Squawk alley. Im Carl Quintanilla with john fortt. Retails are stories once again, with Online Shopping soaring to a record 5. 3 billion on black friday alone cyber monday is set to possibly become the biggest internet shopping day in history. For more on that we send it out to our Courtney Reagan whos at Amazon Warehouse in robbinsville, new jersey hi again, court. Good morning to you, carl cyber monday has always been a really big day for amazon, but now that they have the prime day, they are going to have to beat their own record in order for it to be the biggest day of the year for amazon. You can see were in this Fulfillment Center in new jersey and its just one of 75 of amazons Fulfillment Centers like this in the country here it covers a million square feet there are 14 miles of conveyer belts running 24 7 thousands of both human employees, as well as robots fulfilling those cyber monday orders last year amazon said 64 million items were ordered on its website. They are not giving a forecast to expect today, other than saying cyber monday is typically one of the biggest days of the year now, dan ives, who is an analyst, thinks that as much as 50 of all ecommerce sales on black friday go to amazon. That would overindex a typical day when we see about 44 of ecommerce sales happening on amazons site. When you think about the overall picture, today could be a record day if adobes predictions come true they are looking for 6. 6 billion to be spent online in the u. S. That would be 14. 5 above what we saw last year but watch whats going on with mobile shopping. Only about onethird of purchases are happening on a mobile device, which is the same as last year, so retailers need to be paying careful attention to make sure that they are still maximizing performance on the desktop. Remember the reason we had cyber monday in the first place, when folks went back to work and were able to shop on their work devices, their laptops, rather, with that fast Internet Connection so were going to watch website performance today, so even though retailers stress test those websites under extreme conditions, things happen. For example, we saw h ms website go down three times over the weekend. Lowes website was out for some period of time on black friday, and even beyond the credit card Processing Systems macys was having in store, there were some probation repor probati reports of shoppers having trouble checking outonline amazon has rarely had outages, and it hasnt been on one of the peak shopping days very lucky for this very big retailer melissa, back to you thank you, Courtney Reagan, delving deeper into cyber monday sales. Online transactions from the top 100 u. S. Retailers joining us now, adobes mickey ma marigold, as well as jean muenster ill kick it off with you. Cyber monday is supposed to be the biggest, bestest cyber monday in mankinds history. How does that compare . Does this pull forward sales that we would have seen tuesday, wednesday, thursday, friday this week you know, cyber monday has always been the big daddy of the holiday ever since it started for Online Shopping, and that continues this year. Were kicking off with a strong start, and expect were at 840 million, just day to day, and were on our way to 6. 6 billion. And, gene, youve been tracking retailers like walmart and target because you want to see how the iphone x is doing. How is it doing . Well, its been what the big retailers have led with, so we meticulously went through what the promotions have been over the last few days and target, for example, had 30 off an iphone 8, best buy also led with iphone walmart, i would say they have to pull it together, because they were deceptive how they had this 300 promotion on iphones when, in fact, there was almost no inventory we could find probably an old trick, but walmart was more aggressive with that bottom line is this, the iphone seems to be in good shape, but i do have a question for mickey, these really impressive black friday and thanksgiving numbers, i mean, are we essentially just pulling from cyber monday . Should we see a dip here on monday i dont think so. Were really seeing that the retailers are highlighting different discounts, so you did see the best consumer electronic deals on friday. Todays really going to be a big toy discount day there will be electronics, as well, but they wont be the deep discounts weve seen theyve gotten good at optimizing specific categories to be discounted on specific days mickey, clarify this for me on mobile, because some stats are that im seeing say that mobile is making a big push this year, that its a bigger share, that Conversion Rates are better, but then im hearing mixed messages how big has mobile been black friday and through the weekend how big do you expect it to be this year . Is android closing the gap with iphone and are Conversion RatesGetting Better so, let me unpack a couple things there so what we are seeing this year for the first time is that mobile visits are becoming the majority of visits soar have tus desktop. So were at 53. 