"squawk alley" is live ♪ 100 days 100 nights ♪ ♪ to know a man's heart ♪ ♪ 100 days 100 nights ♪ ♪ to know a man's heart and a little more before he knows his own ♪ happy thursday welcome to "squawk alley." i'm jon fortt. a biden administration with new challenges and possibly openings in antitrust regulation, immigration policy, china trade, and more, deirdre. that's not all that's going on this morning >> no. we're also looking at that letter from amazon yesterday offering to help the biden administration with

vaccinations still plenty of questions at this point, but if you take a look at amazon's logistics reach says it all. the value amazon could adhere, you know, 800,000 u.s. workers, 800 plus third-party delivery service partners, which really could help solve the last mile delivery problem plenty of questions such as if this is a contract to be won does it open up to walmart, fedex, u.p.s.? is it contingent on amazon's essential workers getting vaccinated first amazon not giving us much at this point, but we do know it has been spending billions on covid efforts and the company says it has been talking to u.s. government officials over the last nine months on covid initiatives. >> yeah, which is why some wonder why this is coming to a head right now and then we're watching apple, guys morgan stanley, one of the most influential analysts, says the iphone 12 is tracking ahead.

they're about 5% ahead of consensus. 7% on revenue. jon, target 152. bull case of 200 we're going to find out more when that print actually happens. >> yeah, a 3% move on apple is a lot of market cap. we don't see that every day. so we're, of course, going to keep our eye on that we are going to start with this new biden administration and the implications for tech. former hewlett-packard ceo and presidential candidate carly fiorina joins us now >> good morning. >> i was thinking about what lies ahead under a biden administration for tech, and my mind went to immigration because the executive has such influence over that and that's such an important issue in the tech industry what do you think happens there? >> well, i think president biden has made it very clear that he wants the united states of america once again to be a

welcoming place for immigrants he's also made it clear that he recognizes that the immigration system needs to be overhauled and streamlined. but i think by declaring yesterday in executive orders the wall construction will be stopped, that daca kids will be allowed to move forward for citizenship and don't have to worry about being deported, i think all of those are very strong signals of course, to your point, the technology companies who have always relied on h1b visas and immigration will be very happy about that but i think a welcoming rational immigration policy is good for absolutely every aspect of the u.s. economy and always has been >> now when you talk about daca and some of those other things, that's an undoing of some trump administration policies. but what can and should be done

in a forward-leaning, more proactive way to address some of the issues that tech specifically has and right now we're looking, for example, at a higher education ecosystem where there are a lot of students coming into the u.s. for advanced training and advanced degrees in areas where tech really wants workers. and lately they've started walking right back out the door with those degrees and that training >> that's right. i think there are three specific things number one to rationalize the system when you have 16 and 17 different visa programs, it gets very confusing for everyone, and it's very inefficient besides. so that needs to be rationalized that's been true for a long time secondly the h1-b visa program is cumbersome. sort of every year tech ceos have to go up on capitol hill and beg for an increase in the number of visas, that doesn't make a lot of sense and hopefully would be addressed in a rationalized overall visa

program. and then finally, to your point, this was said in 2016, it never happened, but we ought to be sort of stamping residency on every single foreigner who comes to this country, who invests in higher education here, welcome them to stay here so that they are using their talent and their brains and their entrepreneurship to build our economy not to go home somewhere else >> carly, it's been a remarkable week i'm just thinking of some of the moves, say, by the chamber of commerce, the largest business lobby, applauding rescinding the muslim ban, applauding rejoining the paris accord, applauding rejoining the w.h.o. not bristling at fiinitiatives y quote/unquote, the left. i wonder how long you think that lasts and whether you think it's new? >> i do think that the business community understands that we live in a global economy

