does this signal a cautious ftc and companies should expect a fight even if the ftc isn't sure it could win. >> like you heard from chair lina khan and she and canter have told congress, it doesn't matter if they win some of the cases just the threat of litigation, how costly, uncertain it is for some of these companies can cause them to walk away for some of the deals, they praised their team for the work in that regard and said that outcome is a success >> i wonder if once companies figure out maybe they're bluffing they won't walk away as easily kayla, thank you >>> walmart entering the buy now pay later space. the information reporting the retailer is planning to launch its own installment loan service through its strategic partnership with rivet capitol that stock is down about a 'rbeig bk.is morning wee rhtac >>> let's get a gut check on netflix. that stock is up about 5.5% today. the streaming giant getting an upgrade to overweight from wells fargo and cowan making it the top stock for 2023 calling it the best, quote, recession play. raising their price target to 405 from 340 say

the ftc did what we thought the ftc might do. caroline: yeah they stuck to their promise to go big on m&a in the tech space. let's dig into all of this in d.c., following the news where the regulators are looking to block that $69 million deal. it's all about a question of competition and whether or not it would be harmed by the deal. we had the scoop in fact before we got that announcement from the ftc. talk to us about the reasoning behind the decision. >> it's really interesting, a lot of this focus has been on the console market the ftc said they are not as worried about that as they are about where gaming might be going in the future into subscriptions in the cloud. they said that's a major reason they had concerns about the deal , acquiring activision is going to give microsoft a great library of games that will give it an insurmountable lead in these emerging markets. given that microsoft already has some advantages with their cloud-based, cloud-based service, making it a little bit cheaper for it than other gaming compani

the ftc have already sued to block eight deals, maybe more. and some pretty small ones as well >> well, yeah, there's one that we're watching right now there's a hearing going on right now in california over meta's attempted acquisition of a vr start-up called within this is a roughly 300, $400 million deal. what's interesting is the ftc is saying that meta is going to have too much of a dominance in this vr space which is very nascent and it's a fitness app showing through this acquisition, meta would have too much dominance of this space it's a much, much smaller deal but the ftc is going after many different companies on many different fronts and i think this ftc versus meta situation in particular will be closely watched because it could have major implications not just for this acquisition but whether or not meta can make other acquisitions all of these different cases are being closely watched as indications of what kind of m&a is going to be allowed in the future. >> let's bring in the former ftc member and currently a professor at geor

the ftc did what we thought the ftc might do. caroline: they stuck to the promise. going tougher on victim and a. let's dig into all of this in d.c. we want to plug into that. of course it is all about a question of competition, whether or not it would be harmed. you have the scoop. in fact, before we got the announcement from the ftc, talk to us about the reasoning behind this decision. >> it is really interesting. a lot of the focus in the activision deal has been on the console market, but the ftc said it is not as worried about the market as it is about where gaming might be going in the future in terms of subscriptions and the cloud and they said that's a major reason why they have concerns. acquiring activision will give microsoft a great library of gamers that will give it an insurmountable lead in these emerging markets, given microsoft all freddie has advantages with cloud-based service, making it a little cheaper than other gaming companies to offer this service. caroline: and yet, microsoft has been trying to get ahead of this. nintendo, accessing call of

i have a lot of confidence in the ftc. i think we don't need to blame them but figure out how they could have more authority to regulate and they have been soundings alarm of some of the excesses for a long time. >> and there has been speculation that given sam bankman-fried's donations, prolific donations are largely to the democrats that congress went easy on him in fact that maybe even you went easy on him. you will remember terry delfy from the cme expressed deep skepticism about his business and you went hard at him you've come back and said that he was right and you acknowledged that, and you said his insights were greater than i mean, but i think a lot of folks say was all of this a function of money had sam bankman-fried bought off the democrats? >> no, in my case he hadn't even given a single dollar at the time of the hearing. the argument i had was mr. duffy was the technical definition of capital requirements but he had broader insight over ftx being fraudulent and i called him afterwards and i said look, you ha

now, obviously, we will continue to work with the ftc and that alignment with the ftc will determine the ultimate number of stores that are divested. >> so, professor sweeping, you wrote your testimony that data on and what different grocery chain customers can use are useful for -- but that data can produce misleading results and you said you often visit both safeway and whole foods, but it isn't necessarily suggest you would switch more spending to whole foods if safely prices went up. would you please explain why data about what stores customers visit might not best predict how they would react to price increases of customers? >> sure. thank you for the question. so the point i was trying to make in my written testimony, was that obviously as is being discussed, there's lots of reasons why people visit different stores. it could be interest in the particular freshness they have a whole foods. it could be particular store brand. but i myself by a lot of staples at safeway. and obviously, if the price of those staples went up, it might be much more likely to switch to a rival chain

