deirdre, i can remember in the '70s when barry diller was creating it every week, and the question alwaysed was, what is barry going to do next? this is one that had everybody scratching their heads, but he seems to have a logic here, doesn't he >> absolutely, especially when in the letter he even lays out all the reasons why this sounds counter counterintuitive but it's an interesting way to go after the online gambling market, because they still make up a small part of the business. shares have been beaten down during the pandemic because its main business relies on getting people together. so instead of going for, say, a draftkings or a private company that hasn't yet gone public, he actually went to the open market to buy shares for mgm. if you think there is a lot of runway here, he got quite the discount if you think mgm is going to recover and be a major player in online gambling. >> mike, he calls it an opportunity of a decade. >> it's fascinating. obviously the people at the interactive corp are known as being allocaters if you look at what they've spun off, it's essentially sell

. >>> after the break, barry diller tries his luck at the casinos. nestaction in mgm and how both companies are looking to cash in. that's next. rather than worry about how to pay for long-term care. brighthouse smartcare℠ is a hybrid life insurance and long-term care product. it protects your family while providing long-term care coverage, should you need it. so you can explore all the amazing things ahead. talk to your advisor about brighthouse smartcare. brighthouse financial. build for what's ahead℠ for as little as $5, now anyone can own companies in the s&p 500, even if their shares cost more. at $5 a slice, you could own ten companies for $50 instead of paying thousands. all commission free online. schwab stock slices: an easy way to start investing or to give the gift of stock ownership. schwab. own your tomorrow. >>> contessa brewer reports with more on that story >> hi. interactive corporate announced a billion dollar, 12% stake in mgm. investment in the stock. iac says it likes how mgm has embraced the online opportunities going asset ligh

mgm and barry diller's iac.an, why and i think this is the story, why is barry diller putting a billion dollars into a gaming company which runs the strip in vegas? susan: online betting. sports betting. barry diller also confident of a vegas bounce-back as well. he's buying a billion dollars in mgm so that works out to a 12% stake and diller's company iac has been rearranging its portfolio. they spun off tinder owner match for $1.5 billion so he's cashed up and probably sees an opportunity when it comes to sports betting and online gaming, while mgm and vegas have struggled this year. fanduel, draftkings are thriving since we have sports restarting. casino companies won't be up today and that's owing to china finally issuing tourist visas to macao again. that's the world's biggest gaming enclave, almost five times the take you get in macao that you do in vegas each and every year. stuart: nobody realizes that. macao has totally overtaken vegas in terms of the amount of money put on the table. big deal. susan, t

his next win came at even greater cost redstone went head to head with barry diller to buy paramount,ng away from the prestigious prize for a cool $10 billion. in 2000 the 77-year-old redstone capped his content-consolidating strategy with the purchase of cbs. the deal would bring together the cbs television network, more than a accident cable chance, infinity, simon & shuster, and outdoor advertising. redstone had won again. >> wait, wait. >> no, you wait. >> no, you wait. >> it wasn't always easy in 1979 redstonefaced a fight for his life, hanging with one arm from a window sill at boston's copley plaza hotel while a fire raged inside. >> i remember trying to get to a window i was burning from my legs up. i tried to open one window, couldn't, finally got to at window -- >> with hess right hand permanently disfigured, severe burns over 45% of his body, redstone spent months in the burnant at massachusetts general hospital >> the desire to win and not give up i think plays a big role in saving the lives of any person, whatever they're afflicted with. >> you kind of expect you can chea

the vegas headliner joining forces with barry diller's iac to build up its digital gaming and sports betting business, bet mgm. iac is calling the $1 billion price tag for its 12% stake in mgm a quote, once in a decade opportunity. sure, mgm investors think so. that can sto stock is up 13%. iac's stock down about half a percent. >>> no surprise that sports gambling rival draftkings and penn sinking on the news of fortified competition. they are both down. penn down 7.5%, draftkings down 7.33%. but the soon-to-be golden nugget branded spac is holding up relatively strongly here, up 4%. >>> nikola investors getting charged up. they are creating and buying 2500 electric trash collecting and recycling trucks. yeah. republic services is a waste management company so they are making the investment. they are up .75%. nikola jumping 23.5%. you know, you've got investors starved to see actual big-time orders. they got one today. >>> exuberance in the electric vehicle land world. nio shares rising as rival and alibaba-backed xpeng company files to follow nio all the way across the pacific to t

mgm had this investment from barry diller, but broadly speaking, is this because the covid trends look little better or the stocks got so cheap or what? >> they've hit a jackpot of good news headlines for one thing, they're about to start seeing the gates open up for tourism visas in macau already they're coming for juhai city that will be a big deal for mgm sands and the ones listed on the exchange here. domestically, you have all these casinos who reported and they're saying, we have people coming in and visiting more than they did pre-coronavirus, so even though our occupancy is capped, our players are more valuable and we've cut massive costs. they've seen profit margins improve by 200,000 basis points. you just had a deal done with el dorado and caesar's now making it the biggest competition a big yen for sports betting it just seems whatever downside there is, higher infection rates in las vegas, for instance, you just can't keep the casinos from rolling the dice and moving forward. >> it's interesting, because the casinos, especially the ones with coin slots, has a shortage of c

