it's obvious that there's been lots of reports that brian roberts the ceo of comcast has intentions, intentions to up his bid, the bid that disney surpassed and then it was approved the justice department for the 21st century fox entertainment assets that's most of the company except for us, but now, it's obvious brian roberts has let it known he may up that bid, he may not up that bid. the vast majority of wall street and the people here are leaning that he's going to do something, maybe bid for all with a higher bid or maybe part of it we don't know but in any event this is very interesting because we're getting this and i have to give a big hat tip to my new producer for basically breaking this story. we do know this, that justice department's anti-trust division , any deal would have to be approved them as you know, liz or at least litigated with them. the anti-trust division is reviewing a potential comcast/ fox deal anticipating that the higher bid from comcast will come. liz: oh, my. charlie: so doj anti-trust is not taking any chances, they believe there's a good likelihood t

brian roberts versus bob iger, it seems like brian roberts has backed out of that and when not pursuetinue their ad for sky, about 74 pence share when you look at their bid. the question becomes what bob iger does first guy and what it means for the broader landscape. joining us is professor gordon. i totally called it, david was on vacation and the news broke, so i win. what is your take? erik: it was running out of balance sheet. sky would not be a bad consolation prize. comcast does not have european or international exposure and sky would give them that. this could be one where everybody comes out better and there is none of this -- where everybody overpaid. jason: paul sweeney mentioned that it could unlock m&a in the media landscape. what do you make of that and who is interested? erik: everything is for sale at the right price. we will see big rearrangements. putting content just are patient is big. we have seen viacom and cbs together, then split up, maybe they will get back together. sheri wants to do it. we will see. but the content you distribution is going to be reassemble

e let's start with comcast and brian roberts. >> well, i think for them, sky is a huge price.want to expand their international business. get them into that kind of immediately and there would be no regulatory issues so thatcould foresee closing deal quite quickly. the issue of them buying the fox their shareholders have been fairly discontented about already and when you say movethey made their last to go after the fox assets their shares traded off quite a lot. haveseen they're going to to overpay if they're going to beat disney. deal they want to do. they want to do the deal with disney. has outlined rules for family --s of the be given quite a lot of latitude to go out and execute something like this. can imagine many intense conversations happening there. what else is coming up in sun valley? >> well, i think the interesting thing is that you have a lot of these deals that we're talking about are going on because we have so much pressure from industry,ly the tech but also other forces coming into traditional media and disrupting. this morning, jeff bezos addressed the con

we're ahead of this, it is very unclear according to banking sources whether brian roberts will go aftersets, part of our assets or just look at sky. that's why our stock is down today. look at a stock chart of foxa. you would have made a lot of money if you followed our reporting from last week. i took 2% out of fox shares. i'm sorry, i know i work here, but what can i tell you? liz, back to you. liz: i know you work there, we saw rupert and james murdoch. do they ignore their own employee as you threw questions at them? >> no! mr. murdoch is nice to me. i might have met james once, met laughlin once, maybe. you know who's not nice, the security here. liz: still? >> very not nice. by the way -- well, you know, of course, i've broken a record. i made it through here, two-thirds of the day is over and i still haven't been thrown out. liz: well, that happens here in new york to you. good to see you, charlie. >> that's true. liz: charlie, you want to stay tuned for my next interview here. plenty of what if's flying around every media stock, to craig moffett of moffett nathanson here in stud

murdoch, bob iger who runs disney, bruin roberts who runs -- brian roberts who runs comcast, that is agenda. does mr. roberts one-up his bid, you know, try to beat the disney bid which, obviously, has regulatory approval, his doesn't. how much does he bid, does he bid for the whole thing. i moved our stock down 2% earlier in the week when i tweeted out -- cheryl: thanks. >> i know, sorry. just ruined your retirement nest egg. but when i tweeted out that disney bankers, okay, the disney side -- take it from the source -- were kept can call that brian roberts was actually going to put together the a package and bid for the whole enchi lad a da and put $47 a share -- rich greenfield from btig, the really good media analyst who thinks he's going to put $47 a share on the table and try to buy it all. the disney bankers are skeptical. we'll see. by the way, a lot of people are saying we'll know something at the sun valley conference about this, about his intentions whether he stops, whether he does the whole thing, whether he stops and just goes for sky, whether he walks away. we'll know s

so my -- we're at the epitaph of a shakespearean drama between brian roberts and bob iger.ver the fox entertainment assets, they're going to battle right down to the death on sky. and when hulu comes up for grabs, which it will because disney doesn't really need it, my suspicion is that bob iger's going to hold brian roberts up to a very steep price to buy hulu. liz: well, comcast doesn't want to walk away bloodied and empty handed, obviously. >> no. liz: brian roberts wants sky. >> they're going to have to get i hulu, but it's going to be -- liz: you mean sky. >> comcast will get hulu. but bob iger wants sky because disney doesn't have an international footprint, and they don't have anything outside to have u.s. in streaming. they have espn, and they're going to have the disney channel streaming, which is going to be huge. as i said, a serious competitor to netflix. but sky gives them 23 million subscribers across europe. liz: heck, walmart wants to get into the streaming business. cbs, the news broke around noon -- >> really sad. liz: -- that there may be another sexual h

