good morning it is 8:00 a.m. at qualcomm headquarters in san diego. it's 8:00 a.m. on wall street and "squawk alley" is live ♪ happy tuesday.

it's a huge hour ahead talking leadership through disruption. qualcomm's christiano amon faces us for an exclusive. another exclusive with the ceo later, we'll talk about twitter potentially reaching its tipping point. gamestop as well back below 50 and at a two-week low following that reddit boost. you can see it there below $49 a share. but we're going to begin with the currency disruptor bitcoin, another record high as the crypto currency tops 48,000. it's briefly knocking on 47,000. deidre, bitcoin is one -- it's interesting to me for multiple reasons, but the reason why it's popular and the price action is so different from what we hear

from long-time, you know, bitcoin adherence about the structural and platform reasons why bitcoin is important and that's i think investors still need to have their own rationale for acquiring lots of bitcoin. i'm not sure tesla just bought $1.5 billion because they think it will be 3 billion, there are different reasons why people are getting into this. >> yeah, you are saying, john, you don't think tesla is the first domino we will not see many more corporations come out? >> and take on bitcoin reserves for the sake of being transactioning bitcoin >> yeah. >> we might. but what i'm saying is, i'm not sure the companies are acquiring bitcoin are expecting it to double, triple, quadruple. they're acquiring it because of the structural possibilities and the kind of transactions that it allows so i think investors need to think about not just the price

action but also the platform importance of block chain and the implications for finance >> right and those strategic implications i think you hit the nail right on the head, john. wall street, though, a certain portion of wall street is very excited about tesla's announcement yesterday and the notion for corporations holding bitcoin, rudy was talking about this earlier rbc said apple could be next and there is a clear opportunity for as you pointed to, john, offer crypto and some of its services. you think apple that has nearly $2 billion in cash and securities, that could be a huge opportunity for the crypto currency but, of course, we also had, i was reading an ftp this morning throwing a little cold water on the notion, saying, hey, a lot of the corporations outside of the financial worlds don't even hold gold so why would they go out and buy bitcoin?

>> it's a combination, guys, of the institutional interests. we're talking about it through the lens of apple one day and certainly tesla, also the household interests. do a google trend search of bitcoin searches, john and that explains why we are up 3x in three months it's that simple >> as we know, these things are rarely as simple as they look on their face we will, of course, continue to track it moving on now, let's talk about qualcomm, announcing a new 5g modem this morning as a part of the flagship snap dragon series announcing speeds of 10 gigabits per second. joining us is qualcomm ceo christiana amon takes over in july great to have you. let's talk about this modem and where it fits in this push that qualcomm has been making in 5g where you guys have so much ip

>> good morning, john. happy to be here look, this is a big deal for us. the company is defining the face of innovation like qualcomm and coming from a fourth generation over a 5g modem. it's a big announcement. we're very proud of it the key thing about this modemness beyond breaking the so gigabits speed in a wireless connection the underlying message is our first release 16 po dem. the release 16 into 5g specification really enables 5g to go beyond smartphones and the other industries, this promise of the heat ingredient of the future of the digital economy and it starts as to pave the way for a lot of opportunities for qualcomm and our partners for this grow beyond smartphones. >> christiano, we find ourselves in this really interesting moment in the chip business where you are competing not just against other chip-makers, but against really powerful

customers who want custom solutions and are willing to design them, themselves. how important is a product like this to show the industry, the world, what qualcomm ip can do when you know that apple is working on their own modem that's going to have to e -- i mean, they're going to have to try to do better than you guys, but i imagine, if they can't, they will have to stick with you. >> well, we have been in this industry for a very long time. and this exactly -- this announcement, this modem, this is what we do. this is their number one core competence for qualcomm. we are very focussed in wireless communications and we have very stable relationships with a lot of customers they also have their own solutions. you know, i point to the relationship we have with samsung for years. there is a modem and room for qualcomm, especially on the innovation in pushing the technology forward and we look like about with this model for the entire industry. as long as we continue to drive

