Big Companies Exit From Russia Continues

the crypto world? And f t X president joins us this hour to talk about their conversations with regulators and new services being launched in Europe, in the Middle East. And Apple holds its first event of the year Tuesday. You can expect updates to the iPhone, iPad and knock lines. We're gonna bring you a preview later this Now. As the conflict in Ugraine Ukraine continues to escalate, so does the risk of cyber attacks against Ukraine and its allies.

Just weeks ago, we are now learning that hackers gained access to computers belonging to current and PUT and former employees. That nearly two dozen major natural gas suppliers and exporters, including Chevron and Kinder Morgan EQT Corps, the largest producer of national grass in the United States, also saying it's been targeted by a rising number of cyber attacks since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Here's CEO Toby Rice. We have seen the hits on our system

increase significantly since this UH conflicts began in Europe. The biggest threat to to Russia is American natural gas. So when you think about what they're going to do to stop to to preserve their power, it's shut down American oil and gas. I want to bring in Matthew Only now for more on this. He's the director of Threat Intelligence at Cisco Tells Intelligence Group. Matt, thank you so much for joining us I UNDERS and you're seeing a new wave of crowdsourced cyber attacks on both sides of

this conflict. How would you describe the state of play? What are you seeing? It's a it's a pretty crazy situation right now in terms of Traditionally, we look at these kind of UH conflicts and we have one side and another side, and maybe in this case Russia and Ukraine. UH. Now we have UM the Continent Ransomware group coming out on the side of Russia. We have the Ukrainian cyber

police soliciting volunteers online to attack websites in Russia. Um. We we have lots of different players who feel a now as the time for them to kind of put their stake in the ground and go after what they believe in, and that that kind of raises the stakes on the international stage of a possible misunderstanding between nations

and what could that lead to a possible misunderstanding between nations? Yeah, look, I mean look, attribution is always difficult, like knowing what's happening when when you're looking at attacks on the ground, and nations have to respond to that. So if someone hits something in Russia, for example, and Russia misinterprets that as an attack in the United States or an attacks solicited by the United States, then their response will come the way the United States. Um, it's it just adds

chaos to an already dangerous situation. Well seas also urging US companies to lock down their systems in case the Russian government or private ackers take action. It could in fact already be happening. You've got companies like CrowdStrike and paying and cloud fare offering their help, offering their services for free. What would you say as the threat level

right now against US businesses, U S entities. Yeah, the the it's all down to how Putin decides to engage the West, um, how do they respond to these unprecedentations that have been put in place. Ultimately, we think that there's largely they're very capable in the energy sector. We've seen them for decade or more UM in the energy sector gaining a foothold gatting understanding of those systems UM,

and so there's a threat there. But we also think that there's a possibility that there could be a tip for cats or thing where they're going after the financial sector as well, which is a harder net to crack UM in the West. I want to take a look at Ukraine specifically, and you talked about all of these different entities coming to the defense of Ukraine. We're talking about from the EU to Lithuania to Romania to all

of these different companies. How effective do you think this has been and is this a path towards sort of further deterrence cyber deterrence in the future when you see the rest of the world piling on. Yeah, I have a hard time thinking about cyber deterrence when you see the level of kinetic warfare going on, like cyber uh is a piece of this story, but they're this human

side is also much much more more distressing. What I would say in Ukraine, Um, it looks like Russia has underestimated on all battle spaces Ukraine, both in terms of how their military respond and how the West will respond, but also in terms of how solid their cyber defenses are.

You Train spent the last few years well in terms of putting that, putting together defenses and and you know, Cisco is proud to have a role in that in in kind of providing actually on the ground support right now for critical infrastructure, ensuring that those systems stay up when the Ukrainian people need them the most. There's also movement in US Congress to take greater action on cyber attacks.

