Streaming Tops Cable and Apple's Monopoly

Plus the venture capitalist who claims Apple is the greatest monopolist today. Why he thinks regulators are losing the plot while chasing Meta and Amazon, and it could be the fire Festival of travel startups. We'll tell you about Pollen, a luxury trip planner that blew up during COVID. It started with big concerts canceled, then things quickly spiraled out of control. Meantime, for the first time ever, US viewers are watching more hours on streaming than cable, marking a

historic change in entertainment. Subscribers to services like Netflix and Hulu accounted for thirty four point eight percent of all TV consumption in July, according to research from Nielsen, that edged out cable television at thirty four point four broadcast a distant one point six percent. Let's break this all down with Blue Ver Fluca Shaan Kevin Tran media and entertainment analyst for the Decision Intelligence Company, Morning Console Lucas.

I'll start with you. Set the stage here, the big picture. What are these numbers tell us well that that streaming TV continues to gain share from broadcasting and cable. I mean, Nielsen rolled out this metric, the Gauge, a couple of years ago. It was one of the first of these

third party metrics that Netflix actually endorsed. It had been very skeptical through the Nielsen weekly ratings, and there was a period of about a year ago, I want to say, where streaming share seemed to flatline, and you've had a lot of traditional media people saying, Oh, it's streaming hit

its peak, and that clearly hasn't happened. The one thing I would note is that if you put cable and broadcast together, PayTV still accounts for more TV viewing than streaming, but streaming is gaining share and is only going to continue to do so. Kevin, what's your take, Um, you know, just a couple of months ago, we were talking about Netflix losing subscribers, and here we are with these big numbers.

How do you square that? Yeah, I think it just speaks to the amazing amount of content that's available across the other services that are in Netflix, UM, Paramount Plus, Hulu, Apple TV Plus have all really pushed their original strategy really far ahead, especially after the initial COVID outbreak, And like Lucas just mentioned, UM, this streaming gauge that Nielsen has rolled out is in really helpful because the streaming companies themselves don't report a metric uniformly that can be

allow others to measure uh you know, usage or reach among them across each other. So it's a big moment for for streaming to overtake traditional I would can expect to continue to happen, maybe not every month, uh continuously as uh major sports seasons start, like the NBA, But I don't think this will be the first time we see streaming overtake traditional TV. What do you think the differences, Kevin,

between Netflix and Disney Plus. You know, we've been concerned about Netflix losing subscriber subscribers, but Disney, according to its latest earnings report, gaining subscribers. Yeah, I think the main differences Disney's historic vault if I p which families and really consumers globally can can identify with, and um you know, really go back to growing up with those types of franchises.

And Netflix has been pushing forward with its UH initiative to build out more franchises for for for titles like Stranger Things and um other big originals that it's rolled out. So it's trying to push the envelope in terms of franchising titles as well, so that streamers are consumers have a better idea of what they're signing up for with the original strategy of Netflix, UM, which I think a lot of people will have more of an idea of

what Disney Plus will offer with their originals. Now, there was a question when Disney launched Disney Plus about whether it would be too kids focused. I I was recently speaking with Ross Gerber, a longtime investor in Disney. Take a listen to what he had to say about that. Parents like me absolutely trust Disney content with my kids.

And you know, just recently I took YouTube away from them because YouTube shorts has become the garbage hole of hell and I don't want my kids watching garbage whole content, and if I put them on Disney plus, there's nothing they can watch that's bad. So I think parents really trust the brand and and and that's starting to really pay off for them. Lucas, do you agree with what she said about YouTube? And also, can Disney really win over adults? There's no question that that parents trust Disney.

I think that Ross is in the minority in terms of parent behavior. You look at the most popular channels on YouTube and in any given week, and almost all of them are kids channels. It's it's become a default babysitter for for so many different families. Um that there's not really a comparison. The other thing to keep in mind with Disney is Disney didn't grow in the US, so it's not like they're a bunch of parents who are signing up for Disney here. It's really overseas where

Disney has been quite strong. Um And and that challenge that you outlined at the top is still one for Disney, which is that it's really good with parents. It's really good with fanboys people and fan girls, people who love Star Wars, Marvel and the like. But it has to try to broaden its appeal to a wider group of people. It's something that's that they're working on. That's why they

started adding our rated movies. It's why you're going to see more different types of programming on Disney Plus because they need that to keep growing, to to keep Wall Street excited about the company. Meantime, Lucas Walmart also getting into streaming, teaming up with Paramount. Of course Amazon has Amazon Prime Video. What exactly our Walmart customer is going to get um from this tie up? And is it?