we know that brian roberts, the sky, andeo, is keen on with his broader battle, perhaps comcast doesis and does not need fox as much as disney does. comcast may be willing to come all of the firepower for sky. the pawn in the contest is sky. in idaho, what is the best guess ge? was there any resolution coming out of that conference? rebecca: comcast has until friday to submit its bid for sky shareholders, so there is some time pressure there. if they need to come back and make a statement in the next couple of days. there is not a firm time limit when fox puts his offer to sky shareholders, there is 46 days to respond. murdoch has made a statement to brian roberts, and he will probably be bumping into him in the hallways of the conference that could make it a little bit awkward. isk: are you saying it feasible that comcast could win control of sky, but disney could win control of fox? minus sky? an idea it is certainly that has been floated around, that sky and comcast could carve section.dia iger wantsow that sky, doesn't he? much he yes, but how wants to pay is getting too crazy ca

tot is murdock's latest push say to brian roberts i want you guys to leave us alone.re seeing a lot of that playing out in real-time while they are here which we should know. normally at sun valley, deals get brought into the world. now we are in a situation where a lot of these moves or any sort of -- mike a resolve their differences? -- mike they resolve their differences -- mighty they resolve their differences? , theyy are both here stopped briefly yesterday and she said she was very happy and she was enjoying being out here. caroline: you mentioned jeff bezos, we just see the battle for sky how much content is king at the moment and how much these into streaming like netflix and amazon have shaken up the market. what rumors are you getting a sense of? what might get born in sun valley? >> i think one of the big issues is convergence. we are continuing to see that whether it's tech pushing into traditional media or media bulking up in content and trying to marry those content and distribution platforms with the comcast disney fox deal. i think the other big thing

both brian roberts and brian murdoch are here. they are all here together.listening to expert speakers. one of the most of appreciated talks this morning was on crypto currencies. but the side show was the deal making. we have seen a lot of things come together in past years year. going back to 1995 when you had capital merging with disney. you had jeff bezos agreeing to buy the washington post and amazon agreeing to buy yahoo. a lot of people connecting aside from the initial conference. the bidding war breaking pout for sky is it serves as almost a proxy for the larger battle for fox entertainment assets. who is going to get it? comcast or disney? as of the moment disney does seem to be in the lead. disney's offer has been one of cash and stock. 71 to 72 billion dollars. for the moment comcast is an all cash deal. a lot of wheeling and dealing. and something i found fascinating is this event is such on lockdown that even made and the staff helping service, they have to sign agreements not to disclose anything they overhear. charles: also right after the be

interestingly, brian roberts of comcast was speaking to the press this morning.is message was -- guys, fight something else -- find something else to write about. he was upping his bid last night for the sky assets. precipitating more and more news flow around this. vonnie: what is the consensus about what kind of price should be paid for the assets? is all well or him to say right about something else, but he is perpetuating this. ed: that's absolutely right. it's about whether or not people will pay full value for them, or do they become a proxy in this much bigger war, about who gets to own the fox legacy assets being sold by the murdoch family. interestingly, the murdochs of been given approval to do the deal with fox, but it's contingent on them doing a deal to sell he fox assets to disney. the u.k. government has been reluctant to let him expand into the u.k., plurality not being something that like. they already felt he had a disproportionate influence. at the moment, with comcast weighing in on the sky piece, that throws a spanner into the works of the de

brian roberts, ceo of comcast, who wants to break up possibly that deal.bidding war for those assets, talking about, for sky, plc. fox to put in a bid to buy all of it. if it buys all of it, and disney deals goes through, it transfers to disney. here is the fly in the ointment, comcast a lot of people are talking about, my sources likely to up the bid, try to essentially outbid fox for sky as part of its sort of grand plan to rebuild and buildout comcast. now here is the interesting thing. everybody believed that this conference that the deal for comcast, buying our assets engaging in a bidding war, for the assets going to disney, would occur right here. so this sky news thrown kind of a monkey wrench into that thinking. you remember, trish, a couple days ago i said disney bankers, disney is the other side who wants to buy assets, those bankers were doubting brian roberts would make a full-fledged bid for all of our assets. they thought he would focus on sky or maybe parts of fox. our stock went down 2%. i'm sorry i sent down our stock 2%, but that is what

and i think he has 17, 18% of the economic worth and it's not 30 or 40%. >> do you think that brian roberts could change his mind? >> with enough cash, absolutely. >> what about sky? who ends up getting sky? >> well, i think that this is in some ways a game of three-dimensional chess and it is ultimately, you know, it's weird because everybody talks about saying who wins? >> it's not winning. who wants to bid more money for it who has a bigger appetite? who is willing to take on more debt to do it and constrain more balance sheet and i think there are still a couple of rounds to go. >> if you were a shareholder which deal would you be more likely to approve? >> i would take whichever one was higher >> the higher price. i'm not a very complex guy >> you have been in business with at&t for years and you know randall stevenson very well and you encouraged him to buy time warner now that the deal has finally closed now that the deal is closed and they're working on integrating these two companies are you concerned about a culture clash? >> no. first of all, if that deal looks really good given