You've got massive cyber legislation which would require companies and critical sectors to alert the government of potential hacks or ransomware. You've got the ball now in the house is core. What's your take on this legislation? Is this something that you would like to see advance? Anytime I see the government like you have to notify us of something. My question is, then, what are you going to do with

that information? UM. I like that it's centered in and around CISA because CISA has positioned itself as the sort of go to agency in the United States to provide information both to the private sector and to government networks at risk and gives a really good understanding of what our actors are using UM in terms of their attacks. So I think centering information there signals that's how they want the information used, and I think that's a good

place to put that information. Now, Look, the war on Ukraine is escalating, it seems by the hour. What does that escalation look like in cyberspace? How bad could this get on both sides? You know? Again, you know the cyber States element has large has been much quieter than

we anticipated. And I think that's because UM, that that the Russia has kind of underestimated what they need to do in the States, and I think right now they're gonna so overcompensate in the connecting kinetic space that that the cyberspace side inside of Ukraine just isn't of interest to them. And I think they're using their best resources right now engaging an espionage on the West to understand what the red lines are and what the excess strategies

are for everybody. Matthew Only of Cisco, Matt thank you so much for bringing this perspective. Meantime, the Russian government blocked Facebook as part of its efforts to silence descent and limit information about its invasion of Ukraine. Opposed from Russia's communications regulator, raz Kammanadzer said Facebook would be blocked because of quote discrimination against Russian media and information sources.

Facebook previously banned Russian state backed media accounts from operating in the European Union in an effort to cut down on Russian propaganda and misinformation a continued exodus of businesses out of Russia. How does MasterCard, American Express and Visa

suspending operations their impact everyday Russians? Bloombergs Victoria Cavalery explains, Visa, MasterCard, and American Express have become the latest international companies to suspend operations in Russia to punish the country over its invasion of Ukraine. What this means from a practical standpoint is that if you have a Visa master Card issued by a Russian institution and you attempt to use it

outside of the country. Let's say here in New York to buy a cup of coffee, that transaction will not go through. Similarly, if you have a visa or MasterCard issued outside of Russia and you attempt to use it with a Russian vendor, that transaction will also no longer work. It will be denied. So, for example, if you live in Russia and you have a bank with a foreign institution UM say Chase in the US UM and you have a card issued through Chase, you won't be able

to make any purchases in Russia. Here's what this means for Russian citizens. If you live in Russia and you bank with a Russian bank and you attempt to use your visa or master card in the country, they will continue to work. The Russian Central Bank said that they can process those payments in the country. Caveat to that is that once those cards expire, they will no longer work. However, if you're a Russian citizen and you're any place else in the world and you pull out your master card

and you bank with a Russian bank, you're out of luck. Further, even if you bank with a Russian bank and you try to make a foreign purchase something online, it also will not work. This is another attempt to financially isolate the Russian government and to put pressure on Russian President

Vladimir Putin to get him to reverse course. In Ukraine, Western governments have rolled out a series of sanctions, and private companies like Visa and MasterCard have undertaken their own financial punishments by pausing the operations in Russia, suspending business, closing up shop. Ukrainian president had requested that Visa and MasterCard undertake these measures in the hopes that it will pressure Russia to stop the war. Meantime, other companies continue

to shut down operations in Russia. Netflix says no new customers will be able to sign up, TikTok is suspending live streaming in the country after a Putin so called fake news law, and Samsung of stopping all products shipments to Russia, including smartphones and chips. Bloomberg's executive editor Tom Giles with us Now along with Economy founder David Kirkpatrick. David, Tom,

thank you. Obviously, it's very complicated to figure out just how this is impacting everyday Russians versus the Russian government, versus Kuna himself, David, what do you make of this exodus? What strikes you most about these companies taking a stand, whether they have large businesses in Russia or not. Well, clearly, digital information is an intrinsic part of modern economy and how people are able to stay informed, and sadly, the Russian government does not want its people to be informed.