and they prosper in a global economy and, therefore, america being part of the global economy, rebuilding these alliances, makes all the sense in the world to the which is community and, therefore, to the chamber of commerce. the muslim ban was not only offensive but sent major messages to markets that mattered to us likewise the paris accord, we can talk about what makes the most sense in tackling climate change, but w.h.o., the paris climate accord, these are examples of the united states re-entering the global economy and the political system as an ally and partner i think the business community embraces that. >> do you think that means that this is an end or a pause to, say, trade nationalism do you think globalization continues to grow after taking a few years off? >> the business community never

like the tariff strategies of the trump administration because the business community understands that tariffs actually hurt us in the long run, even in the long run, perhaps our economic adversaries. i think what the business community is looking for is a predictable, rational trade policy that recognizes that we prosper. american companies prosper, our economy grows when we can compete in the global economy because we win in the global economy. i do want to emphasize i think a rational predictable strategy is important. one of the things the business community eventually turned off of in the trump administration was the volatilityand the unpredictability and that applied to trade policy and tariffs for sure as well >> carly, good morning it's deirdre here. >> good morning.

>> some clarity with regard to tariffs and policy internationally but when it comes to something like the digital services tax over in europe and france, do you think that the biden administration is willing to be tough on things like this so that our tech companies can avoid some of these massive tax bills? >> look, i don't have any particular insight but my guess is that the biden administration's first move is not going to be on digital services tax i think their first move is going to be around the power of big tech and so i do think they will be rolling out -- i think they would be wise to roll out a strategy because there's now bipartisan support that big tech companies have too much power. and there's also bipartisan agreement that we just can't leave it up to the big tech ceos

and their staffs to decide what to do about content. and so i do think the biden administration is going to begin to roll out some recommendations and some policies, and i would recommend to the big tech companies as i have on your show before that they get engaged in that process, that they collaborate with policymakers and politicians on what these rules should be because if they don't collaborate, the rules are going to happen to them and they're not going to like the outcome. >> right, carly. i know we've talked about that in the past. but how likely -- or do you think anything changes with regards to momentum in regulation we talked about this at the beginning of the show, big tech is actually performing now year to date. they've especially seen some big gains this week. how much of that has to do, do you think, with the thinking that perhaps the biden administration won't take a heart stance on regulation >> yeah, it depends on what you

mean by hard stance. i think a lot of the movement in tech stocks is just a recognition that everything that we saw happen during the pandemic makes them more attractive to hold, that they have more impact in the economy. in other words, i think it's a good financial bet but i also think that realistically there will be regulation realistically there will be political energy around curtailing the power of big tech realistically there will be real discussion around antitrust. and i don't think the biden administration can avoid that because, as i say, there's so much bipartisan agreement on capitol hill that they have too much power and that they have abused it. >> now on another note, carly, when i'm thinking about areas where at least in theory there should be bipartisan agreement,

i think about investments in infrastructure that allows for jobs across the country. i'm thinking about high-tech manufacturing. i'm thinking about job training, particularly in software, cyber security, perhaps investment in rural broad band and broad band at large, not just in those types of places. do you see that potentially happening? could that, should that be part of a biden administration push to lay the groundwork for things to actually get done >> so, yes, i do see that happening. i think it's clearly a priority of the biden administration. you know, i had hoped way back in 2017 that we might actually get a bipartisan infrastructure bill done at the beginning of the trump administration because i do think there's broad agreement that investment in some of the programs you just outlined, investment in our infrastructure, grows our

economy. the data is just crystal clear and so i think there is bipartisan support for all of the programs you mentioned and obviously that makes tech a good investment as well >> well, we'll see if lawmakers want to be caught agreeing even after january 20th we can hope so for the sake of things getting done. carly fiorina, thank you >> thank you watch paypal today upgraded to buy. price target 300 they say that some of the initiatives in crypto are starting to gain some traction you see the shares up better than 1%. a lot more "squawk alley" still ahead. stay with us businesses are always making choices. here's a choice you don't have to make: the largest 5g network... award-winning customer satisfaction... or insanely great value. now, with t-mobile for business, there's no compromise. network. support. value.

choose. all. three. t-mobile for business. ready when you are.

