google is pointing us to content so we're -- we're joined at the hip, in my opinion and i'm a huge david zaslav fan. i think david will do a lot to further the partnership between technology and media. >> ron, we had this conversation earlier. sort of this divide between distribution and content, but the big tech companies like apple and amazon are trying to do both still. can they be successful are they successful? >> yes and i think these big companies want to partner with the traditional media companies as well. you know, content is -- is the heart of the internet. the why people go to the internet so the big tech companies and the traditional media companies should partner all they can, and david zaslav is the perfect person to shepherd that process. >> well, ron, thank you for all of your insights we have to talk to you again soon ron conway. >> thank you. >>> smart for both sides that's what citi is saying this morning about discovery's deal with at&t. taking a bit of the toll on competition. disney, netflix, our own parent comcast down on the news, but discovery is also a double digit ga

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remind, john stankey and david zaslav will be on this network at 10:15 eastern time. and exclusive with atlanta fed president raphael bostic you don't want to miss that quk x"ilsaon "sawbo wl be right back. i had saved up some money and then found the home of my dreams. but, my home of my dreams needed some work. sofi was the first lender that even offered a personal loan, and i didn't even know that was an option. the personal loan let us renovate our single family house into a multi-unit home. ♪ and i get to live in this beautiful house, with this beautiful kitchen, and it's all thanks to sofi. ♪ what happens when we welcome change? and it's all thanks we can make emergency medicine possible at 40,000 feet. instead of burning our past for power, we can harness the energy of the tiny electron. we can create new ways to connect. rethinking how we communicate to be more inclusive than ever. with app, cloud and anywhere workspace solutions, vmware helps companies navigate change. faster. vmware. welcome change. >>> welcome back to "squawk. hot inflation data spooking in

lot of leaders of that unit, but they rubbed hollywood the wrong way with that decision how will david zaslavis closest friends as one of ten people he'd put in that category he really has a human touch and really understands how business gets done and how it works it's a lot more than algorithms and he would know how to handle difficult situations he's been an innovator, he knows how to innovate. but i think he's going to know how to do it within the confines of the existing system i think he's going to do it in a diplomatic, soft touch way >> final question on this deal, richard, before we get on to your business itself, do you think these assets fit together in a clear way to form one single app, or is this going to be a return weirdly to the days of cable bundling, albeit delivered over the top >> i'm hardly an expert on this subject, but a lot of the reading i've done has suggested that a lot of people were getting into streaming and that you need size and scope in order to succeed a bunch of really good reports i read recently said netflix, disney plus had prime positions and unless you

david zaslav will be dealing with that entity as it combines.rom new york city, this is bloomberg. alongside lisa abramowicz, i'm jonathan ferro. your equity market coming off the back of the week of losses, and we add to them. the s&p 500 declining by 20 points, down 0.5% going into the opening bell one hour and 12 minutes away. yields on the nominal yield unchanged at 1.635%. euro-dollar, $1.2143. crude down 0.7% on wti, $64.92. news of the morning, we got some deal flow. lisa a: a lot more exciting than flat markets. we are looking at discovery taking on the at&t media assets. we believe it is going to be in this reverse morris trust merger as ed hammond was talking about. the idea is we give it a cash infusion to at&t in return for a merging of media assets to rival the likes of netflix and disney+. the question is, can they be successful in such a competitive area? jonathan: always the question. the discovery ceo, we are keeping cnn. we are going to lean into the news. discovery is higher in the premarket by around 12.8%, just off session h

david zaslav comes from nbc, so he's very aware of these types of assets from his experience, so we thinkill be a great steward of these. but i think it is all going to come down to the negotiations on the table. this makes it far more likely that we work up with discovery at $100 a share versus today's stock prices. and like you pointed out, this really puts them into a stratosphere of content that is unmatched, and i think later, other people will wish they had gotten involved in some of these assets at a lower price. netflix might be deployed in their own content spending two years from now, or others might be disappointed that they didn't take a shot at some of these assets. if you go back to other malone deals, there's components of hbo that have starz-like features to it, hence malone is coming back to business he is pretty similar with as well. alix: love the perspective. and tune into our interview later today with discovery's ceo and at&t's ceo. that is coming out 3:00 p.m. new york time. coming up, tech stocks leading the u.s. lower today. more on the rotation trade. how much do

