is more affordable is a trend we are seeing.

some of the largest ones are coming to us to understand what is the best way to do so. caroline: what is a globally focused business right now? many would say the economies are splitting in two. particularly as we see more geopolitical tension, whether it's europe versus russia, china versus the u.s. you said your cofounder is from china. how do you see companies wanting to scale their footprint? are we being limited to certain scales? >> not really, he's american but was born in china. the way we look at the world is that it is less about the -- it is more about the talent. you just want a company to hire the best people they can and bring them to your company. i'm not seeing a difference when you see the regions, but we see -- and how you want to build the culture of the company. when it comes to it, we may see russia get less hires at the

moment, but in general people have been very geo-agnostic. when it comes to talents. ed: what about your own company and its health? caroline and i talking about tens of thousands of talented people and technology being laid off. are you one of those companies currently hiring? >> for sure, we are across 100 -- 2000 people across 100 locations. we've always been as efficient as we could be. it has enabled us to scale further. we have over 500 million dollars plus in the bank and we are generating now, so we will keep hiring to bring the best hr solutions to market and help companies go global. if you know great people, send them our way. ed: deel cofounder and ceo, alex bouaziz. thank you for sharing valuation news and giving insight on what it's like to run a company. that is the take away. it is well and good having the vcs on the public are gets, the activists what they want from a company. when you at the helm trying to rage money -- raise money and

make decisions, it is interesting to see somebody so confident when there is a lot of negativity out there. caroline: a bootstrap business to begin with, a y combinator, a well-known silicon valley startup culture, and he was talking already the lexicon private and public investors want to hear. positive, efficiencies, hiring across the world, making sure they are efficient and they are not over scaling, over hiring or overindulgent which is what so many big companies have done. ed: the other big thing we've heard is investors look for quality in times like these were -- where actually being profitable for many companies is a distant dream. could be an attractive investment. caroline: but if you are scaling revenue at 400%? meanwhile, so much more to check in on here in san francisco. testifying just down the road, elon musk is at a court over that 2018 tweet saying he wanted to take tesla private. more on that is next. this is bloomberg. ♪

caroline: now, let's do something very local for going viral. the tesla trial is going on right here in the city. elon musk is testifying. he said the saudi arabia and sovereign wealth fund "unequivocally" wanted to give him the money. there was no email about it. their word was as good as that. this was in defense of tweets he sent in 2018. ed: that's one part of it. the other thing extending from friday's that elon musk rejected the idea that his tweets influenced tesla's share price and questioned how seriously anyone took his tweets. having since bought twitter, he talked about twitter being a very trustworthy and reliable source of news. so which is it? we did what we always do. we asked our audience to react to the quote he put about

whether or not his tweets should be trusted. he said just because i tweet about something doesn't mean people believe it or act accordingly. do you agree? caroline: negative. [laughter] 57% say that's insane of course. they felt he puts out tweets that people believe and act on. there's been criticism time and time again the way he's talked up certain crypto assets. goodness knows the people move and make asset allocation decisions based on what he tweets. ed: and why he doesn't use a regular tree filing instead of a tweet, tweet is his method of choice. caroline: was it a tweet that almost broke the internet as well? is m&ms using this? ed: m&ms is reconsidering its spokes candies. you can see the former ones along the bottom. they have a new spokesperson. caroline: apparently everyone can rally behind her. maya rudolph. they say we are confident miss rudolph will champion the power

of fun to create a world where everyone feels they belong. many think it may be about the super bowl. ed: let's wait and see if this is real or not. caroline: m&ms are determined to break the internet. we did not break the internet. we talked all about it though. that does it for this edition of bloomberg technology. we have so much more tuesday. ed: you have to recap everything on the podcast. spotify. this is bloomberg. ♪ when you automate sales tax with avalara, you don't have to worry about things like changing tax rates or filing returns.

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manus: this is "bloomberg: middle east." up stories this morning. investors prepare for industries to report results in the coming days. sorcerers held bloomberg that the biden administration has confronted china'v