twitter. twitter has spaces honestly, it's a clone it's very similar. it works similarly i like using both of them. i don't necessarily have a preference because they do work so similarly if they're going to be big moneymakers i think it comes back to a different sort of model. if you have these creators and you have a podcast or a show, do you charge for an event? a lot of these are live conferences. can you charge people to say come to this or subscribe to our six events and you share that revenue and so i think it's something new. >> joanna, what can we learn from previous kind of social trendy copying fests, whether it's live video, which seems to have kind of died out to an extent or it's things like stories which everybody has adopted but i don't know if they're still driving the same kind of engagement or want to move on to audio because it's always on to the next thing. >> right when you think about facebook, it's time spent. they want people on their apps, on their platforms for longer. again, advertising so audio, great. you'll have more time spend. it will be more time because you're listening and can put your phone down and one of the points this is like ambient social media here you don't have to look at your phone you leave your phone in the car in your cup holder, in your pocket when you're walking the dog, you may leave it on the other side of the bathroom i will not confess to that fine, i confess to that. it's another way to always be immersed in the platforms. >> at least you don't have to touch it if it's on the other side joanna, thank you. >> i'm not saying anything i'm not going to say where i left the phone, in the bathroom. >> never escapes social media now. >>> roku shares down fractionally despite a beat in the surprise profit. shares off nearly 1% revenue not enough to keep the stock in the green this morning but roku shares are still up more than 75%. a lot more "squawk alley" straight ahead ready to shine from the inside out? 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>> the bulk of investors, i advise them to mainly participate on the back end. the target is announced. there's a merger agreement that's filed and you do your research we think a lot about on the back end using this to go public. the companies that we will be taking public through the spac process through the product and for investors they need to have that same sort of eye and diligence and work that they do within any investment that they make go through the filings, learn the business, and decide if you think it's a good investment or not. it's really not a lot different than an ipo for the bulk of investors that are out there >> mark, i wonder as there have been so many spacs that have entered the mark as they are all looking for deals in roughly the same size, how does that change the price of these potential spac deal targets because everyone is looking for them >> there is a supply/demand imbalance in terms of the number of spacs looking for targets the primary thing we see causing is not so much the valuation because they have to price these things for institutional investors to invest either in the pipe or in the open market primarily it's causing the spac sponsors to have to be much more competitive in the terms they're offering targets there are a lot of spacs vying for these targets and so what really ends up happening as part of the merger agreement which is the m&a element of this transaction, those terms are coming down in favor of the targets. what does that mean? now you can -- the dilution you take on by going public through a spac is not all that different than what you take on through a traditional ipo. and then the company is dual tracking more and more of these processes, ipo and spac and focusing on spacs and there are many >> so let's get into that. we were in the weeds for a minute maybe we can go bigger picture are spacs addressing that earlier stage part of the market where we weren't getting a lot of ipos for a long time where the revenue and market cap profiles of the spacs you've been looking at once they do get the acquisition target and are off to the races >> jon, i think you touch on one of two types of companies that i'm generalizing that make good spac candidates. one is they're earlier stage or there's something else happening at the company, maybe they're merging with another business. but both of those scenarios point to the need to have to look out in the future and the spac product unlike the ipo product allows companies to publish their forecast and walk investors through their comfort level and that does allow some earlier companies going through changes like covid, like in the travel industry or something like that allows them to talk about their go forward business. the other companies that are in industries that are not well known by investors part of the team that helped a large cannabis company go public went public through acquisition corp many of the investors had never invested in the cannabis company before having that extra time to educate investors is another scenario we see working well for this product >> i wonder, finally, houchl of this interest do you think is being fed by long-term frustration over the inability or just the scarcity, watching big names on day one and not able to take advantage of that initial lift >> yeah, i don't think that's so much driving it. there are two things driving the surge in the stock market. one is the marketing overall are obviously at record highs. there are more and more targets looking to exit through the public markets so spac sponsors and the investors know there are more targets now than before they are looking for new and creative ways, direct listings don't work for everyone because you need to raise capital. spac is addressing some of the issues and able to raise a pipe with committed capital, the performance of these spac transactions >> right clearly anyone who thought it would be a passing fad is having to rapidly recalculate and with your help pretty good research it's great to see you. have a good weekend. have a good one. >> watch shares of palantir. it's worth noting the stock fell significantly the last two trading sessions after reporting earnings but it is up about 15% today. former fdic chair sheila behr weighs in on gamestop next good morning! this is where everything started. the four way is engulfed in history. you're sitting in the place where giants ate. the four way is the heart and soul of the community. ♪ - [narrator] grubhub perks give you deals on all the food that makes you boogie. (upbeat music) get the food you love with perks from- - [crowd] grubhub. >>> welcome back i'm rahel solomon and here is your cnbc news update this hour. the texas power grid is set to come out of emergency this weekend. the focus of the crisis now shifts towards distributing bottled water to the 7 million people still under orders to boil tap water and in washington six capitol hill police officers have