next friday is his last day as the ceo of activision blizzard.ions coming out of california and the civil rights department there. stay tuned. you're watching "squawk box." this is cnbc. >>> welcome back to "squawk box," everybody. okay, let's check out the futures this morning. yesterday was a big day of gains, once again for the markets. today, you see a pullback, especially when you're looking at the dow futures. that's because of nike. big declines in that stock last we looked. i think it was down by about 10%, 11%. s&p 500 futures are unchanged right now. the nasdaq is indicated off by 11. among our top business stories today, president biden will sign an executive order threatening sanctions against financial firms found assisting russia's military. a senior administration official said though the government sees signs that previous sanctions have worked since russia invaded ukraine, russia has been able to get around some of those barriers. we're going to speak about this and a lot more next hour with deputy treasury secretary wally adeyem

we know the cma backed off from its original view of microsoft and activision but did force change on that deal. what you think is ultimately trying to be got across? are they worrying about a monopolization that could go into the world of artificial intelligence and how they get ahead of that? rebecca: i think that is right. so many of the ftc actions happening right now, a major deep pockets competitor, one might say a monopolist, though in this case that is problematic, holding it input that everybody needs to effectively compete. that input here is the gpt model and the idea would be this will become essential to compete in so many markets. if it is controlled by one single entity that has the power to bring it to market and can exclude other people who might compete, that could be bad for competition. as you point out, that theory of competition which is not about head-to-head, it is not about microsoft competes with the chatgpt product, that makes it a different type of challenge than the antitrust laws we have been used to over the last 40 years. it is not precluded by the stat

seeing last year and this year with the longest periods to complete on two years with microsoft activisionand vmware and broadcom. two full years to get transactions done is a risk. we saw that in the calculus around cigna and humana where it wasn't worth the risk. that's the new calculus that is happening on top of the financing and getting deals done and make the case to shareholders. >> matt, a few moments left here. we mentioned energy being a hot spot in 2023. what is the forecast for what industries are the hot ones in 2024? >> i continue to see energy continuing to have a big impact on m&a. healthcare is a large driver. pfizer and merck and abbvie will continue as companies look to balance portfolios for the new year. i do think the consumer and retail sector where we have seen little activity even with macy's this week will continue to attract some interest from private equity and others in 2024. >> matt toole with the outlook for 2024. thank you. >>> ahead on the show, the one word every investor needs to know today and why our next guest isn't betting jay powell and the fed is no

it is less than two minutes since they closed the activision probe. they have been looking at ai and the cloud market. and in today's statement they do explicitly mention the relationship with microsoft azure and openai. really interesting and interesting to see how regulators are making moves. caroline: it is kinda fascinating when we are -- when we are looking across at what the ftc is examining the nature of the investment. we know that they put in $30 million in terms of overall valuation that they have contributed to. what the cma is looking at is whether particularly through the governance situation and unraveling, firing and hiring of sam altman, microsoft has more control than the less than 50% ownership that they have in equity. what is the cma trying to approve. thomas: the key phrase, and when you look at antitrust, there is a lot of dry or arcane phrases. the key phrase is substantial lessening of comp -- of competition. this is not a merger per se, but it is a substantial investment. do not know the term sheet and i know they would like t

aaa games these days, high fidelity games made by studios like rockstar, like the activision blizzard studios, they typically take over five plus years. there is a lot of 3d modeling. you can see from the trailer the cinematic graphics are very lifelike. people that they have been the game, the complexity of the open world game where players can let their imagination run wild and sort of endless content. these things take a long time, years of development, hundreds of game developers. in the case of gta vi, there is speculation about the cost to develop. gta v was $200 million and it is possibly over five times that for gta vi. ed: back to the numbers on gta v. it was released september 2013, more than 10 years ago. 190 million copies sold. $8.4 billion in revenue. in the last fiscal year take-two did $5.4 billion overall. it is important. how has the audience changed from september 2013 until now?how has the market changed ? amy: i would say that since 2013, you already see that by 2013, in the last 10 years of gaming, you see more diversity of the types of players to come into the e

and this is activision blizzard and they were bought by microsoft.nst against the company, which they settled for 55 million. >> so wait, so this place activision blizzard. yeah they make guitar hero which i've played and crush bandicoot and bandicoot a kind of gerbil. i don't know, it's a kind of gerbil thing. >> there'll be people watching who will know. >> there'll be people watching who will will/v. that. it's >> there'll be people watching w sort'ill will/v. that. it's >> there'll be people watching wsort'ill jubilee that. it's >> there'll be people watching wsort'ill jubilee kind at. it's >> there'll be people watching wsort'ill jubilee kind of it's a sort of jubilee kind of chinchilla thing . so but chinchilla vague thing. so but the thing and call of duty and call duty, which is the one call of duty, which is the one where shooting call of duty, which is the one where yeah shooting call of duty, which is the one where yeah and ;hooting people now. yeah and they're saying a culture saying that there is a culture of gender discrimination and se

