Speaker 1: Possible from Mahart. We're Innovation, Money and Power Collie in
Speaker 1: Silicon Vallet NBN. This is Bloomberg Technology with Caroline Hyde
Speaker 1: and Ed Ludlow.
Speaker 2: Amed Ludlow in San Francisco. Caroline hides off today. This
Speaker 2: is Bloomberg Technology. Coming up on the program, We'll bring
Speaker 2: you the latest updates from the Israel Hamas war and
Speaker 2: speak with Israel's first ever chief technology officer, and Microsoft
Speaker 2: and Activision close the deal after nearly two years of
Speaker 2: fighting for the sixty nine billion dollar transaction to gainful approval.
Speaker 3: We have full coverage ahead.
Speaker 2: Plus we'll bring you more from our inaugural screen time
Speaker 2: event in Hollywood and hear from the CEOs of Netflix
Speaker 2: YouTube and also the head of the Kardashian Plan. The
Speaker 2: main story is what's happening in the Middle Least. I
Speaker 2: want to get straight to the latest developments in the
Speaker 2: Israel Jamas war. Joining us from Tel Aviv is Bloomberg
Speaker 2: correspondent Oliver Krook and Oliver.
Speaker 3: Let's be frank. A lot has happened this Friday.
Speaker 4: It has been completely intense twenty four hours. It really
Speaker 4: started at around five thirty six o'clock this morning when
Speaker 4: we got that initial sort of evactuate evacuation order from
Speaker 4: the Israeli Defense Forces where they told the residents of
Speaker 4: Gaza City in northern Gaza that they should leave the area,
Speaker 4: and that is sort of how the day began, and
Speaker 4: the UN said that that is basically an impossibility.
Speaker 5: It's important to.
Speaker 4: Get these people out, says the Israeli Defense Forces, because
Speaker 4: they want to minimize civilian casualties. But we're talking about
Speaker 4: displacement of one point one million people, that is about
Speaker 4: half of the the population of Gaza, and to then
Speaker 4: compress them into about fifty percent of the space that
Speaker 4: they begin with is something that the UN is saying
Speaker 4: is going to turn tragedy into catastrophe. And the tragedy
Speaker 4: we're talking about is a death toll that has exceeded
Speaker 4: fifteen hundred.
Speaker 3: People in Gaza.
Speaker 4: The healthcare system is entirely overwhelmed. They have no water, electricity, food, internet,
Speaker 4: and Israel overnight continued to strike seven hundred and fifty
Speaker 4: military targets and of course is all in response to
Speaker 4: the attacks on Saturday that left now we know thirteen
Speaker 4: hundred Israeli's dead, mostly on Saturday, and mostly civilians.
Speaker 2: Oliver is a frankly credible list of developments. As you say,
Speaker 2: it's been a sort of twenty four hour process. There
Speaker 2: is a bigger picture question about the Middle East, and
Speaker 2: you have been on the ground there in Tel Aviv,
Speaker 2: but also thinking about neighbors and what else is in
Speaker 2: the new cycle.
Speaker 4: Completely the geopolitical complexities here are absolutely vast, and you know,
Speaker 4: so it comes with a lot of support from Western
Speaker 4: allies to Israel. So it started with Blinken yesterday. We
Speaker 4: have Ursula underline here today. The US Defense Secretary also
Speaker 4: here today. But yesterday Blincoln's message, where there were really
Speaker 4: two of them. There's one of sort of total and
Speaker 4: unconditional support, but then a second message, and that is
Speaker 4: about how Israel does about taking out Hamas is going
Speaker 4: to be very important. What Blincoln said is that it's
Speaker 4: so important that every possible precaution to avoid harming civilians
Speaker 4: has taken and that we mourn the loss of every
Speaker 4: single innocent life.
Speaker 6: This obviously is the.
Speaker 4: Background to all of the meetings that Blincoln has conducted today.
Speaker 4: Right now, Anthony Blinken, he just gave a press conference
Speaker 4: with the Katari foreign minister. He's in Kutar he's meeting
Speaker 4: with the Saudis, Egyptians, you know, the UAE, and this
Speaker 4: is the conversation that you're gonna have everwhere. Just as
Speaker 4: Israelis we're seeing all these horrific pictures on their phones
Speaker 4: and that sort of put pressure on the government even more.
Speaker 4: All of the Arab world is seeing what's going on
Speaker 4: in Gaza, and you've seen protests in the streets of
Speaker 4: Iraq where they've been burning Israeli flags but running.
Speaker 6: A Palestinian flags. The West Bank.
Speaker 4: There have been protests Lebanon, Pakistan, Yemen, and Iran has
Speaker 4: been meeting with the leadership with Hesbellah and Hamas in
Speaker 4: Lebanon today. So really a really very complex situation, and
Speaker 4: again these countries are going to come under men's pressure themselves.
Speaker 2: Later on in the program, we are going to continue
Speaker 2: to have the conversation about social media. You know, Bloomberg
Speaker 2: has reported extensively. We have discussed on this program that
Speaker 2: there's video content on lots of platforms that is circulating
Speaker 2: that purports to be one thing and in fact is another.
Speaker 3: It is not what it purports to be.