we are in active conversations with the ftc as we are going through that process with the ftc there will be a combined agreement with the ftc in terms of how that's handled. >> how do you plan to reduce your workforce as an outcome of this merger, how many layoffs are we talking about? >> we will not lay off any frontline workers as part of this merger. >> what does that mean? no workers? >> if you look at frontline workers, but -- >> you are inserting the word frontline, let's just stick with workers. >> no layoffs at all? >> no layoffs on any of those positions. >> what positions would you consider laying off then? >> together, we will look at from an administrative support standpoint, we will look at, if you look at historically when we merged with companies on harris and things like that, we ended up not laying off anybody because what we found is the merged companies do things better than we do. one of the key things is trying to make the best of both. >> let me ask you this, mr. mcmullen, i'm sure senator durbin wants to ask questions here, so i will hand it over in a few seconds,

joining us now, former ftc commissioner thompson. not a huge shock because we got rumored they were going to sue on this deal and the stock has been trading well below the offered price of 95 for a while now. but what's your reaction to the ftc making it official >> well, it's not a big surprise in a sense that this ftc has decided to be pretty forward and aggressive with regard to the tech industry. so bringing the lawsuit in and of itself is not a surprise. whether they will prevail or not, that's going to be a different question because it's going to depend on how they define the market and how they can show you consumers are going to be harmed it's an uphill battle for them, but i'm not surprised they decided to bring the lawsuit >> why do you think it's political or do you think there's serious question or cause for concern about this takeover? >> well, look, i can't second guess what someone's motives are. hard to tell that. all i know is whether a case would be easy or whether, what will be a challenge. i think this will a cha

so, what they're going to be litigating is in the ftc's administrative court in front of an ftc administrative law judge. so, that's different than being in federal court article 3 court where -- >> terrell, we do expect we're going to end up in federal court. many do at some point because they're going to seek an injunction that was my question because a lot of people don't think they're going to end up seeing the administrative law judge on august 2nd, or whenever they set this for. >> what i thought was interesting, though, is the complaint sets an eight-month trial date in august, as you point out, which consistent with its rules it can do because it's not seeking a temporary restraining order or preliminary injunction right now it's not doing that in part because it's relying on the reviews ongoing in europe, but, you know, again, we'll have to see what they do if they decide to file in federal court, but whether they're in the ninth circuit or d.c., what judge they draw, that could be impactful as well we have seen, as you noted, both the department of justice anti-trust division and the

i think is fascinating, the ftc, when to act and where to act. the next thing is meta as an example. my question is, do it in-house or by someone? that is the question everyone is facing now. caroline: organic or inorganic, particularly for competition in a nascent space like the metaverse. we saw friday, meta arguing we should not have regulation in the metaverse because you might choke off regulation -- innovation. that is the argument in crypto as well. now the arguments come forth, if they will be stifling competition by purchasing the fitness company. the ftc has been busy, they also acknowledge there will be looking into the advertising around crypto. they are a busy set of people. ed: it is a case of picking battles and they have a lot on the desk right now. coming up will bring the latest news of global venture capital. this is bloomberg. ♪ ♪ we all have a purpose in life - a “why.” maybe it's perfecting that special place that you want to keep in the family or passing down the family business or giving back to the places that ins

the ftc has been super busy. just acknowledging it will be looking into the advertising around crypto. >> it is a case of picking battles that they have a lot crossing their desk right now. we will bring you the latest news in the world of global venture capital. this is bloomberg. ♪ >> time for talking tech. we are taking a look at the water of start ups and global venture capital announcements. we start with new research co-authored by the federal reserve governor lisa cook showing that black founders of u.s. startups are raising just one third as much venture capital in the first five years of their life as other businesses in the same industry, the same state and those formed at the same time. part of the gap is down to factors like black firms have been founding teams or those founders coming from different schools than other vc leaders according to the report. and more news coming from ftx. brett harrison is raising money for a crypto software startup. that is according to sources who say the fundraising