most important thing was that brian roberts congratulated -- >> i think you are right listen, i can'tet into what people think of my reporting or why they choose not to -- i said highly unlikely so i left the slight possibility that they could change tacks people are just dig in on the belief this thing would keep going into the mid 40s, if not higher despite the fact when you understand the real leverage comcast would have to take on particularly because you have to sell the rsns at a lower multiple than you pay for what you're buying, the numbers start to work against you when you get to 41, 42 when you get to the leverage comcast would have to take on. even then, they were wondering, would that be enough and disney would come back they started to ask themselves we aren't going to end up with the asset we want. it has to be disappointing in some ways to mr. roberts so's been so aggressively focused on this for so long and was dispaidi disappointed the first time around that he did not get the audience he felt he wanted that fox board felt like they did not get the assurances they wa

win fox chairma rupert murdoch an comcast ceo brian roberts both here.er to sky to top comcast's bid and comcast is expected to counter quickly. we asked murdoch if this could spark a bidding war? >> how high are you willing to go for sky?s >> tha it. >> that's it? not higher? >> we will see. >> the battl f for and sky imd the completion of at&t's acquisition of warner are expected to kick off the next wave of deals and the growing valuations of fox and sky speak to the growing value of premium content companies and thef scarcity acquisition target. >> there is an expectation that there's going to be more m and a terms the board just in of the media landscape. there have been a lot of deals that have happened a there's a lot of deals in process and there's only a limited amount of beach frontperty out there and when you think about what you're seeing in terms of some of the bleding cand the things happening today, the companies are trying to stay with thers consumend stay with scale. >> who are potential buyers? barry dillard, o chairmanf iac is reported

let's start with comcast and brian roberts. >> i think for them sky is a price. i want this expand their international business. sky would get them there immediately. they can foresee closing that .eal. not the deal that murdoch want to do. they want to do the deal with disney. outlined the solution roles.here's legacy skyink it's comcast do this deal and, it will be interesting shareholders respond to it. emily: report. we can imagine many intense conversations. what else is coming up in sun valley? think the interesting thing is that you have lot of these deals that we're talking about because we have so much pressure from the tech industry but also other forces traditional media. jeff bezosg, accuracy -- i'm sure there will be discussions going on how the will shake up. you have the political backdrop and his outcoming summit with putin. he was talking about the sort of is going on.g there's a lot of apparently good happening but very little of substance. backdrop which is difficult to deal with. we've seen more recently trade putting --hina is emily: where do

malter -- rupert murdoch should be sending brian roberts a thank you note.e price. pay 35%orced disney to bob iger agreed to in december. the story,said in rupert murdoch is laughing all the way to the bank. jason: i love the details you had about the meeting of the minds between murdoch and eiger. you were at sun valley where there was a lot of this happening behind the scenes. >> this came down to eight relationship between rupert murdoch and bob iger. it was interesting to know who was hanging out with you. went and had breakfast with rupert murdoch a prominent table on the first day. that is a bold move. alix: can we glean anything from the fact that bob iger said, you let me have fox and you can take sky? you can rebid. is that the horse trading that went on? not allowed to talk to comcast as part of the agreement. maintains his agreement did not allow him to do that. if you're rupert murdoch, that might have driven down the price. you do not want that. talk that disney may let them have it but there's nothing to stop disney to make its own offer first

comcast ceo brian roberts may be open to buying just some of the fox assets.he french bank wants to expand in europe's largest economy. stockton is buying market-making operations from germany's commerce back. back unit generated about $406 million of revenue last year. called a timeout. the electric car company has been working around the clock to meet production goals. bloomberg has learned the company is causing some production this week that will allow tesla to do basic maintenance and upkeep. that's your bloomberg business flash. david: overnight chinese central bank governor said that the recent yuan decline had been a simple reaction. china will be keeping its currency stable. we welcome now from london to explain all of this paul dobson who writes for bloomberg markets live blog. welcome. is was a major statement at least for the united states because there was some concern that china would use the currency in the trade battle. does it appear that that is off? >> there are two things to think about here. the chinese central bank seeking to reassure inv

i still think brian roberts would consider what do you think he comes back at $47, $48 >> i wouldn'tand figure that one out. but i know this. with what's at stake are here two things that really matter to the kpaebs the ability to compete against hulu and netflix one of the reasons murdoch is selling is because of his fear to netflix and his inability to compete. the other one is international comcast is weak internationally. there are two attractive things. sky is attractive. and star in india is attractive. >> well, now, supposedly fox is going to go up on the sky bid. that's supposedly imminent as well >> it's in the financial times this morning >> sorry to interrupt. we've got cape playback of the president on his way to bruss s brussels >> it's going to be an interesting dime with nato nato has not treated us fairly, but i think we'll work something out. they pay far too little. but we will work it out. both countries will be happy the uk, that's a situation that's been going on for a long time so i have nato i have the uk which is in somewhat turmoil and i have putin frankly, p