6 of traffic from mobile devices. While there is a gap with closing on the sales, its remarkably closing, that gap is closing remarkably this year so weve got a 21 growth year over year in mobile visits we have got a 41 growth year over year in mobile sales. So were seeing 53 of traffic coming and 40 of sales. So that gap between the visits and the sales is closing rapidly. People are really figuring out how to use their mobile devices, and i think to the point courtney made earlier, retailers are figuring out how to optimize their sites for mobile in a way so the two come together and what were seeing is actually people finishing transactions 10 faster than they did last year so from the visit to sales thats amazing. Yeah, just getting people to navigate is a big issue. Gene, the other thing that occurs to me, you look at the Growth Numbers and they are astounding weve really heard limited number of examples where servers were down, access to the website was down i wonder just how much work some of these retailers did getting these operations ready for a day like today its a ton of work. They were preparing from the summer on for this for these big spikes the good news is, they are able to do the load balancing now, which they couldnt a few years ago, so were seeing less of that i want to quickly put in perspective some of these numbers, too, for amazon if, in fact, cyber monday holds up at this 18 growth, theres going to be upside to the overall numbers for the industry, the ecommerce industry theres going to be upside to the amazon numbers for december for the unit growth rates and keep in mind this is the number that always blows me away, still only about 15 of stuff in the u. S. Is bought online. Were going to have the same conversations the next few years. Upside potentially for apple, as well, gene . I think so. I mean were still seeing even though supplies improved the iphone x, its still relatively tight. Were not going to reach supply demand equilibrium until the march quarter. Thats good news for investors because some of the demand gets pushed into march and i would look for positive guidance its still early to be saying that, but i think thats how the supply is setting up, it should be favorable for the march guidance for apple gene, thanks. Our thanks to you, as well, mickey thank you when we come back, the Koch Brothers backing a nearly 3 billion bid to buy time inc. Were going to talk to time editor Walter Isaacson and kara fisher about the deal. Later an exclusive with ken griffin. You do not want to miss that and records across the board now for the dow, the s p, and the nasdaq squawk alley continues in just a minute [lance] monica, it is absolute chaos out here gale force winds, accumulations up to 8 inches. Dont know if you can hear me, but [monica] whats he doing . [lance] can we get a shot of this cold front, right here. Winter has arrived. Whooo hahaha [vo] progress is an unstoppable force. Brace yourself for the season of audi sales event. Audi will cover your first months lease payment on select models during the season of audi sales event. At tmobile, when you holiday together, great things come in twos. Right now when you buy any of this seasons hot new Samsung Galaxy phones, you get a second one free to gift. Thats one samsung for you. One to give. Tmobile. Holiday twogether. Publisher meredith is buying time inc. Valued at 2. 8 billion, bringing magazines like s. I. , Time Magazine, people, and better homes and gardens under one roof merediths offer is backed by billionaires charles and david koch for more lets bring in kara swisher, along with Aspen Institute ceo and former managing editor of Time Magazine, Walter Isaacson. Morning, guys, good to see you both morning walter, its quite a deal did you ever envision this day well, no. Of course, its a storied empire, time incorporated. I was there for more than 25 years. Its good that its a heartland company, i do worry about the structure of this deal and wonder if a company like meredith that specializes in family and womens magazines like better homes and gardens is going to want to keep time and fortune. That will be an interesting thing to watch, whether or not time or fortune would be put up for sale and that might be an indication what the Koch Brothers involvement may or may not be Sports Illustrated, as well, i would imagine. Kara, whats this mean in the broader universe of media, digital media, whats happening right now in the disruption in advertising . Do you expect to see a feeding frenzy among some of the titles meredith might not want to keep . I dont think its a feeding frenzy Time Magazine is an iconic magazine, so is the entire empire, but its been a long, slow fall since path finder, as far as im concerned i dont imagine its as big a deal as people are making it because i dont think these titles had been as relevant as they had been about a decade now at least walter worked there during the most golden era of that kind of thing, and its passed so i wonder theyll probably be sold off, but you have Rolling Stone for sale, all kinds of magazines for sale. Exactly, so what does it mean i dont know. It means people dont read magazines anymore and they get their information elsewhere, so the question is, whos going to be buying these, whos going to be reading these magazines, how do they make them relevant for the present, or brands just die. Thats just the way it goes, unfortunately for this one, which has, you know, served this country really well as a title, Time Magazine is, as i said, iconic, but i dont know if its going to be a feeding frenzy where everybody wants to get ahold of it. I doubt thats the case. Carl, can i make another point for a second of course which is when i was at time inc. And Time Magazine, the jewel in the crown was the tens of millions of people in the database and as we moved online, got the credit card numbers, their emails, that was the type of thing youre watching and amazon, its acquisition of whole food, partly loyalty programs, whos in your database, and if im looking at what could be very valuable, even if you look at what the Koch Brothers own, they own i360, which is a Political Data analytics firm, so part of what is going to be in that empire is everybody who has bought a Christmas Ornament from martha stewart, to better homes and gardens, people who play golf and get the Sports Illustrated edition, those type of things