>> from the heart of where innovation, money, and power collide. in silicon valley and beyond, this is "bloomberg technology." with emily chang. emily: i'm emily chang in. san francisco. . this is "bloomberg technology." a 69 billion dollar deal. microsoft agreeing to buy activision blizzard and all past transactions for the third biggest gaming company.

new details on how it came together, and the antitrust fund, -- the antitrust fund -- verizon and at&t agreeing to delay 5g around key airports. the real risks and when the new service will take place. and airball. the nba finds itself in a controversial link to china. involves a serial dealmaker, a part owner of the golden state warriors. we have the details. let's get a look at the markets. stocks falling across the board. the tech heavy nasdaq 100 sinking more than 2.5 percent. dragging down apple and metta. >> you think you are coming back from a long weekend, a nice and relaxed start. financial markets picking up where we left off. rising yields, outlook for interest rates. rate hikes sooner and faster. that has impacted tech stocks with stretched multiples.

nasdaq 200 down at his lowest level since october. semiconductors. the philadelphia semiconductor index down 4.44%. to the course of 2021, it was in outperformer. yields rising nine paces point gain in the 10 year yield on tuesday. 1.87 percent. i want to look at bitcoin. 42 389 dollars per token. this is the last five days. it has been a long weekend. we have been trickling low. peaked around $44,000 saturday. trickling down. a lot of discussion in the market from analysts, the options market $40,000 per token can be the bottom. even though we have trickled lower, you remember the selling around 10 days ago. that might be the bottom. things can go up. you may see a bounce back like wednesday's session.

i want to look at semiconductors. it was an interesting drop. not much in the way of news flow. through 2021 with the chip crunch, the shortage of semiconductors, the stocks have been an outperformer. there has been so much gain in buying, there has been pullback. let's get to the story of the day. microsoft and activision. the reaction speaks for itself. microsoft paying a big premium for the friday closing price before the long weekend. even the trading price through the day on tuesday. 69 billion dollar deal. this is a big deal. think about the transactions in 2021. discovery was up as the biggest. this is even bigger. so much to discuss. emily: let's get more on this blockbuster gaming deal. microsoft buying activision/blizzard for $69 billion. activision is known for titles like call of duty, world of warcraft, and most of its games

are already published on microsoft's xbox council. -- counsel. hearing that, it sounds like it is a massive deal. how does it come together? >> it is microsoft's largest deal to date. certainly, it had not leaked out at all. it seems it came together at some point after thanksgiving. you might remember the wall street journal published allegations against activision's ceo for overseeing a company with not the best workplace culture. at some point after that story, the talks must have started, is what we understand. it hadn't been going on very long. last week, a company got acquired by take two. so they are really starting the year at a historical high. there's never been so much dealmaking than we have seen

this year so far. emily: what will the antitrust scrutiny be? any deal of this size has to go through hoops. will microsoft run into some hurdles? >> the question is what regulatory bodies won't it go through. there are so many jurisdictions around the world. we think the deal might need approval in china. were microsoft has a footprint. we know the eu always shows keen interest in u.s. tech deals. then there is the doj and u.s. ftc. are trying to figure out which of those bodies will have oversight over this one. but certainly it will come under a lot of scrutiny. i would expected to take over a year to be approved. the companies have said we will not see it approved until 2023 at the earliest. we will be talking about this for a long time, given how much is at stake. emily: let's talk about the controversy surrounding

activision, blizzard, there has been calls for the ceo to step down. he is staying in that job, according to the terms of the deal. talk about why microsoft is taking this risk. talk about making gaming more of an exclusive industry. i wonder whether that factored into this deal as a potential risk. >> definitely. to me, it seems like a negligent exit -- an elegant exit. it will take a while to be approved. he will be at the helm until that point. after the deal closes, it is unclear what his future holds. the wall street journal reported he would exit at that time. we are still looking into this. the wording was careful in that statement for microsoft. it doesn't say he signed on for the next five years. i would not be surprised if under phil spencer, the xbox