the pace of innovation in the industry and be i would the best modems, there is always room for qualcomm. >> let's talk about earnings a bit, qualcomm stock took a hit of earnings. there is the licensing beings and the chip set business. the chip set business where you've got snap dragon and others performed quite well. people expected more from the licensing business, but there is something structurally going on in that business, not just with the smartphone industry, explain to investors what they should look for there and how that's going to trend going forward >> yeah. that itself a great question there is nothing really structurally wrong with the business i would argue, we are enjoying one of the most stable moments in our licensing businesses. all major handsets, oems are licensed they're complying with their license. what i think happened, john, is there is an expectation from the past really of a correlation

between the licensing business and the chip business. but the reality is the chip business has been growing, you know, faster than the market you know, the licensing business really tracked the markets and all the devices. you know, but the chip business as we said with 5g is going faster in the market and with all the other industries especially since we broke the business into handsets, front modem, ip. we hit a billion dollars for the rf business and a billion dollars for the iot business and that correlation between the two businesses are not where they used to be ba us the chip business continues to grow. and i think that probably was misinterpreted by investors. but the important thing is, we can't really predict what happened in the market but all of the growth drivers for qualcomm in the 5g story, they all remain intact and we are really excited about not only the opportunity of mobile but also in the adjacent, in the growth business as well.

>> christiano, good morning, it's deidre. i want to ask you a broad question about 5g. eric schmidt the former chairman and ceo of google, he wrote that the u.s.' flawed approach to 5g threatens the digital future and, meanwhile, china pushes ahead and its own head start will actually give its technology giants do you agree with that sentiment? if so how did we get here? >> i, from a technology standpoint, i don't agree. i will tell you what is the part i agree with and this is one thing that china is taking very seriously from a technology standpoint, the united nations has had the leadership and also starting with new complex technology. every single network of 5g over time will have a millimeter away as well as the bands but 5g is critical infrastructure it's no different than

electricity or transportation. because it's going to be about connecting everything to the cloud and we know that digital economy will be a very big component of the economy china is taking an approach of building this as critical infrastructure it expects to have probably at the end of 2021, you know, nationwide coverage and by '22, as we said, china is going to have a millimeter away. everything points to the direction which the united states started the key for the united states is to build infrastructure and we have to have an approach that allow the operators to have an easier way to deploy more for the networks to be more dense. that will be the internet highway to connect everything to the cloud. >> right, christiano, if that's not happening at a quick rate, and it's happening in china. how does it put the u.s. and its

future tech giants at a disadvantage when as you say, china is already building out this infrastructure? >> there is time we're just at the first inning of the 5g game and the key thing is to continue the policies to make it very easy for the carriers to invest and to build infrastructure if i can point to one thing, like if i can point to a single thing, it's the ability to have permits so the new cell towers and cell sites can be installed. there is no way to have a 5g without having a more dense network. today that's kind of the pace of the speed of building coverage we will get there. we are at the beginning of this game and you know spectrum licenses are in the right place, the carrier investment plans are in the right place as well >> finally, i know that qualcomm traditionally, historically has not done fabs. we find ourselves in an interesting spot with this chip shortage that's affecting so

many industries right now. there is also a lot of conversation about domestic production and how much of it needs to be built in the u.s what is your outlook on overall global chip supply and what needs to happen in the united states from a national security perspective when it comes to manufacturing chips >> very good question. very good question and just briefly mention on this shortage of chip sets, this is what is really impacting the whole industry we have a situation in qualcomm that's said in the last earnings call the demand is aided by supply. we have way more demand than we could supply to. we expect that to continue at the end of 2021. but things should normalize a bit. but the key question you are asking, it's about how we think about the >> mel b: conductor supply chain? well, one aspect, the largest