again, trying to assuage some of the ftc concerns about non-competes. i'm not surprised that all they announced that right before they would come to washington to meet. the important thing about the nintendo agreement they announced yesterday say is that it only applies to the consul. it nintendo was going to offer a subscription service, they wouldn't do sincerely get access. caroline: i want to shine a light on who they have not struck a deal with. sony. there was a great quote coming from phil spencer, the man who manages the business, he was saying there has been one gaming industry participant that has been raising all the objections, sony. he thinks basically they are spending all their time talking to regulators and not getting a deal done. is there truth in that? >> there is. brazil is the only regulatory agency that has so far given a verdict on the deal. sony was the major complainant there. u.k. cma has a process, so i lot of the filings that go through that are made public. sony has been the main complainant. they are concerned about what ha

we are in active conversation with the ftc and as we're going through the process with the ftc they -- there will be an agreement with the ftc in terms of how that's handled. >> how do you plan to reduce your workforce? how many layoffs are we talking about? >> we will not lay off any front-line workers as a part of this. >> what does that mean, no worker? >> if you look at front-line workers speeded you are inserting the word front-line. >> manufacturing plants come stores, no layoffs. >> no layoffs at all? >> no layoffs are any of those positions. >> what position would you consider laying off and then? >> well, together we will look at, from administrative support standpoint we will look at if you look at historically when we emerged with companies around the sings like that, we have ended up not laying off anybody because what we have found is the merged companies do things better than we do and one of the key things is making sure we're finding the best of both. >> let me ask you this, mr. mcmullen, amateur senator durbin once to ask questions here so i will handed over in just a

, and especially the ftc. and even a little bit more distantly, the treasury, and fdic, all of them. i understand your sincerity, you genuineness, and how important that is. my last point, i asked the chairs consent to enter the hearing record a letter from the north american securities administrations association, highlighting considerations for congress. >> without objection. >> i yield back. >> thank you. >> thank you, madam chairman. when i bring up the word wisdom, i don't do it in the sense, the legal sin -- but i always try to get people like you to listen to what is going on in the department, and taking action on, and so that people don't have to become what you call whistleblowers. we've heard many reports it people involved with the ftx had concerns about its business practices. unfortunately, it doesn't appear that anyone step forward progress cord that and what was going on. did your office receive any reports of wrongdoing, and how the ftx -- if not, doubly that employees would step forward throu

the ftc is declining to comment to us but bloomberg report the ftc investigation into privacy and data experiences at the tech platform i deepening. ftc lawyers are questioning two former executives at twitter asking if the company has complied with the agency's 2011 consent order since elon musk took over. the ftc has not been shy about keeping an eye on elon musk since he took over the company saying in november we are tracking recent developed with the deep concern. no ceo or company is above the law and they must follow consent decrees. can send order gives us new tools to ensure compliance and we are prepared to use them and it looks like they are using that, the result of whatever this investigation may be could result in millions of dollars in fines for elon musk, not just applied to whatever regulations came out of this or rules not just apply to twitter but all of elon musk's companies and still be in place whether or not elon musk is ceo and twitter. dave: the question is whether they are targeting companies are specifically targeting him. a lot of people are worried about it

microsoft responds to the ftc. the latest on the tech giants battle with the government cyber security struggles, hitting its lowest levels since 2020 what we can expect from that space next year. >> yeah. let's start with stocks. tech sector nasdaq back near the lows of the year the last few weeks have just been ugly. frank holland joins us with december's move and what it could signal for 2023. >> a lot of red here on the nasdaq a 9% decline this month. a 33% decline this year. apple having the biggest negative impact on december, dragging it down 147 points. tesla more than 109 points investors have a lot of concerns about elon musk running twitter. winbush lowering its estimate for deliveries chips again under pressure micron's disappointing earnings. job cuts weighing on the space overall. we're talking invidia. we are looking for names moving the nasdaq higher, especially today. likely names you don't associate with the nasdaq. trucker, old dominion moving the tech heavy index higher today as investors lookin

we'll debate and it's game on for microsoft in its battle against the ftc. what the government's stance means for the future of m&a. and we're continuing to look for other ways to invest, turn a profit, and have some fun along the way. today we're focusing on investing on wine and whiskey. let's take a look at how health stocks are trading this hour as we mentioned, we started turning higher, but the blue chips are struggling, and frankly, we've been under more pressure since that ppi report yesterday. the dow is down 42, the s&p is up one point, and the nasdaq is up about 20. the only sector on pace for weekly gains is utilities, never a good sign, also a rates trade. we've seen upward pressure on rates. the worst performers are energy, given that collapse in oil prices we've been highlighting and communication services some big earnings movers to mention. broadcom jumping on better than expected results that was up 3.5% d docusign up 15%. meantime, the lululemon, we were singing itspraises yesterday, but a weak outlook for the fourth quarter today has the

