Disney's 1Q Earnings and Google Shares Tumble

over the accuracy of the search giants. AI technology will bring you the details, plus Hermes wins out versus Meta Perkins. We'll discuss the first ever trademark trial examining n f t s as the case tests the line between art and consumer products. All that and so much more coming up.

One name that everyone wants to hear about is Disney Shares really accelerating their game means in after hours, not necessarily on the beat on the bottom line, but on what they had to say about going forward, targeting five point five billion dollars in cost reductions, cutting around seven thousand jobs, but reiterating that profit guidance for the direct consumer or streaming business in those are kind of the

main takeaways as the stock push high. Let's go deeper on Disney and get reaction with rosscov A, co founder and CEO of Gerber Kawasaki Wealth Management, which overseas two point two billion dollars and holds Disney shares. Ross, what was the most important bit for you? What is it that you think driving these shares higher and after hours? Well, I think that they showed that their business is not

only stable, but has the potential for a lot of growth. Actually, so when you actually look at the sublasses, let's say at Disney Plus, it was really at hot Star and in the Indian area part of their business hot Star, and it was really a minimal amount of people and the lowest cost subscribers. So when you actually look at Disney, plat sen their ability to hopefully make money off of this in the future and then the cost cuts, but then how strong the parks and resorts business continues to be.

And with Iger back at the HELM, it really gives confidence that they can get the rest of their business is all working together at some point in the next twelve months and and really get some earnings momentum back. So so I love the report what I've seen so far, and I'm very confident about Disney's future, EPs b in the in the fiscal fourth quarter and then reiterating that guidance to hit profit in the DTC business by how much of you for you? Is that Iger doing this?

The sort of short term effect of him coming back in, well, I think there there's a psychological effect, and then there's a real effect because the bottom line is Chapek was was a bad manager for Disney and didn't do a good job. And with Iger back at the helm Um, Disney is really driven by content and and it's something I think a lot of people forget that making great movies is what ultimately drives everything at Disney, whether it's

consumer products, or the parks or or Disney Plus. And so Iger's focus on content in its relationships in Hollywood UM to get better content and to make better content really bodes well for Disney over the short and medium term. Longer term, can they square that circle of cost, custs and great production. How as the restructuring of the business and perhaps giving more power back to the creatives going

to ensure they can have that balance. Well, I think this is a lot of businesses are dealing with this. Where they grew a lot of people over the last three or four years, and now everybody's trying to right size their businesses, especially the mega cap stocks like Disney and so I think having of you're going to see this in a lot of companies. Real cost conscious focus and making sure that all of their employees are contributing the amount necessary to get the results needed from a

financial perspective is really important. But it's also predicated upon not hurting your own core business, and I think Iger is the person to implement that strategy for Disney and and that's why I think the markets like it. Yeah, currently looking at new toy stories, new frozens, my children will be thrilled. I'm looking also at what buy Biger has been saying on the call. Just take a little listen to what he's saying. In terms of curation, we

will aggressively curate our general entertainment content. We will reassess all markets we have launched in and also determine the right balance between global and local content. Will adjust our pricing strategy, including a full examination of our promotional strategies. Russ, you reminded us of how big Disney Plus or generally DTC is in India. Just how much of a focus does Disney need internationally at the moment, because we can

get very myopic about what's happening here in the United States. Yeah, So it's it's really interesting because you know, Netflix, for example, is a global business and you look of the content today and you're getting content from like all over the place, and a lot of it's really good and they've been doing really well with subtitles, and I think Disney needs to do the same thing. And especially India is a huge market for Disney plus hot Star, and it's a

very you know, deep movie focused UM consumer there. So you know, we've got to make content that really serves the different audiences UM that are are paying for Disney. But we also have to do it in a way that makes economic sense as well. And I think that is a real challenge that streamers face on an international level. UM. But for Disney's UM core UM movie and and production, most people around the world like that content, Americans and