semi conductor company and there is interdiplomacy that give balance a lot of our leading, you know, technology self arena is in taiwan there is interdiplomacy that creates balance. the united states has a lot of fundamental supply conductor technology you know and that keeps balance. but i expect that over time there is going to be a lot more on-shore activity. one data point that nobody talks about it is a large percentage over 5g chips made in the united states, samsung manufactured them in austin, texas. when we have actually started the 5g buildout, we have a lot of our chips manufactured in the united states. i expect that trend to continue. when even foreign manufacturers will build foundrys in the united states. that's good for the industry with revery happy about that trend. >> we are talking about

investment and infrastructure across 5g and chips in general, taking that to heart christiano amon, thank you for joining us >> thank you for having us good to talk to you as well. still ahead on "squawk alley. we will talk about the blue mobile deal, gamestops and recent downgrades and keep your eye on gme it drops below 50 for the first week-and-a-half and is currently even farther below it down around 47. we're back in a moment

hi, this is margaret your dell technologies advisor to listen, is to hear more than what's being said... and offer the answers that make someone feel truly heard. i understand, let's get started call a dell technologies advisor today.

today and all month here on "squawk alley", we are featuring some of the most provocative names in black history month some of the names you know all deserve your attention as these voices continue to represent in industries that often lack diverse representation after the break, the executive director of the black economical alliance will join us as that group pushes for prosperity and economic security for black america. we will tie it into the reddit revolution and what that says about economic inequality and access to markets. black and his someoneic is half that at the white house. that's next. so stay with us. hi, i'm a new customer and i want your best new smartphone deal. well i'm an existing customer and i'd like your best new smartphone deal. oh do ya?

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funding round of $250 doubling its valuation to over $6 billion as they lay into the dem democratization. what the facial lens means as the black economic director of the black alliance, david clooney, appreciate you. appreciate your time. >> thanks for having me. >> i want to talk about the broader efforts out of the white house to say eradicated child poverty which has racial implications as far as the reddit things go, i wonder if you are see it as a legitimate long-term tool to broaden the participation for households at various ends of the racial spectrum and the income spectrum? >> i think what the reddit phenomenon i'll call sit a good start of democratizing access to

the stockmarket and we know about 83% of the stock holdings are head by 10% of the wealthiest households and the phenomenon presented has average people taking the opportunity to use technology to gather collectively and take control of a system that they typically not having a says to all of that is a net positive. what i'd love to talk about is how to get people involved in a longer-term and not a flash phenomenon some people benefitted some people lost i love to talk about particularly black folks investing in enjoying the long-term benefits of investing in the stockmarket right now i heard you mention before the break half of black households have about 33% compared to 31%. there is a lot more to do to

increase income investing in the stock stockmarket. >> right so that education that comes along with the new technology is that going to be the responsibility of the tech providers or public officials, who will give people this lesson welcome to the market. but this is a, hopefully, a get-rich slowly phenomenon, which we know often doesn't sell as well. >> very true i think it's everybody's responsibility we've heard companies make commitments to racial equity, particularly around economic mobility, but just in general. and i think if we look at the systemic barriers that have kept certain people out of certain parts of the market and certain parts of particularly the stockmarket, i think it's everybody's responsible to make sure everybody go in fully eyes

opened and look at robinhood this is to democratize and get more folks into the practice of investing for the purpose of building wealth. so i think they have the responsibility in building apps incentivizing people getting invested and there is a role for regulators to play and it's interesting to hear responses from the sec and the nominee gary genzler and others talking about what the sec has to do and i think about there is a huge role for the regulars to played and private sector and private companies to play if they are looking to proactively counteract the legacy of systemic racism. so there has to be an information campaign >> david, i want to shift and talk a bit about labor and efforts to unionize within tech. we've got this amazon warehouse workers in alabama and elsewhere, many of whom are

people of color at that level different from what you would see in the engineering ranks and closer to headquarters if you look at apple and their retail work force, similar, if you look at the gig economy and talk about unionization and protections there similar. from a policy perspective, you do have a position on what needs to happen so that the worker has more of a voice? we are talking inequality wnl the market what about within the workplace? >> i think it's extremely important to empower workers to have a voice there are a number of different ways to do that i think we will have a long policy discussion. we know we need greater inclusion in the labor markets, particularly with people greater represented and it's bridging a gap between the most in-demand industry advanced manufacturing,