and you get a feel for how large the company may be in terms of market cap and will be led by david zaslavs a focus as what at&t is going the look like after this deal as it is what this new media colos sus is going to do to that industry i did have a chance to ask john stankey what does at&t look like and for example what is the capital structure going do look like and what does it mean for the dividend. >> taking the cash to go to the highest return and it is not to be unexpected that when we shift out as much of the cash flow as we do with the media company transaction, what we have done with the directv transaction to resize the dividend as a result of that but general rating really attractive returns far in excess of the 5% yield that maybe the returns is the right thing to do for shareholders and want the business to grow organically. >> will be a somewhat different at&t in terms of shareholder base perhaps with organic growth being a priority you can see, of course, what they're targeting in terms of 20 billion in free cash flow for the payout ratio and 43 billion is debt reduction

emily: let's talk about what david zaslow of -- david zaslav said. what do you expect and what do you think zaslav should do in terms of the more premium assets and more premium executives? >> i think he has to keep some of these guys on. i won't say who specifically, but there has been a trail in the last few years and it started to save lives. we have been seeing positive results in the tailwind. they have been talking about it and i think it will be tough with some of these people around. it will be people on both sides of this having a bigger say. so we will see how well david can hold onto these assets, particularly the next year as we ate for a shareholder. emily: what do you think the biggest challenges are going to be? a lot of these folks signed on thinking people were doing one job, now it has changed again? noel: it does not seem to make sense to run discovery plus and hbo plus as different businesses. they may find that their job is not as good as it was. i think another challenge is going to be getting them together. while they are both

jonathan: david zaslav coming up swinging, the discovery ceo. keene and lisa abramowicz, i'm jonathan ferro. here's your equity market this tuesday. we are higher by eight points on the s&p. we advanced 0.2%. on the bond market, yields come in just a basis point. in the fx market, 1.2217%. three reports from retailers in america this morning. home depot, one to beat. macy's, another. walmart, make it three. the outlook looks brighter for retail in america. tom: the mba speak is floating around this week. jonathan: it sounds -- we don't want to stop the show. jonathan: it sounds like you have just done that. elaborate. tom: lisa, this is compelling. jonathan: are you talking about the mckinsey speak? tom: well said, yes. jonathan: tom, that's what you get every day. you always get the mckinsey speak at these press conferences. what do you expect? lisa: the spreadsheet isn't compelling in this capacity -- [laughter] tom: oh please. jonathan: lisa, don't try to translate. tom: i know you watch "90 day fiance" every time. "90 day fiance" is going to

>> right look, it is a coup for david zaslav that is what this is all about from the discovery side andat&t side. how do we put forces together to better compete against netflix and amazon prime and disney and the other forces that are out there which are going direct-to-consumer to compete for your dollar. the thinking is we have hbo and the new original content let's combine it with the hbo strategy hbo and so much more is so much more >> well, we have to go alex, why does it seem like every giant media deal somehow involves time or time warner something with time or warner? >> the gift that keeps on giving 20 years and counting. >> it just keeps getting moved around alex sherman, great reporting there on a potential deal to break within the hour. massive stuff there. at&t will be a phone company again. alex, thank you very much. >>> all right. huge deal. we head to break reminder that may is asian-american and pacific islan islander heritage month. we are highlighting our friends. here is out own eunice yoon. >> growing up, i remember my mom thinking of finances as tuition and school