i feel like we're forgetting something. let me check. xfinity home gives you peace of mind from anywhere with professionally monitored home security built around you. no, i think we're good. good. so when you're away, you don't have to worry. the tent. we forgot... the tent. except about that. xfinity home. simple. easy. awesome. hey look, i found the tent! get xfinity home with no term contract required. click or call today.

the volatility for bitcoin continues with prices hitting a three-week low but what should we expect from the popular cryptocurrency under the biden administration crypto kate rooney has the answer i'm told that is your name now and you have to answer as best you can because we don't really know biden's stance on cryptocurrency but we are starting to gather some clues from some people in his administration >> that's right. krypto with a "k." the crypto industry so far is hoping for a little more regulatory clarity under president biden. they have high hopes for biden's

s.e.c. pick gary gensler he chaired under president obama but gensler spent the last few years at m.i.t. about digital currencies and public policy analysts pointed to a congressional hearing where gensler warned lawmakers against, quote, hasty regulation of digital assets. he pushed back on some comments about bitcoin as a ponzi scheme and noted crypto hatss exposed weakness in infrastructure lobbying firm the block chain association tells me the con seven concencus view is for more nuanced discussion still, they don't expect a cascade of positive rulings, as they put it. some of the big issues biden's s.e.c. has to tackle, first, a lawsuit against rain for allegedly selling xrx as an unregistered security, also an upcoming ipo from coinbase and a

long-awaited bitcoin etf president biden froze all pending regulations including a treasury proposal on crypto transactions which saw some pushback from jack dorsey among others while janet yellen did make comments on crypto in her confirmation hearing the new treasury secretary said cryptocurrencies are of a particular concern for terrorist financing and money laundering some took that as more hostility toward crypto, which could be weighing on prices this week the more wall street focused analysts say oversight is a good thing t. could help make bitcoin a bit more mainstream. back to you. >> okay, krypto kate, thank you. our next guest is the president of fidelity's asset team responsible for creating an institutional brokerage capability for bitcoin and other tokenized securities fidelity's tom jessup joins us now. good morning kate laid it out pretty well there. what are you expecting from the

new administration when it comes to crypto currencies and regulation >> good morning, yes i agree. given gensler in the space and what he's been doing in recent years, i think a more positive attitude or picture in what we might expect going forward we saw some fairly interesting and good regulatory developments last year. you look at the oec and guidance around banks to the asset class or participating networks and more recently and less publicized some request for comment from the s.e.c. on what it means to be a custodian in the space and even some questions about what it would mean for broker/dealers to transact in tokenized securities even predating this news we've started to see more constructive engagement with the regulators and we think that will persist into the new year given what we're seeing in terms of

institutional and as well as retail demand alluded to in the prior session. >> right, tom. you mentioned gary gensler's track record he will head up the s.e.c. but what did you make of janet yellen, treasury secretary, comments yesterday she warped of terrorism risk and seemed to suggest its use should be curtailed does that worry you. >> it does but i think there's an interesting report that will be issued by one of the companies that does block chain analysis, what we rely on in operating our business they do an annual report called illegal or elicit activity on the bitcoin block chain by looking at network activity. the preview of the report is that on an absolute basis they estimate that illegal activity is dropped and volume increases on the bitcoin block it's something like 0.3%

so i think when we think about this concern, it is a valid concern, but i think there are perhaps other places to look and call it the nondigital economy where this activity is occurring with greater frequency and greater size so i would not diminish the risk, but i think the risk is smaller than people might suggest it to be and is diminishing or declining which is positive interms of further development of this ecosystem. >> tom, do you and the folks at fidelity have insight into what's moving bitcoin? i can't help but notice the pricing to peak around january 8th, which is a very difficult week for the country and stability and it's down, what, about 20% in the last week is this a chaos trade? is stability bad for bitcoin what's moving it >> look, i think a little bit of recent historical context is important. we doubled and went up pretty