So I think most of the consumer digital information companies like TikTok, Facebook, Google are trying their best to continue operating on the grounds that they help people stay informed at a time when otherwise they would have difficulty doing so. But many of them are finding that it's simply untenable. So Netflix and TikTok shut down in Russia because new laws that Russia has just introduced as part of their suppression of information make it possible that they are their

employees might be prosecuted. So these companies are in a very difficult position now. Ukraine's Vice Prime Minister, Mikailo Federov Tom has been pretty aggressive about calling out these big tech giants, specifically, most recently, he's called on Amazon and Jeff Bezos to make some moves there. He also called on Apple and Google to shut down the Play and the App Store. Do we have any indication that Amazon, for example, is going to cut off some of its

services to Russia. So overall, we haven't heard specifically from Amazon recently. Overall, you have to keep in mind, you know you asked earlier about cutting off Russia and possibly taking a hit to business. A lot of these companies buying large. Now there are some exceptions, but by and large, the technology of US technology industry is not heavily exposed to Russia. If you were to erase Russian business altogether, which some of the companies are doing, you're talking about

a small sliver of overall revenue. So in terms of this being a sacrificial move on the part of big US companies, let's keep it in perspective. Now. The other thing is they're being compelled to do this in many cases because of US sanctions. You don't want to run a foul of the US rules, and every day there's another set there seems to be another set of sanctions

levied against Russia. Secondarily, there's the practical implications. How can you do business even if you want to do business in a country where you can't make payments, you can't accept payments where Visa and MasterCard aren't accepted, where banking facilities are being shut down right and left. So there's the practical element, and then lastly, I think there is the moral element. It does behoove these company needs to take some sort of a moral stance, even though sacrifice.

It's not necessarily going to be a big sacrifice from them on the sales side of things. We are also seeing non US companies take stance here, David, like Samsung stopping sending products and chips to Russia. Apple. I understand their their businesses in Russia is fairly small, but does Samsung have a larger business in Russian? Is that of

more consequence to them? I think it will be. I think what they said is they're not going to ship new product to Russia, which means probably that Samsung phones and other equipment that's already in Russia will be um still available. But this will have major consequence, there's no question um. And I think the set of sanctions and actions in net really will hurt the people. There's no

way it can avoid hurting the people. But I think that's just unavoidable as a consequence of the sanctions and the situation right, And there's a question, Tom, is it a good thing or is it the right thing to do to be hurting the Russian people, many of whom don't necessarily support this war absolutely, And that gets back to the point David made earlier is the information served. The flow of information is not something that you want

to necessarily stop. If your Twitter, if your Facebook, if you're the list goes on TikTok, you know there their services are getting throttled into some degree. These companies are cutting back on their own services YouTube ad sales, for example. But do you want to deprive the Russian people of the flow of information? Say, for example, here's how you you know, here's a group of people in in solidarity over opposition to the Russian government. Here's the flow, here's

actually what's going on. Here's the news and information that's actually calling uh, calling out the Russian government for for the invasion of Ukraine. Um. You know, as we've noted this, this law that was passed last week, it puts really tight limits on how you can't even talk about it. The words you can use don't call it an invasion, for example, Google search. Meantime, David as I understand it still works. Also, YouTube and WhatsApp are hugely popular in Russia.

You know, are these services that you believe should stay turned on? I mean there are there are pros and cons to both arguments here. I think in the case of those three it would be beneficial if they could continue operating. I think somebody might say at Google in particular, if it were turned off, it would harm the government's ability to function and the economy, because we know everybody uses search. But for now, I think making those services

still available to ordinary citizens is important. YouTube has a huge role as an information conveyor in Russia, and I think What'sapp, which is encrypted, is probably a critical tool to continue making available to the Russian people if possible. Right, certainly likely not the last of this long list of companies taking action on Russia. To Economy founder David Kirkpatrick, our very own Tom Giles, thank you both. A few

other stories we continue to watch. Door Dash considered a takeover bid for London based deliver U, but the two sides failed to reach an agreement. That's according to The Sunday Times, the US food delivery service reportedly met with delivery over the summer, while exploring plans to expand in Europe instead, Door Dash Spot, the finish food delivery startup volt for about eight billion dollars, and mandy And soaring