the question is now, can david zaslav, with these new assets, also be successful in a global scale?elieve he can be? discovery is, prior to this round of consolidation, the most global media company out there. they have been in the international markets for a long time, competing very successfully. the question is, what happens to comcast? what happens to viacomcbs, as well as these smaller companies? lisa: and what happens to the consumer paying for each individual streaming service here? jon has talked a lot about this, at what point people start to cut some of their subscriptions. at what point also are we talking about bundling, some sort of package deal akin to back to the future cable? paul: that's kind of the key issue that we really don't know. how many streaming services do people really want to pay for? is it three, 4, 5? the reality is it is not going to be more than that, most likely. if you are not one of the top three, maybe four, that is going to be a struggle. tom: i've got to go to my colleague jon ferro. you know i am riveted on "ninety-day fiance" by brandon and j

only one class of shares in the combined company very close with david zaslav a mentor in addition to sitting on discovery's board and sounds very much working with zaslav to figure out terms of this deal maybe not in the combined company but sure to be a voice on the board that is, that people are listening to, and just fascinating he's 80 years old and just does not stop doing these tax advantage deals. that's his signature. >> yeah. lots of energy some calling him the logan roy from succession in all this. julia, thank you >>> now a surge for gamestop, and amc. confusion over ethan allen elon's ties to crypto. a strange few days inside wall street bets. our kate rooney has an update on the latest trading boom. kate >> reporter: hey, jon. seeing a resurgence in chatter around movie theater chain amc and on social media, and a lot of bitcoiners still mad at elon musk according to data firm, amc, the most talked about stock on reddit this morning followed by gamestop, united whole sale mortgages and tesla. meanwhile, short sellers in gamestop and amc lost almost $1 billion from those

david zaslav is a winner. they have a 60% stake, but they still get $50 billion to pay off debt. hey bought bank one. the other winner is jeff zucker. everybody thought he would be looking for a job, or looking for a job, being out of a job this year because he did not mesh with the at&t management. he is very close with zaslav. if he wants to stay a lot of people think he could stay. a big winner out of this. the losers are interesting. one guy jason color, head of time warner, he was heralded last week in the media as some king-maker at time warner. he is now according to zaslav -- reporting to zaslav. interesting how his fate turned in the mia in one week time. the big loser, ran dal stephenson. i can't wrap, the ran dal stephenson put together the deal that has unwound. one more loser is potential, john stock john stanky. he was behind with randall stephenson, which they fought in court against trump and directv, another big loser. this is a firm, at&t, company, known for bad deals as you can tell. back to you, jackie. jackie: so interesting, charlie, to see how things can cha

now we know it is discovery ceo david zaslav is well-known to be very interested in the media business. i'm sure he feels like cnn is the crown jewel of the company will now have a huge global business behind it. it won't be part of a telecommunications firm that for all intents and purposes didn't have a good handle on running a big media company. so i think it is going to be interesting to see how it develops, how cnn's streaming services come about, whether they live and will they be part of the hbo platform. >> right. >> will they live on their own. so i think we're all eyes on it right now. >> the deal, if approved by regulators, if okayed, will take effect next year and zaslov reported their independence. i want to get your thoughts about how the reality based media should be covering a gop. and late whaer is the plan for tribune now that a vampire hedge fund is taking over. [sfx: kids laughing] [sfx: bikes passining] [sfx: fire truck siren] onstar, we see them. okay. mother and child in vehicle. mother is unable to exit the vehicle. injuries are unknown. thank you, onstar. ♪ my

the discovery ceo david zaslav is set to run the new company. >>> scammers impersonating elon musk stole customers in the last six months that's according to a new report by the federal trade commission. the scammers usually set up bogus give aways, promising to multiply any cryptocurrency that victims send to a wallet address. >>> charlie. >> remember this you tube sensation, charlie bit my finger this weekend, it's going up on auction as an nft. 14 years since the video dropped. the kids are now 15 and 17 years old. they say they're pulling the video from you tube after that sale >>> on wall street, the dow down 54, the s&p down 11, the nasdaq down 51. i'm shepard smith on cnbc. it's the bottom of the hour, time for the top of the news a suspicious fire spreading in southern california. hundreds of people under evacuation orders. now, one person arrested the truth is out there and we might be close to getting it more government officials acknowledge the existence of ufos ahead of a report to congress and many americans eager to travel again as vaccination rates rise and restrictions ro

