ash, another one, governor desantis said former disney chief bob chapek complained about his own woes, former disney ceo called and complained about the pressure he was facing over the state's new parental rights bill that critics dubbed don't say gay bill. this revelation is made in desantis' new memoir released tomorrow and called the courage to be free, florida's blueprint for american revival. strong title. in one chapter though, desantis claim that had chapek didn't want disney to get involved in the theme and get ago lot of pressure to weigh in against the bill and desantis writes that chapek and disney "ultimately caved to leftist media and activist pressure and pressed the false narrative against the bill". chapek left late in 2022 and replaced by the predecessor bob oil aiger that came in and didnt like the company embroiled in the controversial issues. stu. stuart: see this about a california man setting the world records for visits to disney? ashley: remarkable. three years, 14 months and 12 dais he's gone to disneyland every day. that sets a new guinness world record. he's

the interesting story has been watching bob iger undo some of the things bob chapek did.tioned that people feel like they are being nickel and dime at the parks. he has hinted at this larger regurgitation of the management structure so he is setting himself from his -- apartment his predecessor -- setting himself apart from his predecessor. kriti: earnings coming after the bell and looking at disney shares that are flat on the session and it will be interesting to see how volatile he's -- volatile moves after the market. we thank you as always. it is covering the gamut on the disney side and the nelson peltz saga. the s&p 500 down 1% on the day and the nasdaq 1.5% and the bond market, three -- 3.64 on the -- stay with us. this is bloomberg. romaine: inflation is back. stocks drifting lower and inflation expectations drifting higher. the main bostick alongside scarlet fu. -- romaine bostick alongside scarlet fu. scarlet: this is the fed speakers are remarkably consistent about their message. inflation is an issue and the path of rates is h

under disney's predecessor bob chapek the company was almost run into the ground in a short period ofhough disney's got a legion of wildly popular franchises none of them could offset mismmth he finally got himself fired after the last earnings report three months ago awful quarter. billion and a half dollar miss where chapek sounded out of touch on the conference call he was like giddy. i wasn't giddy we own the stock for our trust we weren't giddy that's how we ended up with the iger restoration this is the guy who ran the company in its glory days. and though he made some mistakes in the end i wasn't craze by the price he paid for fox, but overall his tenure was phenomenal for disney shareholders phenomenal iger spent the past few months reevaluating the business, coming up with a plan to turn things around and change the narrative. that's exactly what he delivered. overall the numbers were solid better than expected sales up 8% year over year on top of a monster 21-cent earnings beat off a 78-cen basis. that's why the stock flew up it was right to go up. we also got higher than an

they said $1 billion of the $5.5 billion was already in the plans they laid out on chapek's last call he can declare victory, but i don't know that disney did anything different just because he was involved. >> matthew, what do you think -- were you convinced by his comments on finding a successor? are you optimistic he'll be able to do so in two years? >> i think that's going to be quite the challenge. certainly at this point, it's clear that as he said earlier today to cnbc, everything's on the table. that includes dividends, cost savings, simultaneously putting more control in the hands of creative, while not looking to divest espn, making it a separately distinguished entity makes it very clear exactly what that business looks like and what it might get in the market as the market turns around lastly, identifying that general entertainment content is less of a priority going forward, while announcing many new sequels. the reason i say this is because he's making very clear to anyone who might try to take an activist stake what the entire landscape of the company looks like and how

chapek called me. that's the then ceo of disney.t want disney to get involved but he was getting a lot of pressure to weigh in against the bill. we get pressured all the time, chapek told desantis. according to the governor's book. but this time is different. i haven't seen anything like this before. >> pete: ouncely, this is pretty revealing. this reveals what he was saying publicly was a lot different than what he was saying privately to desantis because he was getting a ton of pressure from the left. >> ainsley: right. he eventually lost his job and they brought back bob iger because the stock was mum melg people saying they were not going to disney anymore. they were upset about this. privately when he is talking to ron desantis. he is saying i'm getting a lot of pressure. i have never experienced anything like this. almost to say i don't want to do this but i feel like i need to because of all the pressure. then he told shareholders that he talked to ron desantis on march 9th and he urged him not to sign the bill which restrict

you would think that he inherited a company, you would think from listening he's chapek great companyand he destroyed it within paeeriod of nine monts and my god, somebody else -- no. i'm going to make a serious statement. marc benioff, not a clown. >> how did the call with peltz ring with burbank right now? >> bob left and i tried calling him. i didn't get him i would love to bring him back i'm sure he's smiling. it makes perfect sense it makes perfect sense in many ways jim has been saying this nelson peltz got a lot of what he was looking for he's an empty chair unfortunately. maybe get bob back and see i don't know that we'll be able to catch up with him you know, you've been saying this, jim. he got a lot of what he wanted including most importantly, i said this earlier, the stock price going up so much there you are. i think just you kind of something that you almost expect but rarely happens, you know jim, rarely happens. so i'm sure relief, frankly. as much as mr. iger may say this is the board we love, and i'm not distracted, it's a distraction. there is no doubt about it as