everyone else. So Disney has a great position to leverage their content in every market. Russ Well, this news plaque hates Pelts. Well, he stepped back from what he's trying to do. Well, I think Pelts is misguided, and I wish him well, but he's attacking the wrong people and he's wrong about his basic premise of what's he's He's has Disneys in crisis, and I'm like, what are you talking about? Disney is about to take off. I don't think he has the skill sets that he would add

anything to the Disney board. And and I think he's going to make money anyways owning Disney, and we're long Disney and my fun g K as well as at my firm, and it's a top holding. But having I go back and the team that they have um at Disney, Uh, this is the ideal situation. And and I don't think breaking up the business like spinning off ESPN makes any sense. I love the sports business, So you know, I think Tiger is the right person to do this, and Pelts

is barking up the wrong tree. We wait for that share price recovery to follow suit. Then still fully four percent off as highs, but there's an optimistic Rosco over there. We thank you co Fouan Racio gober Kawasaki Wealth and

Investment Management. Meanwhile, let's talk about the competitor Netflix, because today said it's rolling out it's paid sharing feature to for new markets and the streaming services, announcing that Canada, New Zealand, Portugal and Spain can now add an extra member account for up to two people that they don't live with at a cost though, and that's of course, as it looks to stamp out password sharing outside of

the household. Netflix has not yet rolled out paid sharing here in the United States, but is expected to do so by the end of the first quarter. Read Yeah, I think that's a really specific micro look. Let's get back though and talk a bit more macros. Carry said earlier in the show. When it comes to tech, you know, a down day, but we're giving back what's been a

pretty long run of gains. So let's look at the historic performance and bring in Fidelity Director of Quantitative Market Strategy Denise Chisholm, who's been tracking this historical database going back to the nineties sixties. Her research informs the firm strategy across its portfolios, and of course Fidelity Asset has more than three point six trillion dollars in assets under management. It's really interesting, Denise, to to kind of sit here

with Airline. Each day we go through the blow by blow of the markets, what's driving the narrative on any given day. But even if you go back to just the start of the year, we've gone from this position of kind of worse to first the technology sector. Yet some of the fundamentals don't really back that up. Yeah, well, that often happens, especially you can see it through history where stocks follow earnings a lot of the time, but not all of the time, and a lot of cyclical

sectors can discount bad news in advance. And I think that this is what you're starting to see in technology now. What we saw last year, essentially downside leadership was really not just the rationale behind the fact that interest rates went up, inflation went up a hawkish, a more hawker

shederal reserve. It was also your starting point on relative valuation so versus the overall market, technology was really in the top quartile of its history, since we haven't seen anything like that back till two thousand and five, and that was really one of the key, you know, down to the key catalysts for the correction that we've seen

last year. A lot of that valuation on a relative basis has been worked off and left in this sort of muddy middle zone where technology is not the dominant sector that we've seen over the last decade, which were very supportive on relative free cash flow. But it's also not in that very very expensive land versus the market either. Okay, so what when it is relative where then gives up? Do we need to see the rest of the market and by that we mean basically not the growth stocks

but more of your energy names. And when we tried entrusted value companies to get a high evaluation, or do we need more pain to come in technology valuations? I think that there's a lot of different ways that you can work it off. You could also have a positive catalyst, meaning that the downside in margins is less than investors actually expect. And one of the catalysts historically is something that investors might be missing out on now, which is disinflation.

When inflation and decelerates, what you usually have is margins better than expectations. This is true in the overall working this is also true in technology. That's one of the reasons why you hear people say in a high inflationary environment, usually earnings recessions are less bad. It's not necessarily that inflation is good for margins, but it's because inflation is high and can decelerate that can provide a tail when for margins that isn't typical and the rest the rest

of history. Let's just talk. It's interesting. We've been talking to those that manage certain stock exchanges and we understand that perhaps not many I p O is becoming thick and fast or exits in the world of technology, but maybe performances there from some of these key companies. And we spoke to a deed of Freedman Nichals and just taking listen to what she had said about her optimism. I think that the big technology companies are have huge

opportunities in front of them. I think that they're leaning in as hard as they can. I think that they also are bringing the entire economy forward. So I'm a big believer in tech and big tech. So clearly, well, I'm sure it's a job which is ever seeing the ANSDAC to be a big believer in big tech. But ultimately, Denay's what about is the international big tech that you want to see out perform or do you think you

can be domestically focused. I'm interested on what you think as to whether dollar is going to be a driver or not go for it. I do think that you want to be domestically focused, and it's in part because of the dollar, but it's in part because, as you know, we just heard, they're better companies. When I hear a lot of comparisons going back to the dot com era, what's really important for investors to understand is during that time before the recession even hit, net margins were negative.