healthcare and the people who have been most impacted by the downtrend of the economy for black people over represented in the jobs that are going away to, you know, automation already and particularly since the pandemic started overrepresented in the industry that have been mostly impacted so we are absolutely in favor of measures to increase empowering and the voice of laborers and giving them more >> david, do you think that tech companies are heading that way, are doing this on their own? that is empowering the voices of labor diversity within the work force? or do you think that's as john alluded to, these unionization pushes are key to making that happen in a more timely manner >> i think what we are seeing is employees are using their agency much more and, you know, one of the things that's interesting is

i think companies have an imperative to get better on their employees, including a more diverse work force. part of it is the dem graphic shares of the occupation, these people are increasingly becoming stake holders, they're employees, they're investors and other and they're customers. so i think they have a vested interest in getting this right and bringing the voice of their employees in i think employees, in particular, are starting to, employees and stake holders, especially being able to use things like twitter and reddit and technology essentially to have a louder voice and push and incentivize their leadership to make certain moves that are more beneficial to the work force >> finally, david, consumers on the take say they are working with senate parliamentarians to try to get the wage hike included in the covid-19 relief plan we're having discussions about moving child tax credits to

child tax payments i just wonder, are you hardened in aggregate by those types of conversations? >> i am heartened that we are having policy conversations at all. it is a refreshing difference from the last few months and years. i think we're absolutely having the right conversations about things like the child tax credit, the earned income tax credit and increasing the minimum wage what we know is a $7.25 might have been mum wage is not a livable wage in any part of the country so forth what we need to be doing is talking about what is the role of the public sector as well the private sector and non-profit sector and making sure folks can work one job and make ends meet. >> david, it's an important conversation for us and for every viewer we really appreciate you helping us out we will talk to you again soon. >> thanks for having me. >> keep your eye on dash this morning, start-up child robotics

which make poke holes inside a vending machine as doordash talks about deploying it in restaurants. you can read more on cnbc.com. we are back in just a moment largest iss and fastest 5g network. and to celebrate, we want everyone to unleash 5g speeds in more places. right now, every current and new customers can get a free samsung galaxy s21 5g. just bring in a qualifying device to trade. switch to t-mobile and save up to 20% every month vs. the other guys. the leader in 5g coverage. the fastest 5g speeds. the best value in wireless. and a free galaxy s21 for everyone. only at t-mobile.

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into clouds. an apparent vials of federal standards and likely became disoperated. that's the conclusion of the federal safety investigators who have been studying the accident, the u.s. postal service posting revenues and packaged deliveries and 300 million in profits for the final three months of last year however, the post master general says the organization still pleased comprehensive reforms to address an operating model which is quote unstainable. in india, hundreds of rescue workers continue to look for survivors from massive flooding unleashed by a glacier at least 31 people are dead and more than 165 are still missing. and mary wilson, one of the original members of the supremes has died the group has five consecutive number one songs and motown's first successful girl group. mary wilson was 76-years-old dead re, back over to you. >> courtney, thanks for that

let's turn back to bitcoin that's our guest run paypal currency exchange and says it's a 1.5 bitcoin investment will only lead to more institutional interests. joining us now is charles pascarella explain. who do you think is next, rbc positive perhaps it would be apple. but what kind of operation is going to sort of dip their coin into bitcoin in terms of reserves next? >> yeah. well, i think this is a part of the earlier trend going from earlier doctrine to main stream. you started with the crypto enthusiasts that's morphed into institutional traders. now you can getting the corporates, tesla and elon music is the latest example. there will be many more. this is about a main stream adoption phase that's really going to continue and i think this is really about creating financial freedom and a lot of