>> chapek to me, when i listen to this man talk the hair would stand up on the back of my neck becausengs he would say were not the things that a leader should be saying where it became very clear that the, that disney, if they kept him, i think disney would be over. stuart: he was facing a revolt from disney's own employees, the woke employees kind of forced him into that position. >> yeah. they wanted him to be the poster-child of wokeness. stuart: they did. >> and they wanted to take disney to this unchartered territory which i think would have been their demise. so thankfully he's gone. they made two billion dollars on "avatar," which was a tremendous theatrical release. there is no recession in the theme parks. they're up to pre-pandemic levels, 73% last year. they're doing well. let's keep the momentum. i won't regret the fact that i stuck with them these years. stuart: $109 a share now. we'll see next week, where it is then. good luck. thanks, jeff. looking at the movers, we're starting with a company which i have not heard of katalant. lauren: they organize the technology of th

chapek, the ceo, okay, you have it under control. all right. so that's actually a good sign mr. peltz wouldn't back down if there was work to be done there. he feels good what he sees the stock is up since he came along. it's an easy opportunity to declare victory. that's a lot and not only that -- >> i don't think that's why. >> they implemented things they were talking about you own disney are you happy today? >> i'll buy more if it gets down to $108. you mentioned subscriber growth. i think it's a one-time drawdown to tie to sports media cost cutting is a big thing here as you say, it's just begun. this is the greatest story telling brand ever they have their own story to tell he is putting this to work and nobody knows this business better than iger i like the direction we're headed >> i couldn't help but wonder, i thought the stock was off its best levels, if it was in part because peltz is ending the proxy fight and in some respect there's no longer somebody standing from the outside over the shoulder and pressing the case and making sure that they get what they say they'r

but interesting that chapek said i don't want to deal with this.s, maria but now it's on the record and he said it to de santis. maria: interesting. thank you, cheryl. we've got new fox news polls this morning, one of finds 57% of americans have less money in their pockets compared to a year ago. that's up from 50% of voters saying the same thing last year. joining me right now is the chairman and ceo of red apple group, united refining company and gristedes supermarket, the author of the book, how far do you want to g lessons from a common sense billionaire, john catsimatidiss is with me this morning. great to see you. congrats on the book. >> thank you so much. it's been number one on amazon for the last two weeks and we're not releasing it until tomorrow. maria: who. how do do you like that. that's great news for you. congrats. i want to get into the book and how you become the billionaire, how far do you want to go. i like the idea. let me get your take on what you're seeing at work these days in terms of inflation. the numbers look like they'r

it is the most significant move since bob iger grabbed the reins back from bob chapek. we finished lower yesterday, odd the maybe a small rally. the cow up 235 -- the dow up 235 point, the s&p and nasdaq also up 1% or more. president biden, mean i'm the, says the house gop hearing into hunter biden's finances, quote, won't go very far because the public's not going to pay attention. well, we've got a few guests on the show today who are challenging the president on that. in just a few hours, president biden will take his social security/medicare pitch to the land of trump. governor desantis and senator reduction scott, that's right, florida. senator scott has a response for the president, and he'll be here to tell us. senator josh hawley says it looks like congressman aoc was auditioning to be the next chair of joe biden's disinformation war. she called the hunter biden laptop story, quote, half-fake. whatever that is. we'll take it on. and watch out, netflix has expanded efforts to stop password sharing. sorry. we're going to tell you what you need to know. it is thurs

