Good monday morning, welcome to squawk alley joining us this morning, Roger Mcnamee, elevations partner cofounder. A lot to get to with roger today. Speaking of which, the dow kicks off the week in the green, but while were in the midst of this record run, some are questioning if a top is near we want to pose that question to you, roger, because youve been kind of skeptical about this runup for a while now i wonder if you think youre hypersensitive to signs of a top. Well, you know, its funny, carl my sensitivity is based on just looking at the situation, you know, politically and how all of that relates to markets. To my mind whats going on right now is very simple, you know, we have a massive tax cut thats running its way through congress, and i think the market is making a really good judgment that in all probability some portion of that tax cut is going to go through and thats going to reward investors in a big way. Now, does that make the top . It could easily do so. This could be a classic case of buy the rumor, sell the news from my perspective, again, im more defensively postured than some, simply because i find the whole geopolitical situation relative to trade, relative to employment, relative to just general geopolitics could be troubling, and, you know, in my mind that says i want to be more protected against a downside but fortunately, you know, im a tech investor, so the things that im along have been things that have performed well, so i havent missed the market. That said, i do think people need to be smart, but in all probability, there is going to be a big, big tax cut, and, you know, i wouldnt call it 100 , but i think its the most likely outcome. Roger, what do you make of this wave of at least potential consolidation we see sweeping particularly chips right now you know, youve got broadcom trying to take on qualcomm youve got marvel now, whats driving that do perhaps some of these companies sense they need to use their currency now or that growth is going to be hard to come by . Well, john, i think one of the core elements going on here is that there has not been any kind of pushback against tech mergers, and so as a result i think they realize that they have a level of freedom that is unusual in a historical context, and so many of the Big Companies are seizing that history suggests that big chip mergers, in fact, dont add a huge amount of value, so im not sure what the Investment Case for a lot of these things is, but i can see easily why the bankers like them, because the fees are huge. From the perspective of the selling companies, you know, its an opportunity to take your money and go to the beach. Roger, so gaming, graphics, self driving cars, internet of things, you dont buy those things what no, no, i look at this and i go, you know, i think theres a Bright Future for the Chip Companies in the sense that there are a lot of new things to sell products into, but i also think we look around at whats going on in global trade and say there are levels of uncertainty in global trade today that we havent seen for 20 years, and i think there is justifiable concern about, you know, what the relationship between the United States and china will be, and if youre a large chip company, the opportunity to get a lot larger provides some level of protection against that, both in the form of diversification and, frankly, your ability to have the kind of meetings with the Chinese Government and u. S. Government that you would want to have if things are strained in my mind, these are all understandable im not sure the economic case is going to be that big of deal, but i think the political case for consolidation is very strong just to bring in another big picture theme here when it comes to how this market performed, Goldman Sachs put out a note saying expect four Interest Rates next year. 2018 is going to be another solid year for the u. S. And the global economy, and i just wonder how much that factors into this discussion about the top. Technology has been one of the key beneficiaries, whether its chips, fang stocks, or other Companies Like a paypal thats up 100 and how much of a risk that is. Roger . Its a great question, sara, because if you look at the tech sector, most of the Big Companies have huge cash reserves they borrow money when they buy stock back, but for the most part they have huge cash reserves, so they are relatively speaking not going to be harmed by rising rates, but obviously, the stock market is going to take a hit if we have four rate increases next year, andso again thats just one more thing going on that i think investors need to be smart about im not going to pretend to have a crystal ball i got conservative earlier than i needed to be and so im not going to pretend to have Perfect Vision today either. Well, viewers already pointing it out for better or worse, roger, because they do Pay Attention to what you say. By the way, they are right to one of the points, carl, that i always make, i make my own choices, they need to make their own choices. Im not going to be right any more than they are thats why its a market and thats the beauty of it. Speaking of trade, roger, the trump white house, theres a story in the journal they are making it harder for businesses to hire certain Foreign Workers. Applications for the high skilled visa program, h1b have been scrutinized, one in four have been sent back from july and august h1bs, of course, heavily used by tech firms. When you think about trade, you say the level of uncertainty is at a 20year high, but are the fears some had around the time of the election actually come to pass well, i think relative to things like immigration, yes and i think this is a really in my mind this is one of those things that leaves me scratching my head, because the problem we have is a mismatch of skills you know, in the economy we have a shortage of nurses, we have a shortage of ph. Dlevel technical people, and those are things we can help to solve using immigration. And