So not only our net margins positive even after the contraction, but there's still at the highest levels they've been since the nineteen sixties and my data set, so these are much much better companies and that secular trend is dominant in the US, so each cycle they've made more and more profit for cash flow, and I expect that that trend will greet convenience. Fidelity Director of Quantitative Market Strategy, Denise Chisum, a data cruncher chart watcher. Thank you for

going with my chart. If you didn't like it, I was going to blame John Author's, our markets editor, who I borrowed it from, but I think it was a hit, so we'll have you back on. Thank you very much for your time. Now coming up, Google's AI ambitions facing hurdles as concerns rise over its accuracy. Will bring you

the details next. And another stock we're watching Carriers. We had to break robin hood shares, interesting fourth quarter net sales, missing some interesting financials, and yet here we are five

percent higher and after hours. The big takeaway from me has got to be how the co found as are counseling what half a billion each of their share share based compensation, so clearly feeling that they have to pull back in terms of their own winds through this stock at the moment as they are still trying to right size this business overall, still losing a little bit in terms of a net lost a hundred and sixty six million. Given eye on all of these movers for you. Ed

from New York for San Francisco, visit Broomberg. It's early days, but Google's Bard has already hit a snack Shares a parent alphabet sank Wednesday after reports that a video posted two days earlier demonstrating Bard's AI powered search had an inaccuracy. In the clip posted by Google, Bard is ask what new discoveries from the James Webb Space telescope can I tell my nine year old about? In response, it says JWST took the very first pictures of a planet outside

of our own solar system, but that's not true. The first pick taking of a planet outside of our solar system was taken by the very large telescope array in Chile in two thousand four. Web was deployed at the end of one It is a setback for Google's challenge to Microsoft's work with open ai using the tech behind chat GPT to improve bing. Google's told me in a state, then this highlights the importance of rigorous testing, which you will start this week. Will also take on external feedback.

I mean the external feedback I was talking about is probably the market reaction right shares falling by the most since October. But there's kind of two key things, like this video came out on Monday and it took two days for journalists and the market to notice. But also, I mean, Alphabet and Google have always said this is

experimental right now, but the market's impatient. They're impatient, and it's funny that they let open ai own the fact that we're likely to see a lot of problems and inaccuracies. But Google always has a victim of its own success. It's the big brand. It doesn't want a front run and and go too quickly. It's interesting when we asked our own audience said when will Generator A I be

fully accurate? I thought most of actually say three to six months, because there's my own impatience, But actually most people are more sensible and they say, look, give it five to ten years. We've got to let them chew the data and get the accuracies out there. It sir, well, let's just get more details and bringing Bloomberg's Dave the album because I've been working with Davy on this all day long. Davy, we went over the basics of the story,

around the answer, around the telescope. But I guess let's start with what does this mean right now? For Alphabet and Google. What's their response been to what's been a pretty nuts market day and some skepticism around bard. Yeah, I mean I think Google's response has been Look, this is still in sort of testing mode right now. It's only open to a few trusted testers UM that have access with the company, and it's still ironing out the kinks.

You know. UM We've done some reporting that this is just not something that UM seems ready for prime time quite yet, which is why they're keeping it sort of under wraps um to the wider public at least for now. And sort of the irony and all of this is the reason perhaps open ai stole the oxygen in November and ran and able to sort of leave what it felt like Google for dust for a bit, was because Google realized the pr headache it might have if it puts something into the open and it got it a

bit wrong. The brand impact is far bigger. But now do you think the code read that they pulled is going to have to be still pulled and they're going to have to keep iterating in public. Yeah, I think to some extent the market pressures are something that they can't ignore anymore. At this point. Um, you know, there's a huge threat from open ai, and uh, you know, in the last day we found that it's not just you know, sort of the chat GPT, but they're integrating.