chief, there will be changes at activision. microsoft doesn't have the best culture in videogames. i think there have been issues before. it is widespread with videogames. so i don't think activision is the only company who needs to reform its ways. emily: interesting to see how they navigate that. we will see how they go back to that statement, announcing the deal, and using the word inclusive. it ties into microsoft ambitions in the metaverse. satya nadella did join us to talk about how microsoft is making the big bet on the metaverse in an enterprise world. take a listen to what he had to say. >> what i think about the metaverse, it comes down to bringing the real world people, places, and things to the digital world. this pandemic, if anything, has made the commercial use cases much more mainstream. even though sometimes the

consumer stuff feels like science fiction. emily: what is the role of the metaverse? for so many, it seems to be a buzzword, or marketing. but certainly this effort, microsoft getting a big foot deeper into this digital world. >> the virtual world might seem new, but video gamers have lived in these worlds for years. world of warcraft, microsoft also has halo. a lot of these users are living virtually already. although it is still a buzzword, the metaverse. both companies are going to use the argument that the metaverse is an emerging technology and this deal will better position microsoft and activision to succeed in that world where there is going to be a lot of big players, whether it is meta- , alphabet, trying to have a footprint. even if the metaverse is still

emerging, it is part of the antitrust argument that microsoft will be making in washington with regulators. emily: we will certainly follow all of those ways. leanna baker, thank you for giving us the extra color. i also want to bring in tom giles, our editor for bloomberg technology. huge deals like this are hard to do in secret. microsoft has somehow done it again. i'm having flashbacks to my linkedin days, no one saw it coming. tell us more about what happened behind the scenes. >> i was on a plane the morning the linkedin deal got announced. it took me by surprise. this was not one any of us had a heads up on. clearly what happened here was microsoft took note of the scandals and controversy that were roiling activision.

you saw the share price come down. all of the questions being raised about leadership, the direction of the company, the culture, resonated. as these stories were coming out, as the management was embroiled in all of this, that is when satya nadella asked some of his deputies to reach out to the folks at activision to find out may be right now is the time to start thinking about something along these lines. we are told bobby cardica initially was resistant to the deal. but he himself sent out sailors to see if microsoft came in, any of the other big players might be willing to follow suit. maybe strike up something of a bidding war. those are some of the kind of behind the scenes color that we

have picked up on. when we talked about him earlier today, he denied the deal had anything to do with the controversy. but if you are microsoft, even though you are watching billion dollars in cash, which they are clearly spending on this deal, you have to take note when activision's share price came down. so substantially in the aftermath of these allegations and investigations. emily: microsoft has been no stranger to big deals. just in the last year, nuance and bethesda also in the gaming space. i wonder what your take is on pushing the envelope, especially amidst the regulatory scrutiny facing big tech? >> they got nuance through most of the regulatory hurdles that he needs to clear. but this is in a completely different league.

you were talking to leanna about this, and we have been talking through the day. but this is a much bigger deal. so far, microsoft has been able to steer clear of the most recent round of antitrust scrutiny that had befallen amazon, apple. the company formerly known as facebook. alphabet. all of them facing regulatory headaches throughout the country and around the world. the sense we are getting is regulators will take a very close look at this. and this sense microsoft has been dodging the bullet faced by the other big tech platforms may lower longer -- may no longer be the case. emily: how do you think this signal of future consolidation will go through the gaming community, which already has been consolidating, but is a

collection of studios around the world? >> clearly, the market felt this was a signal for some of the competitors. the sense is -- we talked about the metaverse, these platforms may want to take -- stake a claim. facebook has been talking about this for many months with the oculus platform and other changes they have announced. they want to establish themselves in a pole position. this is microsoft saying we will not be left behind in whatever version of the metaverse materializes. we are not going to be left behind, we are going to give meta-a run for its money. but the strong speculation is amazon, which also has a gaming business, that has had its up and downs in recent years, may

have to follow suit. what does apple do? what does alphabet do? certainly, all of these companies have big arsenals. they don't have a clear path to regulatory scrutiny in an era where the ftc and the doj just today announced new rules and tighter scrutiny of these kinds of deals. and you have lawmakers talking a big game of breaking a big tech. emily: big game indeed. microsoft playing in the big leagues. tom giles, thank you for the update. the microsoft announcement comes on the very same day u.s. antitrust enforcers and an effort to toughen merger reveals. the doj and ftc saying a framework is needed to combat the surgeon deals, but threatens to worsen high concentration across industries. it furthers president biden's

initiative to tackle dominant companies across the economy and boost competition through antitrust enforcement and government regulation. coming up, how we combat future covid waves. the ceo jason kelly joins us to talk about their plans for our large-scale bio security infrastructure to bite new surges -- fight new surges of the virus and more. this is bloomberg.