as much as after the information reported. Google is in talks to acquire the cybersecurity company, marking what would be google Second largest transaction ever. Bloomberg reported last month that Microsoft was in discussions to buy mandy And, which has a market value now about five billion dollars. Coming up beyond Ukraine, Meta and other Silicon Valley giants have another challenge on the horizon, staying attractive to tech workers here in the United States as share prices fall. All the

details on that next. This is Bloomberg. Welcome back to Bloomberg Technology. I'm Emily Chang. For years, employees of Silicon Valley's largest companies could count on one constant, and that is a rising share price. But now with shares of the biggest tech companies dropping at least eleven percent in recent months, in some cases, more employees are now unsure about their fortunes and it's increasing the odds of a

rush to the exits. I want to bring in Bloomberg's current why ner, who covers Meta Twitter and other companies for US, Kurt, how exactly are they share prices impacting employee retention. I mean, obviously it was going up for so long, and this is kind of a massive jolt, it is, right. I mean, if this has been your norm for years, that you would get stock every year with part of your salary, and if you use a few years later, it would be, you know, worth more

than it was when you got it. UM. Suddenly, when you are going the opposite direction, that catches some people by surprise. I think if the entire tech industry is kind of moving downward together, it probably helps retention somewhat because you don't necessarily you know, you're not going to your going to another company where the stock is diving.

But in general, obviously companies want this UM this number to be going up because employees want to stay in work at a place where their paychecks are getting bigger every other quarter. So UM, I think it's really it's just the reality of the fact that the tech instrure right now is hurting and we haven't really seen that

happen for a really long time. So are you hearing from employees who think it's just not necessarily worth it anymore to keep working at you know, a Facebook or an Amazon because the stock just isn't worth what it used to be, or do they still believe in the mission and want to push forward. I think that there's just so many opportunities out there that unless you are one of these big companies and offering a really attractive financial package to people, there's other things they can go

do to make um, you know, a livable, great tech wage. Right, And so I think, whereas before this idea that hey, I'm getting in in Amazon today because I know four years from now, when all my stuff vests, it's it's really going to be worth twice as much, right, That was a mindset that I think a lot of people had and one of the not the only, but certainly one of the driving factors for why these companies are

so popular with recruiting. Now, if you don't necessarily have that belief, right, if you think, hey, a lot of what I'm gonna get today might be worth the same or or maybe even less in the future, well there's

just not as much incentive. And so maybe people go build a startup on their own, right, or maybe they take a chance on something that's a little bit less established because they don't necessarily feel like they're they're definitely going to get the return that they were used to expecting. And these companies have been dealing with a whole host of issues over the last several years, privacy, anti trust increasing, you know, in the case of Metah for example, really

um deep seated brand issues. But in the last two weeks, I wonder how much of that has changed with the war in Ukraine and the uncertainty, how does that play into choices. I mean, certainly we've been seeing people resign and reshuffle across the board, but I wonder do we see a pause now? Well? I think this is one of the challenges as these companies get really big, is how do you continue to attract people that really believe in your mission? Right? And what is your mission now?

Ten years ago, Emily, you probably remember working at Facebook was like, hey, we're changing the world, right, We're we're connecting people in a way that didn't exist today. Um, And now you work at Facebook and it's just PR headache after PR headache, right, And so I think finding people who maybe believe in those missions of the Amazon's, Google's facebooks, these really big companies with tens of thousands

of employees. I just think it's a harder sell. And so as a result, you know, when something like Ukraine is going on, just something that's a real world issue. Um, I think it puts a lot of that other stuff into perspective from people who might not have been as bought into that mission to begin with. Alright, Kurt Wagner for this, I I'm sorry. I'm sure this story will continue to evolve, Kurt. Thank you. Meantime, the massive list of companies halting business with Russia keeps growing as they

take a stand against the war in Ukraine. This as US docks plunge, inflation rises, and rising gas prices with a possible ban on Russian oil loom joining US now cole CEO Michelle Goss. Michelle, great to have you with us. I know it's your investor day and you have to be thinking about the macro economic picture here. What are you bracing for in terms of how this global tumult could impact consumer behavior? Yeah, Emily, Well, it's a it's