quickly and early december to january we doubled again so i think this is a healthy phase of consolidation for the market i think given that this market is still very much in its adolescence, it's hard to attribute price activity to specific factors one interesting thing is you can actually look at the data and see where the money is moving and there have been reports that show there's some underlying bullish trends on the network where investors are moving coin off the exchange typically what you see is investors move on exchange as a precursor to selling so i think this is some healthy profit taking and consolidation. i will say that our client institutions that work with us have been steady buyers throughout this entire period and we continue to see strong demand among institutions for access to the asset class. so that's really our perspective on what's happening recently >> tom, so does that mean that the history of 80% declines,

which it's done a few times now, was that just early growing pains, do you think we've entered a period structurally or because of sentiment or flows where that's no longer possible? >> look, i wouldn't rule it out but i think we're in a very different market now than what we experienced in 2017 i think the composition of investors has changed dramatically we've moved from very retail driven frenzy into the final weeks of '17 you're seeing this certainly from service providers like us in our business. you're seeing this through futures exchanges, with black rock announcing that a few of their funds will have access to bitcoin futures. i think the market is maturing there's more liquidity volatility is down about 50% from where it was in 2017. so i do believe, we believe, that the composition of this investor base and what's driving the market higher today is

fundamentally different than what we saw three years ago. again, i wouldn't rule out a big drawdown but a number of mitigating factors that would suggest we may not see something that drastic in the future >> tom, i'm glad you mentioned blackrock joining the bitcoin party. it's significant because it is the world's largest asset manager. how big of a deal do you think this is as we see bitcoin prices at three-week lows do you think it encourages more institutional investors or have they cooled given the price runup? >> no, i think it's positive if you think about, again, the course of the past nine months, famous investors talking about the asset and perspective on it as an aspirational value, you think about paypal, as mentioned in the earlier segment, the growth seen. you're starting to see more mainstream adoption of this asset class. i think we believe we're still in the early adopter phase and when other institutions see what we're doing, what blackrock is doing, i think what it does,

it accelerates the move from what is it to how does it impact or improve my portfolio to how do i actually access the asset class? we continue to see very steady movement of traditional investors through the decision life cycle >> right and we did speak to paypal ceo dan shulman not long ago he agreed with you that we are still in very early angst of this thank you for being with us this morning. >> thank you keep your eye on pin today they go to buy, target 85. looking at a long runway for ad revenue growth and an innately high revenue business model. not too far from the all-time high of 76 and change. more on that on cnbc.com

what if you could have the perspective to see more? at morgan stanley, a global collective of thought leaders offers investors a broader view. ♪♪

we see companies protecting the bottom line by putting people first. we see a bright future, still hungry for the ingenuity of those ready for the next challenge. today, we are translating decades of experience into strategies for the road ahead. we are morgan stanley. ♪♪ for skin as alive as you are... don't settle for silver 7 moisturizers 3 vitamins 24 hours hydration gold bond champion your skin want to sell the best burger in every zip code? gold bond add an employee. or ten... then easily and automatically pay your team and file payroll taxes. that means... world domination! or just the west side. run payroll in less than five minutes with intuit quickbooks. competition beat us, again. how? they have a better finance system than we do. i feel like they might have a better finance system than we do. workday. how do they make better decisions faster? workday. got to do something.

workday! i think i got something. work... hey, rob, you're on mute. hello. [all] hey... there he is. workday, the finance, hr, and planning system for a changing world. ♪ch-ch-changes♪ three weeks into the year google outperform its peers by a

long shot up more than 8%. amazon and apple up around 2%, lagging the nasdaq this week alone google tracking for its best gain since april. that all comes despite continued regulatory pressures broken windshield... take 1... hey guys, my windshield just got broken, i feel like i need to blow off some steam. let's go... 1, 2, 3, 4... mr. blanks? there's no need to be stressed. geico makes it easy to file a claim online, on the app, or over the phone. yeah, but what if i never hear back? that's gonna make me want to go jab...jab! nope! your geico claims team is always there for you. that makes me want to celebrate with some fireworks. 5,6,7 go... boom, boom, boom, boom boom boom boom boom boom, yeah! geico. great service without all the drama.