emily: omicron won't be the last variant. comprehensive strategies are still needed to reduce severe disease, deaths, transmissions, according to the who. this is my next guest, from

ginkgo biloba works, who wants to create a large-scale bio security infrastructure to catch ongoing infectious disease threats. jason kelly is with me. great to have you back. what are the strategies how do we combat the next omicron? certainly it will happen. >> it will happen. i think this is important for business leaders. j.p. morgan health care conference last week, virtual. davos supposed to be this week, canceled. i had large conferences in january all canceled or set virtual. we need to be able to gather together and get work done. the idea of a bio security layer that allows us to get together safely will be imported economically and socially. we have done a lot in that area, particularly in the area of k-12 schools, which we want in person. 220,000 students and teachers a week being tested by our program

to keep those schools open, including during omicron. emily: what are the bio security infrastructures looking like? where you know everyone's testing status without having to ask, or do walk in tests? >> we are figuring it out is the short answer. if you went all the way back to the era of cholera, when that was a disease, you had quarantines, people held up borders to see if they had the disease. cities closing and things like that. the right answer was modern sanitization to make water clean. we live in a world where the air is not clean. we are not filtering out respiratory illnesses, we are spreading them readily when we gather together. we basically need to build general-purpose tools like that. a mix of knowing where the virus is, low-cost testing that you

saw today. the usps will send you free at home tests. but also, things like passive testing, filtering the air in a room, ventilation, sequencing it to look for new variants. we have a project with the cdc to sequence positive tests at the border to look for new variants before they grow at the country. those are the things we need to develop to have modern sanitation for respiratory illnesses. emily: we see a wave in new york city slowing down, but dr. fauci said we cannot claim victory just yet. certainly, there are so many people who have yet to be vaccinated. if it will not be vaccines stopping the virus, or everybody getting the shot, how can technology really help? how do you see technology helping? >> i think there are a couple of pillars. vaccines will be one. they are not a silver bullet

that takes away everything. rapid therapeutic development. our normal timeline to develop therapeutics are not what works on the timescale of the pandemic. we need to move faster on things like novel antibody therapies and things like that. the third leg is -- think of it like a weather map. we know one the storm is showing up in new york and we prepare for it. you should know well ahead when the wave is coming and make certain interventions. you would if you have any idea where respiratory illnesses are spreading. that is a data and information problem that requires things like -- looking in wastewater. so you can detect the levels often before it shows up in hospitals in wastewater systems in cities, towns, and buildings. that infrastructure needs to get built. but we have been flying blind trying to catch up to the last wave effectively rather than getting to the next.

that is getting built with the rapid test program, sequencing at the border, wastewater, and k-12 schools. emily: deployment? jason kelly, thank you for helping us think ahead. appreciate you stopping by. flight delays averted. at&t and verizon agreed to new 5g limits to avoid flight delays around a dozen airports. more on that, next.

emily: at&t and verizon agreed to temporarily delay switching's 5g cell towers near airports. this followed last-minute talks with government officials in an effort to avoid flight disruptions that could have started this week. president biden issued a

statement highlighting expanding 5g is a priority and he has been engaging with stakeholders to chart a path forward for 5g deployment and aviation to safely coexist until they close the remaining gap and reach a permanent, workable solution. joining me to talk more is alan leven. how did this come together? >> it -- nothing like a hard deadline to get people talking. the new service set to switch on tomorrow. and as they were crunching numbers, airlines became concerns -- concerned there would be considerable amounts of flight disruptions, including delays, cancellations, etc.. they called the federal aviation administration -- the federal

aviation administration called these companies and agreed to postpone implementing 5g, at least around airports. emily: you told us these airwaves are more powerful, there are unknown risks. how is that overcome? is there a magic wand? >> it is a really tough question. new equipment is the long-term solution. but i think it will take a lot of engineers a lot of work to figure this out as we move along. emily: alan leven, questions for passengers everywhere. thank you for filling in some blanks. coming up, we dive deeper into the microsoft-activision deal, and what it means for the gaming company and its culture. that is next. this is bloomberg. ♪