a great question. It's a great point. I mean, we are navigating unprecedented times, just like we have the last couple of years. And there's a lot of uncertainty and concern out there for sure, I'd say from a coal standpoint, you know, we're staying very close to the customer. UM. We've demonstrated we can be agile and resilient during this time, the global pandemic, supply chain issues and like over the last couple of years. And today is our investor day

and we got to share some really exciting news. I mean, as we look ahead, we have great confidence in our business, lots of growth drivers. I'm sure we'll talk about that, but we're also present to the fact that there is pressure. UM. We have reflected that in our guidance to investors. UM we've taken note in our margin headwinds that it relates to things like freight and cost. In the same time, from a customer standpoint, we want to be really sensitive

to the pricing pressures. I think one of the real advantages we have here at Cold is our brand portfolio. And we have aspirational, iconic national brands like Nike and Levies, and we've got great entry price point brands that are private label, so we can meet the customer wherever they are. And like I said, we'll be agile and responsive. It's probably also worth mentioning one of the things we announced

today is the next evolution of our loyalty program. So if you have a coals charge, you get seven and a half percent back in coals cash, which our customers really value. What do you think could be the biggest macro challenge for your customers? Is it inflation? Is it geopolitical turmoil? Is it supply chain challenges? And by the way, do you have factories in Russia? So UM you know we're a domestic company. Clearly from a supply chain standpoint, that is the area that we pay attention to, as

well as the inflationary pressures. UM you know, I think it's it's hard to speculate in the midst of this UM all the the uncertainties with the consumer, and that's why it's so important for a business like ours that serves sixty million customers that we do put the customer first and that understand them. But I think it goes back to, you know, what is on their mind, how they're purchasing UM and coals serves America. I mean, eighty percent of America lives within fifteen miles of the coals.

We serve lots of things that's really important to their everyday lives. As we shared with our investors today, this pivot into the active and casual lifestyle have living today, moving into beauty UM. So these are all needs that we expect that they're going to continue to have. But like I said, we'll stay flexible and agile as we

understand and navigate the current situation. Coles has gotten a couple of unsolicited takeover offers over the last couple of weeks and also just released of filing an hour ago that says, UM, your advisor, Goldman Sachs, is in talks with twenty potential buyers. Can you give us the latest on this and talk about how your plan addresses some of these investor concerns and some of this investor interest. Yeah,

you bet, Emily. So first let me clarify the plan we put together and what we shared today with a lot more detail, is something we the board, the management team really believes in and have great conviction that this is going to create tremendous value to our shareholders. And we have retained Goldman Sachs. We have a finance committee, UM, that's part of the board. I mean, our board is being extremely thoughtful and doing their fiduciary duty as we

evaluate UM all opportunities in front of us. Yes, UM, we have had engagement with roughly twenty parties. UM, We've had some unsolicited bids. We've also done some outreach to make sure that we are doing our job as a board to evaluate these options against a very strong plan and ultimately all this will be considered as we decide our path forward. But I'll end with you know, as

we look ahead, we've guided growth for the business. We have game changing ideas that we're pursuing, like Sephora, expanding active even billlding a hundred news stores. So we feel really well positioned. But like I said, UM, we will evaluate all options in front of us. You said Sephora can become a two billion dollar business. When do you see hitting that goal and what proportion of sales do

you see coming from digital versus on foot in store traffic. Now, Emily, we haven't put a very specific date out there on the two billion, but let's say it's in the medium horizon. I mean, we're in the midst of building out eight hundred and fifty shops. They're going to be a very big contributor, and to your point, digital will be a reasonable contributor to that. I mean, that's one of the advantages we have with such a strong omni channel platform.