Speaker 2: And so you know, experts the government urging caution on
Speaker 2: that front that there's an issue of logistics and mechanics
Speaker 2: as well, Oliver, that you on the ground are starting
Speaker 2: to cover and understand an evacuation. And then you know defense,
Speaker 2: iron dome, the role of technology. What have you learned
Speaker 2: since arriving in Tel Aviv.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so there is the question of iron dome and
Speaker 4: could it, you know, potentially be depleted or overwhelmed, and
Speaker 4: this sort of hangs over it. We understand that some
Speaker 4: of the sort of ammunition for iron dome from the
Speaker 4: US supplies that is here in Israel was transferred today.
Speaker 4: We know that the US has sent equipment yesterday and
Speaker 4: that there is more on the way, but there is
Speaker 4: it's not really known how many rockets Hesbala has, for
Speaker 4: example in Lebani, and many of these are far range rockets.
Speaker 4: I mean, I had the first air raid sire and
Speaker 4: go off today in Tel Aviv just about two hours ago.
Speaker 4: That's the first one that we've had so far, and
Speaker 4: that apparently was fired from Gaza. But this really highlights
Speaker 4: the risk potential, particularly as Israel seemingly is gearing up
Speaker 4: for what could be a ground invasion. You have more
Speaker 4: than three hundred thousand troops that are stationed right near Gaza.
Speaker 4: The government has not said whether or not they're going
Speaker 4: to launch that attack yet, but again they've asked to
Speaker 4: evacuate the northern part of the city.
Speaker 5: And if they do in fact attack, that.
Speaker 4: Just opens up a whole other set of questions about
Speaker 4: how do they go about this, And also they relinquish
Speaker 4: many of their technological and military advantages once they get
Speaker 4: into a sort of urban combat zone. And then even
Speaker 4: if they do eliminate Hamas, what do they do next?
Speaker 4: What is the exit strategy? What comes after that? These
Speaker 4: are all the questions that we're going to have to
Speaker 4: be asking for the next.
Speaker 5: Days and weeks.
Speaker 2: Bloomberg Television correspondent on the ground in Tel Aviv, Oliver Krook.
Speaker 2: Stay tuned to Bloomberg all channels but bloom Television in
Speaker 2: the coming days. Oliver, thank you for reporting. We stay
Speaker 2: with the story of the Israel Hamas war, but think
Speaker 2: about technology joining us now. Is Yonatanadiri, who served previously
Speaker 2: as Israel's first CTO, and hen had let's start there.
Speaker 2: I think Iron Dome in particular, your assessment of the
Speaker 2: role technology is playing in the Israeli response to the
Speaker 2: weekend's events.
Speaker 7: Well, first, of all, thank you, thank you for having
Speaker 7: me on the show. The events that started on Saturday
Speaker 7: morning with this isis type massacre of innocent civilians and
Speaker 7: not only get north of twelve hundred people have really
Speaker 7: challenged Israel. But you know, if to paraphrase from the
Speaker 7: American national anthem, Israel is the land of the free
Speaker 7: and home of the resilient. And I'm sure that with
Speaker 7: technology we're gonna persevere. We're going to win this one
Speaker 7: and continue to contrue to the way in which global
Speaker 7: humanity is dealing with its top challenges through technology.
Speaker 5: This is not just centerals technology and defense.
Speaker 7: Israel as a powerhouse of technology and solving in tackling
Speaker 7: the biggest problems facing humanity and our ecosystem, is committed
Speaker 7: to that its role within this global context.
Speaker 3: Jatan.
Speaker 2: One area of the technology discussion is in intelligence and data,
Speaker 2: and a debate that's taken place on the show this
Speaker 2: week was about the preparedness of Israeli intelligence forces. We
Speaker 2: had one academic on the show who said it wasn't
Speaker 2: a lack of intelligence, but simply a lack of imagination
Speaker 2: at the scale of what Hamas would would be able
Speaker 2: to have done. Please reflect on your experience as the
Speaker 2: chief technology officer of the country and share with our
Speaker 2: audience what you know Israel had in place in recent
Speaker 2: times in the areas of defense intelligence.
Speaker 5: Well, I think you're totally right ed spot on.
Speaker 7: Israel has deployed numerous technologies. Think the core one, as
Speaker 7: you've discussed with Oliver, was iron dome. I remember in
Speaker 7: May two thousand and nine, I was on President Parris's
Speaker 7: team as we came to meet President Obama in the
Speaker 7: White House right after the inauguration. Technology was a big
Speaker 7: part of that. Defense technology was a big part of that.
Speaker 7: I think you're totally right about the limitations of legends
Speaker 7: technologies as to the imagination gap. Intelligence technologies provide us
Speaker 7: with data, they provide us with signals, if you will,
Speaker 7: But it is at the end of the day, the
Speaker 7: human interpreter that needs to put in the signals and
Speaker 7: noise ratio and to figure out what's the plausible scenario.
Speaker 7: Will I would like to equate that with what happened
Speaker 7: nine to eleven America, the NSA, the CIA, the FBI.
Speaker 5: We know that from the Investigative Committee post.
Speaker 7: Nine to eleven has had quite a significant degree of intelligence,
Speaker 7: but it was about putting those bits and pieces together
Speaker 7: and anticipating that people would actually go into the cockpit
Speaker 7: and transform an airliner into a live bomb and you know,
Speaker 7: crush it into into the Twin Towers and to other
Speaker 7: targets within the US. So I think you're spot on
Speaker 7: on that you can be a superpowered the size of
Speaker 7: the US.