brian roberts, the c.e.o.comcast is not easily deterred and a lot of people are expecting him to come back with a higher offer with the fox assets. emily: fox sky situation, how does that add a wrinkle here? >> while this whole battle between disney and comcast is happening over the fox assets, over sky battle which is arm pay-tv provider. comcast has the higher bid and have a deadline of this friday to formally make their offer to the sky share holders. fox is lining up financing to potentially top comcast bid for sky. emily: i do want to ask you about another story the "new york times" obtained a recording a town hall in which the new nth executive is speaking with hbo's and insisted that hbo needs to make more money and scale its la netflix, is that possible? >> they want hbo to make more content. really, if you think about it, hb omp is competing with netflix and you have to have enough content so people just don't watch "game of thronse" and when the season is over and then re-up again. you have to have a

brian roberts congratulations disney. i think that'sthe spirit of going forward.d has said and therefore i think that it makes logical sense to put disney and comcast trades up. >> what does that mean if this is how the break goes? break it down, what's it mean? >> for comcast, the stock was at 40.42 and now obviously there are people feel that there's too much leverage taking on. the balance sheet totally supports the idea for them to buy this. i think the stock goes up because it's got international growth and people think international growth gives them a very long runway. it's very hard to stay negative as some of these analysts are from comcast. if you go international, then i think that things begin anew and we'll get some upgrades. for disney, we got some certainty and we no longer think about disney at espn. that's why both of these stocks should trade up on a re-rating. >> ed, what do you think -- where do you think comcast shares -- they're up about 2% this morning, where do you think they ultimately go how much pressure was on them as a result of this e

brian roberts is not on the phone with me. let's make that clear. this is going to make the bid.ne of the reason they are saying that is a story that broke about how he was going to preemptively have the deal ready where he would sell off the regional sports network to private equity. what does that mean? you would have to divest from that anyway. he knows that because of the overlap. the doj, antitrust division. we are going to get rid of this. it will make the regulatory approval a lot easier. that is what people are saying. there is one other thing that's really interesting to hear. this doesn't get as much as the fox comcast disney bidding war. but this is clear why all the stations. if sinclair gets the go-ahead to buy all of those stations, they will create a pretty big local television broadcasting powerhouse. one with a center-right vent. president trump has been very positive on the broadcasting company. this thing, for all we understand could get the first level of approval. probably the main level approval on friday. we understand that the fcc went to comment. , which

people think that bid is imminent even after today's sky bid that brian roberts might come after the entertainment assets slated to be sold to disney. this is an interesting, complicated situation. the scuttlebutt of this place, they're all here, i'll keep reporting until they throw me out, charles. charles: i remember the last time. be safe, my man. >> by the way that guy is still here, and he's talking about me. [laughter] >> brian coughlin is his name. charles: we'll keep tabs on you. highest retail gas prices in years concerning people. some think could this be the biggest threat to the u.s. economic growth. we've got jeff flock in chicago with the latest. jeff? reporter: don't get on charlie's bad side, that would be my advice. as to gas prices, piece in the "wall street journal" raising the specter if gas prices continue to rise that could have a chilling effect on the economy. put up the numbers for today, $2.87 not as high as we were. a month ago we were at $2.92. they've come down a bit. 60 cents or more than this time a year ago. the gas station that i'm at right now in chi

as for the decision to drop the bid for fox, ceo brian roberts explained the price was getting too high it was a unique opportunity and we were very disciplined in our approach to it, but thought it was mostly about international expansion opportunity. we had regulatory belief it was approvable in the united states. we pulled back because we thought we couldn't build enough shareholder value making the price at which it seems in our judgment to be possible to buy it at which was increasing >> roberts saying they're focused on sky acquisition, saying it is a great business that will fit well and is good use of capital back to you. >> busy day in media thanks very much >>> the president announcing the so-called detente, the two sides working towards zero tariffs on nonindustrial goods. kayla tausche is looking at that >> part of that agreement, two sides will hold off on announcing new tariffs, that would include new u.s. auto tariffs and any eu retaliation planned in response. the aims of the dialogue, lower tariff barriers, increase exports and make changes to the world trade organizati

that's brian roberts, insights from tcc global we'll speak to sir michael fallon about the brexit battleer the break. overwhelming air fresheners can send you running... so try febreze one. with no aerosols and no heavy perfumes. so you can spray and stay. febreze one. >>> welcome to "street sign"s. i'm joanna versace and these are your headlines theresa may is battling to keep her government together as she narrowly avoids a no confidence vote. >>> ocado sinks. it says the full year loss will be bigger than expected as increased spending hits first half earnings. >>> turkish leader erdogan wields his new presidential powers by appointing his son-in-law as finance minister sending the markets sharply lower. >>> neighborly rivalry is nearing close as france and belgium prepare to battle it out in the world cup semi-finals >>> we have just got an avalanche of u.k. data at 9:30 i'm going to run you through them we have gdp number that came in at .3% month on month in line with expectations. 1.5% year on year. that is slightly stronger than expectations the sterling is fluid there. we have g

