01/04/2016 BBC Business Live

This is Business Live from BBC News with Aaron Heslehurst

Tesla unveils its car for the masses but can the Model 3 take

Live from London, that's our top story on Friday,

Will it be able to entice the masses into embracing electric cars?

We'll be looking at what Tesla's new car will up against.

We'll be looking at what Tesla's new car is against.

Also in the programme.

China's Anbang suddenly abandons its bidding war

for Starwood Hotels in the US - bringing Marriott one step closer

to becoming the biggest hospitality group in the world.

And we'll have all the latest from the markets.

Asia sours as Japanese companies are as pessimistic

about their fortunes as they have been for four years.

Plus, from backroom startup to $600 billion titan.

Yes, today Apple celebrates its 40th birthday.

We meet the co-founder who sold his 10%

stake in the company just 12 days after he helped set it up

So we want to know - have you ever made a catastrophic

business decision or just a decision you regret?

We would be here all day if you had to hear mine.

Let us know just use the hashtag #BBCBizLive.

We start with the world of electric cars - and a hugely important day

In the last few hours, it has unveiled this -

its big hope for the future - called the Model 3.

Up until now, Tesla has made expensive electric cars for wealthy

drivers who can afford a price tag of $75,000 and up.

But at less than half the price - the Model 3 is Tesla's attempt

to get more of us to ditch petrol and diesel

and bring electric motoring to a far wider market.

Tesla's been very successful as a niche manufacturer,

but if it wants to sell cars to the mass market,

it will have to take on the big established names.

Many of them are now offering full electric cars.

Let's remind you of what it's up against.

Nissan's Leaf was the first mass-market plug-in

It's one of the cheapest, at the equivalent of $29,000.

Last year it sold more than 43,000 cars

Just over year ago BMW entered the fray with this -

It's a fair bit more expensive - but still managed to sell almost

Other big carmakers have been

plugging into the market with electric versions of their best

selling cars - like the Ford Focus Electric or the VW E-Golf.

Jim Holder is an editorial director at Haymarket,

the publishing group which owns What Car magazine.

An appropriate guest. Obviously, this all comes down, I'm assuming as

a layman, to the battery, the quality of it. I know Tesla and Elon

musk, the owner has invested something like $5 billion into

the... The Geiger factory. 250 miles is not too shabby. If you look at

cars like the Leaf and the Golfer we have just seen, they have a range of

120 mile so he's looking at doubling the mileage of what is a

comparatively affordable car on battery power. I don't know whether

to go down the line but this is make or break for Tesla -- that this is.

But apparently, those who have already put down a $1000 deposit on

the car which does not come out until the end of 2017, there's about

135,000 people who are already waiting for this car. I'm wondering

if this model will be, for Tesla, what the iPhone is to Apple. I think

it could be, it is a make or break our for Tesla. They have spent huge

sums of money to get where they are now. -- make or break car. This car

has come out and in 24 hours has sold more vehicles, more deposits,

?135,000 than some established car-makers can make any year. If

Tesla wants to break into the mainstream and take on the biggest

players, this car has to be successful. While we have you, I'm

interested in this idea about the battery. No one has really cracked

it yet, have they? I guess I wonder whether the market is developing so

quickly that actually, they won't? Really what we should be doing is

not buying these cars but leasing them. They have the battery issue

and they can sort out the problem. We get the next new shiny thing

every three years when we traded in. I think that's a really good point

and it interesting that this car is still 18 months away from being

driven by anyone and battery technology will have moved on

substantially again by the time it is delivered. For lots of electric

car buyers, we are seeing them leasing them and we are also seeing

that the second-hand value of electric cars is very low because

the technology is moving on so quickly. Leasing is definitely a way

ahead for the industry. Great to see you. I had an interesting point!

Leasing is a very smart idea. Thanks, Jim. Have a great weekend.

Jim Holder from Haymarket publishing, there.

Activity in China's factories expanded in March for the first time

in nine months - according to official data known

Some analysts say it's evidence that government stimulus measures

are starting to reinvigorate the Chinese economy,

which last year grew at its weakest rate in a quarter of a century.