Speaker 5: You can be a technology.
Speaker 7: Superpower the size of Israel and deploy you know, frontline technologies.
Speaker 7: But at the end of the day, it's about the
Speaker 7: ability to imagine, you know, what could be that human
Speaker 7: factor usage of those signals in a terror context.
Speaker 2: Johannaston and I would just point out that that viewpoint
Speaker 2: that it was a lack of imagination rather than intelligence,
Speaker 2: the viewpoint of Professor Charles Freilich of Columbia, a former
Speaker 2: intelligence advisor to your country, Israel, not my own. We've
Speaker 2: talked a lot about the sort of hard power, hardware,
Speaker 2: technology response, and software response.
Speaker 3: There's talk a bit about the industry.
Speaker 2: Yourself are a startup founder. Israel's economy has deep roots
Speaker 2: in technology. What is it like right now to operate
Speaker 2: a startup, a small startup in Israel with what's happening
Speaker 2: in the country.
Speaker 7: Or I think you know, fundamentally, Israel has had a
Speaker 7: over the last just week, a centrillion dollar worth of
Speaker 7: marketcap voad of confidence if you will, between Microsoft, Apple, Google,
Speaker 7: Amazon and Nvidia, who all have deployed significant parts of
Speaker 7: their R and D. Intel has their autonomous our brain
Speaker 7: here in Israel. Apple runs part of its design of
Speaker 7: chipsets and seniconductors sought us.
Speaker 5: In Tell again, Google has a very profound base of
Speaker 5: our and DA Israel.
Speaker 7: They have all and the jazz at Amazon, Soundar Pichai
Speaker 7: and Jensen Gwang.
Speaker 5: The leadership of those companies have.
Speaker 7: Unequivocally supported Israel and the ecosystem here. If we had
Speaker 7: two to three trillion dollars more of support in what's
Speaker 7: going on here in the life sciences industry and the
Speaker 7: cyberspace industry, I would say that part of what enables
Speaker 7: our conversation right now, and for the viewers at home,
Speaker 7: from the moment they woke up this morning untiled right now,
Speaker 7: they would have probably used and Israeli technology. So we
Speaker 7: continue to perform, we continue to develop, and part of
Speaker 7: that is, you know, how do we manage the emergency
Speaker 7: situation here at Israel and allocating the empathy.
Speaker 5: To our workforce, to the broader community.
Speaker 7: But how do we remain committed to salting humanity's greatest
Speaker 7: challenges even when we're under war, under attack of thousands
Speaker 7: of rockets in this insidious attack kind of icis class
Speaker 7: from last Saturday.
Speaker 5: That's what we have to balance and that's where committed
Speaker 5: to do.
Speaker 2: Jonatan Adieri, founder and CEO of Healthy dot Io, but
Speaker 2: also former CTO of Israel, the first CTO of Israel,
Speaker 2: thank you for your time, and he mentioned Jensen Wang
Speaker 2: a programming note that Nvidia had been due to hold
Speaker 2: its AI summit in Tel Aviv on Sunday Monday, but
Speaker 2: it was canceled given the events of the week. Now
Speaker 2: coming up here on Bloomberg Technology returned to m and
Speaker 2: A is the biggest deal in gaming history has finally
Speaker 2: come to fruition after UK regulators approved Microsoft's revised offer
Speaker 2: to buy Activision Blizzard. We will have all the details next.
Speaker 2: This is Bloomberg Technology.
Speaker 8: This Microsoft brought forward, this fundamental concession, this fundamental restructure
Speaker 8: of the deal, which now puts all of the cloud
Speaker 8: streaming rights in relation to Activision's games content, all of
Speaker 8: the games that are available now but also any content
Speaker 8: that's created over the next fifteen years and those rights
Speaker 8: are put in the hands of Ubisoft and independent competitor,
Speaker 8: and that breaks the stranglehold that we were concerned Microsoft
Speaker 8: would have over this important cloud gaming sector.
Speaker 2: Now was the uk CMA CEO Sarah card Or on
Speaker 2: the deal, joining our colleagues earlier today. For more, let's
Speaker 2: turn to Cecilia Deanna Stasio, who's our video game report
Speaker 2: to hear at Bloomberg. Okay, it's happened. It's darne, it happened,
Speaker 2: But it's happened. Let's go back to the origin of
Speaker 2: this because everyone forgets because the discussion from the regulator
Speaker 2: is about cloud This is about mobile gaming.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 2: What is it that Microsoft now is going to have
Speaker 2: to do with Activision to catch up in mobile gaming?
Speaker 9: Yeah, a lot has changed in the mobile gaming landscape
Speaker 9: since the deal was announced. Mobile gaming has been a
Speaker 9: behemoth for a long time. Microsoft has been behind on
Speaker 9: capitalizing on interest in mobile games, casual games, free games
Speaker 9: for smartphones and now with Candy Crush, which Activision makes,
Speaker 9: they have in their hands. I mean, one of the most,
Speaker 9: if not the most blockbuster mobile games in the West,
Speaker 9: and you know It's interesting because at the same time,
Speaker 9: the mobile gaming industry since this deal was announced, has
Speaker 9: experienced a contraction. It's oversaturated, So it'll be interesting to
Speaker 9: see how Microsoft leverages all of their power to capitalize
Speaker 9: on Candy Crush and other mobile games Under Activision.