this is decision tech. find a stock based on your interests or what's trending. get real-time insights in your customized view of the market. it's smarter trading technology for smarter trading decisions. fidelity.

welcome back i'm sue herera here is your cnbc update this hour nbc news reporting president

biden will keep christopher wray as director of the fbi questions were raised when white house press secretary jen psaki was asked about him and said she had not spoken to the president about the matter police officers say they had to fire tear gas at anti-fascist protesters who were unhappy with biden's election and were pelting police with rocks and eggs 150 demonstrators marched through the city and damaged the democratic party's state headquarters in baghdad twin suicide bombings ripping through a busy market in the iraqi capital. the blast killed at least 32 people and injured dozens more on a helpful note in turkey the essence of the saying dogs are a man's best friend. she followed her owner to the hospital when he became ill and then kept coming back for days, each evening the man's daughter would bring the dog home, but she came back every night and yesterday after nearly a week she and her owner were finally

reunited well, that will put a smile on your phone carl, you're up to date. back to you. >> it's been a good week for dogs, sue. we'll see you in an hour sue herera let's turn back to the biden white house today and its agenda for big tech our next guest says it's an opportunity for both sides to make a big reset with some caveats. john chambers is cisco's chairman emeritus, the ceo, founder and ceo. john, welcome back good to see you. >> carl, jon, and deirdre, it's good to see you as well. >> i wanted to ask you, i thought about you a moment ago because chuck robbins he had a tweet saying thank you for protecting dreamers and create a path to comprehensive immigration reform we could talk about content moderation and section 230 and 5g, but where do you think

immigration will fit in tech policy the next few years? >> well, i think immigration for our country is what we're founded on most all of us are immigrants as well, just what generation for tech policy you've seen the asian countries like india or france in europe realize that you want to attract the best and brightest from all over the world to your shores and to your areas of opportunities probably over 50% of the startups in the u.s. and high tech are first or second generation immigrants from other countries. and so i would be surprised if this isn't front and center both on an immigration basis for the country but especially for high tech talent. startups will determine our future, carl, as a country and i bet that you 2021 will be viewed as the, literally, the resilience of the startup

community in the u.s >> interesting what do you mean when you talk about a great reset? what are you visualizing for technology in this country >> well, the first thing i'm visualizing every government, we talked about technology on one side and the company's core business on the other. they're now combined and so the ability to think about what does this mean for the future of our country not just for tech policy but how it creates jobs, how it creates a startup economy has to be carefully intertwined. we went through a period there where the startups were actually decreasing in this country year over year. the big ones got all the publicity, the ubers of the world, that later went public. it was the small startups. we're start to go see that revive out of my 20 startups i have all of them have turned the corner during the last summer and are starting to grow, to acquire

other companies, et cetera so i think you will see the startups be the job creation for this country's future, and i hope whether it literally goes back to the regulation that you talked about earlier today, people take into consideration what does it mean to startups, not just the big companies >> good morning, john, good to see you. i want to talk about china because president biden is in a really interesting position there with the amount of pressure and the amount of seeming arbitrariness with which president trump approached china. what would you advise the biden administration to do when it comes to tariffs, when it comes to access to technology, when it comes to even pressure on social issues in china? >> well, i think our country's values are more important now than ever. as you know, i've been in china for 35 years did the first high-tech joint adventure in china, and it was a

win-win mentality with tough negotiations the last decade has developed into win-lose, jon, and china was not playing on a level playing field. they're expecting to be able to access our markets in an open environment and yet we were dramatically restricted in their environments with huge problems on intellectual property protection the bottom line i think that president biden will maintain many of the similar concepts but do it much gentler rule 101 interface to china in my opinion is constructive dialogue but do it in a statesman like role, not so much in a confrontational role. i think we will continue to be challengers for the foreseeable future however, it's in both countries' interest to work closely together i do not see a dramatic warming in the near term. >> strategically how does a biden administration do that when the transpacific partnership, the tpp, ship has sailed china has set up its own multilateral trade agreements in the meantime the u.s. has been in this