brian roberts could be open to buy just some of the fox assets. bike rental business. it is purchasing the operator of city bike in new york and other major u.s. cities. last month, the two were discussing a price tag of $250 million. uber bought electric bike start up jump bikes in april. kids across the u.s. are not the only ones feeling the absence of toys "r" us. so our retail landlords. most since 2009. the company is now in bankruptcy proceedings. that is your bloomberg business flash. tom: thank you. you can rip up the script with deutsche bank about every eight hours. it seems that every eight hour point, another body walks out the door. let me bring it on the bloomberg. this is the actual screen we see. this is out of asia. two more bodies at deutsche bank. james thompson, deutsche bank asia. what is really important here is because details are private. details are private as the ceo wanders around telling everybody things are great. we need to get the gap between things are great and private this morning. how bad is the hemorrhaging this

it looks to diversify its offering comcast dropped its bid for fox's entertainment assets and brian roberts told investors he could not justify the price tag. >>> first quarter bt earnings rose to 1.8 billion pounds as the outgoing ceo says the firm is making progress in its turnaround plan. revenue fell 2%, in line with expectations mobile customers for the public and business sectors jumped 4% adam reid, our sports reporter joins us they have been spending a lot of money. what has that been focused on? >> sport i think that was a loaded question considering that, yes, there is all of that investment in sport, bt still thinks they'll make a profit from their outlay from sport because of the mobile and broadband. it's over $4 million, when all is said and done, when this next set of rights deals come in, they have the exclusive rights holder for champions league coverage in the uk, they got continued presence as part of the secondary premiere league broadcast in the uk. even though per match they are paying 295 million, which is crazy because they have ten fewer matches, that's not per matc

executive chairman rupert murdoch is going to be there, bob iger will be there who runs disney, brian robertst will be there and a lot of people are saying this comes as our company that the media assets that disney wants to buy, they upped their bid after comcast put in a bid, disney bid, comcast rebid, it's now in comcast cord and what a lot of analysts are telling fox business we've been talking to them all day is they expect whatever move comcast does, do they up the bid to 47 or do they settle for just a piece of the company. whatever they do, it'll be next week. now i should point out that on tuesday, what's today? today is thursday. yesterday was the 4th. tuesday, i tweeted out that bankers for disney are saying that they believe they will only do part, only bid for part. our stock went down 2% on that. that was bankers from disney so there's a lot of talk about comcast maybe you walk away from this. too much leverage, too high of a price the regulatory environment s were up so i think this is, you know usually this conference i cover it and it's a snoozer. cheryl: not this year. charl

brian roberts at comcast came back with an offer and we are trading north of that. be interesting to see whether rupert murdoch/disney want to raise the offer and come for this asset, as well. some suggest we could go higher or as high as 20, we were hearing earlier. the stock is outperforming this morning. probably in line with the group, but outperforming the market. yesterday.l bouncing we will hear from rio tinto's ceo next. this is bloomberg. ♪ phones have made our lives effortless. streaming "must see tv" has never been easier. paying for things is a breeze. and getting into new places is even simpler. with xfinity mobile saving money is effortless too. it's the only network that combines america's largest most reliable 4g lte with the most wifi hotspots and it can be included with xfinity internet. which could save you hundreds of dollars a year. it's a new kind of network designed to save you money. click, call or visit a store today. guy: stocks stabilizing, europe following asia higher, but not by much. the chinese market up 2%, europe up .2%. u.s. futures

brian roberts, global insights director at tcc global. still with us is paul donovan.n you look at luxuries, is it community to gdp slowed? down?une to gdp slowed not: the issue is it is just about gdp, it is about income distribution. with the high net worth individuals are doing, they tend to be resilient. class,t the upper middle as we put it, how they are faring. if you look at china, we are seeing an attempt to boost consumer spending. the chinese have become more concerned about income inequality. problems in the rural areas. that is not something that is going to appeal to a luxury rand. are a farmer in hunan province, you'll will not be looking at luxury brands as her spending.-- big francine: what about the u.s.? paul: we are seeing increases in income, a function of more jobs and people getting pay rises. interesting thing is a lot of the momentum has been towards the lower income and of the spectrum. you're getting more part-time, low income jobs being created. a reason why average hourly earnings have not performed well but household income is. because you

an interesting scenario where media ceos are actually snooping around, trying to find whether brian robertscomcast is meeting secretly with bob iger of disney to see if they speak about the massive amount of deals going down here in sun valley. whether comcast is going to put a bid in for the 21st century fox assets going to disney. whether they cut some deal with disney, basically they divide up the fox universe. comcast gets sky. disney keeps the fox assets. so that's what people going around here. they're basically following those two to see if they're talking. we should point out we ran into mr. roberts. he had no comment on this. no one has seen them get together. that is sort of stuff going on here. if you look inside of the meetings, they're pretty mundane. jeff bezos talked about space. i know that sounds really exciting but apparently maybe amazon will sell movies to martians. other stuff that basically came out for this, some of the stuff we've been reporting about, we were first to report on, sinclair is getting one of the notches they need to get the big tribune deal done. that