bob chapek, he could take ron desantis attacking him.like a bob iger talking to a board member and attacking him from within. liz: yeah. >> that's usually not a good sign. david is going to have to do something about that cultural issue because when it comes from inside, you know, that is when things get really squirrely. chapek is the perfect example. liz: charlie, thank you very much. get back in the studio tomorrow already, my goodness. oh, he was snowed in. two inches of snow. closing bell, 2 1/2 minutes away. february markets coming in like a lion and going out like a damp squirrel? the major averages while mixed at this hour look to close down for the month. we've got the dow looking to lose about 4% on the month. s&p down 2 1/2%. the nasdaq down under 1%. markets giving back some of the great gains in january. today's "countdown" closer says because there is no north star to guide the market. ross mayfield, i will ask you to be the north star. you say this market is not resembling a bull or a bear. you have 360 billion under manag

chapek and the criticism that even is being leveled to a certain extent, although modest extent, by mrved in that decision with the board, but there's no doubt, you know, should they have gone for peter rice or gone for, you know, kevin? i mean it's certainly a decision that you can blame them for, carl, and any number of the other things including direct to consumer we got into it yesterday to a certain extent in terms of where they priced that product and whether it was really never priced for profitability he pushed back on that yeah, there are certainly decisions that were made under the iger administration, including who succeeded him, that he could be criticized for. but he is one heck of a communicator, isn't he maybe the best. >> exactly right having the millennium falcon behind you doesn't hurt as the communications tool. what a week. david faber in l.a watch paypal, moving higher here on this earnings beat as ceo dan schulman announces he will step down at the end of the year. not quite actually did take out yesterday's high right now right to the 200 day vi ara ayith usvege

fell dramatically, and that led to the ousting of mr iger�*s hand—picked successor, a man called bob chapeknovember, and he has been put on contract to run the company now for the next two years. but he is under pressure, not only from shareholders, but from the billionaire investor, an activist investor by the name of nelson peltz, who has been highly critical of the way disney has been run in recent years. he is looking to gain a seat on the board. all of this puts pressure on bob iger to act. so just two months back as ceo, he is cutting these 7,000 jobs on top of the more than 30,000 jobs that were cut by disney a couple of years ago, most of them in its theme park division. david willis there. let's get some of the day's other news. a bus has crashed into a day care centre near the canadian city of montreal, killing two children and injuring six others. the driver has been arrested and charged with homicide and dangerous driving. canada's prime minister, justin trudeau, said he was devastated, and couldn't imagine what the families were going through. newly released documents have reve

fell dramatically, and that led to the ousting of mr iger�*s hand—picked successor, a man called bob chapekun the company now the next two years but he is under pressure, not only from shareholders but from the billionaire investor, an activist investor by the name of nelson peltz, who was been highly critical of the way disney has been run in recent years. he was looking to gain a seat on the board. all this puts pressure on bob iger to act. so just two months back as ceo, he is cutting the 7000 jobs — on top of the more than 30,000 jobs that were cut by disney a couple of years ago, most of them in its theme park division. david willis, in washington for us, there. the praises continue to pour in for the nba superstar lebron james. the 38—year—old became the competition's all—time scoring leader. he eclipsed kareem abdul—jabbarfor the nba points record by reaching 38,388 career points, just one more than karim abdul—jabbar�*s total. abdul—jabbar initially broke the scoring record in april 1984, eight months before lebronjames was even born. let's go to los angeles where that record was br

number of areas in the last months, compared to the dismal showing that led to the ousting of bob chapekber. revenue rose to 23 point eight and a half million dollars. the strength of the themepark business sees more people visiting its parks, hotels, and cruisers. the streaming business remained harder to crack, but losses narrowed. disney+ had its first negative quarter since lodging in november 2019, quarter since lodging in november2019, dropping quarter since lodging in november 2019, dropping 2.4 million customers to come in at about 168 million. a lot of that was likely due to a recent price hike. but the company was expecting to lose more than 3 million subscribers. under pressure from investors, bob iger said at the earnings release that the work being done to reshape disney around creativity, was controlling costs, would make is streaming business profitable in the future. —— its. let's get the view of paul verna from the research company insider intelligence in new york. welcome paul. we are waiting for the earnings with bob iger back at the helm. give us your take on the numb

it's also the end result of a feud that put desantis against bob chapek and lobbied a bill that was dubbedon't be dictated by woke corporations, even if it's disney. >> it's a mistake when they get invinvolved in this stuff, but disney was doing this and florida was basically de facto subsidizing their activism because of the special arr arrangement. ashley: the new steadup will not result in any additional tax burden for florideans. as for disney, the company has yet to provide a statement since the bill was signed but has said recently that it will work within the legislative frame work. a lot of political mileage and more. stuart: desantis skips the cpac conference this year. do we know why, ashley? ashley: well, for one, he's going to be busy selling the new book or titles and florida's blueprint for america's revival but he's also going for republican diners and meetings with donors and we know know now that mike pence and mccarthy and virginia governor glen young kin all among the people skipping the conference running from tomorrow through saturday and the party's most dominant figu