And candidly, it was one of the reasons I think Sepphora wanted to partner with Coals because we have such a strong footprint, it's convenient, it's off mall, we have a growing digital business. We're taking advantage of that omni channel power UM with things like buy online, pickup and store, and we do that today with our stores that are open. But we're going to test an idea, well, we're gonna do both this leveraging seppor dot com their site and

driving customers into a Coal shop. And there's not that many examples. I can't think of one of companies that are doing that kind of cross company bocus so UM, you know, I'm excited UM to continue to build out

this business with them. It's a very big idea. And like I said, UM, in terms of the growth stores and and we're growing our digital business to you know, looking to grow an eight billion dollar business from six billion today, right and I know you're launching some more self checkout, buy online pickup in store options which have been popular. Michelle gas Cole CEO. Good to have you back with us. Thanks Michelle for stopping by coming up. Crypto Exchange f t X expanding to Europe and the

Middle East. We're gonna talk with f t X US president Brent Harrison about this new move as calls from regulators to block Russian crypto clients. Right, Mr is Bloomberg, we have seen some divergences in crypto since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. I want to bring in our next guest, f t X US president Brett Harrison, to talk about their expansion to Europe and the Middle East and so much more. Brett, obviously, so much going on in the crypto market right now, this question of

whether crypto is decoupled from more traditional assets or not. Meantime, you've got this big launch in Europe in the Middle East. Why now and when will we actually see these new

services begin? Sure, so ft X operates globally. Between f t X and f t x US, we operate and over a hundred eight jurisdictions, but in many of those jurisdictions it hasn't been completely clear exactly what regulation, what licensing is required in order to be able to operate and expand the services that we can offer to citizens and in these have different jurisdictions, and so what we've been doing is working in every country possible to get license in any way that we can, so that we

are fully set to offer all the services that we can in a licensed way. And this is very much to counteract this narrative that crypto companies are operating outside of the regulatory regimes and envelopes that they want to avoid being able to have the same kind of rules applied to them as traditional financial markets. It's the opposite for us. We want to be a part of the regulatory discussion and work cooperatively with the different agencies in

these different countries to be able to be regulated. So we're very excited about f t X and you. We have the sci scum approval to be able to offer that f t X dot com slash EU domain two in the different places where we can passport that particular license, and we'll be able to launch within a couple of days all those services. Well. Speaking of changing regulation, there has been increasing pressure on crypto exchanges to block Russian

clients in accordance with sanctions. You've got coin based saying that they are now doing this. What is ft x is position on this? Are you blocking sanctioned Russian entities or users? We have been blocking sanctions Russian entity is from the start, from before, even though the war with Ukraine has started. FTX as an exchange is required, for example, by Finsen to be able to uphold a m L and sanctions according to the various sanction lists that we check.

That includes the O fact sanctions lists, FBI most Wanted interpoll consolidated sanctioned lists, and we do an extraordinary job of making sure that those sanctioned entities and individuals cannot transactryptocurrency through the exchange. It's a different matter entirely to consider whether we would on our own make the private decision as a company to block every single Russian user, regardless of their um appearing on those those lists are not.

And so we're in constant dialogue with Treasury, with members of the Treasury who are telling us what they want us to do in terms of helping to uphold the global public policy decisions that they are working on with

the executive branch. UH you know, speaking of keeping an eye on what users are doing and what was happening over at coin base, I mean the idea that twenty five thousand addresses had to be blocked as a result of their own kind of internal look under the hood here, bring us under the hood over there a little more at f t x, because what is the scale of which users around the world could be engaged in alist of activity and where is it mostly coming from? Right?

I read that report from coin base, and if you dig in, most of those addresses were found from prior to when the conflict started, and so I think what coin bas was trying to do is show that Look, there's been discussion back and forth about whether cryptocurrency exchanges like coin based and f t x are actually doing their job of holding sanctions. The answer is we are, and in fact, every single day we have to block sanctioned activity, whether that's from Russia or from any other

particular nation or individual appearing on these sanctioned lists. And that didn't start just now with with with the conflict in the Ukraine. I'm wondering also when you take a look at kind of the broader way that people are thinking about cryptocurrency in this era, you know, as you expand into Europe as look at the ruble conversion not just a bitcoin but too stable coins, which is apparently

happening at an even greater scale. How do you see this conversion over from traditional currencies moving into digital assets. So what we're seeing, for example in the Ukraine and is people converting cryptocurrencies into the currency into cryptocurrency. It's a natural thing to do in a wartime economy where

there might be uncertainty about the currency. In other nations maybe not during the wartime, but they also might have hyper inflating currencies and they're looking for some flight to a more safer asset that they are able to transport

cross border easily as long as they're not sanctioned. And so we see that as a very real thing that's happening right now, especially if you look at all of the activity cryptocurrency activity entering Ukraine to help paid the effort there, whether it's directly to Ukraine addresses or two