Speaker 2: What do we learn about mechanics or what happens next.
Speaker 2: I think a headline that I saw on the Bloomberg
Speaker 2: terminal is that Bobby Kotik is going to leave the
Speaker 2: company or I guess the joint entity off to twenty
Speaker 2: twenty three.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 9: So Bobby has led the company for decades and brought
Speaker 9: it to where it was today, and he he has
Speaker 9: said that he will step down at the end of
Speaker 9: this year, and until that time will be working under
Speaker 9: Microsoft's gaming chiefs, Phil Spencer, who became famous through stewardship
Speaker 9: of Xbox.
Speaker 2: When last it was disclosed, Activision had like thirteen thousand employees.
Speaker 3: This deal has dragged on.
Speaker 2: Taking Activision and merging it with Microsoft is not going
Speaker 2: to be straightforward. Just as a Beat reporter who knows
Speaker 2: this industry inside and out, how do you think that's
Speaker 2: going to go?
Speaker 3: Wow?
Speaker 9: I mean, consolidating two companies is never easy for two
Speaker 9: companies like this, especially with a Microsoft that has so
Speaker 9: many different capabilities across so many different platforms and technologies.
Speaker 9: I think it will be It will be an immense challenge.
Speaker 9: Microsoft is not immediately adding activision schemes to game Pass,
Speaker 9: which I think you know has been one of the
Speaker 9: really big exciting things that Phil Spencer and Bobby have
Speaker 9: talked about over the last couple of years. And that
Speaker 9: should show you that, you know, there there's a lot
Speaker 9: to get in place before we can really see how
Speaker 9: big and impactful this deal will be for Microsoft.
Speaker 2: Alright, Bloomberg, Cecilia Deannastasio, all across this deal for months
Speaker 2: and months and months, Thank you very much.
Speaker 3: Okay, time for talking tech.
Speaker 2: First up, the king of K pop is building the
Speaker 2: next bt s in l A Bong she Hawk, founder
Speaker 2: and chairman of Haibee, wants to replicate the formula that
Speaker 2: changed the pop music industry. While the world's biggest boy
Speaker 2: band is on hiatus. You also discussed the role of
Speaker 2: AI in K pop with Bloomberg's Suhi Kim and.
Speaker 3: Lucas Show.
Speaker 2: No Tongue, Curious Home, and There One for the K
Speaker 2: pop fans. Now Netflix, Coco Head surround Us also spoke
Speaker 2: at the bloombergt screen Time event in LA on a
Speaker 2: wide range of topics, including the actors strike, cracking down
Speaker 2: on passwords sharing, and reflecting on the pace of streaming
Speaker 2: in the medium industry.
Speaker 10: Have listened saved this industry because where we were heading
Speaker 10: at that time. Remember when we started this business of streaming,
Speaker 10: we started licensing content from the networks, and at the
Speaker 10: time that we were licensing, we could only get what.
Speaker 6: Was available, which was nothing.
Speaker 10: So we were licensing from the bottom of the barrel,
Speaker 10: things that had no revenue for anybody, shows that didn't
Speaker 10: get the syndication, things that weren't otherwise.
Speaker 11: Sold, kind of like what to B and some of
Speaker 11: the AVOD services did. It came around where they started.
Speaker 10: And we gave it away with the DVD business, and
Speaker 10: you got what you paid for back then. But I'd
Speaker 10: say what happened was that's created a whole new revenue
Speaker 10: stream for the networks in the studios. It created a
Speaker 10: whole new residual revenue stream for actors and performers who
Speaker 10: performed in those projects that were sitting on the shelf,
Speaker 10: and really kind of got the ball rolling in a
Speaker 10: way that you know, obviously, I think these things can.
Speaker 6: Take decades to build.
Speaker 10: But with their big, meaningful businesses, you know, that's that's
Speaker 10: a good investment, and i'd say good good business. For us,
Speaker 10: it's you know, thirty two billion dollars of revenue and
Speaker 10: six billion dollars of profit, and we've been growing the business.
Speaker 6: Pretty dramatically and pretty quick. We grew pretty quickly.
Speaker 10: We're not growing as fast right now as we want to,
Speaker 10: but we are still growing the business.
Speaker 11: So I'm curious on that point because you you guys
Speaker 11: in your remarks, I think your last learning support talked
Speaker 11: about how you still aren't growing as quickly as you'd
Speaker 11: like to. There was a point in time where every
Speaker 11: year like clockwork, Netflix, but basically add twenty five million
Speaker 11: to thirty million customers. Yeah, that obviously post pandemic has
Speaker 11: come way down. What are you doing about that? And
Speaker 11: do you think you can get back to the level
Speaker 11: of growth you were at three four years ago.
Speaker 10: Look, I think the key to it is, you know,
Speaker 10: growing the growing revenue, and I think for us that's
Speaker 10: a combination of you know, putting a great product on
Speaker 10: the board. When you talk about is streaming a good business,
Speaker 10: it is if you do it well. And I think
Speaker 10: I would say the team at Netflix in terms of
Speaker 10: the programming, Bella Bajari and her team are phenomenal at
Speaker 10: focusing on what people love and their creative team is
Speaker 10: great at delivering for what people love. The team that
Speaker 10: delivers the UI experience something that happens at Netflix that's
Speaker 10: almost impossible anywhere else.