in an interview yesterday, discovery ceo david zaslav says combining his company with warner cnn will before they pay for dinner like superman and batman and game of thrones and put that together with all of the local content that we have in the market and the relationships that we have, i think it gives us a big advantage in going global. >> before you pay for dinner. joini ing us now, brian stelter. first of all, warner media, parent company of cnn. it's not like we have no interest in this, but what kind of a package are we talking about when you combine discovery and warner media. >> there's not enough room to fit all the logos on the screen. this is the proposed list, streaming brands, cable channels and hubs of programming. d.c. comics over there, a treasure-trove of potentially superhero stories and villains, adult swim and cartoon network, all these brands if brought together can create an even stronger, way to compete with disney and netflix. that's really what this story is about. this is about discovery and warner media trying to get more scale in the streaming wars. >> wel

i think david zaslav is an exce exceptionally talented executive, particularly in the software content space number two, you may remember, maybe it was up to two years ago, you asked me the question about hbo max and i said i thought they were going to struggle with getting the kind of subscriber growth in the u.s. that they were hoping for. and you know, i think in fact, that's true. for me, the problem with hbo max is it has no ability to go international at the time. and the combination with discovery, given discovery's existing presence, large presence, in 200 countries around the world, with a great brand, to me, that's the big upside >> interesting to hear from malone, of course, which we will continue, throughout the morning, discovery shares did not do well last week. at&t shares of course, jim, we talked so often about, during the course of last week, in part because of your criticism, and the cutting of the dividend that will take place once this deal closes investors i have spoken to in terms of discovery, listen, it is going to be five times leverage at the outset of the de

warner content did and i think under david zaslav's leadership, they'll take a look at this and understandall value chain. creating value and creating events mgm, my own view is if this goes through, i think amazon is mostly buying it for the tv end of it like handmade's teal bond, which we are doing at mgm, shot with imax cameras is 50% owned by the brockway family the descendents of the person who owned the books. they're not letting that go to an all streaming movie i'm sure amazon is too smart to let that happen anyway i don't think you can look at that as the loss of a studio more like a tv studio, not really a movie studio. i'm sure their big movies, the kind imax does is going to go theatrical. >> richard, to that point though, let's talk about the amazon/mgm transaction you mentioned the family which is a key component and has been one of the hurdles for a lot of potential buyers for this company in part because there is a view that the family will make these studios release their films in theaters like yours, good for you, but maybe less good if you're an amazon i think it's one o

way to extract value from these -- from these assets i think having the two, john stankey and david zaslavpinions, those are zaslav's and stankey's, the arguments that they make and having discovery with all of its assets and synergies and leadership and pure play at&t are at this stage the best way to extract value from the shareholders for these assets. >> that's been a question that's been asked repeatedly, glen. is it a situation where you can't have the pipes matched up with the content company, it doesn't make a lot of sense. there aren't many examples where that sticks. you can point to comcast, our parent company, but aside from that even verizon unwound the smaller purchases it made of aol and yahoo! very recently, too. is it just too complicated to have content and pipes together? >> well, you know, the complication one heard about becky was not the management of the company but the capacity of the stock market analysts and buyers to value a combined company like that. the combined media analysts and tech -- telecom analysts couldn't value it. i think inside the company it wasn't