engagement for both companies but also consumers and so you see it with paypal and you see it with tesla. it will continue with large financial institution, probably being the next large ones on board. >> charles, is elon musk more of an indication of corporate trend or is he a bitcoin enthusiast? it's a big leap to make against tesla. have you square and microstrategy and some of the more main stream corporations actually taking this step. >> yeah. well, again, it's going to be a part of a journey. so you are always going to have early adopters, main stream, coming together. it's when the river hits the ocean here and you will see this more and more because it's really clear this is an asset gaining institutional awareness and it's something that gives you a chance to participate in the upside when new emerging asset class. that's what treasuries are looking for. you want to hold basically debt

at zero and stock markets at an all time high. you start to look at other opportunities. bitcoin is one of them >> that's a really good actually interesting point. you have to imagine corporate treasure years had tried to game out whether or not the currency is due for the kind of corrections that we've seen in the past and i'm assuming if there really is assembling billions of dollars on the balance sheet at a time, they think that volatility at least is a thing of the past do you agree >> well, i think, you know, bitcoin has a possibility here of being a monetary network. so not only as an asset. are you a part of a monetary network. you can imagine corporate and others think how can i move this to begin to make payments and how to use blotchy technology beyond bitcoin as a way to solve my problems. i think this is a bigger trend of this technology really

changing how the infrastructure of financial services works. so it's not just around changing say a monetary network, which is what bitcoin is. even changing how assets move. that enables us to solve a lot of problems in the financial system around the infrastructure and the architecture and help prevent problems like we saw last week or two weeks ago with gamestop there is so much possibility here and bitcoin is i think the leading edge of that it's kind of the gateway into this new, open financial system that's starting to emerge. >> charles, that's an interesting aspect of this that maybe you can talk some more about. i think part of what carl was getting at, too, was that tesla seems to have bought into bitcoin for stability not necessarily for asset appreciation so that they can kind of in a fluid way do transactions. so there is the asset conversation about bitcoin and people who have made it popular, in part, because they hope that the value of bitcoin goes up then there is also the platform

conversation about bitcoin that's very different. right? >> absolutely. i think that's a key component here there is a lot made of the fact that bitcoin is very volatile. which it is. that's because when you are going from an asset zero to say becoming gold, that's going from zero to trillions and trillions of dollars so, of course, you will be volatile on the way to that journey. ultimately, if you get to that end point, you become less and less volatile and more and more not just a sport of value or a potential store value. you become a mon they're asset being a part of the monetary network means you now have a different ability to move assets around and bitcoin have very well be a prime asset in that new system i think that's partly what's hang here so in some ways, part of the journey of going from early adopter to main stream is that journey of price appreciation and hitting lower volatility and being used in a different way. and that's exactly i think what you are starting to see now with the main stream phase, where it

will become very much about more than just price appreciation >> well, charles, thanks for coming out and chatting with us today. we see bitcoin on coin base below 47,000 at the moment thanks, we hope to talk to you soon >> thanks a ot >> jpm go to price target 465. they say that they did not recommend it in the second half of last year and that was quote a glaring mistake. a lot more "squawk alley" is still ahead. stay with us 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.

coming up, an explanation of twitter's potential tipping feature and what to expect from twitter results this afternoon meantime, ceo andrew wilson joins us next. don't go anywhere. we'll be right back.

voya looks to expand its presence in mobile julia boors stin joins us with the ceo of electronic arts and another exclusive. julia, over to you >> thanks, deidre, andrew, thank you for joining us this morning. >> good morning. thank you for having me. >> andrew $2.1 billion deal. why was so it important to make this big push into the mobile space of this mobile acquisition? why now? >> we feel where we are as a company. we have a long history of mobile we have had great gains, players vs. zombies, madden, fifa, sin industry play. but mobile is the fastest-growing platform on the planet it entertains billions of players. we saw the opportunity to bring two amais amazing teams and

global reach and expand and drive growth around this great, fast-run platform. >> i think it's interesting this is your second meaningful acquisition in just a couple of months you recently bought code masters. they have a big racing game. what does this tell us about your plan to do more mna can we expect you to be inquisitive? and what types of targets are you looking at >> yeah. you know, i think as we've come through covid, it's become apparent to us that games have become an even more important part of people's lives and we see tremendous growth in our business and we are overjoyed that our teams have been able to do for players throughout this period it's really accelerated two secular trends first, social interaction is moving from digital and the consul shum of time is moving interactive. we see the intersection of those two things so we feel really good how our interval teams and organic development, we have lots of