Speaker 6: And I'd say because of.
Speaker 10: Our distribution footprint and our recommendations that you have the ability,
Speaker 10: if you're telling a story from Korea, to be the
Speaker 10: biggest television show in the world. That can only happen
Speaker 10: on Netflix. And it's not just taking obscurity and making
Speaker 10: it big. Imagine somebody as big as David Beckham who
Speaker 10: releases his the Documentary on Netflix and in days grows
Speaker 10: his social media following by half a million people. And
Speaker 10: I think this happens over and over again. The combination
Speaker 10: of our distribution footprint and recommendation and which I think
Speaker 10: is what distinguishes the business and the way you grow
Speaker 10: it is by keep doing that better and better, and
Speaker 10: the opportunity to grow it is enormous. We're about ten
Speaker 10: percent of screen time when people are using watching on
Speaker 10: the TV at home, about ten percent. In our most
Speaker 10: penetrated markets like the US, around the world significantly smaller.
Speaker 10: We're about five percent of consumer spending in the businesses
Speaker 10: that we're in, which is paid television, advertising, supported television.
Speaker 6: And games.
Speaker 10: And so as you look at that there, and we're
Speaker 10: just in our infancy in those businesses, then about five
Speaker 10: percent of consumer spending.
Speaker 6: So we're a ton of role.
Speaker 2: For our TV and radio audiences worldwide.
Speaker 3: It's official.
Speaker 2: Microsoft's completed it's sixty nine billion dollar purchase of Activision
Speaker 2: Blizzard after nearly two years fighting with global regulators who
Speaker 2: threatened to halt and indeed stop the deal. This is
Speaker 2: the biggest ever acquisition in the video games industry. I'm
Speaker 2: delighted to bring in Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotik. Bobby,
Speaker 2: good afternoon, and thank you for your time joining us
Speaker 2: from New York City.
Speaker 6: Thanks for having me ed.
Speaker 3: Bobby.
Speaker 2: You and I have been talking about video games industry.
Speaker 2: We've been talking about cloud, but the origin of this
Speaker 2: deal was mobile gaming, and I just ask you to
Speaker 2: reflect if now that it's all said and done, Microsoft
Speaker 2: will be able to make some progress in mobile gaming.
Speaker 12: Look, I think there were a lot of great reasons
Speaker 12: for this merger.
Speaker 6: Mobile is an important part.
Speaker 12: I think one of the things that we've all benefited
Speaker 12: from is as smartphones became the dominant form of delivery
Speaker 12: devices for video games, we started to see the democratization.
Speaker 6: Of video games.
Speaker 12: And for most of the thirty some od years I've
Speaker 12: been running the company, we made games for consoles and
Speaker 12: for PCs, and those were really limited to people who
Speaker 12: were middle class consumers in developed countries. And over the
Speaker 12: last ten years, what we've seen is the dramatic expansion
Speaker 12: of games too. Today we have players over three hundred
Speaker 12: and fifty million players in one hundred and ninety countries,
Speaker 12: and so that this dramatic transformation that's taken place and
Speaker 12: building this much larger audience of players is something that
Speaker 12: I think Microsoft will continue to develop and enhance, and
Speaker 12: we're really excited about the future of gaming as a result.
Speaker 2: Bobby, I know that you also engage with the gamers
Speaker 2: the community. We asked the questions to the community, what
Speaker 2: would you ask, Bobby Kotek? I think the resounding question
Speaker 2: is what is it that Microsoft could offer activision gamers
Speaker 2: playing your different titles that you guys couldn't offer on
Speaker 2: your own if you'd remain a standalone company.
Speaker 12: Well, I can't say that there's any specific thing that
Speaker 12: the Microsoft can will offer that we couldn't. What I
Speaker 12: would say is what's the most important is access to talent.
Speaker 12: As the market it continues to grow, as you see
Speaker 12: the intensified competition that's coming from so many companies with
Speaker 12: aspirations to make and sell video games, one of the
Speaker 12: things that we were realizing is that access to talent
Speaker 12: was going to be increasingly more competitive and difficult. And
Speaker 12: it's the same type of talent you know, AI and
Speaker 12: machine learning talent, data analytics, user interface and user experience
Speaker 12: type talent that is now in such high demand. And
Speaker 12: I think our hope is that over time we'll be
Speaker 12: able to attract people from the enterprise side of Microsoft
Speaker 12: to be excited about working in gaming. But I think
Speaker 12: on a combined basis, it gives us a greater chance
Speaker 12: to compete against the many, many competitors that are out
Speaker 12: there today.
Speaker 2: That's the technology side, and to all great technologies, there's
Speaker 2: a cost. I remember you saying that at times like
Speaker 2: Activision wasn't looking to sell, didn't need to.
Speaker 3: When this deal came together in the outset.
Speaker 2: Was it because the financial position had changed and Activision
Speaker 2: did need to sell.
Speaker 6: No, we had you know, we.
Speaker 12: Merged with a stellar balance sheet and strong financial performance.
Speaker 12: It really was you know, our principal responsibility is providing
Speaker 12: a return to our stakeholders, and when Microsoft approached us,
Speaker 12: they made an offer that was in the best interest
Speaker 12: of the shareholders. Ninety eight percent of the shareholders voted
Speaker 12: for the transaction, and so that's you know, it's our
Speaker 12: principal responsibility as a board and for me as a CEO.