. >>> and the power house producer falls short and flexing the anti-trust measure with the ftc putting the kibosh on microsoft. it is friday, december 9th, 2022 you are watching "worldwide exchange" here on cnbc >>> good morning happy friday i'm frank holland in for brian sullivan let's look at the snap of the losing streak. futures are flat nasdaq doing the best. up very slightly right now, as we always say at this hour, it is pretty early. we want to check the bond market something to watch with the fed meeting next week. we are seeing the 10-year treasury at 3.48 that inversion still going on. the gap not closing. a lot of people consider that a recession indicator. >>> oil off the lowest close of the year it is higher right know. wti up 1.5% higher both about $10 a barrel lower than they were to start the week >>> cryptocurrency we are seeing movement bitcoin now is higher. back above the $17,000 mark. different story for ethereum lower for the week >>> let's check on the action in asia and europe. we have a special guest appearance julianna tatelbaum back from great reporting in t

. >> so now turn to latest on the ftc, suing microsoft over the deal with activision now those stocks not seeing as big avenue reaction as you might expect with a large regulatory hurdle our steveco vac as more on the story and perhaps the reason why those stocks aren't moving as much on the ftc looking to maybe sue to block this deal. >> yeah, don, this is a really a thick and difficult story to unpack here. so let's do our best ftc is suing for the deal but the reason behind the lawsuit, it lays out a history of microsoft gaming acquisitions and using those to put exclusive titles on the platform that is $7.5 billion acquisition of game studios zenny max. titles from that studio are exclusive to microsoft platforms and now the fear from the ftc is the same will happen if they are allowed to buy activision. but the issue here is call of duty, rivals like sony have already complained microsoft will take it away from the rivals too but microsoft doesn't answer for that they've put call of duty on rival platforms for ten years and even said thewilling to mak that enforceable by the cour

, steve. >> mark zuckerberg taking the stand today in a san jose court and making the case that the ftc should allow meta to buy the vr studio they make a popular fitness app called super natural ftc is arguing meta would have an unfair advantage in virtual reality if it's allowed to buy, arguing that it's already the leader in the vr market. but zuckerberg was downplaying the importance of the deal in his testimony saying fitness is only the fourth or fifth case in vr behind activities like gaming and social networking. he also saidmeta doesn't need to own within in order to make meta successful in the metaverse. the ftc tries to paint meta as a behemoth that could become even bigger if they're allowed to buy rivals they're trying to avoid another situation when meta was allowed to buy instagram for a billion dollars. broadly this shows the biden administration's towards tech m & a. they are also trying to block microsoft's $69 billion acquisition of activision. but this is a tough one for the ftc because it has to prove meta has dominance in an almost nonexistent virtual reality marke

the question is what additional concessions to they float to the ftc? it sounds like no more peace is on the horizon microsoft is ready for war >> certainly an interesting story to continue p watching. >>> and a mixed picture for the final trading day of the week. green on the board for the dax similar story for italy. it has been an interesting week if you look at the last five trading days european equities are lower and fairly significantly stoxx 600 into today's session down 1.8%. here is the breakdown. ftse mib down 1% investors in europe bracing for the central bank meeting and the muted trade today is a function of investors in wait and see mode. >>> in europe, the hang seng and hong kong has had a strong week. the reopening story has gathered space in china the hang seng up 6.6% week to da date. >>> u.s. markets have followed the trend in europe. nasdaq down 3.3% week to date. s&p down 2.76% dow jones industrial average is 50 points lower. we have data from the u.s. ppi the real action is next week with the u.s. cpi and the f federal reserve mee