Is it smart? Well, if you are a customer of Walmart Plus, which is if we want to make things simple sort of like Walmart's equivalent of Amazon Prime, you will have access to Paramount Plus, which is Paramount streaming service. And that's you know, they're trying to Walmart experiment that with making its own video service Voodoo. It didn't work very well. They're leaning on a you know, a trusted and growing brand and Paramount Plus. It has the potential

to be mutually beneficial. But it works if for Paramount, if Walmart signs up a bunch of people for Walmart Plus, uh, and it works for Walmart if the Paramount is you know, enticing enough to get more people to sign up for a service. It's pretty early, walmut process is very small compared to something like Amazon Prime. Meantime, some big news and sports entertainment. You've got Paramount renewing the rights to the Champion League foot football matches. You've also got Fox,

NBCCBS teaming up for the Big ten. I wonder, Kevin, is sports really the next and only way for these streamers to get to the next level, a whole new level, not an incremental level. Yeah, I think so. And and not just sports but news as well. So, you know, a lot of these newer streamers with the wave that started in late launching um, they came out of the gates strong with originals like The Mandalorian from from Disney

Plus the Morning Show from Apple tv Plus. But one of the big things that consumers still can't really do with access to these major services like Netflix, Paramount Plus and Apple tv Plus is access a significant amount of live broad has from the major sports leagues like the NFL,

or UM NBA. So it's not surprising that we're seeing these big packages increasingly being signed, uh, you know by these companies, and I think we're at a point where consumers already have access to so many on demand scripted and unscripted content, UH choices that right now, it's it's really up to the streamers to to differentiate themselves with live content, UH and sports being a major part of that. Apple has been dabbling with sports content, lucas. I mean,

where are the battle lines going to be drawn? I mean which streamers are going to be bidding for what? And is that going to be the next wave of big competition. Well, the most aggressive of the streaming services in sports, if you take ESPN Plus out of the equation, because that's really part of the broader ESPN empire, has been Amazon. Amazon has Thursday Night Football coming up in in a couple of weeks. They have a lot of

rights in Europe. They were a big player for both the Big Ten and Champions League and just didn't get it. So they've they've shown the biggest commitment and appetite. Apple has started to player on the edges. They have the MLS rights, They're seen as the front runner for NFL Sunday ticket. Netflix hasn't jumped in in a big way yet. They they offered a pretty what it sounded like kind of a paltry sum for the Formula one rights. They have been reluctant to spend big on live sports just yet.

You know, we'll see what comes with with the next big rights negotiations. You have the NBA, NASCAR coming up in a couple of years. Well, if one of those, one of those leagues or organizations tries to carve out some rights for streaming, that would be another big package to go. But it's it's worth keeping in mind that, say, with something like the NFL, Amazon is the only major streaming service that has largely exclusive rights. You know, most

of the other games are on broadcast TV. All right, knew potential Battleground Bloomberg, Lukashaw, Kevin Tran of Morning Consult, thank you both lots to watch. Apple has identified its next big business, bringing advertisements to more parts of your iPhone Today. Apple pushes ads in three places, the App Store, Apple News, and the Stocks app. In the News and

