let's get into this and more with Ross, Gerber
, the president and Ceo of Gerber, Kawasaki investment
management, it's got$1.2 billion in assets under management
ross. I want to start with Uber, you've
got a relatively small stake in Uber and it's really
because you have former Uber employees who are clients of
yours. So you're not necessarily a big buyer of
Uber stock but still curious about your reaction because I
know you watched the transportation space really closely here.
Yeah, yeah, I do. And, and
by the way, we have$2.2 billion um the
, uh, Uber deal is what needed to happen
for Uber to serve customers because they simply aren't filling
demand right now. And on the other side,
what you just said is so true, cab drivers
have just been kind of screwed over over the last
five years because the people who run the cab companies
aren't tech savvy and connecting the cabs, especially in
new york actually will probably substantially increase the value of
a cab medallion, which had dropped a lot over
the last five years. So, so I think
this is a great deal for both parties, but
I don't think it solves Uber's problem, which is
, they're basically in an unprofitable business. So this
news necessarily wouldn't make you a buyer of Uber shares
. No, it would more likely make me a
buyer of a new york city cab medallion. I
mean, I think that says a lot, hey
ross, I want to get, you know,
when you're in new york, you, these calves
real bad, you know? Yeah, well,
it's been really tough. I mean, the industry
has been absolutely transformed in a relatively short time too
. And I also got to say, I remember
just a few years ago, you were actually able
to book a green cab using the Uber platform in
new york. So you could actually book like an
Uber taxi and it would show up. But still
, I think like you said, a transformational partnership
, hey, I want to move on to Tesla
because shares of Tesla are rising again today ross eight
days in a row is its current streak, Its
longest streak since january of 2021 when it rose 11
days in a row. We're now seeing it at
its highest level since january of 2022 trading At look
right now, just about$1,000. I can't really
escape over 1000, I'm really having a squint.
Yeah, I guess I gotta get my glasses checked
here. Yeah. Are you buying at these levels
ross are you holding at these levels? Well,
you know, ironically, I couldn't believe that Tesla
actually went down this much this year and we were
buyers at, you know, 7 58 100 range
. And it was really a great opportunity, I
tweeted yesterday, you know, Tesla on sale 9
99. So I'd love to buy Tesla under$1000
a share. They couldn't have more good things happening
at the same time for them. And obviously the
war in Ukraine has put a really big spotlight on
oil and the dependence in the United States on oil
. We actually finance the worst governments in the world
through our consumption of oil. So companies like Tesla
just are just crucially important to weaning ourselves from financing
the evil people of the world. It's just an
awesome opportunity to invest in a great company but also
doing great things. And how do you feel about
the competitive landscape right now? Because we mentioned,
you know, we had the Nicola analyst day yesterday
, Wall Street, certainly cheered about that. Let's
also talk about lucid rivian in there. I mean
, how does Tesla stack up right now? Well
, it's just like Apple, you know, Tesla
has now become the Apple of the E. V
business and there will be Tesla and there will be
everybody else. So I don't look at Tesla as
having competitors. I look at it more like the
demand for E V. S is, was already
big, but now it's doubled in the last two
months or really in the last month since, since
oil prices in the war. So, so really
any company that can make and produce E V.
S will sell E V. S and we're seeing
this with Porsche right now and another company were invested
in called Pole Star, which is Volvo's E.
V. Company which is also producing a lot of
cars and doing very well. So if you can
produce a car you're going to be successful and,
and so there's no competition for any E. V
. Company against an E. V. Company.
It's really can oil based car companies compete with price
and long term value with the E. V.
S. And the answer is no at this point
. So it's a great time to be an E
. V. Business that can produce cars ross.
I just want to end with something that you tweeted
yesterday that got a lot of attention. You tweeted
that bob peck, there's the tweet right now is
the worst Disney Ceo over LGBTQ Plus issues. You
said that Disney needs a Ceo with a moral compass
, not some operations guy. It's time to bring
bob iger back, explain your thinking here. Well
, I'm a big bob iger fan. So,
you know, that's my fantasy. I don't think
that's going to be a reality, but but my
thinking is this, you know, Disney is one
of the most um, I would say liberal leaning
progressive entertainment companies in the world and the way they've
educated young people through their movies to be more tolerant
of different people in belief systems I think is an
admirable part of the Disney message and it's been this
way and entertainment for a long time in educating people
on social values. So it's really disappointing to see
such an easy thing to be against. You know
, the politicians politicizing people's human rights, and then
to see a weak response from Disney, I think
was inexcusable. And I think Disney should take a
very harsh response against any people in any state that
are making restrictive laws that will hold people back from
accepting people's differences. I think a lot of people
want to jump to conclusions like, oh, you
know, the teacher is going to be teaching,
you know, weird stuff to our kids who are
eight. That is not what this is about.
And it's about discrimination. And I think people need
to live through what's going on and not just have
this immediate reaction, secondly, in my school system
, we have the same issues, but by all
means. And I'm in a very liberal part of
the country here in southern California. And as parents
, we bring our concerns to the school administrators in
principle. And they're very receptive. I don't understand
why politicians need to be involved with it. So
, so I'm very disappointed that she continues to,
you know, waffle around versus taking a strong line
and let me tell you, you're going to get
criticism. I get criticism all the time for the
views I have, and I don't expect everybody to
agree with me, but I respect other people's opinions
too, But what we need in this country is
more listening and more understanding, not more restrictive laws
and discrimination. So I think that's really my point
for a company like Disney, it should be an
easy call for them.