several executives and a group of shareholders are now also calling for kotick to step down.son said -- >> let's bring in "the wall street journal"'s kirsten grimes now, one of the authors of that report thank you. do you have a response to activision's statement that's calling your report inaccurate and misleading >> i would just point out that they're not challenging any facts in the story >> they were not specific on any counts >> no, not on any countis. as you can imagine, we give companies very ample time to comment. >> this isn't activision blizzard's only scandal. i mean, there's the securities and exchange commission into company misconduct and the california department of housing lawsuit. >> before we started looking into this, this is a company facing a massive culture crisis. three different regulatory probes, including the s.e.c., as you pointed out. so what we really wanted to do here was understand his involvement in all of this, and what he had known over the years. that led up to this crisis that they're now facing >> so much pressure on kotick to step down. f

that we broke the news of in september and as part of that they're looking specifically what bobby kotickd the board and vinvestors. >> yeah. to the point about a company in crisis, the stock reflecting that, down 28% year to date. when the company issued its response to the article earlier today, a thing it went to great things to say is that they have been made improvements and then outlined the ways that they're trying to change the workplace environment. in the reporting have you found that that is actually the case and what is happening at this case right now >> i have personally not found that and i would just say a couple of those initiatives including bobby's massive pay cut and the zero tolerance policy were announced after we came to them with extensive questions and i would just say also that a very high level female executives brought in to try to fix things up wanted to resign after only a month saying that she didn't have faith in the culture in the company and leaving at the end of the year. >> thank you for joining us. >> thank you for having me. >>> we'll talk to chipotle

bobby kotick is the longest running ceo in the gaming industry.e has been running activision since 1990 and he has made a lot of money for that board of directors and shareholders. he has pumped that stock through the roof. obviously, some gains -- losses and gains, but it seems like the board is going to keep him going. today when i saw that story, i honestly thought he would be gone by the end of the day. i was a little surprised to see the board standing by him because it feels like he has completely lost faith of his employees. right now, about 150 people are marching, protesting in irvine, california where blizzard's offices are. they are calling for his immediate ouster. more people are protesting virtually as part of this walkout. it feels like he has lost the confidence of his staff. i am pretty surprised the board is seemingly standing by him. emily: thank you for your reporting. we will continue to follow how all of this plays out. very shocking revelations and that wall street journal report. if you were trying to listen to music on spo

bobby kotick is the longest running ceo in the videogame industry.has been running activision since 1990. he has made a lot, a lot, a lot of money for that board of directors and for shareholders. bumped up the stock through the roof. obviously, it lost some gains recently since the lawsuit this summer. seems like the board wants to keep him going. today when i saw the wall street journal story, i thought he would be gone by the end of the day. i was surprised to see the board standing by him. feels like he has lost the faith of his employees. right now as we speak, about 150 people are marching, protesting in irvine, california, where where blizzard's offices are. blizzard is a subsidiary of activision. they are calling for his immediate ouster. even more people are protesting virtually as part of this walkout. so it feels like he has lost the confidence of his staff. i am pretty surprised the board is standing by him. emily: jason schreier, thank you so much for your reporting on the story. we will continue to follow how this plays out. definitely

would love to hear from kotick have known him for a long time would love to see more sense but right, they're not communicating. >> by the way, we can't go much longer without mentioning jpmorgan. >> what as austria done? i look at the situation with jpmorgan and thinking it's a buying opportunity >> though we mentioned during the break the german foreign minister essentially rules out a national lockdown of their own we did see at least futures come back a bit on that news. nasdaq a record high as well, microsoft once again is on a tear yields come down and people rush into tech. >> yes, they go to adobe, which isn't talked enough about. i find it over and over and over again, even before microsoft, of course they have no supply chain issues, no issues. i don't know why the stock doesn't get respect that i expect it to get i don't understand that. >> well, we have -- and we've all pointed to obviously incredible performance >>> guys, something we haven't talked a bit about is spacs. it kind of points to things that are still going on, what was still one of the biggest trends earlier

was surprised that the board, activision blizzard board, came out so quickly and definitively in kotick's think that there is a chance that he stays i think that was a key moment to watch. so i think the question is what other companies, what other partners could be following playstation's lead and putting pressure on the company to make more changes but don't you think the board is the most important thing >> i would argue that yes. i think the down grade out of jpmorgan is worded -- you hardly ever seen downgrades worded like this, recent negative headlines introduce a significant amount of uncertainty, duration of this risk factor is not known at this time with additional negative headlines adding more apprehension to the story, they take it to neutral so the sell side has no clearances either, but being more cautious today. >> we'll see how many extra lives kotick has >>> meantime apple has reached a settlement with the engineer who you remember joined us here on tech check after starting the apple 2 protest movement within the company, that was about pay transparency, flexible work a

kotick drafted an e-mail he had another executive send a distorted and untrue picture of the companyre than 500 reports from current and former employees since the california lawsuit so there is still so much to untangle here and just such an awful story. >> carl, if the board didn't know about it especially in this environment that's where the issue is likely to lie >> the s&p has traded above the november 8 record close. let's get to the judge. >>> carl, thanks so much welcome to "the halftime report." i'm scott wapner front and center the stunning numbers of names bailing on big tech what it says about your next move bryn talkington, jason snipe, josh brown, jon najarian co-founder of market rebellion.com. russell is a touch lower it's basically flat. there's the ten-year note yield 162. it's the nasdaq that was lagging early on everything's about the same as we speak home depot is giving a nice lift to the dow earlier not quite as much right now and tech is where we'll kick things off the release of the