Microsoft is integrating a cousin of chat GPT into its search as well, so Microsoft Bing and its edge browser, and so this is already hitting at Google's core business search and they have to respond. So this is what what they're doing. The timing of this day is strange UM partly because this video was published two days ago, right, but there was also this big event in Paris today. What do we actually learn about the strategy from Google around AI? From that event? It seems like Google is

being very careful about rolling this out. So the event sort of gave a little bit more by way of demonstrations and examples of BARD. Uh. You know, we we saw it UM sort of showing what constellations you can look for in the sky for instance, or just like advice UM on very low stakes situations. So right now, BARD isn't a place where it can't give something like medical or legal advice responsibly. And Google is really sort of clamping down on the examples that it is willing

to show publicly. I think, you know, the key point for people to understand is that this these large language models, they're not really good for um consistently true statements. They only spit out statistically consistent statements, so phrases that appear together. And so that's kind of where we're at right now. Davy,

you break it down beautifully. Thank you. Davey alba Omas has won a lawsuit it filed against the digital artists behind meta broke in n f T s. That's after convincing a Manhattan federal jury that the sale of the non functual tokens violated earners as rights to the broken trademark. Now the announcement could be a bit of a setback

for the n f T industry. Is the case tested the blurry line between our or consumer products And ultimately this is all about a company trying to understand really who wins out digital artistry in the first Amendment, not so as manages to win out in this case. Welcome back to Bloomberg Technology. I'm Caroline hard in New York and i'md Lovelow in San Francisco and ad Uber shares today, who up as much as seven percent earlier after reporting

revenue climbing and up meat amass estimates. How has Uber been able to define in fraation fees while the CEO Darcosa, he talked all about it with Bloomberg earlier. Well, for us, what we're seeing is while there has been a downturn in terms of companies meet being more conservative in terms of their spend, the consumer is staying strong. Consumers spend

continues to be strong. And also we're benefiting from a shift of consumers spent from retail buying stuff when you're home to actually spend on services, going out to restaurants, traveling, etcetera. So Uber is absolutely benefiting from that, and that's why you've seen growth, bookings growth of on a constant currency basis, with the mobility business growing at record rates, getting to record levels, and delivery continuing to be strong as well.

So as long as the consumers say strong, I think Uber will continue to add on top of that the power of our platform, are being the number one brand of the business and are having the strongest tech team out there. It adds up to pretty good progress for us, and the indications that we gave going forward are of continued strengthree is off to a really great start. That's at j Pal said. Inflation is going to take a significant time to fight, no uncertain terms. What about when

prices catch up with consumers? What are you dar cause with Shaw he worried about when it comes to the bumpy parts of the road ahead. Well, we saw prices increase last year for Uber pretty significantly, but we're seeing the price increases modulate pretty significantly as we get into our surge levels are down. So in the US, for example, less than of our trips are surging. Our E t A s are much faster now, faster than five minutes on average in in the U S as well, So

we have to keep working to improve our service. And when we look at inflation, about seventy of our drivers are seeing that inflation is playing a factor in terms of their coming to earn money on the Uber platform. So some ways inflation maybe a tail wind to our supply. Better supply means less surge and lower prices for US. Now, Uber hasn't had widespread layoffs like some of your counterparts. I'm thinking door Dash at this point, would you promise

that doesn't happen. Well, running a company, you can make promises like that, right. We run the company based on our performance, as you in this quarter and what we indicated for quarters going forward. Our performance has been really robust, and we think you will continue to be a robust. That was Uber CEO Dara Kostra Shah. He let's continue the conversation. D A. Davidson and Co. Senior research analyst