and this is activision blizzard and they were bought by microsoft.nst against the company, which they settled for 55 million. >> so wait, so this place activision blizzard. yeah they make guitar hero which i've played and crush bandicoot and bandicoot a kind of gerbil. i don't know, it's a kind of gerbil thing. >> there'll be people watching who will know. >> there'll be people watching who will will/v. that. it's >> there'll be people watching w sort'ill will/v. that. it's >> there'll be people watching wsort'ill jubilee that. it's >> there'll be people watching wsort'ill jubilee kind at. it's >> there'll be people watching wsort'ill jubilee kind of it's a sort of jubilee kind of chinchilla thing . so but chinchilla vague thing. so but the thing and call of duty and call duty, which is the one call of duty, which is the one where shooting call of duty, which is the one where yeah shooting call of duty, which is the one where yeah and ;hooting people now. yeah and they're saying a culture saying that there is a culture of gender discrimination and se

, replacing the struggling established women's health and drug companies spinoff from eric, and activisiond, which got acquired from microsoft, going out. since the change went up -- down 28%. it's september a and b -- brands aren't performing the super product to make. since then, airbnb is down -- not great, not bad. that -- 13%. and of course, s&p 100 made its latest addition -- took the place of the awful dish network. the -- which we own -- recommend frequently to those bella in the cnbc investing club is up 15%. dishes down almost 40%. , sell, sell. look, the changes don't always work. -- since taking its place in october, although i do like it very much. -- the replacements do better than the companies there replacing. and i've got to tell you, we sold -- we got it from diner, but it is -- the swaps are a big reason why i'm always happy to see someone investing in a low-cost -- that marries the s&p 500. it's also why -- it pays to look after these new additions. because many times, but worth buying on their own. that monies back after the break. >> coming up, is this biotech break t

met with activision as well as skydance media, and new paramount if is considering laying off more thand workers. the stock is off 4.5%. this is for early next year. typically, layoffs push the stock price up because it's cost cutting. but i think this speaks to the weak environment, weak ad sales and what's going to happen to the company as well. stuart: all right, thank you. ubs teaming up with the nfl to give financial advice to players. the average length of an nfl career is only three years. i want to know where ubs thinks these players should be investing their cash when they get it for just the three years but they need it for a lifetime. >>> san francisco spending $37 million to hire a nonprofit to lead their homeless outreach effort. the city already spent over a billion on the issue in 2021. is throwing more money at this problem the solution? >>> the border at the breaking point. there are over 20,000 apprehensions over the weekend. , the hs says 5,000 illegals are being released into the country every day. the administration continues to ignore it. brandon judd is here to ta

. >> it makes what microsoft was able to do with activision blizzard. a big tech company looking at a software company or any company and thinking about the scrutiny they have to go through, this perhaps puts a chill on that. >> thank you. >>> coming up. adobe may be calling off that merging but masonite is leaving its doors and windows open for a deal announcing they will acquire pgt innovations for $3 billion. masonite shares down 16% on the news pe eaagch t hitting an all- time high. we will speak with the masonite ceo next [ "i'll be seeing you" by the five satins ] the mercedes-benz holiday love celebration is here. come in now for the exceptional offers you're bound to love, now, through january 2nd. ameritrade is now part of schwab. bringing you an elevated experience, tailor-made for trader minds. go deeper with thinkorswim: our award-wining trading platforms. unlock support from the schwab trade desk, our team of passionate traders who live and breathe trading. and sharpen your skills with an immersive online education crafted just for traders.

bobby kotick, activision blizzard guy is looking at it. skybridge?i. >> ellison's firm. liz: sky dance. >> sky dance. they have a lot of money. red bird capital is looking at it. clearly david zaslav has seen the books, okay. there is no doubt they sat down him and bakish, that is what they all do. the question is, is there deal talks going on now? no, there is not. does zaslav want to buy the whole thing? i'm told no. he is looking at essentially what i reported the other day here is shari redstone's stake in national amusements translates a steak into paramount which is two billion dollars, holding the controlling shares of paramount through national amusements as opposed to paying a premium on a 10 billion-dollar asset, market cap which is paramount. that is what i hear the conversations are looking at. i hear they're are not deal talks. he is not, zaslav is not in the room with lawyers right now locked down, doing a deal. that's what i'm told. now, will this change? depends who you talk to. i, from what i understand about zaslav, he likes some of