they knew the story was coming, but to support kotick. >> the essential piece was that he hid it fromhe board if that's true, show us the minutes. sometimes minutes leave out the more salacious aspects, but we have a cut-and-dried issue the board comes out immediately and endorses him if there was a full vetting and big investigation, i get that, but if the board didn't know, david, who are they to say everything is fine >> that's a good question. again, you know, having seen many of these in the past, i wonder why they didn't take a breath, but they chose not to. he does have their full support, it seems you wonder, well, could an activist come in and make their bones as an esg play >> it's not clear who replaces him. he built this company certainly development projects, perhaps delayed as a result. then could the get this thing sold which again raises questions, certainly on an antitrust front. >> we know from taketwo, you can have a great product like grand theft auto, and if it's not ready, there's some people who did not -- are not happy with the design, it gets held up. so when

as investors and others across the gaming industry are weighing in on whether activision ceo bobby kotickuld step down. ♪ emily: the hot keeps getting hotter for activision's ceo after allegations he was aware of sexual harassment claims at his company for years and did not inform the board. some shareholders are asking for his resignation. this following a walkout by activision employees who want the ceo and other executives to step down. other gaming companies are also weighing in, with the playstation chief telling his employees that he and his leadership expressed their deep concern to activation and that they do not believe their statements in response properly address the situation. meantime, cryptocurrency exchange is being scrutinized by the sec. the platform is popular for paying its customers high interest rates for lending out tokens with annual yields that can go as high as 9.5%. the sec now reviewing whether blockfi accounts count as securities that should be registered with the regulator. and lebron james and his teammate are getting a new name for their home court, now know

news on activision and "the wall street journal" dropped that big report this morning that ceo bobby kotick knew for years about the sexual misconduct allegations for years and the journal did not inform the board the company telling us we are disappointed in "the wall street journal's" report. instances of sexual misconduct that were brought to his attention were acted upon and we've made significant improvements including a where are-tolerance policy for inappropriate conduct and that stock is down 30% this year and the worst of the three big publishers, scott, back to you >> josh lipton, thank you for that update there. let's talk about the call today that you need to know about. i want to focus on a software call and credit suisse has neighb initiated on stocks. it is the snowflake that i wanted to focus on with you. you've been mentioning it almost every week as a sign of stocks where money has gone into and the stocks have taken off and this is one of them. up another 2% today and 20-some odd dollar away from that. can you tell me why you've been focused on this name so heavily recent

disappointment big, important platforms weighing in here we know that activision's board has backed bobby kotick. it's down the worst of the big publishers back to you. >> thank you we continue to watch that. >>> all right. straight ahead, sweet greens are made of these. we'll discuss the blockbuster ipo for the salad chain tacking you inside the market zone morgan stanley's investment mrgt r urchir shar ma ihe ybe salad is the key we'll f we'll find out after this. but all of the time. charles schwab is proud to support the independent financial advisors who are passionately dedicated to helping people achieve their financial goals. visit findyourindependentadvisor.com today, your customers want it all. you have to deal with higher expectations and you have to lower wait times. with ibm, you can do both. your business can unify apps and data across your clouds. so you can address supply chain issues in real time, before they impact your bottom line. predicting and managing operational issues that's why so many businesses work with ibm. this is elodia. she's a recording artist. 1 of 10 million p

kotick was doing. they can hire outside i want counsel if they choose to do so.haven't done it, jim. >> they call you in and they say, you know what, bobby -- and i like bobby he's been on the show. he's fabulous. bobby, maybe you ought to hire your out counsel and then it begins but this one was -- when the board affirmed him, that meant no you're with us. >> that was the interesting part of this. the stock -- that is the first time we've -- >> and you think she's -- >> i think she's a serious person without a doubt they can obtain outside advisers and i want -- >> remember when macy's last week, macy's said, look, we may explore -- >> yeah, splitting their business. >> i've spoken to a number of people in this business and they reminded me, carl, that when you want to have an omnichannel that can compete with amazon, you got to spend a lot of money. >> reminds me of target today. report that they are poaching engineers to try to leapfrog amazon go over at target >> well, i think you just stick to your knitting that's -- that was a good quarter. everyone just go

kotick is saying he would decide himself if he do fix the problems, and then if he can't -- >> this isiness >> the pont we have made is, listen, we're not here to pass judgment, because frankly we don't know, but it is odd -- and you raise the key point that the board has just said we support you, and they're not involved h here. >> i guess this didn't require that you'll sideline a ceo. we're your boss, we're going to look at this and figure out what's going on. >> it's more -- >> not a lot of -- >> more like bobby selling that to the board you go sit over there. >> kind of an organization >> meanwhile, the stock is down every day. that's going to have an impact >> people are saying iconic founder, one of the smartest guys, incredibly sophisticated, both financially and -- but, you know, jim, there's a belief he were to actually go, the company would have to be sold. that may be -- >> that's very interesting the group has been horrendous. of course, the hot one has been gamestop >> what did i tell you >> meanwhile, disney, although up just a touch, did get its price target trimmed at

"the wall street journal" is telling something, ceo bobby kotick said he would consider leaving if he will consider if i can't fix it. doesn't like the ceo of 30 years is going away anytime soon. i could be wrong. stock is down five days in a row. stuart: huge player in electronic games. it is down 2 1/2%. that is quite, 2.2%. big drop there. lauren: down for five days. stuart: more to the point. dr. fauci says health officials may need to change the definition of fully vaccinated to include booster shots. what does that mean going forward? shots every year for everybody? we've got the story. remember when beto o'rourke vowed to take away your guns? roll tape. >> hell yes, we're going to take your ar-15, ak-47. will noll be allowed it to be used against fellow americans anymore. [cheering] stuart: he is from texas. he is now doubling down on that claim. he wants to be the governor of texas. media blasts republicans as white supremacists after kyle rittenhouse is aquick ited. roll tape. >> welcome to the modern republican party. this is what these people want. this is what a majority o