position of doing one-on-one, kind of one-off engagements. do you step back and try to do something multilateral again even though that takes longer and maintain the tariff pressure in place or something else >> i would continue to keep the tariff pressure in place you have to have a level playing field. if not, it's a win-lose mentality and there's a clear goal in china to outexecute the u.s. perhaps going beyond what most people would consider the lines of give and take we need new rules of the road. i would build relationships like with prime minister modi he's been extremely open to that with the rest of the players in particular, most countries in asia have a concern about china. i think the u.s. needs to get back to what it does best which is to be the best ally we can be there and to offer alternatives on it. >> right when it comes to what china does best, 5g has been a hot topic,

john i wonder if you think pressure in a biden administration eases or lets up at all on the likes of zte what might that mean for the chip industry at large >> first, there are core competencies we have to have as a country if we're going to lead from earlier comments. they all come together if this country doesn't lead in certain areas of silicon, if we don't lead in 5g, if we don't lead especially in ai which is as important as the internet, we'll have a problem in the future on our competitiveness and the same problem exists for europe goes back to the point that carl raised we probably need to get the two regions working closer together. if you look at some of our own defense data out of the 20 major areas of technology that a important to our future defenses as a country china leads in 15 out of 20. i think we need to lead in ai and in 5g.

where you're leading me is to my earlier comment. startups are the engine to compete in a different way i encourage my startups to not do business in china i understand size of the market and i was the champion for china back in the mid-'90s in terms of our countries working closely together but this is where i think a firm hand has to take place and our country ought to think about how do we generate leadership and how do we protect the current leadership in terms of technology in areas that are so important, how important is intel? extremely important to our future >> john, your point about the importance of leadership and certain tech industries is well taken but in an area like 5g network equipment where china has such a huge lead is it realistic for startups, even established companies, to catch up >> i think we have no choice, but it's going to take an unusual combination of ecosystems working together

probably with some players in the u.s. and in europe to do it. huawei and others have made it difficult to compete there my view has not changed. i would not put in an infrastructure based on chinese technology in any critical infrastructure in the u.s. whether it's defense, whether it is banking, whether it's our large service providers. i think you'll see more and more european players head that way but it goes back to how do we create an environment where startups can move with tremendous speed and i will transition here, deirdre, if it's all right during the last year you saw more movement of innovation and startups than i've seen in my lifetime many people went out and did the startups i think there's the opportunity for what we saw in 1990. the last time a president really engaged with technology and embraced it in the way that you're implying was clinton during the '90s. regardless of your political party views here you saw a

decade of 34% growth in gdp, 22.5 million jobs. the last time america in total got a raise, sustainable, 24% increase the average household income i would suggest that president biden's team think about you can do the exact same thing again with artificial intelligence, with the internet of things, digitization, 5g and cyber security and we ought to say what does it take for our country not just to lead but set goals to truly dream what our country can do in the future that's why i think 2021 could be the restart of the u.s. startup engine however, there are problems. and we talked earlier about california california is losing its leadership in silicon valley i don't know if that's a topic, jon, you want to hit today or at a future time, however >> well, i guess i was going to ask you about spacs but it's such a good point, john. should we think about it, frame it as a loss for california, or more of a spreading of the wealth sort of part of the purpling of

america dynamic we've talked about in terms of political spectrums. >> it's really both. you think about it, i saw the leadership role was lost we that you silicon valley was way out there. the data general, the laboratories, loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs california, nobody seems to be really upset when the original garage startup, carly was on earlier, leaves silicon valley the original financial change leaves silicon valley. what you see with creativity of tesla and their leader elon musk, going to texas, venture capitalists like joe longsdale we're in trouble we're a state that is taking an entitlement approach it's not a good state to do business you are seeing many companies thinking about leaving and, even worse, none of my startups are