when bob iger came out, that began the uproar that bob chapek had to deal with and disney loses theirs. when they build a building, dig a pool, got to get permits, their own cops will not be the case anymore, they will have to ride a check for $750 million in taxes. >> todd: why should the city subsidize disney wokeness? they shouldn't and that is getting ron desantis play. rumors of a presidential run in 2024 with this fiery political ad, watch. >> florida's success has been made more difficult by the floundering federal establishment in washington, d.c., inflationary spending binge that left our nation weaker and our citizens poorer. >> todd: i will not ask you do you think heun ares, that is the worst kept secret in washington, you know it is coming after the legislative session. do people of florida want him to win or are they worried they will lose one of the most popular governors in history? >> brian: both. they also love trump and i will ask these people, it is almost decision between their favorite children. trump in the latest fox poll up 20, desantis is second and everybody

he'd been critical of the entertainment giant's direction under the previous ceo bob chapek.ntertainment industries. you provide research on the media and entertainment industry is this just in terms of the restructuring and the job cuts bearing just in terms of the restructuring and thejob cuts bearing in mind that we have already heard and the job cuts bearing in mind that we have already heard disney has cut thousands _ that we have already heard disney has cut thousands of _ that we have already heard disney has cut thousands of people - has cut thousands of people previously during the pandemic, is this the right direction?— this the right direction? between the previous _ this the right direction? between the previous quarter _ this the right direction? between the previous quarter and - this the right direction? between the previous quarter and this, . the previous quarter and this, losses doubled to $1 billion. and subscribers declined to 1.6 million so the company was under a lot of pressure to close the huge loss of $1 billion per quarter. the restructuring is extre

now, back in august, bob chapek lowered guidance for subscribers and said disney plus would be profitable2024 so we'll have to see what kind of update iger gives on that outlook, especially when it comes, carl, to this new focus on profitability in the streaming space. >> yeah, you mentioned the parks today. diwa reiterates a buy. they say that parks can punch above their weight they look at some of the throughput at orlando's airport. some aaa destinations, are orlando's most profitable. but it's a question of whether or not the street will give them credit for that, right >> also this question of how long this pent-up demand for the parks last and if you look at the spending in the parks, the spending and attendance has been robust over the past several quarters. and i think this question is especially as they've implemented more price hikes at the parks, how that could start to impact things if we see an economic downturn this year, really impact consumer spending. i think that's an area to watch. so far, the parks business, as we've seen of our own parent company, comcast with the uni

what's he saying about his relationship with the former ceo , bob chapek?communication were open, but they didn't quite see eye to eye. this is from ron desantis' memoire which is out tomorrow. he wrotes, we'll pull it up, as the controversy over the parental rights in education bill was coming to a head, chape k called me. he did not want disany to get involved but he was getting a lot of pressure to weigh in against the bill. desantis says he then told chape k, people like me will say how come disney has never said anything about china, where they make a fortune? but, valid point, he didn't back down. desantis says he caved to the activist employees at the company, and then doubled down by adding some of the agenda that the activists wanted to the kid's programming. but ron desantis is also a father of three. his kids are all five and under. that was, he did not think that that was right, and then he moved to strip disney of its special tax district arrangement in florida because of it. stuart: okay, moving on from there. my next guest was the face behind

one since bob iger returned to take the helm after the ouster of his sort-lived predecessor, bob chapek. year to dates the up 28%. charlie gasparino is working on a story to tell you what he's got on disney. earnings, so far, been a mixed picture. uber at the moment up 5.33% after reporting whatst the called its strongest quarter ever. the ride-sharing app posting a surprise profit and higher e revenue as passengers spend more on rides. chipotle, earned -- on the other hand, it missed expectations for earnings, revenue and seam-stor. fox corporation is up about 3. 33% after announcing an additional $3 billion share buyback and that that it is on track for record-breaking ad prices for this weekend's super bowl. so as we look at this and we see that year to date the nasdaq, the dow and the s&p actually look pretty strong, where is the earnings recession that we've all been hearing about? to our floor show traders, john john corpina from the floor of the new york stock exchange and kenny polcari. john, today the nasdaq looks bad, but we're not even halfway through the quarter, and it's up