Stocks apps, Apple shows display advertisements. That means that third party companies like card dealerships or mortgage lenders can showcase their advertisements just like they can on a website. On the app store, the situation is different there. Apple has search ads. This allows developers to buy their way into showing a pire on search results. For instance, an app store developer can bid for the term car, racing or basketball, so their apps would surface above competing apps in the

list of results. Apples Push It Too Ads is a little ironic given that it's a t T or app tracking Transparency. Privacy feature limits the ability for Meta snap and even smaller developers to generate as much revenue as possible from advertising. That's because the feature allows users to choose if they want their data collected and tracked across third party apps and websites. Still, Apples hoping to expand its own ads business and is planning to add search

ads to its Maps app. Other areas where ads could eventually appear are on Apple Books and Apple Podcasts, along maybe one day with an ad supported tier of Apple TV Plus to compete with new offerings from Netflix, another streaming video providers. I'm Mark Erman. This is power On. You can subscribe to Mark's weekly power On newsletter at Bloomberg dot com. I want to talk more now about Apple and ads with Benchmark partner Eric Fisheria, who has

a few opinions about the iphonemaker's privacy changes. Eric, thank you so much for joining us. You had a tweet that caught our I this week saying that while regulators chase Amazon and meaningless tiny acquisitions from Facebook, the greatest monopolist today Apple has taken a trumpy intact, pushing a privacy narrative while stifling competition and favoring their own ads business. Why do you think Apple is the greatest monopolist today. I think that at the end of the day, Apple

has tremendous market power. And as as Mark was saying, with the A T t rolloff that they had, which they've done under the cover of privacy, um they are they are simultaneously and I think ironically pushing their own ads business. And so while they're crippling other ads businesses, they are growing their own and benefiting and favoring their own And and look, Facebook, Amazon, They're going to be fine.

I'm not really worried about them. But they're thousands of small companies, direct to consumer businesses, mom and pop shops that sell products online and targeted via those ad networks, gaming companies that are collateral damage with the A T t rollout, and and and so my concerns more for those companies than it is for Facebook and Amazon. Why

take the trumpion tact the chumpion comparison. I think it's the hypocrisy of saying one thing, which is, hey, this is about privacy and privacy to consumers while simultaneously building and growing your own out network with its own targeting capabilities. Like it's it's literally in direct conflict with each other. So what do you think the government should be doing instead? I just think the regulators need to to think about, like what is actually impacting consumers and small businesses and

it with that lens choose their targets. You know, Facebook making a meaningless acquisition and virtual reality is not that that doesn't negatively impact consumers, it doesn't hurt the ecosystem. It's totally fine. Um, whereas you know this this type of behavior, it's more complicated, it's it's more sophisticated, but but it is actually impacting small businesses and consumers. Still Meta arguing that their acquisition of this VR company within

unlimited would actually be good for competition. Do you buy that? I do. I think that if we're in the earliest days of virtual reality, in many ways there are no established metaverse winners or goliaths. As it is today, we don't even really know what it is and what form it's going to take over the next five or ten years. And so you know, small acquisitions with teams and technology where everyone is trying to figure it out. Still that's okay,

Like I feel like that's that's healthy competition. Maybe it'll turn into something, maybe it won't, we don't know yet. Whereas I think some of these other markets are much much more established and um and companies have a lot of market power. Like Apple, we're looking we're looking at the stock plunges of of these companies here today, Apple

seems to be weathering the downturn the best. What's your view and Benchmark's view of what's happening in the markets right now, with of course, the benefit of you know, Bill Gurley and the hindsight of you know, being in late nineties, you know, one of the top tech analysts on Wall Street. Look, I think that one of the things that Benchmark has done consistently since our founding in

the mid nineties is invest consistently. We most of what we do of the companies we invest in, our ten people a less or less at the time of investment, and so when you're doing that, you have a very long term view where you're not going to make money for eight or ten years if one of those small companies grows into something big. And so over the years, we want to be consistent pre global financial crisis, post global financial crisis. In the last few years and even

now actually are usm at pace is almost identical. We're making the same number of investments every year, and so I think that consistency is really huge for the business that we're in. Obviously, the last few years, I would say we're characterized by FOMO in the growth markets, there were there was so much money slashing around. There were rounds getting done at insane prices with very little diligence.