the argument against bringing in critical skills, in my mind, is purely political theres no economic justification for it and if i were the Trump Administration, this is one of those places where i would ignore whatever the Campaign Promise was and just do the right thing for the economy. I think they might argue that they are focused on the lower paying high skilled visas that come in through h1b and there is a displacement of American Workers and they dont want to prioritize Foreign Workers for jobs that americans can do that would be the argument and the pushback i understand the argument i think, though, thats not actually whats going on and, you know, i think if you look around many of these companies, youll see that their job boards have lots and lots of openings, many of which go unfilled for long periods of time, so i dont think for the most part that what were dealing with in at least the medium and high skilled portions of the market, which is, frankly, where most of the tech stuff is, these are people who are skilled programmers, people who do have talent youre right they are not being that well paid, but they certainly have some training theres a lot of it in the emphasis outsourcing, right . Outsourcing firms, too. Amen. I want to ask about the Startup Visa Program that looks like the Trump Administration is rolling back what kind of sense does that make to you . Because this is supposedly folks who have gotten a quarter Million Dollars worth of funding, it kind of extends their ability to stay for 30 months what is the rationale for pulling back on that people who are at least arguably innovating so, john, i dont see it. Again, i think your point about the outsourcing firms is certainly one that deserves real scrutiny, but when i look at startups, graduate students, when i look at people with ph ph. Ds, when i look at people with nursing degrees, those are all things where we have shortages. Right now startup activity in the United States is the lowest its been at since 1978, and we should be encouraging more startups, not discouraging them i dont know how to get the policy exactly right, but i know that killing off that part of the economy is not going to make us stronger. Yeah. Speaking of startups, of course, tesla was once one elon musk teasing this special upgrade over the weekend to the new roadster supercar, hinting the car may be capable of briefly flying with a price tag of a quarter Million Dollars hows this getting talked about out there . Well, i can tell you, if you drove down the street that goes to my house, you know, 0 to 60 in two seconds, whatever that thing does, youre going to hit a pothole and be flying for sure i dont think you need that car. At that speed anything would fly because the roads have all these potholes in them listen, i think elon musk is the most entertaining, wonderful entrepreneur of our time, and his ability to change the subject is simply without peer obviously, there are issues in the manufacturing side relative to the model 3, and at the end of the day hes got to be able to make those cars, but it is just unbelievable how he comes up with these ideas. And he does deliver them he has trouble manufacturing lots of volume unbelievable we might have hit a top in elon musks self proclaimed hype when hes talking about a flying car, which is an idea that he himself pushed back on not too long ago. Really listen, carl, im completely with you, but hes so much fun to watch and the reality is, tesla is an amazing brand. The products are extraordinary, and i totally get the enthusiasm i do also, though, as an investor, look at this and go, dude, you got to figure out how to make the model 3 and ship them youve collected all of these deposits, right . And hes probably going to be collecting deposits for flying cars, too, and at some point youve got to deliver against them i have no doubt hell figure that out, and i just hope he does before investors get tired of him i just love the man. Stock is up were down 21 , roger, from the september high i know, but the stocks still 300 you know, you look at this and you go its not like he doesnt have more room on the downside i simply look at this and go, if you look at the overall moves in the stock, 20 is practically at the noise level. It is he really is an amazing entrepreneur, and, you know, you sit here and hes one of those people that, you know, if you had todays bias on immigration, you know, we might never have gotten him and that would be tragic so i look at elon musk and just go, you know, you go, dude i hope he figures it out again, im not a player in the stock, because i dont get cars, but he is just a delight hes the p. T. Barnum of this day and age and i just love watching him. Yeah, barnum thing sort of gets read both ways, roger i think your points well made i think thats exactly right, but the truth is, hes extraordinarily entertaining and he makes great cars. And thats a hell of a combination in this economy. Roger, good stuff good to see you again. Always a pleasure Roger Mcnamee have a happy thanksgiving, everybody. Same to you, same to you. When we come back, uber unveiling a partnership with volvo. How the ridesharing firm stepping up its push into Driverless Cars that 6 billion chip deal in the marks with marvel. And the war for amazons new hq continues. We are live in one of the cities with a pretty good shot, they say, at scoring atth highly coveted deal when squawk alley returns. whoo woman class, lets turn to page 136, recessive traits skip generations. molly i reprogrammed the robots to do the inspection. Its running much faster now. See . Its amazing, molly. Thank you. some breaking news on that keystone pipeline. The xcel finally got approval from nebraska regulators basically was the last major hurdle in connecting this pipe that goes all the way from alberta down to the texas gulf coast. Interesting, guys, nebraska regulators were not really allowed to factor in safety, despite the spill we had in the last