been suspended with pay and another 35 are under investigation in connection with the deadly attack on the capitol on january 6. >>> researchers have taken a step to protect species in danger of extinction this black-footed ferret is cloned from an animal that died more than 30 years ago, the first time an endangered species has been cloned. elizabeth ann is her name. she will be raised with other black-footed ferrets at a breeding facility in colorado. that is our cnbc news business this hour. >> i hope that story ends well you never know with cloning. >>> all month long here on cnbc and "squawk alley" we are observing black history month. here is b.e.t. co-founder and contributor robert johnson showing how successful people can help close the racial wealth gap. >> the viewers who watch cnbc represent some of the most powerful business people in this country. i urge everyone to look at black opportunity the same way they looked at opportunity for themselves we're going to give you equal opportunity that we had. we're going to give you access to capital that we had, and we're going to ensure that you have a chance and a fair shot at participating in the american dream. >> later this hour we're going to chat with the ceo of a company that works to create a safe, inclusive and equitable work place in the meantime read more on bcomnvt--ynson's story at cn.c/iesinou - [narrator] grubhub perks give you deals on all the food that makes you boogie. (upbeat music) get the food you love with perks from- - [crowd] grubhub. >>> the dow is getting a bit of a lift from all the classics, the financials, energy, industrials, and materials up better than 1% so, jon, that's a dow record high jpmorgan record high caterpillar record high. bitcoin record high. >> we are on that record streak for so many things, carl meanwhile robinhood, on the other hand, is being vilified. market makers questioned and stock gamification scrutinized in hearings yesterday but no consensus view emerged from the house financial services gamestop hearing what's the likely road map then for reforms? for more on that we're joined by former fdic chair and founding director sheila bair happy friday it's great to have you >> thanks. >> it's unclear maybe what exactly comes of this. but what are the top things that you think should >> right well, i would prioritize really shortening the settlement cycle for two days the core with the disruption and the havoc created when robinhood had to suspend trading was a margin call in the centralized -- the entity that does centralized clearing. there's a two-day float. there are two days before when you do the trade and you actually get your stock or get your money and that creates a risk for the centralized counter party. and they have to make margin calls. the risk of the other side of that trade defaulting increases. if we went to a real time settlement, you wouldn't have the problem. the technology is there to get there. shortening the settlement is important even from two days to one day would help a lot with this centralized exposure that we have that can lead to these destabilizing margin calls we probably need more transparency around the margin itself there's not much about what the margin requirements are. that is probably something the s.e.c. needs to look at as well. >> bigger picture, what do you think of what robinhood really is and what it's doing ga gamifying, making options trading and trading on margin more fun there's confetti is it good is it bad? does it matter >> to paraphrase casablanca we're all shocked gambling is going on in our equity markets yeah, it makes it a game it's speculative, it's risky, you have new novice traders coming in probably not understanding the risk that they're taking active short-time trading time and time again is not the way you make money the way you make money is to thoughtfully invest long term, pull the your money there and keep it there. you want to get the ben fefits f the market we're still seeing highs today. take a page from jack vogel, the long-term index fund, and watch it grow. this short-term trading may be fun but it's dangerous, it's risky, and there are always smarter guys on the other side of the trade making the money. the classic case is a sleazy practice, never should have let the horses out of the barn they trade in front of published market interests they trade in between the spread they make a lot of money off of it i think aoc hit the nail on the head it's not really free trading it's just less transparent cost. you're losing on the quality of execution but you're losing on the quality of the execution and there's big wall street players on the other side of your making money. this idea robinhood is democratizing this i don't think that's what's going on invest long term find real value and put your money there. >> sheila, there was so much interest in payment for order flow yesterday i wonder if you see it banned and what is the impact who wins and loses there >> we won't be banned. the traders love not having to pay commissions. they don't understand that they're still paying for it. it's just not transparent what they're paying for but i think commission-free trading is here to stay. it's very popular. i can't imagine politicians or regulators having the courage to take it on aoc had an interesting -- maybe we should require at least 50% of it get rebated to the investors. that might be an interesting idea probably a lot of resistance to that, too. i have a history on this i used to work for the new york stock exchange decades ago battling bernie madoff on this it was done in the name of creating competition for exchanges, but that was the wrong kind of competition. the competition should be on who has the best publish not on who wants to pay for order flow. again, it's just the horse is so far out of the barn i just don't see regulators or politicians at this point sadly >> so, sheila, if you don't see that being banned, you also said people should be investing for the long term, but we know they don't. they aren't. they're very much interested in these shorter term trades. what are the reforms you think are practical that could really be implemented right now >> well, i think shortening the settlement time is something that we should be focusing on. more transparency, transparency around short positions, i think, is important looking at margin requirements looking at capital requirements for broker/dealers this can help provide more stability to the financial system i support a transaction task it's too easy right now. we need more friction. so creating a little more cost especially for high-frequency rapid trading would be a good thing and have a stabilizing influence on our equity markets. these market structure problems have been neglected for decades. there's no -- i wish there was a magic wand but there's not they've been building for years. they will take years to resolve. i have a lot of confidence in the nominee for the chair