emily: welcome back to "bloomberg technology." i'm emily chang in san francisco. microsoft buying activision for $68.7 billion. a lot of stocks on the move. ed ludlow back with the latest. ed: we spent most of the show talking about what it means for microsoft, what it means for activision and blizzard, what it means about these folks. the market is talking much bigger picture. get the stock movers on tuesday. activision and blizzard the main movers. electronic arts, almost 3%.

pairing some gains. take-two is up. it had been much higher earlier in the session. then you have roadblocks down. but wall street already talking about what happens next. if we will see apple or amazon coming in for one of these names like electronic, take-two, who are involved in m&a with zynga. it would be a much smaller scale. discretion -- discussion about the industry being consolidation and the next phase of evolution in video gaming. another point of conversation, the metaverse. when we have talked about the metaverse, we talked about roblox. an early leader in that. but microsoft's acquiring of activision is an arms race, a metaverse arms race. imagine such a thing. a virtual arms race. ubc software is down 5% on tuesday.

it makes software for 3d platforms. to power the future metaverse, they say is a buy, but down on this news. again, the parent company of facebook also down. wall street thinking about what comes next and where we see more action in this space. emily: big question indeed. i want to continue the conversation about what this can mean for the future of gaming. i'm joined by the executive director of the rebellion pack and longtime advocate for women in gaming. you have fought a long time for inclusion in this industry since before -- when you yourself became a target. you don't think the deal is good for the gaming community and workers. why not? >> first of all, i want to apologize for my voice today. i think it has potential to be good. i think we need to see what happens next. you're coming from microsoft, a

company with very mixed treatment of women in the gaming world. there acquiring activision/blizzard, who had a set of scandals with the way they have treated women, to the point the state of california is pursuing some rather shocking cases against them. it looks like the ceo is going to exit the company. most people who looked at this story things it is a good direction. put will microsoft be a good steward? videogame companies are nothing without the people who make them. the simple fact is, we see turnover in the videogame industry with working from home and the pandemic. people have options where they go to work. it is imperative microsoft right

the ship so they have the best people making games. emily: you have had a lot of calls for him to resign, including from employees themselves. it is not clear he will leave the company after the deal is done. if he did leave, do you think it would solve the cultural issues, or does it run much deeper? >> if you look at some of the wall street journal reporting, it is very clear culture comes from the top of these companies. according to stories that have,, he personally interceded with many of these sexual-harassment investigations. the devil is in the details. but it is really hard to imagine it not getting better. if you look at the xbox division, today it is not what it was in 2014 or 2015.

a lot more women in senior leadership. the stories are coming out of their division. microsoft are much better these days. i think it is an encouraging sign. but it also kind of puts these efforts to push him out of the door on hold as we wait for this merger to go through. emily: satya nadella used the word inclusion, committing to the gaming industry, becoming more inclusive, do you believe something microsoft undersea -- under his leadership can pull off, given how deep-seated these issues are, but microsoft does have a track record of making big acquisitions work. rex i could not agree more. the women work in microsoft have good things to say generally. when it comes to these cultural issues, you need to pay attention to people track records.

what they have done, if they have been effective in solving these issues. microsoft hasn't been perfect, but they have been good overall. i believe in this move. there's also the issue of who gets opportunity to be on the platform. if you look again pass. this is the kind of center product for xbox. they have a real history of taking in the games, which disproportionately are made by women and people of color and lgbt people and really putting them center stage. you have a game like unpacked they came out last year. it won many awards. it is a stellar game. that is a kind of opportunity that gets the chance to be in front of more eyeballs of something like game pass. emily: i have to ask about your efforts to get gamer gates to the small screen.

talk about the theories and what we will learn about how much the gaming industry has and has not changed since. >> it was announced a few weeks ago. we are working with hollywood to turn it into a television series. if you really draw the line between the january 6 insurrection, there is a straight line to gamer gate in this culture of how we fight online, misinformation, and a lot of other factors about social media companies and their responsibilities and amplifying these dark forces who have poisoned american culture. that is the television show we are working to put together. it is a mix of fiction and biographical information of what happened. the truth is, the videogame industry is a magical place to work. we have our struggles, but i

have never seen it represented in a way that i felt was accurate in film or television. we are very excited. emily: looking forward to seeing that and appreciate you sharing the progress. rihanna will, a longtime advocate in the gaming industry for underrepresented people in that industry. appreciate you taking the time. the golden state warriors distancing itself from a part owner after he made the claim nobody cares about uighurs living in china under prosecution. his comments going viral, shooting the nba into another china related controversy. more on that, next.