>> the ftc maybe one day we will all be wearing computers on our faces and doing fitness exercises in the metaverse that's not the case today but the case they are trying to make right now. they make a relatively popular app called super natural i guess they have seen some good use cases with it. but it also speaking to meta's overall vision towards the metaverse. they're waiting and looking at the data to see how people use it to inform acquisitions and content like this. yesterday the cto of meta was in court testifying on this case saying we're bad at making content, so we need to acquire the content in order to be able to compete in this. >> can you afford to testify in court that you are bad at it first of all, i'm sorry, frank, you go ahead. >> no, no. go ahead >> i just know when i get ahead of steam about these metaverse trends but this is perhaps part of the question is the ftc serious about its legal case here or is it playing chicken with these companies boy, when we put up a fight, some of these companies back off. >> the chilling effect, yeah. >> and so we count that as a

the ftc is set to sue microsoft over activation as soon as today. the ftc is set to sue microsoft over activision as soon as today. microsoft stock of over 1.5%. activision blizzard sales down by as much as 4% on that headline. >> we sare reports back to november about this possibility. remember, when we are talking about acquiring a major game player by a company that already has a massive franchise in xbox, this was already's going to be -- was always going to be one of the considerations. in recent weeks we saw markets trying to get their head around what this might look like, trying to get a sense of what strong lobbying team microsoft in washington can perhaps put forward to get to the finish line. this is probably a development a lot of people were waiting on based on buzz these last few weeks. >> now it looks a lot bleaker. the ftc is potentially suing microsoft over activision blizzard as soon as today with activision blizzard saw -- a stock down 4%. as we had to the close that is a jon erlichman and i am alix steel and this is bloomberg. �

ftc decision is expected eminently. there's a closed-door meeting at the ftc scheduled for today. we could see a block as early as today -- or a lawsuit to block the deal as early as today then it depends on which route the ftc goes without that lawsuit. they expect the ftc to send the case to their internal court system or administrative law judge instead of sending it to district court and historically, the ftc is seen as having a greater chance of winning in its internal court system than in the federal court system that has changed a little bit under this administration. former ftc officials may not agree with the philosophies. >> what's the final drop dead -- it's this spring/summer. >> july 2023 and so the alj is a longer process than the federal court system and it can last six to eight months that would push us up right outside that gate if it does take that long there's nuances here the ftc normally can't send things to the alj without getting a preliminary injunction because the europe and uk are still outstanding, they can send it to the alj without an injunction until

and then harry's book in january. >> and our thanks to keir for that insight >>> why the ftc say it is could be game over for microsoft's $70 billion video game acquisition >>> and e e mb o mthnunuerneost ststressful l job out therere. and here's a hint. itit does s generate a a healthy streamam of incomeme restleless nights s fogginp your dayay? tonight,t, try new z zzzqul pupure zzzs restleless nights s fogginp your dayay? sleep plplus next daday eney restleless nights s fogginp your dayay? with melelatonin to o help u fall asleeeep naturalllly.. plus e extended-rerelease b-b-vitamins.. wakeke up feelining refres. pure z zzzs. sleeeep better.. wake up p your best.t. if youou haven't tried dadawn powewerwash dishsh spray, what a are you waiaiting for? wakeke up feelining refres. pure z zzzs. it's dawn's fastest t and easiet way y to clean e everyday didi. on simimple messeses... just sprayay, wipe andnd rins. on t tough messeses, its spry actitivated sudsds have fifive times f faster greaee cleaeaning powerer to break d down greasese witht water. plplus, its tatargeted sprpray s even

a comeback after multiple days of declines but losing a little bit of steam at this hour after the ftc moments ago officially sued to block the $75 billion deal between microsoft and activision blizzard. we are going to have more on that breaking news in just a few moments for you, but first, it is foreign affairs that are dominating the headlines today after the white house confirmed wnba star brittney griner has been released from a russian prison, swapped for international arms dealer viktor bout, griner is currently on a plane home to the united states after the switch was made in the united arab emirate. this comes after the basketball star was sentenced to nine years in a russian penal colony on drug charges. the white house also reviewing the future of tiktok. as states express more concern and pressure the administration to dig into its privacy practices and the companies ties to china. that national security, let's go live to edward lawrence at the white house with more on all of the headlines crossing right now edward? reporter: yeah, two very big stories president joe biden

it's now also a gamble for the ftc because, if in fact, the ftc were to lose this case, then the flood gates would open because right now the specter of a lawsuit has prevented its own regulation. companies are not pursued deals thinking the ftc will try to block it. we'll see now that they've brought a case to bear whether that case is a winnable one or not. if it wins, it stops everything. if it loses, it changes everything. >> yeah. and finally, i hate to even bring it up, this elon musk -- >> twitter files. >> twitter files. it is so laborious, and there are people that are ka making it a catastrophe over terms of services that were talked about if 2018, but every day somebody else puts on sack cloths and ashes and they act like the world is coming to an end. could you just sort through -- it's just nonsense. i still for the life of me, i can't figure out why elon musk is wasting his time in all of this nonsense. but he is. so, whatever. can you explain to us what's going on here? >> well, i think what you're seeing is you are seeing inside how some of these decisions were made, th