couple of weeks, because thats the purview of the federal government this is going to be a big chance for the white house to claim a win as keystone is now possible. A lot of people have been waiting a long time for this one. And well see whether its a job creator, thats the argument theyve been pushing for this. In the meantime, out to Julia Boorstin good morning, julia. Good morning, sara. Theater stocks with another disappointing weekend with warner bros. Falling short of expectations bringing in just 96 million over the weekend in north america. Thats 14 million less than analysts expected. Amc and imax shares are both down over 3 regal and cinemark down over 2 after stocks made gain on friday hoping Justice League would lead a box office turn around Box Office Still down 4 to date back to you. Hoping for another avengers, looks like they got another fantastic four thank you, julia potential consolidation, at least in the media industry, showing importance of owning content in deals like at t plus time warner and fox plus someone, perhaps on the growing importance of programming and tech platforms, joining us dominic del por vendi content chairman last saw you in barcelona and at the time snap was about to go public and you were bullish on it im still bullish okay, explain because i think every platform has a dna, and the dna of snapchat is very different from all the other platforms engagement is unique, 70 of the people on the platform are producing content every day. This is, again, unprecedented. Then, disclosed 12 in the platform and when you are backed by a chinese subscriber with 800 million subscribers, you can be quiet and not too worried about your future. I appreciate the double down. You are working on shorter form content, tenminute kind of high grade content. Its familiar. Youre not the only ones, you know, Jeffrey Katzenburg also trying to raise money to do the same why is that important right now . Im sure jeffrey will agree, we were first in that race and when i present the first prototype, he loved this, great job, go on it will raise 2 billion, but when we start two years ago, the idea was that 70 of the conception of video would be on mobile thats already the first treat and there is no premium content designed for mobile. Theres a lot of content and we can watch you guys, we can watch the late show, comedies, sketch, so on, but when its about premium scripted, nothing has been done. That was our statement lets do this. Lets create a new format, ten by ten, ten episodes, ten minutes and has producers and the new generation of creators to do something not as expensive as game of thrones or the biggest tv series, so we are literally less expensive than jeffreys project, which is 100 a minute we are producing premium shows the great news of today is weve been nominated for the emmy award, its going to be tonight, but out of the four premium short series, two of them are from studio plus, and we launched the app last week in the u. S. Today were 5 million in some countries in europe where we launched ten months ago. Its a longterm project, longterm bet, but were convinced there is a new market for this content when were talking the cost of production and marketing, 100 minutes is a movie absolutely. Is it comparable to a 10 million movie . Yes you can do great movie with less budget than the Justice League moonlight has been awarded with a 1. 5 million movie i see the economics are changing and they have to, because blockbuster doesnt mean necessarily a huge return. What were trying to do is bring on the new generation of talent to produce in a shorter time period, as well. Its a tenmonth project, so huge preproduction, shooting of four weeks instead of 16 weeks, so everything is, but for the audience its a great intimate show would you expect consumers to watch most of it at once what we have seen already with our first subscriber is the user downtime, like commuting time, one episode on one way, the other episode on the other way, in a way people are overwhelmed. Its all the tv series they have to watch and they cant stay all night long watching series we enable them that indulgent time hi a question for you about the advertising world and the megamergers being discussed, at ttime warner if its allowed to go through. I think what we need to understand is the consequences of the two world there is a free content world and paid content world the paid content is subscription base wants to launch a new netflix platform in one year and moving like the paid tv world where your question sits with a free content world. All the content that is fully funded by advertising. What we have to see is that tv is still a 70. 11 billion market in the u. S. , and i know the google and facebook of the world are obsessed by tapping into that big amount of money to fuel their growth, so i dont know whats going to be the consequences of the mega merger, but for sure, two big players. So what do you make of whats happening with the likes of buzzfeed, which has grown huge i believe nbcuniversal and comcast has an investment with them, but they are missing revenue targets in a way people didnt expect. There seems to be pressure in the Digital Content business on the cost side and Revenue Growth side hows this going to shake out . There was an article last week about that. I think, yes, its true. Google and facebook are literally representing a kind of monopoly it was 103 of the growth last year in digital, so its very hard for users to find revenues. What you need compared to buzzfeed is having a multiple stream revenue like vice where you do digital, tv, content, and original that you can sell with your broadcast network all over the world. So you need to have these multiple Revenue Streams because digital only is going to be tougher and tougher. Some tried to blame buzzfeeds troubles and mashables troubles on the pivot to video do you think thats going to end up looking smart or not . I think that if you are just producing text