thinking about coming to california now to the second part of your question, does this opportunity create opportunities for texas, north carolina, ohio, my home state of west virginia absolutely one of the top companies i have is a company called asap out of new york their ceo is now in montana. and several other top leading executives are they're thinking about being in montana or texas not just silicon valley and new york. and the governor of montana, he calls him a couple times a month, what does it take for you to be here you have to create the right environment for startups and if you do that, what we've learned with the pandemic is you can put your resources and your people anywhere. so there is no entitlement for california or new york i think that's a benefit to the other states but if california isn't careful they're going to lose their leadership and the jobs created with it. we need new leadership in california and sacramento. >> it is an important point, john and we'll definitely talk about

spacs next time. i won't forget >> i believe, by the way, i'm a huge backer in spacs now i look for the next time we talk and i look for a couple of my companies to go public that way. >> okay. john chambers. couldn't avoid some spac talk as we head to break take a look at shares of microsoft bullish on the company taking the price target up to $260 and adding the stock to its outperform list. it is up just about 0.1% today and underperforming some of the other big tech names this year read the reasons why, though, you might be interested in micro sought on cnbc.com i think financial illiteracy and inclusion is everybody's problem. and that's why we created rapunzl. the rapunzl app was designed for high school and college students to simulate stock portfolios. they're able to buy and sell stocks in real time. thanks to nasdaq's cloud data solution.

if somebody tells you just download this app and you could potentially win a scholarship, and you're learning, it's like, yeah. information is key. having access to information at your fingertips on your mobile phone, on your desktop, or here on the screens, it really allows us to showcase what's happening out there. and so we pitched the idea of: why don't we host an investment competition on this newly built rapunzl platform? it was really cool to just sit there and like watch how the market really works. what i won was real money. so my first year of college, i ended up going debt free. data information being put in the right hands can literally change a person's like way of life.

this is decision tech. find a stock based on your interests data information being put in the right hands can literally change a or what's trending. get real-time insights in your customized view of the market. it's smarter trading technology for smarter trading decisions. fidelity.

change is all around us. shaped by technology and human ingenuity, we can make it work for you and your business. ♪♪ take a look at snap. all-time high. piper initiates the digital ad space, names snap as a stock with an overweight, the most favorite app, they say, by more than a third of the respondents in its team survey u3% n'gonyere.p

welcome back our next guest is announcing a $155 million funding this morning, formere-series funding this morning led by former twitter exec elad gill taking its valuation now over their 5 billion. ariel cohen is the founder of tripactions. good to have you help me understand business travel was absolutely obliterated, really in 2020. you laid off a quarter of your staff and now you've got this big series e and you say you're looking to double the size of your employee base in the next year what are you expecting and what did you just come out of >> yeah. first of all, i'm really happy to be here it's been a while since we

talked, and i think these are great news and not just for tripactions and for the entire travel industry. it basically shows that investors right now are willing to bet on the future and on full recovery and also betting on what they believe that it's going to take this market. so this is us. it is great news for us, but for the entire industry. why do you think you're positioned to gain share and besides the fact that you're small and you're starting from a small base what is it about the way you expect the business travel industry to recover. what businesses' mindsets are going to be that you think positions you well >> we saw something very unique. first of all, we as a start-up are instructing a fairly antiquated industry. in march when everything started to collapse we were the only ones that provided to our customers the technology to get back into business so i'll give you an example. we immediately, as we learned

about covid we released entire dashboards for cfos that allowed them to gain visibility and also safety that was not this by way bigger customers than what we used to have such as octa and crate & barrel and lennar and gamestop so we actually gained market share during covid and that is a huge part of why we are able to do this sale we were gaining share during covid. >> hey, ariel, it's deeidre >> he was are said there would be a permanent significant klein in business travel as you know it what are you anticipating and i'm still having trouble understanding how a company focused on business travel is gaining 700 customers globally since covid began? >> yeah. definitely so first of all, i think that you definitely see a change in business travel, but at the end