the challenges of certain countries, including china, seeking to ledger -- leverage digital digital chapek -- digital tax 2% and unaccountable and unacceptable national security risk. i will not get ahead of it. there is a review currently happening. but we take this very seriously, and as i said, the biden administration has never allowed to on white house devices. again, i cannot, there is a review happening and i cannot get ahead of that. i write, thank you, thank you so much. -- alright thank you so much. [indiscernible] >> everyday particular calls live on the air on the news of the day and to discuss policy issues that impact you. coming on tuesday morning, gallup editor and -- editor-in-chief discusses the findings -- then congressman jim himes, the top their pet on the intelligence committee talks about the spy balloon in u.s. airspace and congressional news of the day. and alex thomas, democratic correspondent to you see, -- d.c., reviews are public in response to the state of the union address, and a california republican congressman on debt ceiling, inflation and other news on c

point kind of brings you back to what's in desantis' book where he said that he advised then ceo bob chapek you will end up putting yourself in an untenable situation. the legislation there was different, the controversial legislation that disney did choose to voice its opinion on. >> yeah. they tried to address this a couple weeks ago quoting someone knowledgeable said disney was asking itself a question, do we want to be desantis' punching bag for the next two or four years and the consensus was no. >> so it is interesting to note. i would have liked to have heard what mr. iger had to say but they've chosen not engage at all. one could make the point that when disney was put up 73 or something like, that it helped create florida as the tourist destination it is and they have paid an enormous amount in taxes. >> is this material, the change in - >> unclear that it is. >> right. >> unclear it is material. >> just reputation issue. >> and they're going to have to deal with the counselor, whatever their -- however they're terming it overseeing this district now and is able to dictate what hap

to begin with, that he never necessarily embraced the idea that you would be 300 million-plus subs chapekook that beyond, perhaps, what they had hoped for or expected, because the idea that you want to be not just a fully walled garden but be able to sell to others. >> did you read the moffett downgrade? what i was talking about is come doing so well in 5g. 5g, david, isn't that resold by verizon? >> yeah, no, the -- the wireless -- >> why are you selling it to your enemy >> they agreed to these wholesale deals a long time ago. verizon sells its wholesale to both charter and comcast charter, under the spectrum brand, of course, see the ads in our area all the time. we've talked about that. these sub additions are real for both our parent company, comcast, and for charter through spectrum these are real numbers that said, of course, t-mobile will say, we're competing in a real way in terms of getting broadband into the house with a fixed wireless broadband we talked to mike seifert about it last week >> we're seeing a lot of -- >> what i wonder is when we see somebody try to do some consol

bob iger hasn't gone there bob chapek hasn't gone there that's really a bellwether for where that standsth your parent company of comcast, and i think it is very hard to predict exactly what's going to go on there hulu is a real question because hulu is a very big seattle, but it also requires a lot of spending it takes a lot to be a prestige player in the scripted business right now, and i think everybody from the mighty disney on down is looking at the numbers, the content spending even netflix on their call, they're on the downside of this spending >> we've got to run. igor is a builder. they pay big money for great assets he's not a belt-tightening person that gets rid of things i don't know is he the right guy? we'll find out, i guess. he's a very talented guy a good-looking guy don't you think? >> yes, he's straight out of -- he has a lot of other attributes. >> that's okay i think it's hard to say i'd like to go to that man's gym. >> he looks like a -- >> he does. >>> when we come back, white house economist jared bernstein will join us for his take on president biden's state of t

-- >> my understanding -- >> they need more accountability >> the p&l used to have that and under chapek and the re-org and centralizing it. the way they were adjusted >> thousands getting laid off. remember when ge came in and nbc and the move with universal. people said you have to be kidding me you want me to tell you how much i'm spending here on this movie? >> can you put -- >> i know. these guys make light bulbs. there's no way -- the purse strings to allow the creative people might spend millions on a crappy movie there has to be a combination of creative and financial >> if you have a freedom with that, you have to be responsible. with great freedom comes great responsibility >> okay, uncle ben franklin. >> you have to wear the big boy pants. >> mixing a lot of stuff >> okay. you win. you get to keep control. >> i don't this was it. you are waiting to hear. faber is out there >> he did the exit interview the last time. >> the first time he has spoken. kudos to our friend from "squawk on the street. all part of the "squawk" family. it is a franchise. why would you take that name a