comcast ceo brian roberts who we also saw come in earlier is planning in terms of a higher bid for foxe've not seen disney's ceo bob iger yet and we're expecting him to be here and now in the middle of more chatter, cbs and via com the controlling shareholder, sherry redsten has arrived and we haven't yet seen les moonves and he is expected here and he and redstone are locked in a legal battle over those two companies' future. we spoke to aol founder steve case he told us he expects many more deals, but this time the buyers could be the tech giants such as apple and amazon >> we announced the aol time warner merger 20 years ago, 19 years ago and some of the things we talked about then are now happening in terms of stream beiin and i'm not surprised where they'll position themselves where consumers will have more choice and more control. >> another company that could be a stellar discovery, discovery ceo is here. he talk about the the advantages of merging to a crowd of reporters here >> just opens up a real opportunity for more consolidation. disney's approval in record time on the fox

mean, if you notice, we reported it first, liz, a week ago, that a lot of people thought that brian robertss reconsidering his bid for the 21st century fox -- that are going to disney. that he's mainly focusing on a smaller portion of that asset and now it is coming out he's obviously focusing on a smaller portion namely sky. why did he back off of the full eneconomy la la -- enchilada? i think it is because of what the justice department is doing with this, and the position they are taking. they don't like vertical mergers that combine distribution, content, makes these liberal media players too powerful. the trump administration wants to stop it. liz: we're glad you are back safely. at least i am. i really -- i can't speak for everybody. >> people -- no one likes me. why is that? liz: oh come on, we do. >> i cry sometimes -- when i look at my twitter page, i cry sometimes. liz: charlie, don't shed tears. >> i feel bad -- people don't like me. liz: we're only 9 points above 25,000, charlie. we have got to go. thank you. glad you are back safely. when we come back, we will see how this one

my producer, listen she ran into brian roberts.e couldn't runaway from her fast enough when she started asking about fox and disney and everything, so you know, there you go, but we try. but you know it's never the ceo 's that give it to you. you've got to pound the pavement and do reporting. liz: that's what you do. charlie thank you. thank you for breaking it all. we do appreciate it. charlie gasparino. charlie: talk to you soon. liz: the human stink bomb. charlie: oh, thank you. liz: good to see you. dow is up 209 points we are 10 make that eight points away, nine points away from erasing all of yesterday's losses. we'll be right back. problem & the staff needs to know, they will & they'll drop everything can you take a look at her vitals? & share the data with other specialists yeah, i'm looking at them now. & they'll drop everything hey. & take care of this baby yeah, that procedure seems right. & that one too. at&t provides edge to edge intelligence. it can do so much for your business, the list goes on and on. . . with exped

that said, i'm not brian roberts. he is the ceo of comcast. i'm not his broker.on't know exactly what he will do. i can just report you what he is saying. david: thank god you're not with brand x, charlie. they have a lot of trouble keeping up with breaking stories. >> they don't get thrown out of this conference. why is that? david: they're not doing their work. that should be the way of judging a qualities of reporter's work, whether you get thrown out of conferences. we have to leave you at that thank you very much, my friend. melissa: taking a hard-line. nato, president trump calling out allies over defense spending. why many countries are leaving the u.s. with the tab. not backing down. democratic leaders working to block judge brett kavanaugh from the supreme court. how should republicans respond? alabama senator richard shelby is up next. ♪ the employee of the year, anna. [music playing] (vo) progress is in the pursuit. audi will cover your first month's lease payment on select models during summer of audi sales event. a hotel can make or break a trip. and

i will tell you this, guys, i've been saying this a the looks if you notice brian roberts, we were among to report, focusing less on fox assets that would need regulatory approval than sky which needs european approval, not doj approval. i think why he is focusing back on that, at least sky more, not because of fox assets, a doj that hates these big deals as you see in this case. this is a warning shot by doj. we don't like big media conglomerates. we're going to oppose them. we think they are too powerful. they do not reflect diversity of viewpoints. we'll use the long arm of the justice department to stop them from happening. that is one story. the other story what happens with at&t and time warner. how do shareholders and investors deal with this. that i can not tell you on the fly. melissa: if they're successful, if they're successful. great reporting, charlie. david: good stuff. of the to another story we're following, peter strzok in the hot seat. embattled fbi agent testifying for first time publicly on ties to the hillary and russia investigation. edward lawrence is on capitol hi

and the big topic of conversation here is what's next for rupert murdoch and brian roberts who we haveally shifted away from next bids for fox to next bids for sky after fox put in that higher bid for sky this morning, we can expect comcast to reply fairly quickly within days. we are also awaiting a decision from the uk's takeover panel on the minimum bid that disney and fox could be -- sorry. disney would be obligated to pay for sky shares due to a rule called the chain principle rule in the uk that links sky's value and the minimum required to pay for those shares to the higher bid they're paying for fox we're expecting a ruling from this takeover panel any day now. a source tells me that comcast is now fully focused on sky. ask with my source tells me that if comcast does win sky, then it would reconsider whether to bid for fox. in part because of this takeover manl to continue to push the cost of sky higher i think it's worth noting now their willing to shift over to what's going to happen with sky. that could resolve itself far quicker than what happens next with fox >> all right,

