Macro picture is not looking good today. You get the costs of labor the moment coming in higherthanexpected and overall confidence from the consumer plunging. Meaning that we are not looking pretty heading into a Federal Reserve meeting that its tomorrow. The 10year yield is pushing higher, of course, with borrowing costs rising. Thats usually the trend. The dollar, stronger versus the yen, a complete verse from yesterday, it looks as though japan indeed had intervention into the markets to try to prop up again. Weaker against the dollar, bitcoin along with other risk assets on the downside, 60 1000 wrapping up to be a poor month of april, the worst since the ftx scandal, down some 16 and seeing a pretty poor month for stocks overall, nasdaq having its worst month since october. What do you think of the micro . Ed a lot going on, real quick, tesla is down. Mondays session, biggest jump since march of 2021 on fsd. We will dig into that later. Amd after the bell, how well above or below is it relative to expectations . Amazon, after alphabet and microsoft, cloud growth driven by ai, those stories are later in the program. The top story is paramount global. Ceo bob bakish is gone, replaced by a committee of executives. They release earnings. No one seems to care. The question is about earnings is about m a in the future. Trying to understand whats going on, i love the headline of your research, earnings a nonevent. Summarize what you learned last night. Yeah, the Earnings Call was kind of really bizarre. It was a 7, 8 minute call, one of the shortest i have ever seen in the history of media earnings. No questions from the investment community. Basically it was just the cfo outlining the details of the quarter and the threeperson committee giving a spiel. Yes, there were encouraging elements from the First Quarter results, but of course m a is top and center. Overall, i think the key take away is that this is peak uncertainty at paramount. We dont know what is happening with ownership or leadership other than it is this committee and its a stopgap arrangement and there is no clear clue as to the future direction or strategy. Caroline have you ever experienced this lack of clarity coming from leadership . Coming from the company itself . Yeah, this is a kind of oneofakind situation, caroline. Sherry redstone here is desperately trying to get a deal done with sky dance, which is why she had to get rid of bob bakish, who was opposing the deal vocally from the get go. You know, there is a looming deadline. May 3 is the day, friday, when the punitive exclusive negotiations and, so they are trying to do everything in their power to get to that finish line as quickly as possible. Caroline well, we dig into what is an evolving stock evolving story with decent streaming numbers. Lets continue the conversation with an expert in the field of media and, ultimately, knowing more on what this landscape is like. Former president of cnn, executive vp, you understand the internal workings of these kinds of companies. Putting it to you again, there is a Corporate Governance issue going on at the moment, but what should paramount be trying to do in terms of fundamentals right now . I have experienced this for, i was the Media Advisor to the tv show succession, mayhem was our middle name. If they had a plot twist that said they were going to dump the ceo two hours before earnings, i would have thrown it in their faces and said no way. Look, every acquirer feels that they can either grow an asset or squeeze additional profit out of the distressed parts or just sell off the parts. I wouldnt be surprised if David Allison feels that he lands in the growth camp. You know, hes young, hes energetic, he has excellent taste, i love some of the movies he has produced. He has jeff schell as a partner, who is a very savvy operator, as he was when he was ceo of nbc universal. I think the challenge for any Traditional Media Company in a landscape dominated by tech giants right . Apple, amazon, google, youtube alone counts for 10 of the tv viewing now on televisions. Not on devices. The tech giants are dominating the media landscape. And so, whoever ends up owning paramount has to think hard about that. They have to think about streaming as a strategy, you know . Because what streaming does is it unlocks ed i get that, they are Technology Companies good at technology. Caroline and i work quite discussing before the show, i like paramount, i like the streaming platform, i like halo, it was pretty good. I liked some of the paramount movies. Top gun is an example. The transformers movies. Who doesnt . Whats missing, then . Whats the fix . Jon i will tell you, ai. It powers the streaming and allows for smarter programming decisions with more precision targeted marketing decisions. My streaming platform has seen the costs of acquiring a customer drop from 34 to two dollars in one year time things Precision Targeting ai. David allison knows somebody who is pretty good at the ai piece of it, that is his dad. His dad is one of the investment oracles in this. If you add oracle ai power to some of the assets that paramount owns, you inch closer, anyway, towards the tech giants. They are not a giant yet, the market cap is 350 times smaller than the big boys. But you are headed in the right direction. That would be a smart thing for them to do. Caroline for you this is tech growth coming from sky dance media. A lot of investors have seen erosion in the value of nonvoting stock and frustrated that there wont be open to adding competition. Is there a more better way of doing this to get clarity from sky dance and then see what others say the reports of apollo or sony could add themselves . Jon sky dance needs to play it close to the vents in the short close to the vest in the short run. To think and up winning the prize as opposed to apollo or sony, they have got to lay out a strategy, which is what the street will be looking for. Ai cannot be ignored. It should obviously be a central part of things. Look, family controlled or single entity