you have the supreme court right now hearing one of the challenges to the ftc structure. so by next summer we might have a decision of whether or not you could challenge their decisions in court so there is a lot of changes that congress should make. the problem they've had is they've trying to do wholesale change of the anti-trust laws and that is not likely to happen. >> and hai have a big question n only 60 seconds to answer it, which is you look at a lot of transactions and the consolidation over the years and it is better for customers on one end but if you talk to economists, janet yellen and others, they will say there is less competition broadly and that unto itself in the united states poses a real problem, in some cases it might reflect on inflation and other elements of our economy. what do you think? >> look, i think we have a lot of innovation in this country and around the world but particularly in this country. we've had changes -- the question becomes do you have really less competition in the answer of product markets that govern the anti-trust laws as op

the ftc would utilize its existing authority and reporting regime requirements for all security. but the cftc would would apply its market visuals with a limited subset of commodity tokens which do not have the same characteristics of security tokens. in september i appear before in support of the digital commodity consumer protection act which benefited from the expertise of steffen worked closely with t members is committed to establish a framework similar to the cftc current and effective regulatory framework over the jurors market that it encouraged by a bipartisan and bicameral support that recognizes the need for guardrails or burgeoning asset economies and causing relation to impart transparency accountability stability customer connection oversight across digital assets. in light off recent as the cftc stands ready to continue working with this committee and other members of congress on existing proposals to make sure every known weakness risk in doyers addressed in legislation. it's easy to fall into an analysis compelled to endlessly debate the utility of the underlying

i'm curious about the ftc. >> they haven't done it yet, jim. >> they should lay things out. here's what our real objective is i don't see who is hurt by this. is there a gamer who might say i can pit microsoft off against activision is there a writer of a game that could pit them i mean, i understand -- >> i'm listening i'm just reading my texts. that's the best way to stop him from talking, for me to read my texts. >> to show you're not listening anymore. >> he gets very upset. >> i have a buy. i'm in the semi-finals how's that when it comes to anti-trust, every ceo is afraid of looking at another company because of the ftc. are you kidding? emerson did something brave. they're doing good things. i just find that a lot of companies are paralyzed and they don't think the president is pro capital, which is kind of obvious. >> he's meeting with some oil executives. >> that's big. they've been -- >> he's been asking for a meet. >> they were afraid they were going to be -- he didn't want them in the same room. better than trying to brow beat the saudis break bread with our guy.

the ftc, according to sources, has now expanded its review. sources tell bloomberg that at least two former twitter executives have been questioned by ftc lawyers. the focus of the questioning was whether, after musk took over, twitter was able to comply with an agreement, a consent order in 2011 that twitter had to comply with regarding user privacy and compliance, have those consent decrees been followed? what is notable is when musk took over, he virtually decimated the legal privacy and compliance teams. there will be focus on this issue going forward. haslinda: bloomberg su keenan. thank you so much. we have headlines from indonesia to announce another commodity export ban. we are unsure which commodity in particular. he expects another ban on raw materials. if you recall in april, we had indonesia banning the export of palm oil, which costs surged in prices. this is how we are seeing it in terms of commodities. wheat up .5%. corn up .1%. we are keeping an eye on raw materials out of indonesia. this is bloomberg. ♪ it's hard to run a bu

ftc lawyers have questioned two former senior executives in the past month about whether twitter has been able to comply with the agency's 2011 consent order since muska took over. for more on the scoop, let us get to kurt wagner, who covers twitter for bloomberg news in san francisco. what else can you tell us? kurt: the new elements of this are twofold, the first is that this investigation the ftc started in the fall, back