Speaker 6: The exciting thing is that we actually.
Speaker 12: Sold to a company that has a history almost as
Speaker 12: long as ours of making video games. And if you
Speaker 12: think back to the early years of Flight Simulator, you know,
Speaker 12: there's a company that has been in the game industry
Speaker 12: for a long time. They you know, people are passionate
Speaker 12: about gaming at the company, and so when you think
Speaker 12: about a perfect home for the next you know, generation
Speaker 12: of gaming, Microsoft is going to be a fantastic place
Speaker 12: for our incredibly talented people to have opportunities.
Speaker 2: Bobby, how did this deal come together? What's the origin story?
Speaker 6: Well, it came together pretty quickly. Sauti and Phil gave
Speaker 6: me a call and.
Speaker 12: Said that they were really excited and enthusiastic about this
Speaker 12: as an opportunity, and is it something that our board
Speaker 12: would consider, And I of course said yeah, absolutely, And
Speaker 12: you know, it didn't take very long after that to
Speaker 12: see the logic of it.
Speaker 6: You know, it's a it's a perfect combination.
Speaker 12: And like I said, given the intense competition that you're
Speaker 12: seeing from you know, every big technology company, not just
Speaker 12: you know in the US and Europe, but in China
Speaker 12: and Japan, I think that you know, this gives us,
Speaker 12: on a combined basis, the opportunities to develop Nason franchises,
Speaker 12: to take advantage of some of the titles in the
Speaker 12: library that haven't actually been developed in a long time.
Speaker 12: You know, right now is a really great moment in gaming.
Speaker 12: There is enormous innovation taking place. We're about to launch
Speaker 12: a new Call of Duty game in the next few
Speaker 12: weeks and a new season of Diablo, and you can
Speaker 12: actually see the changes and the benefits of new technology
Speaker 12: in games like Call of Duty. We're seeing an expanded
Speaker 12: reach of games like Candy Crush to which now is
Speaker 12: probably something like one hundred and thirty million monthly active users.
Speaker 12: And so this is just an exciting time to be
Speaker 12: in the gaming business, and an even more exciting time
Speaker 12: now that we have this transaction completely with Microsoft.
Speaker 2: Welcome to our global Bloomberg television and radio audiences. We're
Speaker 2: speaking with Bobby Kotek, Activision CEO. But it was announced
Speaker 2: Bobby that you will work with Microsoft under Phil Spencer
Speaker 2: just through to the end of twenty twenty three. This
Speaker 2: is the biggest deal in video game's history. Activision has
Speaker 2: more than ten thousand staff. Is that enough time? I
Speaker 2: guess my question why not stay on longer? You have
Speaker 2: run this company for almost three decades.
Speaker 12: Well, it's probably appropriate for me being sitting here at
Speaker 12: Bloomberg right now. But you know, Mike Bloomberg is one
Speaker 12: of the most inspiring philanthropists that I have ever had
Speaker 12: the pleasure to know. And you know, I just turned
Speaker 12: sixty last year, and I'm personally really excited about the
Speaker 12: opportunity to help reform K through twelve education, think about
Speaker 12: why we reduce hatred and intolerance in the world, focus
Speaker 12: on bridging relationships with countries like China.
Speaker 6: So there are these filmthropic.
Speaker 12: Interests that I've always had that I really want to
Speaker 12: focus on and make my priority today.
Speaker 2: And a reminder to our global television radio audience that
Speaker 2: Mike Bloomberg is the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP,
Speaker 2: which of course owns Bloomberg Television. Bobby twenty four hours ago,
Speaker 2: an industry colleague of yours, Laura Meeli of Electronic Arts,
Speaker 2: who I believe you know well, was on the show.
Speaker 2: On the close of this deal, EA will become sort
Speaker 2: of the largest independent studio left.
Speaker 3: And yet she gave a glowing review of the deal.
Speaker 2: You know, I'm paraphrasing, but basically said this puts video
Speaker 2: games on the map in the context of the entertainment industry.
Speaker 2: But she also conceded that EA is a target, right,
Speaker 2: And I wondered if you'd reflect on the years of
Speaker 2: negotiating regulators to get this deal done, if you think
Speaker 2: that ANYA can remain independent, or if this opens the
Speaker 2: door to consolidation.
Speaker 6: Well, EA is a fantastic company.
Speaker 12: I started my career as a developer of software for
Speaker 12: Electronic Arts, and so I will always have a great
Speaker 12: reverence and respect and appreciation for the company. You know,
Speaker 12: it's an extraordinary company, and you know that I think
Speaker 12: they can remain independent and continue to be as successful
Speaker 12: as they've been since they were founded in nineteen eighty three.
Speaker 12: And you know, we're lucky to have companies like Electronic
Speaker 12: Arts who have what we have, which is a workforce
Speaker 12: that is enthusiastic and passionate and so committed to advancing
Speaker 12: the art form of gaming.
Speaker 2: That give me give me a real answer here, Bobby,
Speaker 2: that you know Microsoft buys Activision, is this kind of
Speaker 2: the signal of where we're at with the video games industry,
Speaker 2: that the studios that creators have to live within a
Speaker 2: much bigger technology entity because of AI the need for
Speaker 2: cloud compute.