controlled companies invariably lead to this kind of messiness. Whoever ends up with that, at least you would hope that things , the operation would run more cleanly than before. Ed of all of the subscriptions that you can have, where does paramount rank . Jon im not alone in saying i churn constantly. Only 7 of people will tell you that they plan to stick with the streaming platform that they currently subscribe to this month question mark 93 of viewers intend to leave. That is because people watch shows and stars, not platforms. Its equally applicable to netflix and disney plus and all of them. So, you have got to think in terms of franchises that are driving the bus for a business. For paramount, the first one that jumps into my mind is the nfl. Nfl dominates viewership on whatever platform its on. Streaming, amazon prime, or traditional broadcast networks. News streaming services are also drivers of streaming and cvs just rebranded their streaming entity into cbs news 24 7. They have got to be thinking streaming first, direct to consumer first, customer first. Ed and the masters. If you could chunk off a divestment, what would it be . Jon the cable channels, they are just kind of hopeless. Theyve lost their luster. I think, you know, they tend to just play the same show 50,000 times in a row as a block. I like that as a consumer, i can just put on the office, but its a dwindling asset. Everyone knows it. Its not a surprise. They have had some offers for some cable channels in the last year. Part of that friction was that he didnt sell some of them fast enough or at all. But that is where you have it. Ed im just going caroline im going to go bigger, its so interesting, this Technology Story that you say needs to be injected. Apple, youve got a focus on the ai compartment. Broadly, do you think that this will be happening elsewhere in the industry . One where we think that m a or rejuvenation is needed in these legacy businesses . Jon look, the market cap gap is a norm us. The tech giants are 350 times bigger than even the biggest, most wellknown traditional Media Companies. Warner bros. Discovery, you know . Netflix, even, we have to start thinking about it as a Traditional Media Company, because they only thing they do is entertainment programming. Now they are introducing sports. They have no tech component, they have no theme parks to mitigate risk or anything. Pure media company. There is bound to be consolidation. If they are smart about pursuing ai and streaming opportunities, they become a more attractive merger or acquisition target as the smaller players come together. Ed joining bloomberg technology, they show available on a lot of platforms, alive and well, around for a long time, great to have you. [laughter] coming up, the intensifying tech war between u. S. And china days after elon musk reach that milestone on fst. That conversation, coming up. This is bloomberg technology. Ed the law requiring tiktok to divest or be banned could be a Pivotal Moment in what is an escalating rivalry between the u. S. And china in the context of technology. It would almost certainly had to the supreme court, which would have to weigh Government Security concerns against the free speech of a company and it is all but certain that china will retire he ate against the u. S. According to those who watch the Chinese Government sponsors closely. There is a lot to discuss right now in the relationship between china and the u. S. In the context of tech, into do that we bring in the ceo and founder of research at jail war and capital. Jl warren capital. A chinese giant, bytedance, saying they have no plan to sell or divest tiktok in the states, but it is somewhere the states are not going to accept. Your view on that outcome . Its inevitable that the two entities through u. S. Operations will be separated through the parent. They are way too rich in content and sensitive. By the same token, i think the recent announcement of tesla by duke is very specific as a situation. Broadening the escalating tension between the u. S. And china. Caroline thats interesting, it feels as though there are two different narratives. If you are a Company Already within china who can do their ship within china, as we have seen tesla and baidu, for example, you will be allowed to continue and thrive, potentially. But others, this will not be occurring. What do you think about these Chinese Companies trying to make their presence known in the United States . Temu, for example. Will that be allowed, or is it casebycase . Junheng its ok if you are small and under the radar. When you get to a certain scale and draw attention it become sensitive, topical, political. That broad Political Tension is happening and is unlikely to be resolved anytime soon. Ed junheng, your specialty, your research is largely on u. S. Companies with exposure to china. What was your reaction to tesla getting tentative approval for fsd . Junheng i think the market runs ahead of itself by so much. The partnership, you could call it a milestone. Its really light in the terms. Think about 25 years ago when ford, gm, mercedes came to china. They needed to have a joint venture in order to gain the license or ability to manufacture and sell cars in china. In this case, its kind of similar. Tesla is a foreign entities. To be able to collect data and to do what it does in the u. S. , it needs a local partner. In this case, it is baidu. It cant be anyone. Baidu will be scoring other data on the road and supervising the data usage. Before the data gets returned to tesla or for foreign computing. What we do not know, and which is critical to this puzzle, is how the data will be computed. Onshore or offshore, using what capability. Thats the critical sort of peace thats missing. The market just runs ahead of itself. Caroline its such an interesting point. To the question on partnership, my study of the chinese autonomous driving landscape, baidu has its own ambitions for autonomous driving. Tesla could have gone with anyone, as you point out. Why do you think they