rupert murdoch and comcast brian roberts are right here. sign ndas, non-disclosure agreements, even if maids or babysitting staff picks up tips something happening they can not legally share it with anyone. >> it's a secret summer camp. brian: what will they do, sue them? not allowed back next year. ainsley: deirdre, i have a feeling if we ever get invited it is to be reporters. steve: that would be only way. reporter: perfectly acceptable way to be here. brian: is it cold or is that a look? reporter: it's a little chilly. zero complaint as you can see. the scenery is magnificent. in the morning actually about 50 degrees. so a little chilly. throughout the day i think it got up to 90 yesterday. a little intense sun. no why the cowboys look handsome with the big hat, scarf. ainsley: you look great. steve: deirdre bolton live from sun valley, thank you. pfizer rolling back drug prices and you can thank president trump for that. our next guest says another sign america is back. brian: first you know who is back? sandra smith, will work for thr

david: brian roberts has the high bidder. will my old boss try to come back in and out bid brian?e, you got it. [laughter] has bob gotten what he wants? announced thethey deal, bob said it was the crown jewel. sky showed that yesterday. they added another half a million. how muchood asset, but do people want to overpay? he has already paid 36% more than he originally wanted to -- that he wanted to. david: does he have to go by something else? >> we think people should look at discovery again. ands gate is up for sale others on the block at the moment. comcast shareholders don't want him to go into content in that way. they want him to do more cable and want to stick with the broadband and cable because they think that is the stronger part of the business. david: but will it be five years from now. comcast when they pulled out, their shares rose because shareholders were happy they were not going to overpay. david: why haven't we heard from bob yet on the sky bid? >> he doesn't have to say anything. set it up for to the sky bidding process. it they did come out -- they did come out

we cannot count brian roberts out.nt a assets are going to be for his company and we are expecting any day now comcast it come back and counter strongly. they could choose to walk away but they have been trying to come up with how much [indiscernible] scarlet: that is the offer that boxes what is looking at. considered that. the two things they like about that deal are disney has regulatory approval. it can go through quicker and also offering cash and stock which minimizes the tax bill. taylor: walk us through that tax bill. they are -- there are other shareholders that are voting. >> if you are a fox shareholder and you want to take disney stock you do not have to -- you do not have a tax liability. if you take cash and stock, that is when the taxes command. for the murdochs they could make $11.8 billion from the busy -- disney offer. that would be 3.5 billion less. scarlet: all of this will come to a head next week. we drop in here, they are all going to be in the same place, presumably someone will say some to some

david: brian roberts bob geiger all together socializing together. cularly if brian comes with a bid. alix: the other thing that caught our eye, 10 sent. spinning off its -- its online business serve this music service. i would not have thought they'll be something we'll be interested in. the screaming industry did not seem like it would make it for the music world. brooke: the music world has found a second act. i will note this not quite as big as the music industry was back in 1999 but you are starting to see growth. a recovery. interesting this is coming on the heels of spotify's listing which has gone fairly well. hard to judge how accurate that valuation is because spotify shares are so thinly traded there are a lot of questions about its business model. it is very dependent on the music labels continuing to provide content and finding ways to diversify to justify that valuation. they're looking to more focused their business. their main profit drivers are onlinesaging app and gaming. this is a way for them to simple by their story. as a possibi

that is brian roberts, bob iger on his way rup earth murdoch there. think mike cavanagh will be there. who knows. maybe they'll run into each other in the hall. they can't collude with each other and say, okay, i'll back off on this if you do that that can't happen. we're getting to a high price levels on all of them. you can see sky is trading above the price. >> all right. >> that's not showing you -- there it is. >> there's a bid underneath at comcast for 33 level every time. >> yeah. >> no matter what. ever since they made their up bid. stock is going down 31 it was acting badly before they raised there's someone buying comcast it was a neutral piece that was neutral on monday. it was like wow. just saying there's no real -- >> there is is a belief if you get full clarity they will not be making a counter for the fox assets the stock will go up i don't know if it goes to 40. but perhaps some people think mid to high 30s. because they will not be taking on the enormous leverage they otherwise would be. >> they have at lot of borrowing capacity. >>

it's the fastest broadband network in the u.k >> you met with brian roberts when you were here did youving him buy your company >> of course not i think there's only going to be one winner in this process between disney and comcast and whoever does it will be certainly geared up to do something else because they've made the decision growing internaeinte internationally or having more scale is important to them we've got a great organic business we're growing at 5% a year, building out networks that are the fastest in every country we operate in we're strategically complete in the u.k. so we're not thinking about exits but growth in germany we put $2 billion euros of equity in >> this huge deal with vodophone, what are you going dowit that capital >> it's a great question i will tell you that we are focused on just one thing and that is doing what we do well, which is buy, build and grow businesses sometimes exit those businesses at premium multiples we'll stay largely in our swim lanes. we're not going to build driverless cars or things of that nature. but there are opportunities we sh

won and spentely all that money for fox and they may end up with brian roberts as a senior partner inhere is so much more to come and a lot more to talk about here. david: a lot of money. thank you, jason kelly. alix: the white paper is finally out. the u.s. banks will lose easy access to the eu under may's brexit plan. what is easy access? u.k. banks will lose easy access to eu under the brexit plan. david: that is the passport. leaving, the banks that is a done deal? >> this is the thing that wall street has been the most concerned about in all of these negotiations, how are they going to be able to operate or not operate. david: frankfurt and paris are happy because their subsidiaries will have to be incorporated in the eu, regulated by the eu. they cannot do that from london. >> good week for paris. london, not so well. alix: u.k. seeks permit free transport over northern ireland border. u.k. seeks continued participation in eu safety body for asia. david: regulatory organization. does not feel like a soft brexit. this feels like a firm line. david: i think theresa may once a soft