. >> you'd have to ask my colleagues at the ftc and to cover the ftc and washington politicians about that one. james: is probably going to need to ask them because were out of time. thank you for joining us. james: i am james freeman and for elizabeth macdonald you're watching "the evening edit" on fox business. that does it for us, happy new year, thank you for watching, please come back next year which i guess is monday, sunday? >> from the fox studio in new york city, this is "maria bartiromo's wall street". >> welcome to the program that analyzes the week that was an helps position you for the week ahead. i'm cheryl casone a and for maria bartiromo, back on track southwest to resume th schedule this week and after a week of cancellations left thousands of passengers stranded throughout the country. fears calls for the airline and transportation secretary pete buttigieg to be held accountable congresswoman nancy mason on what needs to happen now. the worst year for market since the financial crisis of 2018. i'm asking investment strategist how to position your portfolio going into

the ftc says parent company epic games essentially tricked players into making an intended purchase. and the company is also accused of gathering personal data from children under the age of 13 without their parents consent. sloane glass has details. >> fortnite creator epic games will pay 520 million dollars in fines. the first 275 million will be the settle allegations from the ftc that ethic use dark patterns to trick millions of players, dark patterns. a term for the practice is web designers used to for scam users in to spend the money tricks you've likely seen like in-app purchases and single click payments. >> all without parental permission. >> people did not know what they were signing and they were not aware that this was going on. and so there was a lot of abuse. and so that that protection that act was designed to protect children seems to really been flagrantly violated. epic says that it has updated its payment flows to offer a yes or no option to safe payment info. >> as well as instan purchase cancellations and self-service refunds. in addition to making it too easy f

the chair of the ftc saying epic used privacy, invasive default settings and deceptive interfaces that tricked fortnite users, including teenagers and children . epic game says it's implemented safeguards to protect children's privacy and insists the practice is referenced in the ftc's complaints are not how fortnite operates. as part of that settlement, the company was also required to turn off default settings for live text and voice chat for young users. coming up what we're learning about the woman accused of breaking into robert deniro is house ahead doctors with an important warning about just how dangerous the holidays are for your heart and how to protect yourself. we love our new home. -there's so much space. but, we have aunts. expired. expired. expired. it's a lot of house. i hope you can keep it clean. at least geico makes bundling our home and car insurance easy. for bundling made easy, go to geico.com. ♪ for skin as alive as you are... don't settle for silver. harness the power of 7 moisturizers & 3 vitamins to smooth, heal, and moisturize your dry skin. gold bond. cham

merger complaint, where the ftc is basically saying, hey, wait, we don't think this merger should go through, because sony, which owns 70% of the hardware market could be hurt by microsoft xbox having -- to the franchise. they said, sony has 200 titles exclusive to them. xbox has 59. by making it 60, how is that going to hurt sony as well as we'll let sony have the call of duty franchise then we have a strong product pipeline diablo is coming out next year we think there's a great opportunity here to do a covered call strategy, where investors can go out and purchase this stock today at a significant discount to the microsoft offer, but also to the operating fundamentals where it's worth about $80 to $100 a share. you can go out, buy the stock today, and sell the january 27 call for about $2.40, so your all in will be -- you can collect a bunch of options premium while it plays out in the court, which is expected to close middle of next year. >> quick question, kevin the thing you said to me at the beginning was merry christmas in hawaiian >> yes, yes. >> are you in hawaii >> merry c

and by the way, the ftc, shame on them. they have broad authority to deal with consumer fraud and they didn't do jack about it. do now know that you can't say sell paint in this country and say, oh, our paint -- this can will cover 400 feet and it only covers 200 feet? you can't even say that without the ftc cracking down on you. they have broad authority to stop consumer fraud and n this country. crypto was regulated like a collectible, again, when i call it digital beanie babies, that's exactly how it was treated. it wasn't treated like gambling. it wasn't treated like securities and this is what happens. people were playing with it, gambling with it, speculating with it because the government wasn't involved with it. you get defrauded. maria: i don't know that they understood the market. dagen: it is caveat m tour. >> one comment to that briefly, there's been gross mismanagement of assets, corruption, basically failed points and corporate governance and any asset class that existed. you have seen it in equities and fiat,

there's no basis for the ftc to block this merger because the competition in the segment is obvious in many dimensions. maria: we will leave it there. great analysis. good to talk with you this morning. thank you, sir. >> good to talk to you too. good night. maria: quick break and a pair of rare and very expensive air jordans can now be yours if you're willing to pay up. t wait until you see the hefty price tag, a live report about the sole reasons sneakers are snatching major money these days. from our family to yours, merry christmas from the "mornings with maria" team. this is my line producer nicole's family and our fearless leader, executive leader patrick's dog maggie. merry christmas. back in a minute. ♪ here comes santa claus. ♪ here comes santa claus. ♪ right down santa claus lane. ♪ if your business kept on employees through the pandemic, getrefunds.com can see if it may qualify for a payroll tax refund of up to $26,000 per employee. all it takes is eight minutes to get started. then work with professionals to assist your business with its forms and submit the applica