went with baidu as opposed to another robotaxi company . Junheng it could be anyone. Baidu is just the gate keeper on the behalf of the government. What is also unknown is if the kickoff of this fsp program in china, whether it is broadly applicable to all tesla vehicles on the road in china or just applicable to a demos fleet, about a couple of dozen, you know, driving baidu stuff, supervising, understanding Data Collection assessed thats unknown and critical. Caroline critical for its longerterm value as a business standing apart from other Auto Companies and legacy businesses because of its ai plan. Im therefore interested if you think theres more value there going on between tesla and china or if that is a sacrifice that ultimately has to be made. Junheng in china, tesla is not a leader in fst or autonomous driving, because it didnt have the license to collect data. It doesnt have the data. Whereas the competition, hallway juawei, others, they have driving systems on the road. They use the nvidia orange chip with inhouse coding. That is there respective solution. So, i think the partnership is beijing expressing a sort of relaxation of discrimination against american companies, saying now we allow you to have access to the data under the supervision of a chinese entity. You can make good use of the data so that you are on will footing with your competition in china. Thats the extent of it. Caroline an interesting landscape that you continue to bring clarity on,. Clarity on, junheng li. Thank you. Top analyst earnings estimates after a chipmaker division returned to profitability. They had been leading a surgeon spending on ai services. Up 1 . This is bloomberg technology. Hey you, with the small business. Whoa. Youve got all kinds of bright ideas, that your customers need to know about. Constant contact makes it easy. With everything from managing your social posts, and events, to email and sms marketing. Constant contact delivers all the tools you need to help your business grow. Get started today at constantcontact. Com constant contact. Helping the small stand tall. How am i going to find a doctor when im hallucinating . What about zocdoc . So many options. Yeah, and dr. Xichun even takes your sketchy insurance. Xichun, xichun, xichun youve got more options than you know. Book now. Caroline colleges in the United States, many confronting prodem and propalestinian demonstrations on campuses with campus life really thrown into turmoil as the Academic Year comes to a close. Columbia in new york, and dozens of students barricaded themselves in Hamilton Hall on tuesday, covering security cameras. We want to go live to columbia university. On the ground is scarlet fu. Making it clear, this is happening in the u. S. , europe, outside German Parliament at the moment, at the sore bone. Its a global element. What is happening on the ground right now with you . Caroline scarlet this is ground zero for the propalestinian protest three sweeping the world. Dozens entered Hamilton Hall. One of the banners says free palestine. Another one says intifada. They are occupying the building and have covered security cameras with black trash bags. This is a building that is of course story to because it has a history of student occupation. 1960 eight, students protested against the vietnam war. 1985, students took over to demand that they divest from companies that do business in south africa during apartheid. From that they are taking inspiration in making demands this time around. Its clearly an escalation from the encampments that students set up about two weeks ago on the south lawn in front of Hamilton Hall, when the president of columbia testified before congress. The school gave the students a deadline of 2 p. M. Monday, yesterday, to clear the encampments. Some did, but some chose to double down. Ed specifically, what are they demanding . I just dont get it. Scarlet they want financial transparency when it comes to the endowment that columbia has, as well as divestment. Divesting from Israeli Companies and companies that do business with the israeli government. Easier said than done, given that they dont invest in bonds directly. They invest in hedge funds and hard assets. Its difficult to untangle all of that. Ed scarlet fu on the ground in columbia. Thank you. Well be right back. This is bloomberg technology. You dont have to worry about things like changing tax rates or filing returns. Avalarahhh ahhh caroline we welcome our bloomberg audiences worldwide to discuss whats occurring at paramount. We will shine a light on how shares have been trading lower after firstquarter earnings beat expectations. But what has taken the focus of a wall street is the ceo, bob bakish, stepping down and being replaced by a trio of executives, now dependent seemingly on an interim basis to lead paramount amid an ongoing speculation over a deal with sky dance. We want to get to a key longterm investor and paramount who has been in there since 2006, who believes in the streaming opportunity and value of its content, john rogers, the coceo. You have been throughout this business in its many integrations. First i want to focus on growth being borne out by the business and streaming thanks to the super bowl, overshadowed by the departure of bob bakish. What did you make of the new the move . It was shocking to us. We hadnt seen anything remotely like this. Its extraordinary. It cannot be good for shareholders to have all of this uncertainty in earnings season. In the middle of a merger and acquisition transaction. You are negotiating charter communications. All of these important things are happening at once. You need the ceo in place. This has been very disappointing, disheartening. In the context of what you said, business has been Getting Better. A lot of the initiatives that bob and his team have worked on are starting to show fruition. The timing seems extremely problematic. Lets caroline lets talk about why bob bakish exited. He felt that the, supposedly, the negotiations were not in his agreement. Sherry redstone, t