NGOs on the ground helping with upanitarian efforts. So I think this is showing a lot of the power of cryptocurrency as this instant settle and cross border payment that can be a flight from currencies that might not be stable, right, but is it really I mean, if you look at the drop in bitcoin today, it's certainly gone down with

the rest of the market. And I know we're going day by day here, but longer term, you know, what is the recommendation to new potentially aspiring crypto investors as to how to think about this asset and whether you're facing more or less risk here than in something more traditional. Of course, if you look at bitcoin prices themselves, there is definitely volatility um But if you look at bitcoin prices maybe for example, versus the Turkish Lira, that graph

still tends to go up into the right. If you look if you if you have a country with the currency of typer inflating, if people don't want to invest in the asset itself that might have this volatility risk to it, what they can do is they can convert to a stable coin like USDC, which based is completely one to one reserve back with the dollar in which tastes.

They can store their assets in a digital form that is completely stable and pegged to the dollar, and therefore be able to escape the risk from their own currency hyperinflating and So that's the way in which people can still interact with the digital currency system, but not necessarily like into the risks associated with volatile currency, is that they may be less certain about Okay, Brett Harrison, f t X US President, Apple is hooding its first event

of joining us now what to expect to our very on Mark German who covers Apple, Mark, what are you watching? Thank you so much for having me? Yes, this is exciting. This will be the first Apple product launch event of I'm expecting the Max Studio. This would be sort of a hybrid smaller MacPro larger Mac Mini, really aimed at the professional market. You'll see Apple's most advanced non Intel

chip and a Mac to date in this computer. Launching alongside that will be a new low cost monitor right This will be their first new external monitor in about three years. This is likely to be less than half the price of the current monitor, which costs between five and six thousand dollars depending on the texture you get on the front glass depending on the the stand. If

you get the stand or not with the product. There also is going to be a new iPad Air as well as a new iPhone SC both with five G and potentially a few other things on the docket, So should be a fairly exciting day if you're a fan of the iPhone, sc if you're a fan of the iPad, and you're a fan of the Mac. We've already seen Apple take a stand on Russia and its position there. I know that Tim Cook often makes a nod to

world events at the beginning of these presentations. Are we expecting to hear some commentary from him on the war on Ukraine tomorrow or for Apple to take potentially and even stronger stand. You've got ukraining officials calling on Apple to cut off the Ice app store to Russia. So we know what they did last week by stopping exports into the country, stopping sales. They removed spot Nick News and our Team News from the app stores outside of Russia. Actually, today, Emily,

they took another step. They stopped search ads, which is the ability for developers to place advertisements for their apps in the search results of the app store. They did this in Russia. As of now, it appears that most of Apple services, whether that is the App store itself, I Message, Apple TV plus, Apple Books, etcetera, etcetera, are still available in Russia. Of course there have been calls for those to be disabled. We will see if Apple will do that. In terms of if Tim Cook will

make a statement about the Ukraine situation. Traditionally they have done this right. They have had to rerecord the beginning of events because of world you know, matters going on, so I would not be surprised if they do this. They actually did this for their shareholder meeting last Friday as well. Mark German, we'll be watching. You will be as well. Thank you so much for giving us that

round up. That does it for this edition of Bloomberg Technology. Tomorrow, International women say, We've got Julie Oscar Forrester Research and'll talk about the Apple event as always. Denis Shaquire, prominent venture capitalist, and Liz Young of Sophie talking about global markets