Speaker 12: Well, I don't think that's the case at all. I mean,
Speaker 12: you look at an example of a company like Roadblocks,
Speaker 12: you know, it's you know, it was example, it was
Speaker 12: a startup not less than ten years ago, and they've
Speaker 12: built an extraordinary business. There's enormous access to capital for
Speaker 12: video game startups still today. I think, in fact, probably
Speaker 12: more venture capital has gone into video game companies in
Speaker 12: the last few years than ever before. The competitive environment
Speaker 12: still favors great entrepreneurs with big ideas and visions and
Speaker 12: the ability to execute. And so I think that you know,
Speaker 12: whether you're large or small, there's going to be you know,
Speaker 12: continued opportunities for innovation and new types of companies. I
Speaker 12: think for a company like ours, what we just did
Speaker 12: was in the best interest of the shareholders and are
Speaker 12: almost fifteen thousand incredibly talented employees around the world.
Speaker 2: So if somebody buys EA, I get it's a hypothetical.
Speaker 2: It leaves very few options. What do you think that
Speaker 2: entity looks like?
Speaker 6: I'm I try I really understand the question ed.
Speaker 2: Well, it took Microsoft to spend seventy billion dollars to
Speaker 2: buy Activision. If there's going to be consolidation in your industry,
Speaker 2: and you've led in this industry for three decades, right,
Speaker 2: who do you think could buy Apple based on your experience?
Speaker 2: Buy EA based on you without putting words in your mouth,
Speaker 2: based on your experience of the last two years.
Speaker 6: Oh, I wouldn't want to speculate.
Speaker 12: I mean, there are just so many business combinations that
Speaker 12: are possible, but I don't have an informed view of that.
Speaker 2: Sitting here today, Phil Spencer, what task does he have
Speaker 2: to take all of the people working at Activision and
Speaker 2: bring them into Microsoft. Do you think that there's anything
Speaker 2: he can learn from your company?
Speaker 12: Look, we have a fantastic company, with an extraordinarily talented workforce.
Speaker 12: People are passionate, motivated, enthusiastic, excited about this merger, and
Speaker 12: Phil is an extraordinary leader. I couldn't think of a
Speaker 12: better person to give the reins too for the business.
Speaker 12: You know, he is a passionate gamer, He's been involved
Speaker 12: in this industry since nineteen eighty nine. You know, he's
Speaker 12: incredibly technically capable, visionary leader.
Speaker 6: People love working.
Speaker 12: With him, and I think it was actually one of
Speaker 12: the really appealing parts of this transaction was to know
Speaker 12: that the people that I've worked with for three decades
Speaker 12: are going to have a leader who is extraordinarily capable
Speaker 12: and passionate and compassionate and will do a wonderful job
Speaker 12: leading the combined companies.
Speaker 2: We're speaking with Bobby Kotik, the Activision Blizzard CEO here
Speaker 2: on Bloomberg Television and Bloomberg Radio, and Bobby, as we discussed,
Speaker 2: you will stay until the end of the year and
Speaker 2: then focus it sounds like on philanthropy. But to those
Speaker 2: that don't know you as well, you know, the video
Speaker 2: games industry and market is huge, but there will be
Speaker 2: people that don't know your backstory. It's started in software,
Speaker 2: right It started. There's a tie to the early days
Speaker 2: of Apple. You've been able to work with Microsoft now
Speaker 2: and the story of the year is generative AI, and
Speaker 2: I wondered if you could just give us some illustrative
Speaker 2: examples of how you think their work in AI is
Speaker 2: going to read through to video game development. No matter
Speaker 2: how niche NPCs customization.
Speaker 12: Look, AI is going to in fact, when you think
Speaker 12: about the talent that it will be re pier to
Speaker 12: move the art form forward and to be able to
Speaker 12: create new innovation. AI and machine learning are going to
Speaker 12: be the important new technologies that are going to be
Speaker 12: transformative for the future types.
Speaker 6: Of games that will create.
Speaker 12: There are so many important applications, whether it's generating art
Speaker 12: and animation, or onboarding players or creating greater experiences for
Speaker 12: players through better tools.
Speaker 6: Like player match.
Speaker 12: There is an enormous amount of benefit that will come
Speaker 12: from the.
Speaker 6: Evolution of AI.
Speaker 12: It's the early innings though, of really figuring out how
Speaker 12: to translate what is the available technology today into practical
Speaker 12: solutions for gaming.
Speaker 6: But I think this is one of the big areas.
Speaker 12: Of opportunity for us on a combined basis, because Microsoft
Speaker 12: is clearly right now. I think the leader in AI
Speaker 12: and machine learning. So I wanted to say thank you
Speaker 12: very much for the opportunity to have me today.
Speaker 6: I really really appreciate.
Speaker 12: It, and I look forward to continuing the conversation.
Speaker 6: And it was very very genniferous a view to include me.
Speaker 2: All right, Bobby Kotik back division CEO for now, thank you,
Speaker 2: Thank you very much, Bloomberg Technology, thank you. Okay, let's
Speaker 2: go back to some of the Bloomberg screen time highlights,
Speaker 2: some of which you were just watching. Starting with YouTube
Speaker 2: CEO Neil Moens speaking about his priorities when it comes
Speaker 2: to live sports competitions. Following YouTube TV, of course, winning
Speaker 2: the right to broadcast the NFL Sunday Ticket game back
Speaker 2: in December, he sat down with Bloomberg's Lucas Shaw talk
Speaker 2: about what's going on.