Staying with China - the telecoms giant Huawei says

profits were up more than a third last year after the strongest

Its network equipment division is benefiting from the adoption

of fourth generation mobile services across China.

It also became the first Chinese company to sell more

than 100 million smartphones in a year in 2015.

It is number three behind Apple and Samsung.

Skinny jeans, this is your story. Are you a big fan? I could not get

into them! We are telling you about this

because the creative director of YSL, credited with creating the

look, has apparently left the French fashion label after four years. He

was also behind women wearing tuxedos, YSL, that 1970s look. When

where they doing that? Isola Rob -- Yves Saint-Laurent started the trend

for women wearing tuxedos. The Chinese insurance firm

Anbang has unexpectedly abandoned its $14 billion takeover

offer for Starwood Hotels, ending a three-week

bidding war with Marriott. Starwood owns 900 hotels across the

world and the boss is on the show on Monday.

Tell us more. No one was really expecting this to happen and big

news for Marriot. This really was a surprise move. Late on Thursday, a

statement was released saying that market considerations had caused

Anbang to pull the plug on their $14 billion cash bid. Would. Anbang has

tried to buy this company three times before, unsuccessfully.

According to reports, a lot of the reasons why this has fallen through

is because there are questions over how they are going to finance the

deal. $14 billion in cash, basically they are an insurance company with

divisions in many other types of businesses but that is still a lot

of cash to come up with and they need to see concrete proof before

they go ahead. It is good news for Marriot, as you said because it is

going to pay ?13.3 billion -- billion to take over Starwood to

become the world's biggest hotel group with more than 1 million rooms

but investors did not seem to cheered as chairs in both Starwood

and Marriot fell 5% overnight. -- as shares.

The Nikkei and the Topix in Asia sunk after a very negative report

coming out about the mood amongst big Japanese corporates.

The strong yen is making it very difficult for those stimulus

measures from Shinzo Abe to take effect.

Emerging-market stocks were retreating.

Basically, it's profit-taking after a fairly good recovery.

This is how Europe is opening up.

Not so great, the Footsie down yet again.

We've got lots of PMI data coming out from Europe over the course

Michelle Fleury in New York has the details.

Wall Street is awaiting the latest monthly jobs report from the US

Labor Department. America's economy is expected to have added around

200,000 jobs in March. This is modestly lower than separate's

number of around 240,000. No changes forecast for the unemployment rate

which is at an eight-year low. All of this points to a healthier

picture at least on the labour markets. For investors, there's

another number in the report that they will be paying close attention

to, average hourly wages, to see any signs of wage inflation. On the

earnings front, the once ubiquitous BlackBerry is expected to report

another loss in its fourth quarter. The company is struggling to rebuild

its business model as consumers have moved onto other smartphones from

those running on android software to the iPhone.

Joining us is Lawrence Gosling, editor-in-chief of Investment Week.

Good to see you, happy Friday. Staying on the jobs numbers, are we

at a point now where the focus was on the US jobs number every month

but not so much focus on the number now. Should we be looking more for

wage growth and productivity and inflation? Absolutely, we are

getting to this point like we said a couple of years ago, where the

Federal Reserve will be comfortable when the on implement number fell to

a certain level. We have been there for a few months. There's a think

all the participation rate which is behind the official numbers... I can

talk to Victoria about this! Fine, you do that. That another key

measure but you are right, wage growth and we are expecting to see

some wage growth above the rate of inflation which is one of the

reasons why the market is back talking about interest-rate hikes,

potentially. Did we explain... The participation rate is at its lowest

since 1978, I believe, in the US. It essentially means that it is not

that people are not out there looking for jobs. People have just

given up searching so although we have a low unemployment rate, an

eight-year low, the situation is that people have just given up.

There's a whole swathe of the middle of the US that is pretty

disillusioned with the jobs market. Senior citizens have decided to

retire early, maybe women who have gone out of the workforce because of

modernity and perhaps students coming out who think they will go

travelling instead or study bit more. Once that slows down, we get

closer to full employment. And then we see wage growth begin to kick off

and inflation becoming an issue in the US. About time. We are not going

to get into the China factory numbers but we will pick that up

when we talk to you in the newspapers.