And so actually I think this correction broadly is healthy. UM. A lot of speculators will get wiped out, a lot of people who are only here to make a quick buck, We'll get wiped out. And I think to be left with a lot of people who have real visions, believers, UM, who are willing to put everything into it. And I think that's ultimately healthy, and so I'm actually optimistic. UM. You know, every once in a while, a little spring

cleaning or or cutting is is good. So here we are in the middle of a correction, and you've got a lot of controversy surrounding Andrews and Harrow. It's writing not just a check to controversial We were founder Adam Newman, but it's biggest check ever. What do you make of that? As as you know, we didn't participate in that round, although we were Series A investors and we work, um, we did not participate in this this recent three or

fifty million dollar round. And look, I can't defend another firms investment that's that doesn't there's no there's no value in doing that, and I'm not inside their heads. I would say this about Adam. We can debate a lot of things, but he is definitely top point zero zero one in terms of his ability to separate people from their money. And I'll leave it at that. Hang on, you can't leave it at that. What do you mean

by that? He's he is very very good at raising money, as he's shown time and time again, and and he's done that again. Here would you write him another check? We didn't? Yeah, all right, So what do you think that says about Silicon Valley. Is it a broader indictment of Silicon Valley or does it showcase a problem in Silicon Valley or is this a very specific issue with potentially andreas In Horwitz. I think it's a I think

these mega rounds, I don't know. I can't pretend to know what what goes into a mega round or growth in a growth round like this, I don't know what the calculus is. That isn't the type of investment that we make. You know, the vast majority of what we do is, you know, five fifteen million dollar investments in really small companies in their earliest stages, where we're making a tenure commitment to work with them, and and so

I think that's the that's the business I know. I think there's a lot of uh, there's been a lot of changes in growth investing with soft bank and lots of firms raising larger and larger funds, But that isn't what we've done, so I can't speak to it all, right, Eric Vistia Partner Benchmark. I appreciate your stopping by, Eric. Thank you. Thanks from the biggest producer of the nickel used in electric car batteries, wants to be seen as

more than just a source of resources. Indonesia's president spoke to Bloomberg's editor in chief John michaels Waite, what we want is the electric cars, not the battery for Tesla. We want to build electric cars in Indonesia from Ford electric Cars, Hyundai electric cars from Japan, Toyota, Suzuki gone gone, and we want a huge ecosystem of electric cards. Though Indonesia has held talks on potential partnerships with Tesla over

several years, but there have been no agreements. Back to the story that's had everyone talking this week in Silicon Valley and recent Harrowitz writing its biggest check ever to controversial we Work founder Adam Newman. The check million dollars, instantly making flow Newman's new real estate startup a unicorn. Yes, the same Newman whose we Work hit a peak valuation of fifty billion dollars then plummeted to eight billion dollars, with lots of people losing their jobs and some investors

losing lots of money. There's been quite a few tweets about this on both sides of the debate, including this from Winnie founder Sarah Moscow. People always ask me why I defend quote unquote toxic female founders and association my and with female leaders who might have done bad things. It's because women leaders aren't held to standards. Women leaders are held to standards. Men are not. Men get three fifty million dollars, women get ostracized. If I don't speak up,

who will? Sarah Mosca joining me now, CEO and co founder of Winnie will get to that. But tell me, like, why did you want to speak up about this? Yeah? I thought you were going to mention my viral joke tweet making fun of Adam. That was good too. It was a little more inside baseball, but you can explain. It's so good. My comedy career is my next act. But you know, I don't think anyone was really surprised that Adam Newman was able to raise a mega round

of funding. I think what really struck a chord with a lot of founders, especially women founders, is that he was given this second chance when so many women, under represented minorities aren't even given a first chance. Um, and you know what other big Bowl ideas and founders could we uncover if we invested in people besides white men? You know, I've spoken to a lot of people this week, and a lot of people who didn't want to speak publicly about this, you know, don't want to say anything

negative about Andrews and Horowitz. Why do you Why do you think people won't talk about it. I don't think this is unique to andreasent Horowitz. I think in venture capital as a whole, there's been a really big emphasis on, you know, sort of growth at all costs and uh, you know, burning lots of cash on your way to the top. And I actually I am pretty optimistic because I think that is really changing, and I think that

will serve women founders really well. Women get just two percent of the venture capital and so we have always had to operate, you know, in a profitable way or on the paths of profitability. Um, and now that is finally getting some respect. It's not just growth and burning lots of cash. It's actually growth that's sustainable, and that's what we've always done it, Whinnie, and I think lot