>> nobody cares about what is happening to the uighurs. >> you bring it up because -- >> the rest of us don't care. >> are you saying you personally don't care? >> i'm telling you a hard, ugly truth. of all of the things we care about, yes, it is below my line. >> that comment made on the all in podcast going viral. the venture capitalist not only widely followed, but a part owner of the golden state warriors nba team. following the backlash, he said he realized he is lacking empathy, and as a refugee himself, human rights issues are very much part of his lived experiences, adding human rights matters, whether in china or the u.s.. the warriors distanced themselves from him, saying he's a limited investor, and his re'e

uighurs have recently faced persecution, with as many as one million forced into internment camps and prisons. the u.s. government declared it genocide. i'm joined by the founder and executive director of the national insecurity institute. there are business reasons and cybersecurity reasons that we need to care about this. on top of the human rights issues, which are most important. what do you make of the comments? >> unfortunately, it is a troubling reality of american business leaps. he said what he said. we have seen the nba push back on their own management, their own players. when they make comments about china's political social record. we have seen the intel ceo walking back his comments. it is very troubling. china has put pressure on business leaders.

i worry people in the business community like to talk about it, but don't really care, because at the end of the day, their economic interest are not aligned. our nation's economic and technological and political social issues are aligned with speaking out against these type of behaviors by the chinese communist party. emily: we mentioned the nba, the warriors statement did not go far enough. pat gelsinger and intel, the back-and-forth they had over this issue. the ceo forced to apologize about the comments. but still did not take a stand on china. why can't companies take a stand on china? >> part of it is the chinese communist party is putting pressure, saying if you want to invest, if you want chinese workers, your products sold or produced here, you have to toe the party line. while in the short term, it may

be in the economic interest of american companies ceos, or the nba to walk back these comments, the u.s. has been so productive and so successful as a nation and technology, in the silicon valley, because we have the political and economic freedoms we do, and we are in a global competition with china. the less we pushback and the more we allow their view to dominate, the less likely we are to see the domination and success that has made america so amazing and the 200 plus years we have been around. emily: what do you think of this happening against the backdrops of the olympics about to start in beijing, the u.s. doing this blue medic boycott, which doesn't go far enough? >> we are allowing our athletes to compete in these games, good for the athletes, but puts tough pressure on them. now they are the only ones who can really stand up for american

values. our companies will be there, they are not speaking out. the u.s. government has engaged in a diplomatic boycott. will they accept metals from the leaders of the chinese communist party, or take a stand like the chance for freedom, like puncture i in china against the abuses of the chinese communist party, and if they do, what penalty will they face. it is unfortunate putting athletes in this when our government has not had the government -- the guts, and our companies are still sponsors of these games. it is very troubling. >> bloomberg also reports concerns over spying issues, i mean if you were an athlete, would you use your phone in china? how would you circumvent this? >> the advice is a right one. don't get on the wi-fi in the village, bring a burner phone. it makes things difficult.

that is the right advice. chances are if you bring the device, you will go home with chinese malware on your system allowing it to take it back. china has been aggressive collecting information. ip theft is rampant. there it is as i to get access to the device and identify what is on them and use it for intel collection and human intelligence exploitation. it is a challenge, and as an athlete, how do you function effectively. you want to be on social media, but you have a burner phone. emily: we have seen the threat level rise from state actors around the world from russia to china. talk about what you see in cyberspace leading up to these games, especially from nationstates. what is the biggest concern? >> people has who the bigger threat is when it comes to the cyber domain.