"axios" that david zaslav will stay on as ceo until 2027.down goes the scott. susan: the strategy calls into question. they paid $85 billion three years ago to buy time warner in the vert tick call integration. we know vert tick call integration doesn't work, you spent tens of millions defending it. surged the debt load on at&t. people were saying that was creeking at $160 billion. they needed to off-load time warner. stuart: can you give me a quick update on home depot? they had blowout earnings. it is down despite blowout earnings. tell me the story. susan: kind of strange. we saw home depot up 2, 3% in the premarket so it has really turned around. despite the 30% gains in same-store-sales. walmart up 4%. online sales jumping by a third here. stuart: thank you, susan. wait a minute. this is for you. bank of america weighing in on bitcoin. this is your territory, susan. what are they saying. >> increasingly yours too which i'm encouraged by, enthused. so in their survey of investors who manage half a trillion dollars, long about long bitcoi

going to be very interesting to see what happens there >>> meantime, discovery ceo david zaslav receivinges the day before he received the sec filing. the cost of the conversion currently ranges from $35.65 to 3.33 invest in over a seven-year period it's still extremely volatile this year. meantime, crypto as bitcoin lost more than 1/3 of the value since last month's highs the current si funding before recovering a bit settling under $40,000. that kind of volatility has the story fundamentally changed. jon fortt is here to weigh in on both sides andrew >>. >> no. if you like bitcoin the second week of january you should be buying it here if you thought it was crazy then, you think yesterday's move justifies that nothing's really changed the bull case for bitcoin is it's the standard bearer it's the needed piece of the future of digital finances that's why institutions have bought it. changing the way money works is messy. if you believe the world is moving to a blockchain driven future you know the volatility is inevitable is china going to embrace bitcoin? of course not. is elon musk goi

"the wall street journal" reports that discovery chief executive, david zaslav, is expected to head theew company. >>> and retailers and restaurants are now weigh how to implement the cdc's new guidance lifting masks for the mask mandate for those who are fully vaccinated. walmart and sam's club, costco, trader joe's and publix are all asking guests to follow the honor system and only unmask if they've been fully vaccinated. disney parks, hershey park, and universal parks have largely lifted the mask mandates for outdoors, though indoor mask wearing will still be required and certain parks fall under local guidance. universal studios is a part of msnbc's parent company, nbc universal. so you can see, joe, it's complicated. >> well, yeah. >> it's a little complicated. give it some time. >> they're moving forward. i'll give it a couple of days. they're moving forward in the right direction, though. >> a couple days? >> and they have the honor system and we're at a stage now where, yeah, they should follow cdc guidelines. again -- >> i know, but it takes a couple of days for it to kind of

. >> and discovery gave david, 14.8 million stock options on sunday the day before, obviously, we got the announcement of the big deal and mr. zaslavs on this whole subject, i did want to mention viacom, carl, you mentioned it earlier, double upgrade from jessica, over at merrill lynch or bank of america, and basically what we're discussing yesterday in part, i reported this, there was a willingness on the part of the viacom controlled shareholders to list physician there were any offers and any potential sale would require approval of that controlled shareholder, that is in the form of sherry redstone and in the past she said to be an unwilling seller but the dynamics could increase pressure to consider an offer. >> what changed? the scale issue? >> of course. >> scale, scale, scale. >> we'll see following it closely we'll see what develops. >> and for jessica to do a double upgrade - >> double upgrade. >> not to be confused with a double reverse -- which our company was trying to figure out to get warner. >> or re-sizing of the dividend, which does not mean double it is half it's almost re-size time that's what they will do in th

of tim cook comes to dinner, and with malone and zaslav and they're like well, what are we here to talk about they never pulled the trigger. never. >> david> never, ever and they probably won't. but my question is to you, okay, look at somebody who supports apple but this is consuming some capital. it is taking up space? what's the plan? >> the plan is to develop over time the best product possible >> you know how long it would take for them, it could take a very long time, despite all of the money they have to develop that kind of library of content. >> buy mgm >> no. >> what are you saying do. >> do you buy viacom what do you do if you're apple or continue to move along or do your shareholders say why bother >> look, david, this morning, barclay's says the service revenue stream is decelerating you have an app store where they generate this content. you don't have to do anything. just like youtube. you don't have to do anything. >> and what is apple trying to be >> it is what they wanted to be over time. they don't feel the pressure that so many of the mobiles feel. >> and i think you're right. but i do wonder, given that we are now in