We meet the co-rounder who sold his 10%

as the new National Living Wage comes into effect for those aged

But could it mean job cuts, or even rising prices?

Emma Simpson has been taking a look for Sheffield.

They know all about low pay in this city. The jobs landscape has changed

since the heyday of the steel industry. These days, too many

people are earning too little. Chloe gets ?6.81 an hour, working

part-time in a nursing home. I've got childcare and bills to pay for,

making sure he is fed and warm. Making sure he is dressed. It is

tough, yeah, and every penny is accounted for. How much difference

will an extra ?30 per month make to you? It will make a big difference

to me and Oliver. It will make a massive difference. What will you

spend it on? Oliver, mainly. We are going in there, are we? She's off to

work, dropping her son at nursery on the way. Hi, Oliver. It is thought

almost a third of Sheffield's workers will benefit from the new

National Living Wage ever the next four years, more than any other

major UK city. Nursery worker Carly will earn around an extra ?900 per

year. Financially, it means I will be able to sort myself out with my

debts and things and hopefully be able to start being able to treat

myself to a bit extra. Do you want me to fasten it up? But the owner is

worried where the money is coming from. It's a lot of money to a small

business like mine that is just set up. I'm going to struggle. I can't

get rid of staff because I need the ratios for the amount of children we

have got. I can't even get rid of staff so it has to be all the toys

and the equipment. Anita is not the only employer grappling with how to

pay the new living wage. This is the biggest change to low pay in years.

It will benefit millions of workers but it is not clear how businesses

will react and what the impact will be.

A quick look at a couple of stories that are breaking now and this one

is Sainsbury's bid for Home Retail Group has been approved, the board

has formally recommended a takeover offer which values the company at

about ?1.2 billion. Not a surprise, a 74% premium on the share price

today. Our top story, Tesla has unveiled

its much anticipated model three electric car, the lowest cost

vehicle they have released to date. Staying with technology, there has

been a lot going on this week. The FBI was able to break into the

iPhone belonging to the San Bernardino gunman, ending a big

battle with Apple. And Microsoft tried to restart their online

experiment in artificial intelligence. It did not quite go so

well. Rory Cellan-Jones is here. Glasses at the ready. Victoria, you

know why she is wearing glasses, she has got a dodgy infection in her

eye. It is to shield you all. There is maybe nothing even in conveyor.

Starting with Tesla, you have spoken with Elon musk. Business make or

break? Absolutely. I met him in Los Angeles and in the background were

various cars draped in black sheets and I presume one of them was the

model three. I asked him about that car and he said it was vital to his

mission. He has a messianic vision of sustainable transport. He says we

will not be able to do it unless they had an affordable car. What he

did not say is and I will go bust if I don't get one out there. It is a

good-looking thing. It is an extraordinary business, but always

teetering on the edge of disaster. Moving on to talk about Microsoft,

they had their development conference today and they were

bleating -- they will be releasing these automated chat bots, but will

be behaved this time? The idea is that if you are an Sky, you will

have one of these chatbots in the background and it will be picking up

travel plans and data, and it will say, would you like to book a hotel

there? But what we know is that the current experiment went very badly

wrong very quickly. Because there are some very bad people on the

internet. It was like putting a five enrolled in the playground with

teenagers. Wasn't it smoking a joint or something? It started saying, I

am sorry, I am drunk, and it all went terribly wrong. A big day for

Apple and we will explain that shortly but while we're talking

about Apple, the FBI and the old iPhone case, it has got Apple a bit

worried. I was talking earlier this week about how do we score this

battle? It is a one all draw. Apple have not had to right at the

software that the FBI demanded, but the FBI have apparently cracked the

iPhone on their own, allegedly with an Israeli company. The problem with

Apple is that they do not know how that was done and theoretically they

have a problem because out there are hundreds of millions of people with

iPhone is not quite knowing whether they are secure or not. There are

these type of lapses of security all the time, and they are shared. There

is a culture of sharing what you know about vulnerabilities so that

they can be fixed but the FBI is not going to share with Apple. And once

they have done it, I presume if another case arises, and the FBI

wants to get into the phone... I don't think it is the case. It was

this particular model, the 5C that they have cracked. It is not clear

but it is unlikely that more advanced phones could be cracked in

the same way. But we're looking at a fog of uncertainty. And we certainly

don't know what forms terrorists are carrying. It is not just iPhones. It

is obviously not. The other key thing is that the FBI and other

authorities around the world will want to re-examine the case against

encryption, which Apple and the technology industry is so keen to

defend. Great stuff as always, Rory. Have a great weekend.