of the s.e.c. gary gensler but, again, there aren't any quick fixes this will be a long slog >> sheila, i'd love to get you to expand on what you said about bitcoin earlier in the month and that is stay away. nose bleed levels. if you're wealthy, fine. but you don't have a lot of confidence we're beginning to get some indications that at least corporate treasurers are giving it a look. does that evolve your view at all? >> you can tell influential -- i think the price went up when i said that. i stay away from it. it is very volatile. no, i don't think that's where corporate treasure should be sitting there. elon musk wants to do that, there's a real question about that it's highly volatile you want stability in your cash accounts, i would assume there's all this talk about finally have inflation and the dollar will lose a lot of value because of all the spending we're doing. yeah, that is a risk but nothing compared to the volatility in bitcoin. people need to make their own decisions. i do think corporate treasure should know better in terms of retail investors it's just not a good place to put your money understand there's a difference between the technology, the blog chain technology i think is very promising that could help us lead to faster settlement times. there's a difference between the technology and bitcoin itself. there's no intrinsic value with bitcoin. don't confuse the two. a lot of promise with the technology but the coin itself, no >> well, okay. a lot of people disagreeing there, but great to get -- >> yep >> -- your perspective the trillion dollar market cap on it now. what do you think would be a real step forward? what technology can do for the retail investor, the saver, the individual in our society right now that really needs to do better things financially, what can tech do? what would be progress >> well, payments is really the big area where we have a payment system now, getting cash from point a to point b it's antiquated. this is why you have settlement and equity settlement as well. using block chain to get money from intermediaries as opposed to having to go through the large financial institutions to facilitate the transactions for you will be faster, safer, and lower cost for consumers it will also help the government itself you can see how the government has struggled in getting the pandemics payments out to households the household payments, the unemployment benefits. it's a very clunky payment system so using distributed ledger to disintermediate those transactions is really, i think, a huge promise for technology and block chain in particular. >> the u.s. behind a lot of other countries on that. >> yes, indeed. >> sheila bair, thank you. >> happy to be here. thanks for having me >>> keep your eye on a couple of the light names. luminar and velodyne key players in autonomous vehicles we got a report out saying apple may be looking to partner with suppliers and self-driving project. those names and some others get a boost on that potential interest a lot more "squawk alley" still eaahd. ve seen centuries of this. with a companion that powers a digital world, traded with a touch. the gold standard, so to speak ;) >>> watch dropbox shares falling this morning in early trading despite the top and bottom soft guidance is the catalyst behind today's drop. the company taking a one-time $400 million charge to reflect the company's shift to remote work that stock down about 2.5% there's still a lot more "squawk alle aady"he , “why?” i see a new kitchen with a grill and ask, “why not?” i really need to start adding “less to cart” and “more to savings.” sitting on this couch so long made me want to make some changes... starting with this couch. yeah, i need a house with a different view. and this is the bank that will help you do it all. because at u.s. bank, our people are dedicated to turning your new inspiration into your next pursuit. big news travels fast on t-mobile, the leader in 5g coverage and speed.our new inspiration get an iphone 12 on us on each and every plan. and save 20% on your bill every month versus the other guys. only at t-mobile. if you smell gas, you're too close. leave the structure, call 911, keep people away, and call pg&e right after so we can both respond out and keep the public safe. if you see wires down, treat them all as if they're hot and energized. stay away from any downed wire, call 911, and call pg&e right after so we can both respond out and keep the public safe. >>> in honor of black history month key players making an impact our next guest is a former media executive and has a company with more safe, inclusive and equity work place cultures. joining us is the former head of digital products at .e.t. and member of the hulu launch team thanks for being with us this morning. i want to start off by asking you to explain how it works and what it is you do with your corporate clients. >> thanks so much for having me, julia. happy to be here with you. julia. so tequitable. it is a culture that works for everyone, and we created this third-party confidential platform to help address bias and discrimination in the workplace. so, for example, if my boss makes a sexist crack that's not the totality of who he is or he tries to touch my locks. i'm not going to go to hr for that, that's the nuclear option, and i would like that behavior to stop. then i want the company to take immediate action and what tequitable tries to do is help the employee in either of these situations how to move forward they don't have a great sense of what's happening on the ground in the day to day in the culture and we try to provide data and insights back to them on that. for us, it really is about providing a sounding board for employees where they can come, get advice, explore their options and figure out their next steps, and then we use data that we a nonmynonymize for us it's really important to work on both sides of the equation to create change. >> lisa, it is so interesting because twitter that 25% of its executives would be from underrepresented minorities by the year 2025. what do you think of that kind of commitment? is that the kind of thing that works? is that something that other companies should consider doing? >> absolutely. yes. there's no question. oh, we can't hire and we can't find black folks and we can't hire them. just do it it can be done one of the things that's been interesting to me is since there have been laws that were passed around minimum requirements for underrepresented folks on boards, magically, folks have been able to find people and to find really, excellent, remarkable great-fitting candidates and it's about making the commitment and making the effort that counts >> lisa, great to have you i'm not a corporate lawyer, but if i were, my first question would be when there's a lawsuit, what happens do employees with tequitable say something should have known that was going on and it isn't the same as talking to hr. do i somehow get protected b