he's also calling on the ftc to step in and prevent these bots from buying a merchandise and reselling at a profit. when you've cornered that market, you then have the power to perhaps double the price supply. shortages already made finding in-demand gets difficult. but with bots bypassing security measures and manipulating systems, the problem is even worse. >> think of things like ps phys, for example, or that toy that every kid wants this christmas. and once the software programs discover them, they will buy them all up. john with the national consumers league encourages republicans to join democrats in outlawing predatory grinch bots. we think that that's very unfair and deceptive to consumers who just want to get that way or a gift for someone they care about. west virginia republican senator shelley moore capito agrees congress needs to take action for parents of younger children. >> but some have their heart set on certain items that it can be really difficult christmas morning if you can't get it under the in taco fears that if these bots remain unchecked, the issues will only

or ftc? sam bankman-fried had been in favor of a bill that is coming out of the committee that would have given tmore power as you can imagine, frank, the cftc did not do its job. we will hear about the questions andmakers are goin back to the drawing board with bills to see how they incorporate lessons learned from ftx. >> ylan mui, thank you for the latest from d.c. for more on the hearing and sam bankman-fried's comments, let's bring in tracy wang from coindesk >> thank you for having me >> a lot of bombshells in there and a lot that shocked a lot of us >> you know, i was at the dealbook summit yesterday. i have to give props to andrew ross sorkin. i thought he brought the fire and all of his questions were fair the question right now with sam is was this whole ftx fiasco calculated fraud or criminal negligence when sam answers certain questions of the $8 billion in missing customer deposits, he is very much going for the, you know, i did not knowingly commit fraud. i did not knowingly com

>> i'm going to go with the ftc. i think she is a very, very, very aggressiveó[■ regulator, ts is her big campaign, that will define her tenure in the fcc charge we're inu■■■a world where theres n a antitrust in this po)■;kñ■ tech generally on both sides of the aisle. you saw some new money coming yesterday out of the senate spending billi] to the xd■tc for antitrust prosecution. and i think that, look, unless ]in case, i think they'll face%s@r■c trouble and it is hard to argue from what i can tell that there is $68 billion to acquire the5a■ biggest video game in the world and one o in the world that is not a potential monopoly gli get your point about how she's a tough regulator and they're5a■ getting more money at the republicans taking over the house, i wonder how much of a priority, when for tech reg■ñq%=9u■u■republicans, it is about content moderation, not necessarily antitrust. >> so, i think that's right, except if you look at legislation that has passed both theÑi■house and the

the ftc has blocked their bid to buy activision blizzard. microsoft now says were not getting up coming back. how is this playing out. >> is a "game of thrones" microsoft and ftc, they're not going to take this sitting down this is significant terms, i expect them to ultimately go to court and we believe they can win it. >> is all about call of duty. >> it continues to be the core franchise. if you take a step back from microsoft this is the key acquisition for the strategy. >> is a videogame. very popular, very powerful is that enough to upset a $69 billion deal. >> you talking about one of the biggest cult filings out there. from microsoft. they view this as a key asset but then ultimately going to back down but this is significant. stuart: got i think some people don't like big tech because it's huge. >> ethic that's part of the deal. >> i think the president setting what's happening here. stuart: stay right there, your glutton for punishment, you're here for the hour. pete is back with us another big story brittney griner back on america

the reason is that the ftc, it looks like the majority, well i think it's split right now. it's equal on both sides, to block on accept the deal and so if there's one more vote and it's going towards microsoft and activision that's positive. stuart: it's positive indeed. >> yes. stuart: good stuff, susan thanks very much indeed. coming up, sending a clear warning to democrats ahead of the 2024 election. roll tape. >> the democratic party takes a vote for granted and that's something i think a lot of people are realizing there are black conservatives out there, sorry. you know what i mean? all black people aren't a part of the democratic party. stuart: we'll definitely get into that one for you. only one democrat lawmaker expressed concern over twitter' censorship of hunter biden laptop story. i think that should concern everybody, and we're going to detail it, all of it. the royal family, as in britain, gearing up for the release of harry and meghan's documentary on netflix. the prince of whales, whose that his report, william, i just temporarily forgot. prince william repo