exciting things ahead. for the second time things ac set rate our growth and relie on global scale due to amazing players. when we think about acquisition, does it fake financial sense do we think it's a cultural fit weekend we look at guled on both fields add to our ability to have strategic work with our business both teams have, you know, aligned cultural sensibilities they share our passion and philosophy for making great games for players and both teams have unbelievable leadership i tell you, when we went through the process, as i interact with these companies, i got even more excited about what we can do together >> andrew, you mentioned early in that answer that we've seen an acceleration of people playing games during covid and i want to connect that to

your guidance, your earnings were stronger than expected. but your guidance was weaker than analysts had anticipated. i am wondering how much of that is about people going back to work and going back to school and maybe not having as much time to play games later in this year or whether or not you think you had a full-forward of s purchases into 2020 that otherwise would have been made into 2021? >> i think it's hard to understand the analyst store what i would offer is when we started this fiscal year we had a 5.5 billion guidance now we raised our guidance on the basis of strong performance in the year, nearly $6.1 billion. we've talked about further growth in the next year. so we originally saw tremendous growth in our first quarter as a result of shelter in place and while we weren't coming out and celebrating that and we wanted to do all we could and service our communities and our people through that phase, we've stood and we've seen games grow in

importance in people's lives as they have been apart for so long but even as we see people go back to school, back to work and the world stock open up. we have seen continuing strength in our business. that's why we have raised guidance for the first quarter and projected growth for next year it's too early to tell what will happen, almost certainly the trends we seen pre-covid having a sell rated through covid and how businesses will benefit in a long-term basis. for us, our opportunity is to entertain hundreds of players and these acquisitions and the organic growth is a way of doing it >> andrew, good morning, it's dea deidre, you talk about the importance of mobile on your late effort call, you talk about social gaming and user-generated contact especially since we see road blocks in minecraft. does glu help you on both

strategyic fronts? >> absolutely. what we see amongst our jerzy player base, which is growing exponentially in the game of sport and entertainment and lifestyle, which is where we see our great alignment with glu, a big part of that generation is about the creation of content and the sharing of that content with their friends what we think about will u with design home and cover the fashion and even touch sports baseball, the nature to interact with your friends around things that you lover and shared content in that world is a big part of the gen z audience experience so we think about that both in the context of glu and some other things we have in development right now and certainly, we are seeing that proportion of our collaboration base grow tremendousty and we are doing all we can to ensure we are adding them in the creation of sharing of content in that world, that brings them closer again with their friends.

>> right and glu was a sizable acquisition, more than $2 billion. so i wonder how do you further build up that social side and user-generated content, is that still in the cards could you make another deal to put yourself further into that space? or does that happen organically with games like you mentioned id it is too early to tell and we just made two acquisitions that we're really excited about now we move through the integration process which we started about, and we've been working closely with the leeader of that organization and how we can empower them with the great ipo that we have and the great technology that we have, and the great data that we have with a player network half a billion strong and we look forward to that being a foundation on which they can create content and grow existing games we have one of the largest

development organizations in history and i think some of the greatest, creative talent across the globe and we're excited about what they're doing as part of electronic arts worldwide system. >> i don't remember a time when we had this many both emerging and existing platforms beyond console and pc mobile. there's cloud and ea has origin that you're trying to build up and your pc desktop app that you built out. talk about glu within that context of platforms and the mechanics of mobile gaming here. is this more about diversification away from just console and pc or is it more about platform, data and multiple ways to monetize the user? >> well, at the very core we want to be where our players are. it's not up to us how they play, where they play or who they play with our responsible sit to provide interactive entertainment for