but also, with the activision acquisition, you're going to likely see some additional opportunities in gaming. and also, when it comes to pcs, everybody bought their pcs during covid, there's a three-year cycle. that's coming up again. that's going to benefit my have to ofmicrosoft, as well. all that being said, though, it's not something i'm overly weighting. but it's a company that's done so well this year, you want to own it, but there's a lot of other opportunities. i don't want to beat a dead horse, we've talked a lot about our small caps and our real estate, there's other areas i would add money to, but i still want to own microsoft. >> mike, let me turn to you, and note that in our delivering alpha survey, 39% say microsoft is the best big cap tech stock to invest in for a.i. and 44% say microsoft will be the best performer in the market out of that magnificent seven in 2024. your thoughts? >> yeah, i mean, kind of to courtney's point, at 30 times, that's the only challenge. it's usually going to trade at a significant premium to the market, it does right now at about 30 times v

now, people have seen whether it is pfizer see jen or microsoft activision that it is going to take longern. they will go forward, knowing that they might have to litigate , but with a sense that in most cases, they will prevail. while the ftc would like to change the laws, the federal courts have been pretty good at pushing back on them. lisa: is there a new urgency to merge? the economy have allowed them to arrive and they have been rewarded much more. >> you are hitting on a very good point. with generative aia, competitors will have a hard time doing that level of investment. they needed to put in infrastructure. i think we are going to see a lot of industries looking to invest in technology, and that will be expensive. lisa: i have to ask you this question. there is a big debate about whether chatgpt will take away long hours of associates that have to go through all these deals and whether that could make it bigger experience. and if that is the path forward, do you see that happening? quest we have seen that in litigation, but in terms of document review, technology makes it easier.

people couldn't believe they got it passed but they did with microsoft getting activision passed evenone. this was a $20 billion deal, looked at as a really big thing, a lot of cs that were going to get back 30 to 50 times their money, but regulatory approval, the same day we're announcing alumna announced it's giving up on grail. it's going to undo that deal, regulatory approval around the globe is particularly difficult. if you thank you things were going to heat up, that would be the biggest issue stopping things. >> i guess the biggest difference is we used to assume that the european model we knew was different from our model on how you judge competition and who can be harmed, who you worry about the most. and here to fore in this country, it wasn't that you worried about whether there might be consolidation. if it was going to be good for consumers you were probably going to let it happen. in europe, they always worried, wait a minute, how many employees does the company acquired have and how many will be rationalized and it's a totally different system. >> they definitely -- >>

the ftc trying to stop microsoft's takeover of activision blizzard, believe it or not.fornia today a federal judge was wrong when ruling the $69 billion deal was legal. this is despite the fact that the deal has already closed and eu and british regulators blessed it. >>> coming up, more breaking economic data revised. productivity number, next, when "squawk box" returns. power e*trade's award-winning trading app makes trading easier. with its customizable options chain, easy-to-use tools and paper trading to help sharpen your skills, you can stay on top of the market from wherever you are. e*trade from morgan stanley. power e*trade's easy-to-use tools make complex trading less complicated. custom scans help you find new trading opportunities, while an earnings tool helps you plan your trades and stay on top of the market. e*trade from morgan stanley. why are we the only birds heading this way? and stay on top of th♪ ♪arket. what is that? duck à l'orange. what's duck à l'orange? it's you, with l'orange on top. >>> all right. get to rick santelli for breaking economic da

anti-trust concerns have started to wane a little bit after a few big wins, like microsoft activision. the other thing that could fuel the story is private equity. limited partners are demanding returns, and we're getting into this environment where valuations are resetting and they're ready to start selling assets, albeit at a lower price than they would have hoped in the boom times of 2021. caroline: if any of the news of today is to go by a theme, bristol, of course, adding to its own spree. bristol-myerssquibb, a $4.1 billion deal. this is about a drug developer. are we likely to see certain sectors win out? is healthcare, many feel that it's recession-proof in some way. is there an area of consolidation or more idiosyncratic? >> this kind of strategy, go ahead, you were talking about bristol-myerssquibb, this was another massive deal, one of the large he is top five deals of this year. healthcare, technology even, a return to some technology deals, energies, by far the most exciting sector. i think back to an interesting conversation i had with a banker just a couple of weeks ago

you think about microsoft, activision, eventually clearing the hurdles.s and types of deals that are more or less immune to that type of scrutiny? you think about the international buyers like saudi arabia's interest in golf here. where can u.s. lawmakers take note before regulatory risk starts to hit? >> community is pretty hard to find in this market particularly with some of the kind of broad statements and the lawsuits we have seen. even lawsuits that have not been successful. i think the view from the justice department and the ftc has been looking at these transactions a lot more closely than there has been over the course of the last 4-8 years. even seeing some of those transactions that were rumored, well reported conversations happening deeply among boards ncos, not going forward -- and ceos not going forward because the regulatory pressure was too risky from a shareholder and employer perspective, and the long haul of having a very large transaction. no one is immune. there's a lot of uncertainty as to what the political landscape will look like