of women founders have always done. I think part of the risk is, you know, if you come forward, would you ever get a check from Entrees and Horowitz, which is you know, one of the most prestigious venture capital firms in Silicon Valley. Why take that risk? Uh, I might never get funding from them. I I think, you know either way, like this is not anything having to do with just Andrews and Horwit's. I think a lot

of firms across the board. I mean this is an industry wide uh number that two percent of the venture capital goes to women founders, and even less if you look at you know, underrepresented women founders. UM. So I don't think this is unique to them. I think this is just a great example and time to say, like, hey, what about all the women who weren't given second chances after they made a big bet that didn't work out? Um, and many that never gone a first chance, and many

that didn't even get a first chance. And I think now is actually a really good time to talk about it because there is this greater emphasis aside from this case, a much greater emphasis on profitability and you know, sustainable growth. You and I talked when you were launching Whenny. What has your experience been like raising money not just as a female founder, but a founder raising money for a

marketplace for childcare. It's been rough. I think childcare has historically been really underfunded UM and undervalued and overlooked and all the things. It's a ninety billion dollar market childcare for kids under six in the US alone annually, so it's it's massive, um. But the money just really hasn't been there UM. And I think you know, when you're building in an industry that's so big and so entrenched and you're trying to innovate, it takes a long time.

And so a lot of what was invested in the past were these like really quick wins, and like you want to grow really fast at all costs, and that's not the way you innovate in child there. It's just not gonna work. It's so entrenched. Uh, it's so big, um, it's so fragmented, and so we've you know, taken a slower growth approach. We've been at this for almost seven years. UM. We were really fortunate to find investors who believed in

kind of the long haul UM. And now you know, we are the leading marketplace for group childcare and early education. But it's taken almost seven years to get there. Did not happen overnight, and we had to be really careful with how we grew so that we would have the time in the runway to to get to where we are. Now, what's the funding environment like now? You know, we're in the middle of this big market correction and you're hearing about down rounds and flat rounds and layoffs. Is it

hard then? It's been. If I could give advice to other companies, it would be, you know, if you can get to profitability, get there. I think we feel like we have so much more predictability in our own revenue and growth than in what investors are gonna like or be able to invest in, or you know, can they raise from their LPs um that we're focusing internally on just our business and we're really fortunate to be in a position to do that. We've never been able to

count on the next round of funding. UM. I think there have been companies, especially in the childcare space, that have raised more and grown faster, and they're finding themselves in a tough spot right now because that next round of funding is it's not just out there easy to get. What's the state of the childcare industry right now, post COVID, post pandemic UM, What do you see One of the biggest issues right now in childcare is the teacher shortage,

so the early educator shortage. So we hear about that all the time with you know, public education, but it's even worse in childcare. Uh and it's really really affecting these businesses. They're having to close classrooms, take less children

into their program's creating this huge by issue. UM. So that's kind of one of the things we're now really focused on at WINNIE is helping daycares in preschools higher staff in addition to filling their open spaces, because if they don't have the teachers, they can't fill spaces, they can't meet ratios. So you know, what are the problems that we're we're not talking about and how do you

see those problems being resolved? Problems in childcare? I mean, I think one big problem is the lack of investment. It does take investment to innovate. We see this in pretty much every other industry. So it's hard when you have to grow just based on your profits. Um, it's

slower and it takes more time. Uh. So I would I would absolutely love to see more investment, not just from venture capitalists so that would be nice, but also from employers from the government, uh, you know, build back Better was supposed to be this great, big influx of cash to childcare. None of that is happening. And so you know, there is really a lack of investment going towards childcare. And I think it can come from many different sources, but someone's got a step up here. Um.