40 years ago today three young men founded a computer company

in an apartment in Mountain View California.

The rest, as they say, is history - Apple is now worth $600 billion.

We all know the story of the late Steve Jobs.

The nerdier among us will also know about the flamboyant Steve Wozniak.

But there is a reason few can name the third co-founder of Apple.

Ronald Wayne was the man behind the famous logo,

but sold his 10% stake early on for a few hundred dollars,

in what proved to be one of the most expensive decisions in history.

Dave Lee went to speak to him and found he had few regrets.

Steve Jobs have this focus. Once he got an idea in his head, that was

it. And you never wanted to be between him and where they wanted to

go. He would wind up with footprints on your forehead. This is the

contract that I personally typed up. He regarded me as something of a

minor mental. Because I was somewhat more diplomatic than he was. There

was a problem he was having at that time with Steve was a hack. I said,

come over the house and we will have a chat. -- Steve Wozniak. It took me

just an hour to explain that you cannot do that with a business

enterprise. OK, fine, he bought into that and he understood. At that

moment, Steve Jobs said, we will form a company and 12 days later, I

went down to the registrar's office and had my name taken off the

contract. Jobs and Wozniak did not have to nickels to rub together. I

had a house, a bank account and a car and I was reachable. Months

later I get a letter in the mail with a cheque for $1500. And the

letter says, all you have got to do is sign away every possible interest

you could have in the Apple Computer company, and the check is yours.

Well, I figured that I had already done that and as far as I was

concerned, it was found money. So I went ahead and signed. People will

watch this and say, surely as Ron is about to go to sleep he must often

think of what could have been with Apple. Do you? I knew what would

have been if I had stayed with the company. I would have wound up

heading a very large documentation department at the back of the

building, shuffling papers for the next 20 years of my life and that

was not the future I saw for myself. Lawrence is back to take a look at

the papers. Enchanted gardening tweets. I was asking if anyone had

any regrets. I wish I had invested in Apple and Microsoft in the 80s. I

said so to the husband but he was not seeing the potential. Thanks for

that. Hubby, you shouldn't let her invest. Let's talk through the

papers. This is the front page of the Economist. This is all about the

president of China, comparing his power to Mao and saying that we had

not seen a more powerful or cultish figure in China since then. What are

your thoughts on this? It is fascinating because when the

president came to power, the cult of Mao, was one of the things he was

talking about. And yet ironically, he has spent the last five years in

particular, there has been a famous video viewed by 300 million people

of uncle Xi, as he called, dancing with his wife in a way that is very

reminiscent of German mark, and some of the antics you see in North

Korea. He has developed this cult of the personality. In many ways, he

has got stronger as he has failed to tackle some of these issues,

including eroding corruption. It is fascinating, the way that the

Economist has presented the image, it is very much like one of the old

images of Mao that we remember. Talking about eroding corruption,

one place that they have not tackle this, to segue... It is the

pharmaceutical industry. The crackdown on the fake drugs that the

average Chinese person needed. And that brings us to this story. GSK

wants to relax intellectual copyright. GSK, there are many

countries around the world that cannot afford to buy their drugs.

They have said that they are not going to have the same licensors,

and if it does, what it will do is give a cheap licence to a local

drugs manufacturer. Those drugs can go on sale in those countries at a

more affordable cost. But crucially it does not include China, India or

Brazil, so what difference will this make? You could say that was a

double standard. Those three countries have got huge parts of

their population that need these cheap generic drugs. Have a great

weekend. We will wrap it up. That is it from us. Plenty more business

news throughout the day. Have a great weekend. Bye-bye.

After the last few days, which have been pretty settled because of a

ridge of high pressure, we're seeing a change to the weather, a

significant change. This area of low pressure sending out a weather