of the day you're not closing a $100 million deal over zoom and pays and scale if you want to get it and it will definitely recover and we also think that business travel will be slightly different and think about the remote employees and these people will need to meet from time to time in a post-covid era. we are building an entire functionality for the best location on an off-site. the best location is obviously cost, but safety and also offsetting what is the best place for you, for your company to meet when you need to innovate so we are actually betting on the future we think that business travel will change. there will be aspects of business travel that will be similar and aspects that are completely new and as a technology company we are embracing it >> finally, ariel, the people over at skift say your company

is the one to watch for an ipo potentially in 2021. what are the factors that you consider when you're thinking about when you might be ready to make that step >> you know, me and my co-founder elan twig have the goal to build the best travel and expense management solution in the market. that's what we are doing and it's about the cfos a past full recovery they can get full visibility into their controlling the safety and that's the focus of this year and obviously, the ipo is not the focus right now it is to create value for our customers and specifically for the cfo. >> so is that no ipo in 2021 or you're just not focused on it if it happens to come along >> that's want our focus right now. that's really not our focus right now. >> ariel, ceo and co-founder of tripactions. >> thank you so much

nice try, john i've tried that tactic, as well. >> he didn't say no. >> for the long term -- yeah exactly, he did get that, anyway, who is the top v.p. pick with amazon saying there are tougher comps ahead to own t ocan he more "squawk alley" after a quick break so do stay with us competition beat us, again. how? they have a better finance system than we do. i feel like they might have a better finance system than we do. workday. how do they make better decisions faster? workday. got to do something. workday! i think i got something. work... hey, rob, you're on mute. hello. [all] hey... there he is. workday, the finance, hr, and planning system for a changing world. ♪ch-ch-changes♪ (vo) businesses are always making choices.

here's a choice you don't have to make:a changing world. the largest 5g network... award-winning customer satisfaction... or insanely great value. now, with t-mobile for business, there's no compromise. network. support. value. choose. all. three. t-mobile for business. ready when you are.

ok, just keep coloring there... and sweetie can you just be... gentle with the pens. okey. okey. i know. gentle..gentle new projects means new project managers. you need to hire. i need indeed. indeed you do. the moment you sponsor a job on indeed you get a short list of quality candidates from our resume database so you can start hiring right away. claim your seventy five dollar credit, when you post your first job at indeed.com/home. want to sell the best burger in every zip code? add an employee. or ten... then easily and automatically pay your team and file payroll taxes. that means... world domination!

reports coming after the bell this afternoon intel and ibm. intel going through a major transition at the top as bob swann departs as ceo pat gelsinger prepares to enter next month whether intel will outsource more manufacturing, and how it will adjust to customers who just want a lot more flexibility in their silica these days and yet to provide guidance during the pandemic and just had its own ceo transition, not too long ago and arvin krishna taking over less than a

year ago now negative revenue growth is expected to continue into this quarter and some questions about what we should make of ibm's difficulty growing that,, there, guys on this spin-off of the infrastructure services business and how that's going and also interesting, gary cohn coming in in the past few weeks as vice chairman >> yeah, john, i feel like we've been asking the same questions about ibm for years and we continue to see the declining revenue growth although we've seen a few blips along the way the spin-off news will be big, carl and any of the layoffs wondering if that will happen and whether that's good or bad for the markets and the number that i always watch for ibm, carl is capex to see if they're spending again because their

capex spending has been so far below some of the tech cloud peers. >> yeah. and buybacks, too, because some of the skeptics continue to argue that ibm remains very much an accounting story. >> finally, guys, we talked about gm leading the s&p so far this year. the leading loser is twitter some say not surprisingly that they've lost their biggest content provider let's get to the judge all right, carl, thanks. welcome to "the halftime report." i'm scott wapner front and center, bubble battle. a call that stocks are dangerously overvalued and why one of the biggest fund managers on wall street say that's just not the case you'll hear from him on the program. the investment committee also here to debate the state of your money. joining me for the hour investment committee member, josh brown, joe teranova, jon najarian, tiffany mcgee is the cio at pivotal advisers. liz young, bny of market strategy the stocks