I also want to ask you about Twitter. You've worked in a lot of different tech companies. Before you started your own, you worked at Twitter. What do you think about Elon Musk potentially owning Twitter? Want be good for Twitter? He recently he actually just recently tweeted something like, you know, being a mom, which he's a dad, so it's a little weird he's tweeting about moms. But being a mom

is just as important as any career. Uh. And to me, that's just kind of like an underhanded way of saying, you know, moms, you go stay at home and take care of kids, leave us men to the careers. Uh. I don't think that's a fit for Twitter's culture. It's it's you know, I haven't worked there in a while, but I am sure they would not agree with that kind of statement or approach towards They hire lots of women,

they have lots of moms working in leadership roles. Um. They have been big supporters and advocates of getting more women in leadership, So that just to me seems really uh, not aligned with their culture at all. What about the product itself, I mean, I'm sure even you would agree that, like, potentially there could have been more innovation at Twitter over the last decade. They could be making more money, they

could have grown a lot faster. Maybe they need an Elon musk, maybe they've shang thanks, Maybe they need more women, more mobs working there. Um. I think also, you know, this has just been a massive distraction for the employees. So when you talk about innovation, I mean, how can you possibly focus on on innovating and making the product better for users if you have this massive distraction going on at the same time. So I don't think this

has been good on that front either. All right, well, we'll continue to follow the drama there on all fronts, really, and thank you for helping. Time now for our daily crypto report. The Big Tokens, of course, going through a sell off, Bitcoin dropping as much as to its lowest level since late July. According to coin Glass, some two million dollars in crypto assets were liquidated in just one hour. Today, let's bring in David Tale now, president of crypto asset

fund Prochain Capital. H David, how long does this downturn last for crypto? I think it's dead less through Labor Day at least. I think we're gonna have some dog days of summer not much going on. I think macro, we've had a good run up in equity markets, We've had a good run up generally in crypto, certainly very strong in ether, and I think right now the market is deciding between should we be in a risk on environment or do we need to pay more attention to

inflation rates, policy and so forth. But how long does it extend beyond Labor Day? I don't think very long. I think actually we will start to get some announcements after Labor Day around things that the crypto community cares about, legislation, regulation, and then potentially additional industry related announcements like the one we received or the few that we received out of black Rock over the past couple of weeks. In terms of their foray into crypto. Do you differentiate between bitcoin

and ether? You know, when you consider these big uh you know, potential market influencers. Given the merge coming up right now, you have to I think that the narrative around the merge for Ether is overpowering for it. Certainly today it didn't matter, but I think overall that narrative is very strong, and I think as we get closer and closely to the merge, that narrative will become stronger and stronger really lead the charge in terms of Ether's

price movement. Now that being said, I don't know if the merge is necessarily you know, bullish up until the very end or um it'll be bullish for some time close to you know, the actual merge date, But then there will be a point of time where people will you know, quote unquote um, you know, start to sell the news. Now you're a fun protein prochein down fifty percent year today, but you actually jumped back up nine

in July. How did you buck the trend? Uh? Well, we were you know, we had a fair amount of risk off attitude, you know, coming through May and June. We took a bunch of obviously losses, but we also took a bunch of cash off of the table and held it in reserve to go ahead and redeploy because we did think that things were going to go materially lower lower, and so we went ahead and redeployed that

capital during that period of time. In addition, I have to point out we're not only invested in tokens, but we all so invest in equities. They're focused on the crypto and digital payment sector, and so there we've done fairly well as well. So it's been able to balance out our portfolio. How would you gauge broader institutional sentiment in crypto right now? Obviously you've got you know, the bankruptcies, you've got Celsius. How long does all this stuff hangover?

So I think the institutions, Um, this is my my firm opinion. I think the institutions have been going through an educational process for an extended period of time now, you know, less at least two years, if not longer. Uh, they have the resources and the human resources in particular to go ahead and devote towards that education and becoming sophisticated. In terms of when they go ahead and decide to get involved. That usually happens, you know, over a period

of time. But when they go ahead and throw down the hammer, it's actually you know, in very serious numbers, and I think they've you know, I think, if I had to guess, I think a number of them have on ahead and added or started to add started positions during this downturn. I think they are watching, though, particularly what's going on with the bankruptcies, and you raised that point. I think it's important right now in terms of the

sector generally. I think the sector is learning a lot through the liquidations and bankruptcies of Three Arrows, Celsius, Voyager