Tom White joins us with more. Tommy got a by rating sixty dude on a price target it was interesting to see the upside on the bottom line, you know, a nice ebit dar beat. But they also talked about how they're kind of doing less on the incentive side for drivers. Are they getting the mix right now or is this just about improving macro conditions. Yeah, first off,

thank thanks for having me. You know, the quarter was really nice, um solid upside on both the top and bottom line, and specifically in both the mobility segment and the delivery segment. The first quarter guidance was also very strong and positive, um, you know, particularly on ebitda uh this. You know, if if they put up the number in the first quarter that we think they can, you know, it will be the seventh eight quarter where Uber has been able to show sequential improvement in in evin dot

dollars um. And you know, I think that's really kind of the super high level takeaway from the quarters that these guys are really executing on and certainly on on revenues of modnetization, but particularly on kind of costs and efficiencies um you know, so much so that they also gave the street um you know, a new kind of profitability milestone or objective to focus on this year, which

is which is gap operating profit. You know, that's that's after depreciation, as amorization, after stock based comp so you know, a real sort of high quality profit metric. Um, you know, relative to what they've shown so far, you know, in terms of positive ebada Oh Tom, for so many years we got hung up on ebitda when it came to Uber and left. You're saying, now forget about it, we're back to gap. Interesting. Um. Of course he's saying the

company taking market share. Do you believe him? Yeah, Look, would appear that that that's what's happening, uh in in mobility, uh, and maybe even in delivery too. You know, I think the mobility business group something like thirty seven percent FX neutral in the quarter. Um. You know, we'll see what Lift puts up in terms of their growth rate when they report here shortly, but you know we're forecasting I

think something close to growth in lifts business. Obviously it's a little bit apple st oranges because Uber's got an international presence in in in mobility, but it would appear that, uh, you know, they are gaining some categories share in in mobility, and then on the delivery side again, you know, Uber's geographically kind of far Flung in terms of its delivery business, but you know that accelerated the year over your growth rate accelerated in the fourth quarter of about a hundred

basis points to fourteen percent growth um. And you know all the underlying KPI s for that business were strong too, So it looks like that they're probably taking a category share kind of in both of those segments. Talk to us about your price target, because it is sixty two. That's well off where we are today, but it is actually where basically the price topped out up back in

what takes us there? Is it the here that now the macro the reality or do we have to go back to the big sky thinking the autonomous vehicles in the life. Yeah, look, it's it's a little bit of both. Not to cut out on the on the question there.

But you know what, when we look at Uber, what we see is a a large local commerce online marketplace business that is has established, you know, clear category leadership in in the mobility product, in that core mobility product, and you know on its way to you know, a long term kind of competitive strength in delivery as well. And generally speaking, online marketplace businesses once they achieve scale

and and and hopefully category leadership. You know, they can be highly profitable businesses, you know, EBITDA margins you know, well into the teens and and potentially higher. So you know, the sixty two dollar target I think gives them, you know, maybe a little bit advanced credit on kind of on on getting there, um, but on on revenue multiple. You know, it's only three and a half times next year's this year's revenues. I should say, you know, not um, you know,

not horribly aggressive. We don't think bring us back to reality of regulatory issues to how much of a concern are they how much is there an overhang for this year? Yeah, look, it's it's it's always a concern. Um. You know, I think generally speaking, um uh, you know, the risk is that you know that it that it's going to increase costs formed by Uber, and therefore Uber is gonna have to get more and more creative about how it um passes those costs on to consumers in the in the

form of higher prices. So far, when we look at markets or cities where there's been um higher costs or sort of a regulatory burden that's resulted in higher fees or search charges. We haven't really seen much of a detectable negative imp act down the business. You know that that won't us for you know, like they won't us forever if if if you use kind of continue to go up or the consumer starts to feel a pinch. But you know, so far, so good on that front.

You know, I'd say one thing I think mitigating the upward pressure on costs from some of these higher kind of regulatory burdens is just what's happening in the labor market and the fact that you know that there are people more people out there looking for gig work and and that's you know, cutting the coming to places like Uber and left to you know, to find earnings apportunities. Tom White, Great House in time with the d A.