today it has come to fruition, brian roberts conceded yes. neil: why? why did this happen?as supposed to be going back and forth, back and forth. >> by the way, rich greenfield, good guy, works at btig, believed there would be $47 bid on the table all cash for us, upping the disney bid. i told rich it wouldn't be. here is why i never believed it. if you know people in the justice department which i know in the antitrust division, they based their entire attack on at&t time warner based on their hatred of the comcast business model. they think these big tech companies, telecom companies are basically too powerful when they merge up with content providers, particularly content providers that hate donald trump. they basically took the stance that at&t was a mini-me of comcast which they would have never approved. here we go with comcast looking to get bigger. i'm telling you in order to get bigger and really make this work they would have had to bid maybe $50 a share, right? just for the risk, dealing with the regulatory risk. they clearly don't have that type of money. they a

and brian roberts did speak a bit about the fox deal kind of echoing comments that i -- or thoughts thata bit in my reporting, which is it got to a level where it didn't make sense for us to continue to compete on price for fox. despite what he said was what they thought was going to be a positive regulatory review, the desire he said is of obtaining international assets a key reason they were interested in fox and a key reason why they continue the pursuit of sky where they are leading by a good amount but still some question as to whether disney/fox will come back, but that seems unlikely. >> i wonder if they look at a facebook result like this and say, they're not invincible, or a netflix result under armour looks like it is going to be a winner as investors try to find a bottom for the stock. the company did see a wider net loss but overall very solid top line numbers 8% growth for revenues 2% growth in north america it was offset by this restructuring charge remember under armor is in the middle of a complete retooling and restructuring of its business which should be wrapped up by

and maybe if they see bob iger and brian roberts chatting together in the hallway, they'll let us knowhat would be fabulous. >> i don't know that's going to happen i would think probably not my guess there's going to be a force field keeping them apart. >> really? like a marble. >> rupert will be there, too who knows. maybe rupert could sit down with brian and iger that doesn't work well for rupert he wants the highest price we'll see. comcast could come back as late as next monday, if they chose to if you come with a high enough number, they have to move the meeting. they won't get the vote on the 27th >>> in the meantime, we have a bunch of target bumps one on facebook and apple they're not working. they're not working today. i think it's something to think about. the "a" in faang is amazon we had an underperformance by tech yesterday and today i think it's worth watching. you a rotation that is into financials going into when they report you don't want to lose tech. you don't want the leader of the market to be oil. >> which it is at this moment. >> yeah. it means chevron is a great

war because it has to be that was dealing the idea you had two irrational players i worked for brian robertse's not an irrational man bob iger is not an irrational man. they want to do deals so they're more international in scope. there was no reason to think they were two gun slingers and everybody had to lose. >> meanwhile, david, thank you for that we'll continue to watch the story. you see the price action on the media names. we did get a picture as the one on one between the president and putin is over. they've been joined by their advisors the press availability not too far from now we get back to eamon >> reporter: that's right, carl. call it just about two hours and change for the two leaders to be behind closed doors. one on one remember the translators and the two world leaders in the room for the early session. the one on one bilateral they're calling it now we saw the pictures come out of what they call the expanded bilateral. it means the russian side and the american side face to face in what they call the hall of mirrors there in the presidential palace. this is an opportunity

brian roberts cfo of comcast and and we will see if there are awkward interactions between roberts andthey try to make polite chitchat and everyone waits to see what comcast does next and we wait to see what what happened with red stone and less munvez. it was just a year aig they were being introduce bitted one another and now they're on different sides. >> that can make interesting water cooler conversation. so julia, what's the next generation the o of deals that could come out of the conference in that's really what we talk about a lot when we talk about sun valley >> absolutely. injury inl one thing people speculate about and talking about a couple of years but really in focus is the question of what the tech giants do when you look at companies like apple, or amazon or even google, apple and amazon especially investing more in preem upcontent. could see a company like amazon try to buy cbs could we see discovery get snapped up by a tech giants that wants more of a presence more of a stronghold in the original premium content space. we will see what the deep pocket tech giants do

brian roberts is here, the senior analyst at mcm partners.his point in time, because the debate on the stock is really what kind of company we are buying. what we have done is put together multiples. baba,ave ally baba -- ali tencent, apple. xiaomi is, more or less, where the red boxes. what am i buying? >> you are buying something unique. they are using their hardware to establish an ecosystem, like apple has done, but their ambitions stretch further. more seems to be established and kind of in their hardware model. they are also trying to push in a similar direction, but it aims like the pace of growth is different. >> is it misleading to say they want to become a software tech company? they create an ecosystem based on the hardware they bring out, and they collect people, put them in an ecosystem, and they monetize out of bed, which tells willcompany like xiaomi not be able to reduce its reliance on hardware. as an entrancet into the ecosystem, i think that is fair, but over the longer term the goal is transition in terms of profit driver