and so forth. It's it's a learning process in terms of being able to understand what the priorities are legal priorities, excuse me, in terms of legal rights of account holders depositors, and then what exactly those assets when held, whether they be directly in accounts, whether they be directly in crypto, whether they be rights to accounts in other institutions in crypto, what exactly that shakes out too. I think institutions are very keen on learning the results of this in tandem

with at the same time understanding the regulatory framework. Right the SEC seems to be going off without any guard rails, and I think the legislature is trying to rain them in. I don't think we'll see that raining in until the midterm elections. But I think between the legal president being said in those cases, coupled with the uncertainty around the legal and regulatory environment, is leaving institutions and kind of a middling position at this point. And they're not going

to go in full force. But yet they're still educating very rapidly, and I think at the right time they will go ahead and deploy very heavily. And there's no way of knowing when that right time will be, so I think you need to be there, ready and waiting for it. All right, Thank you for your analysis there, David tal Approaching Capital President, lots to watch. Appreciate you

stopping by. It's branded as a new fire festival fiasco. Pollen, high flying travel startup at planned vacations and past locations with celebrities, has had to cancel dozens of its luxury events over the last year, prompting a wave of customer complaints. Now the company is going through restructuring. Pollen has been blaming the Omicron variant for its misfortune, but turns out employees say executives spare some of that blame to Let's dive into this with bloom Brooks Katie Roof, who's been

all over these latest developments. Katie, what's happening here? Sure? So good to be with you. In my my ten years in covering startups, I have to say this is one of the most unusual situations I have heard UM in terms of money mismanagement. This is a company that was valued at eight hundred million just a few months ago, and UM now unclear if they're going to be worth anything because they've had trouble finding any buyer at all. So it is being called Firefests because it is a

music related business. They actually booked festivals, and several of them. In one in particular earlier this year, they booked an event in Mexico for people to see the band departure, and after people arrived, I was told even as soon as an hour before the concert was supposed to begin, it was just canceled. So people were there and there was no event, and then people didn't even get refunded,

So certainly people were pretty upset about that. UM. There's been a lot of customer complaints and UM according to um my sources that I've spoken to. While the company blames COVID for a lot of its misfortune. UM. In this particular instance, they actually hadn't secured the proper permit to have the concert to begin with. So UM, a lot of allegations of mismanagement UM all across the board, whether it be for poor planning or just um not

spending money properly. What have we learned from employees specifically about what happened here and like the part of the story that wasn't being told? Sure, so we've heard a lot of different things, I think, UM. One thing that we've heard that resonated was that while it seemed like they didn't have money to pay their bills, and they weren't paying their bills, meanwhile they were spending money on

expensive parties for themselves, the expensive villas. Uh. You know, we we got ahold of some documents that said they spent over fifty tho pounds on some villa, which you know, the company says was was actually for legitimate business purpose, but somehow it seemed like they were finding money for fun. But they were stiff and customers. They weren't paying their employees things like pensions and now severance and other compensation. Uh, they weren't paying vendors there's a long list of people

they own money, and they literally kept a list. They kept an Excel spreadsheet and something on there said what will happen if if you don't if we don't pay these people? They were trying to figure out how to prioritize who they paid. We put in our story that sometimes it was just because someone got more attention on social media for their complaints, so um that that got them ahead of the line and getting a refund um. So, you know, certainly a lot of allegations of mismanaged funds.

We spoke to sixteen people directly involved with this, and I think there's going to be more stories to come. We have a lot of uh, pretty damning allegations that we're looking into and um, you know, curious to to vet that some more. So. Yeah, last quick question, I mean, business company gonna make it or are they going to go out of business? Well, they struggled to find a buyer, so uh they hired Goldman Sacks and they were unable to find a buyer and um, you know it was

it was unsuccessful. So, um, you know, will someone want to buy pollen with all of these problems? I don't know. I mean they did have connections. They did, you know, book Justin Bieber and other high profile events, so maybe you could say there's something to their brand, but I don't know. It looks like they're they're having some problems. All right, Well, we'll be watching for more of your

reporting on this fascinating one. Bloombergs. Katie Routh, thank you, and that does it for this edition of Bloomberg Technology