Davidson and come senior research analysts. Thanks for your time. Meanwhile, coming up, we're gonna be talking about regularly overhanging Elsewhere, a major setback for microsoft sixty nine billion dollar takeover of Activision Bizzard. We discussed the hurdles it currently is facing in the UK, and you're going to look at a key company as well on the move. Yeah, I'm looking at so no shares in after hours up reiterating its fiscal twenty three outlook and beat on the top

line and beat on the bottom line. Interesting given how much competition there is in this space from the likes of Amazon through the Apple and Samsung now moving into home audio equipment and kind of these docking stations as well. But good performance in the quarter are just gone, which is their fiscal first shares up. This is Bloomberg. I

want to bring you another Bloomberg scoop from earlier. One of the world's largest cryptocurrency exchanges, Cracking, is embroiled in a probe by the SEC over whether it broke securities rules related to certain offerings to clients. The probe is in advanced stages, with announcements expected as soon as this week. According to sources, any action against Cracking could have significant ramifications for the industry. Caroline talking to ramifications, there are

some big ones. When it comes to a big deal at Microsoft billion dollar takeover of Activision Blizzard, it's hanging in the balance or because of UK regulators they're challenging the proposed deal. Shares of Activision have actually been falling as much as four percent after the news of US announced Let's stick into the details. Cecilia Dinastasio is here with us in the studio when we thank her hugely for it. What's the UK hung up on here? More

than others? The UK has hung up on the idea that allowing Microsoft to acquire Activision Blizzard would harm competition, particularly of competitors like Sony who compete with Activision Blizzard in the council market. To that end, are we seeing the fact that they are talking more directly about selling off certain labels Call of Duties that everyone thinks that would be forced to sell. Would they do you think? Is that what's going to be a rallying cry from

other regulators. One of the potential remedies that the CMA UM shared today was the idea that Activision Blizzard would divest from Call of Duty, which is its blockbuster video game. It brought in one billion dollars the latest installation in October within ten days of its release, and um, boo weed Activision Bills are doing a really tough earning season for a lot of gaming companies, so um, it's safe to say that Activision Bizard is not happy about that

suggestion at all. Cecilia, nice to see you, busy morning. For you and I, we've both seen that memo from CEO Bobby co Take Ryan. What's so interesting is he's clearly trying to normalize this as being just another step in an M and A process. That's a pretty consistent message from him. The other thing that jumped out at me is him talking about competition from the likes of Apple and Facebook, not other publishers. Why do you think

that is? It's really tough. I mean, gaming companies were for a long time considered their own segments away from tech companies broadly. But over the last decade, gaming companies and tech companies have more and more in common as they expand their businesses into I p into advertising, into all sorts of areas traditionally associated with companies like Apple

and Facebook, even social media. People socialize over video games, um, in some cases just as much as they do over Instagram, Snapchat, etcetera. We've just come out of a busy week of earnings in the in the video game industry, not just here in the US, but over in Japan. Was cernay as well. Activision was actually a bright spot. How did they perform?

Activision performed alright? Um, Like I said before, a Call of Duty really buoyed UM Activision's revenue last quarter because the last installment of the game really broke records, selling one billion within ten days of its release, and Activision had a forty three percent jump in bookings partially as a result of that during a time that's been really tough for a lot of other gaming companies. So, cecil As we asked you to work a little later to come on the show with us, just talk to us

about where next for this show. When next to the storyline? Are we waiting for other regulators to parle on the waiting for the US? Yeah, the US Federal Trade Commission did also sue to block the deal, so there are a lot of roadblocks in site for Active and Blizzard going forward. UM So the c m A is scheduled to issue a final ruling in April, and Microsoft can then actually appeal that decision. But the deal was scheduled to close in June, so it's possible that and maybe

even likely at this point that their deadline will get extended. Bloomberg, Cecilia d n Stasio, thank you so much for joining us the latest reporting. Let's get more on this story of John Freeman of c f R A. C f R A maintains a hold rating on the shares of Activision with the twelve month price target eighty three dollars a shared. John, you heard me talking to Cecitar about Bobby Kotak trying to normalize this, telling his staff this is just another step in the m M and a

