Elizabeth Holmes takes the stand in Theranos trial

Watch Elizabeth Holmes takes the stand in Theranos trial - Feelings Drama on Dailymotion

Transcript

00:00Another stunning development in a case we've been closely following in just the last hour.

00:06The Theranos founder, Elizabeth Holmes, took the stand.

00:09It was one of the most surprising and dramatic moments of an already spectacular trial.

00:14Prosecutors had just rested their case today.

00:17They're accusing Holmes of defrauding investors and doctors and patients

00:21by lying to them about how well her blood testing machines worked.

00:25Turns out they didn't work at all.

00:26But that was it about Theranos.

00:30What was it about Theranos that convinced so many seasoned Silicon Valley investors

00:34to pile millions into the company?

00:37They say it all came down to the zeal and master marketing of Holmes herself.

00:41Now she's on the stand.

00:43CNBC's Scott Cohn outside the courthouse in San Jose.

00:46You know, everybody wondered if she'd testify.

00:48Now we know.

00:50Yeah, we know.

00:51And we found out, Shep, a lot sooner than pretty much everybody thought, at least,

00:56except for the defense, which has been keeping things so close to the vest.

00:59And now that zeal and master marketing is on display.

01:03The jury seeing Elizabeth Holmes maskless for the first time in the 11 weeks of testimony,

01:09talking very confidently about those early days and how she was able to attract some big-time investors.

01:16Don Lucas, a big venture capitalist in Silicon Valley.

01:19Larry Ellison, the co-founder of Oracle, attracting three rounds of Silicon Valley funding for her idea

01:26before she was 24 years old.

01:29Under friendly questioning from her defense attorney, one of her defense attorneys, Kevin Downey,

01:34she talked about the early days of Theranos, how she dropped out of Stanford at 19 years old

01:40after doing some research on microfluidics, which became the basis for her invention.

01:45Initially, she thought of a pill that people could swallow that would send out data in real time

01:52over how somebody was doing health-wise.

01:55Then it turned into a patch.

01:56And then ultimately, after dealing with pharmaceutical companies and talking and doing more research,

02:02the idea of this micro blood testing device, which, of course, ultimately did not work.

02:08Again, by the time she was 24 years old, she had contracts with big pharmaceutical companies.

02:13Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline, Bristol-Myers Squibb, all of this now on display for the jury

02:20as they get a sense of the Elizabeth Holmes that dazzled Wall Street, dazzled investors,

02:26and dazzled Silicon Valley.

02:27Of course, a lot more to come next week, including potentially some pretty rough cross-examination.

02:33Shep?

02:33Scott Cohn, live at the courthouse.