in the long run, china is because of their capabilities, skills they are developing, and resources and manpower in the problem. today, russia is the most dangerous because they demonstrated a willingness to go after critical structure directly and through proxies, they are engaging in a potential invasion of ukraine, pushing back economically. they might make a strategic or tactical miss calculation and engage in cyberspace the way it is huge and requires a response. i worry in the short-term about russia, the long run, china is the bigger threat. emily: jamil jeffers, always appreciate your thoughts. thanks for joining us. coming up vc investing lagging when it comes to women founded startups. we are joined by zina shakira to talk about what needs to be done to level the playing field. and what she thinks the trends are for 2022. that is next. this is bloomberg.

emily: the non-fungible token start up attracted some big name investors in a funding round that more than doubled his valuation of $5 million. the fund was among those pink money in. the subsidiaries offer nft using games tied to blockchain platforms. female finders security percent of venture capital in the u.s. in 2021. the smaller share since 2016. the second year in a row women's percentage of funding flanked. let's get an update and what we should expect with zina shakira. good to have you with us. do you have any idea why that number is shrinking? >> great to be back.

we saw a record-breaking year in terms of dollars deployed to venture backed companies in 2021. that is the other recent news that came over the year. over $630 billion globally, $320 billion or so in the u.s. alone. while the wrong number of dollars going into women led companies is increasing, the percentage is lower than it has been since 2016. that number is different when you take into account male cofounders. it is also quite shocking when you consider the performance of women led companies. both on the private side and the public side. there is data across-the-board showing higher revenue, better roi for investors, shorter time to exit, and it is just against the decline in terms of percentage of dollars deployed. emily: so there is the glass

half-full, that overall, dollars are increasing, which means overall funding is increasing, but women are still getting a smaller piece of that overall pie, what needs to change after me to an silicon valley that organizations have sounded the alarm on this issue? >> i think we are in a much better place in a lot of ways. there are organizations focused on increasing the pool of capital, increasing the number of check writers. others have shown the correlation between diverse companies, in terms of founders. so the more we see, the more we see this number increasing. there's also the macro picture. if we look at the representation

of women taking their companies public, the cover of fortune magazine was talking about the newly minted billionaire founders. whitney will heard, you see and were janky taking her company public. on julie's dude from venial. it's a very different picture than what we have seen. so i think it will have an impact. representation matters across-the-board. my daughter a few months ago asked me if boys can grow up to become vc's. the more the next generation sees people like us having these conversations, founding and funding these companies, the more we see the needle moving over time. emily: and your job is trend spotting, figuring out where to make the next big bet, what are the trends you see taking hold in 2022? >> it has been a very eventful 18 days in 2022.

not only did we wrap up a massive year for the industry, but we have seen double-digit billions of dollars announced, investing and more companies. we continue to be excited about the potential of deep and groundbreaking scientific technology to move the needle. health tag being an area although there might be up and downs, we are excited about it. in terms of the long-term view. women's health is an area we have spoken out when we announced our series. there are so many different opportunities in this space. not only are women represented, in terms of the population numbers, but they control 80% of the dollars in health care. only 4% of dollars, in terms of r&d, are being deployed toward finding solutions in women's health. we need better solutions for early detection of cancer, more innovation in the medicaid space, where nearly half of

babies in the u.s. are born. we are also excited about opportunities to bolster the infrastructure of digital health. who will become the next to power the digital health revolution. emily: how do we ensure women have a seat at the table with these next big waves? i'm worried is not happening in crypto. how does it happen with digital health and the metaverse? >> >> last week, we announced an organization i was a founding member of that brittany schmidt started, talking about how women should have a seat at the table. we saw a lot of conversations about web two versus web three and women were absent. many creators are male. so i'm excited to see the incredible women coming together in the metaverse, digital health world, and beyond. emily: great to have you back with us. that does it for this edition of

"bloomberg technology." tune in tomorrow. we will talk to ceos changing the digital landscape. i will be joined by the ceo of crypto.com. that is next. this is bloomberg.

>> a good morning. i am haidi stroud-watts in sydney and i am counting down to asia's major market open. >> welcome to daybreak asia. the top stories this hour. asian stocks set to extend losses following a surge in treasury yields and the prospect of a tighter fed. china's central bank uses more policy to assist or the economy and ease credit stress. >>