timeline the procedure. Why then did shares full? Because I think that's a really great way to put ite. He tried to normal it, right, But this is not a normal situation. Um, I mean there, you know, I'm a covered a lot of heck, and there's been a lot of regulatory you know, opposition to things that I thought were over the top or unnecessary. This one's a pretty

good argument though. Microsoft does have a monopolistic position at dwopoli, you know, with Sony, so that you can argue that they have a monopolistic position, and they're why there is justification they want to use a third party that rests on that platform. Um, that's why they're buying Activision. So you're not allowed to use a platform of monopolistic position on a platform to unfairly compete against others. You know, Uh that our third parties on that platform or to

use it against other platforms unfairly. So that's the crux of it, and I think that's a pretty good argument right now, John, I appreciate you and not to merge arbitrage specialists per se that there is a premium right for your price target above where we're trading. Does any of this change your view on the likelihood of the deal? No, And think in fact, I think I've never seen such

a large thread umban. He doesn't mean I think that it's a signal, it's a the deal might not go through um because I've never seen a spread like this, an acquisition that's this large. You know, the share price offer was not about dollars a share, and it's been treating that it's treating down in the low seventies. So obviously there's a lot of you know, if you go by the wisdom of crowds right then you know there's obviously a lot of people who are betting against this

deal getting done. It was interesting talking about just how expensive would be if this deal did fall apart. It's it it's notable that they get a nice cast cash injection if it did all fall apart, but really Bobby Coat it clearly wants it to go through. He sees this as the right direction for his company. He does, and I think he and and very much so, but

I'm not sure he's gonna get there. Um you know, I I think that if there is you know, the concession of selling off call of Duty, that I think it's a non starting because how call of Duty is why Microsoft is buying it. The look at it as kind of a real proto metaverse kind of uh, you know, a way to build all the metamors, just the technology, but also the users and so forth. Um and and obviously it's it's you know, an incredibly profitable and popular

uh title. You know, the results speak for themselves. In the last quarter, you know, e A and take to Struggle well called them Duty you know, did really well. But you know, so I think that but for Microsoft to understanding their payment of three billion would be nothing for them. I mean they have over underbillion right in in growth cash, so you know, but it would be significant for Activision. So I think it's a you know,

it's it's not a bad consolation process. And Whision goes John Joey, having you one of the best backdrops, fill in a world of academia with you, Thank you, Joan Freeman, a c f R, A stay well nebron Zone. He's got a lot of titles, and now he has a new one, all time leading scorer in the NBA. Last night, the Lakers start surplassed the mark of thirty eight thousand, three eight seven points that was held by Kareem Abdul Jabar.

Now James has another impressive accomplishment apart from this. According to Bloomberg Billionaires Index, he's worth about one point one billion dollars. Now that's due to his basketball earnings plus sponsorships, investments, his own consumer and entertainment business and it's called spring Hill. But King James, he's really been reeling in, not only in some of the congratulations have come from what the likes of Rhianna, but also the fact that he managed

to manage his money, not just in e ts. Yeah, and it's a game recognizes game moment our beloved Warriors, Golden State Warriors here acknowledging that success. It's good for the l A Lakers as well because when Jabbar broke the record four he was playing for the Lakers as well. It's a double victory. But he's a king on the court and a king off it in terms of his business. And also start up Empire is really keen. I suppose Bench Capital investor. Yeah, if you look at it's Springhill Company.

What is it now about? Moments done? Hund an eighty million dollars is where it's valued at. He set that up with Maverick Carter. It's a video production company. I forgot that. Of course, he made a load of money in Beats as well that sold out to Apple. It's such an amazing amount. Yeah. And also just the brand image, right, you see him everywhere and this, frankly, is what everyone's been talking about on Twitter, TikTok and been searching for

on Google. No surprise, it's going viral. Well, meanwhile, that does it for this addition of bloombog technology. Come back tomorrow. We're going to be breaking down so many earnings for you from lift to PayPal, Expedia, ed and don't forget a lot to recap. Check out our podcast. You can get it on Apple Podcast, Spotify, iHeart and of course on the Bloomberg platforms. A lot for you to catch up on. This is Bloomberg