them console continues to be a very strong partner industry and we just had a launch of the p playstation 5 and the xbox x and it's out of there and it's one of the strongest launches and we've seen tremendous uptick in that. we've gone to steam ande epic, and pc platform is having a resurgence and cloud over time, and the concept of collective computing in the cloud and collective compute at the edge and 5g streaming to every device is that we will reach significant more plays in the future with truly innovative and creative experiences and electronic arts are agnostic and they're always trying to be where the players are and having the dna about culture and we will do that and as these new platforms and these opportunities for play come

alive and that will only be good with ability to reach more players with experiences. >> in the past years and years ago you would sell a game maybe at retail and then the user would kind of disappear for you until they show up again when they come up or another game and then maybe they'd buy that how much of this is about being able to have a 360-degree view of the user no matter which platform they're on. is it important to be able to know when somebody is on steam versus when they're on an ea platform, on a console is it helpful to you from a business perspective, from a game development perspective to have the 360-degree view of the user >> well, i think you're right. we've seen a real evolution of what i'd do, when we started 20 years ago, we would tack a break and play another game. what we're seeing with games like fifa and the simms and apex

legends. people use these games to connect with friends and we've seen this accelerate through covid when most of us have been apart for so long. it's now about the large services and as we think about this across our business as an important growth driver for us when we think about bringing glu into the organization, that brings us live services with mobile which is such a growth platform for us and certainly when we look at how players are using our games, that's quasi social networks and ways to connect with friends around things that are really important with the lifestyle sports and we believe that will be an important part of our future we've been investing in a technology backbone where it brings people together around their games regardless of which platforms they play on, and we've done a lot of work to ensure regardless of where you play or how you play you can connect with your friends through our games and we think that that's going to be a more meaningful part of how we create entertainment in the future particularly in the world of

generated content which is not just asking the people around the experiences that we make, and it's important for them to connect in experiences that they create in what we offer them we are excited about the platforms and our ability to drive live services across platform >> andrew, finally, you're talking about all these different ways to connect with users and different ways to sell connect on live platforms and i would be remiss not to ask the ceo of a video game company about gamestop and all of the volatility that we've seen there in that reddit trade i'm curious as you reflect on the movement of gamestop and conversation that's been had about it, how important gamestop is to you still as a retailer and what you make of the fact that it's been the subject of so much interest and purchasing by these -- by these reddit traders? >> i think retail in general is still a really important part of the gaming industry or the

gaming community and still a way for people to access games, and i think it will be that way for some number of years to come, and certainly maybe forever, and we see them as not just in the u.s., but around the world we're also seeing digital grow if importance, and you've heard us talk about that in our calls and as we think about this on a going forward basis, again, we want to be where our players are. we want players to have content in ways that makes sense for them and they'll reach out for more and more as each day passes digital is a more important part of their life and how they access games as we think about cloud and the announcement of 13 million subscribers, we think that will be another meaningful and important victory for us in terms of how people access entertainment. >> certainly, andrew, that shift to digital distribution is one reason that gamestop was shorted originally andrew wilson, ceo of ea, thank

you for talking to us about the acquisition of glu mobile as well as your earnings. >> thank you so much have a great day. >> a reminder as we go to break. it is not too late to register for our healthy spotlight event taking place in just about half an hour. the latest on the vaccine rollout from some of the leading names in health care, plus meg tirrell's interview with j&j,'s alex gorski halftime is coming up next. how do we ensure families facing food insecurity get access to their food? we needed to make sure that, if they couldn't get to the food, the food would come to them. we can deliver for food banks and schools. amazon knows how to do that. i helped deliver 12 million meals to families in need. that's the power of having a company like amazon behind me.

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- [group] grubhub! - [announcer] grub what you love. >> welcome back to "the halftime report." i'm scott wapner streaking stocks the s&p going for the seventh straight update. the nasdaq topping 15,000 for the first time ever and why some say your money is about to get another boost. we debate the markets with our investment committee today stephanie link, josh brown, jon najarian and jason snipe is principal of odyssey advisers. the tech market is alive and well there is the nasdaq still above 14,000 today and modest losses for the dow and s&p. russell still positive josh, you look at the state of