could be valuable in a Digital Future they certainly could be, kara, i would imagine, but when you look at that sort of database, to your point, kara, what type of people are in the database are these the most desirable customers and the demographic anybody wants, or can you just buy that information from another place that might be more relevant for the goods that youre trying to sell . Yeah trying to do politics, its a little bit different sorry you know, time would try to do that under the recent ceo rich batista. Trying to do commerce, a lot of things using that database, and that is whats attractive in this deal, to marry it into the Koch Brothers other databases they have, Political Databases, all kinds of things. So, you know, unfortunately with a lot of these titles, people and time and fortune, theyve still got a resonance. What would i do if i had Fortune Magazine they have the great conferences, they have a great brand, theyve got some amazing reporters i think about that, but i dont think about it in the price ranges they used to be worth, and formatting them in the way they used to present information. So i think its got to be a creative person buying one of those titles or they just fade away, as did life magazine and other things yeah. I mean, theres the live business, kara, as you point out. Theres the franchises, the time 100, fortune 500 obviously, the swimsuit issue for s. I. The combined company would have the sixth largest u. S. Digital audience i cant believe they are buying these things just to jettison them away. Probably not, and the brands are iconic i think kara is right, its been a struggle and i was there at the very beginning of the struggle but watched it from afar the past ten, 12 years, to bring it into the digital age. One of the things kara is an expert on is combining conferences, databases, inperson events, online things like recode is for kara, and we tried that early on with the time 100 i do think that the fortune brand is very good in the conference space, so somebody who could marry conferences, databases, good reporting, good journalism, online magazines and print magazines could make a good go of it, especially with the iconic brands that meredith may not want, which is Sports Illustrated, fortune, and Time Magazine. Walter, you want to buy it with me . We could try something yes, id love to do that. Actually, every now and then i wake up in the evening and, you know, at night and say, as you just did about fortune, wouldnt it be fun to have these brands again, what would you do to make them relevant in the 21st century sounds like a feeding frenzy to me starting here on squawk alley. Other people are dreaming it. Kara, a lot of thereports about the deal today focus on the koch influence would be influence of course, the company says no influence on editorial or managerial operations. How serious a question is it i dont believe them. I think they are not telling the truth. Thats ridiculous. You dont buy a media operation if you dont want some influence, you know, its just okay, all right. If they say so you know, again, i think its i think a lot of stuff when it comes out in these press releases did you laugh when you read that, or not . Maybe its just me i think you buy these media brands in order to have media influence. They could do Something Interesting with time, but certainly going to be different. Again, as i reiterate, a lot of this happened a long time ago, and walter remembers this with path finder. When they failed there and failed with aol and tried nine different digital this has been going on. This has been a long, slow fall down a very long digital stair case that has happened again and again. So this is just probably inevitable its a very good price, so people on the board should be happy they got the price up. Obviously, the kochs didnt buy it for not having influence. Well see what they do with it, but its theirs now and its merediths to figure out what to do with it or sell pieces off. Well see where it goes from here if you guys do that deal, were going to play this tape back and we want partial credit. Kara swisher youll get your 10 finders fee if we wake up tomorrow and buy the storied titles kara swisher, thanks so much for joining us i dont have any money. All right, still to come, Details Behind whats fuelling the video game console comeback this Holiday Shopping season were going to speak with the head of Sonys Playstation Network next plus, dont meet my exclusive interview with andy jassy wednesday right here on squawk alley. Were back in a moment you always pay your insurance on time. Tap one little bumper, and up go your rates. What good is having insurance if you get punished for using it . News flash nobodys perfect. For drivers with accident forgiveness, Liberty Mutual wont raise your rates due to your first accident. Switch and you could save 782 on home and auto insurance. Call for a free quote today. Liberty stands with you™ Liberty Mutual insurance. Traders theyre always looking for advantages. The smart ones look to fidelity to find them. We give you research and datavisualization tools to help identify potential opportunities. So, you can do it this way. Or get everything you need to help capture investment ideas and make smarter trading decisions with fidelity for just 4. 95 per online u. S. Equity trade. Fidelity. Open an account today. Cyber monday is under way. The latest gaming consoles a big focus of the Holiday Shopping season the playstation 4 and the Playstation Vr Headset among this years most sought out products as a matter of fact, sony said playstation saw its best black friday in company history. Joining us now for a cnbc exclusive interview is Senior Vice President and head o