who could you pick, paul salem told me i would have picked barry diller draftkings and penn are apparently under pressure today, draftkings down more than 8%, perhaps more competition from mgm and iac, but also news that covid might interrupt college football season as well, scott. >> i bet -- i mean, penn is directly related, what do you think, is it the barstool deal that they have and that's why that would be reacting the way it is? >> yeah, exactly and they've pinned all their hopes on this big massive venture with barstool and sports betti betting. another major player that helps mgm and they were already well positioned to compete so bringing iac on to compete in that online space will add pressure to other companies. >> appreciate that thank you. contessa brewer. >>> shannon, you own las vegas sands. >> yeah, certainly the macaw news is welcome to shareholders of las vegas sands this is a pseudo china play for us, but i think that the point about an expansion of investment in online gaming is also important. this is a part of the economy that continues to grow, particularly in that

. >> you mentioned mgm and we should take a look at it because it is up barry diller company making aestment in the company is what we're told i want more specifics. i'm not finding it in the release that i have here although i did think it was 11%. but i want to make sure, jim i don't know if you have any more on it specifically. but a very positive impact on shares of mgm this morning >> put a bid on a lot of the -- >> i'm told they need more money for the build out in japan, apparently, as well. project in osaka, which could cost enormous amounts. and this is one of the ways for them to stay in that process so, that's a significant move in mgm bringing aic and not necessarily a name we would immediately associate with a gaming company >> i thought that aic interested in toiktok and it was a cricket situation. >> what was? >> my should be interested in tiktok >> you have been trying everybody out for that >> you know what, i didn't include twitter because i thought twitter is a fraction of the size and wouldn't be able to do it and the verizon and i the iic, twitter >> twitter is fa

businesses recently, and that underscores the value of specific stocks on top of that financial, barry dillera piece of mgm what he ise is he thinking about how doing that positioning for accelerated growth what is malone doing merging company a, with company bwhat is he doing with financial engineers we look at with microscope, are from a telescope we think earnings are quite robust in 2021 easy comparisons in the second quarter, the market is discounting that we have obviously, gross margins narrower, sg&a, worry 69 days what happens to taxes for 2021 what do we do in terms of bringing jobs to united states with regard to tax structure things like that, so we are on balance, we would be very selective but also buying where we like and you will see my 13d filings several companies this week alone. mario in terms of backdrop i know you are looking with a microscope in terms of specific companies but backdrop needs to be favorable for you do you think the economy will strengthen year-end? you said that earnings will be quite robust. we are just coming off that contraction in the second quarter

whether you think the play is something like a pen which owns bar stool and the like or you saw iac, barry dillermake a huge play on mgm on the assumption he can turn that and helper swayed them to have a global or worldwide digital presence who do you think wins in that game >> well, i think it's a huge opportunity for both the reason why is, look, what we know is it's inched out. it hasn't gone to 50 states yet. as the gambling expands across the you states, so will the financial opportunities. i think this is going to be a big revenue stream for sports going forward. if you look at what ted leonce has done in dc which is starting to adapt a venue to more gaming and gambling, i think that's going to be the future gambling will be a good revenue stream for teams and states. i also think it's going to be something that's sticky. 18 or 19 times more likely to watch a game if you bet on it. i think it's going to connect in ways with the avid fans. gambling is an overall positive and it's a real growth engine going for it financially. >> 18 or 19 times. that's a big number. so you assume nfl goes bu

look how much value barry diller's i.c. created by spinning out companies or ebay with paypal. we think the value of amazon web services would be if amazon announced they were spinning that out? i think that could actually bode well for shareholders, if we do see a breakup, quote unquote, breakup of big tech. in terms of amazon, i wouldn't be surprised to see amazon trading at the $4,000 level in 2021. it seems to be on fire and i would like to see it pull back so i could add more to my position. stuart: okay. brave man. how about facebook? i know you also bought either more of facebook or you bought some facebook on friday, at what, $250 a share. make your case. why are you buying at that lofty price? >> look, i think we are in a check and raise situation in light of these earnings. i said to you before in the market, i believe the buyers are higher. there's a lot of cash on the sidelines. these names are working. in my private portfolio, i have invested in more than 100 private companies. any of these companies that are selling products to consumers on a direct-to-consumer ba

i think if we back up and take a look at the history of spinoffs and what's happened, look at barry diller the amount of billions and billions of dollars in shareholder value they have created by spinning off great companies like expedia, hsn, trip adviser. i don't know if it would be necessarily a bad thing for big tech if they were forced to start spinning off some of their businesses. how much would amazon web services be valued at if they were going to announce they were spinning that off? i bet amazon's stock would surge on such news. stuart: okay. tell me about peloton. i have been following that thing. i remember at the beginning of the pandemic it was down in the low 20s, as i recall. now it's above 70 bucks a share. that's a virus surge. can they keep it up? >> look, peloton has been a tremendous beneficiary of covid here. it's the ultimate connected fitness company. i think this has all the makings of a cult stock. i think that they only have about a million and a half members that they touch, they have an addressable market of 150 million members that are gym members in the inte