Speaker 13: It's very early on, we're a few weeks into the season,
Speaker 13: but I feel really, really good. I feel that the
Speaker 13: first and foremost my priorities, literally from the day that
Speaker 13: we signed the deal was on the user experience, our
Speaker 13: fan experience on YouTube. Joint fans of the NFL and YouTube,
Speaker 13: we have millions and millions of sports fans on the platform,
Speaker 13: and the whole point of Sunday Ticket was to super
Speaker 13: serve those fans, and so everything from you know what
Speaker 13: gets all the headlines, which is multiview and you know
Speaker 13: kind of four games at once and what have you
Speaker 13: to to latency, to the clarity of the picture, and
Speaker 13: then all the features and things like that that we
Speaker 13: have that users of YouTube tv have known and loved
Speaker 13: on Sunday Ticket. So really really focusing on that and
Speaker 13: that has gone Knockwood really really well from all the
Speaker 13: feedback that we've seen. So I feel great about the
Speaker 13: product that we put out there.
Speaker 11: You like the multiview.
Speaker 13: I use the multiview every week myself. I like the multiview,
Speaker 13: especially the one with red zone in one of the
Speaker 13: windows for me, and that's like, you know, as a
Speaker 13: huge sports fan, like that is like kind of like
Speaker 13: the perfect Nirvana experience for me.
Speaker 11: You talked about being a platform for sports and having
Speaker 11: different rights. As I unfairly mentioned at the top, you're
Speaker 11: a big NBA fan, those rights are coming up. Are
Speaker 11: you interested?
Speaker 13: So what I will say is we're taking one step
Speaker 13: at a time.
Speaker 2: Right now.
Speaker 13: The NFL Sunday Ticket is a is a big area
Speaker 13: focus for us. And again, as I said, getting that
Speaker 13: viewer experience right, making that game day experience on Sunday
Speaker 13: flawless and seamless, and you should expect from us a
Speaker 13: lot more innovation there in terms of products, in terms
Speaker 13: of creator integrations, all the things that our special younger
Speaker 13: fans of the NFL on YouTube expect. You should see
Speaker 13: more of that through the season and in the mini
Speaker 13: seasons to come.
Speaker 6: So that's the focus.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 13: Regarding the NBA, they have been longtime partners. They operate
Speaker 13: one of the largest channels on our platform every I mean,
Speaker 13: my fifteen year old is a huge sports fan just
Speaker 13: like me. He watches a lot of NBA highlights and
Speaker 13: he watches them on YouTube through the lens and the
Speaker 13: analysis of a lot of his favorite creators, and so
Speaker 13: we have a long partnership with them. But in terms
Speaker 13: of our focus right now, it's about this NFL experience.
Speaker 2: That was YouTube CEO Neil Moen at our Bloomberg screen
Speaker 2: Time event in Hollywood, Los Angeles. You can catch more
Speaker 2: of that conversation online. Wrapping up our coverage from the
Speaker 2: inaugural Bloomberg screen Time event in Hollywood, we sat down
Speaker 2: with the matriarch of the Kardashian family and discuss what
Speaker 2: led to their pivot to streaming.
Speaker 14: I really felt like streaming was in the cards for us,
Speaker 14: and my family really wanted to try and tried to
Speaker 14: take a stab at that because that was really the
Speaker 14: future in our minds. We wanted to elevate what we
Speaker 14: were doing and streamline the show and have a new
Speaker 14: audience with you know, it's now it's Hulu and Disney
Speaker 14: Plus around the rest of the world, and the show's
Speaker 14: always been in so many countries and so many languages,
Speaker 14: and we have such an amazing following, and that transition
Speaker 14: for us, we were very lucky because we kept that
Speaker 14: audience and gained new audience, new friends, and we still
Speaker 14: have a wonderful relationship over at e They're still airing
Speaker 14: some of our shows, and so it makes it nice
Speaker 14: because now it's a much broader audience.
Speaker 15: We keep saying lucky, and it's interesting because it wasn't
Speaker 15: luck that first brought you to thinking about infomercials, about
Speaker 15: seeing what perhaps you hadn't seen at the time, which
Speaker 15: was a champion you're married to that you wanted to.
Speaker 11: You know, that relationship that.
Speaker 15: Bruce at that time had with people who appreciated his sports,
Speaker 15: and then you learn into infomercials and Sunny became linear
Speaker 15: television than the transition to screening. How have you always
Speaker 15: been able to see basically where the consumer's going.
Speaker 14: I think I do like to lean into opportunity and
Speaker 14: I do like to think about what the next thing
Speaker 14: could look like. And in those days when it was about, Okay,
Speaker 14: we have bills to pay, kids in school and things
Speaker 14: going on, and how is this going to happen? And
Speaker 14: I just had to really figure it out. And when
Speaker 14: I created Keeping Up with the Kardashians and brought it
Speaker 14: to Ryan Seacrest and we brought it to E and
Speaker 14: they said yes, And thirty days later we were filming,
Speaker 14: and I was just very persistent about the direction I
Speaker 14: knew I wanted to go in, and I think we
Speaker 14: were prepared for But it takes a village, and I think,
Speaker 14: what is so I mean when I say lucky, I
Speaker 14: feel lucky. I feel black us to have opportunity that
Speaker 14: I can, you know, extract this amazing career out of
Speaker 14: you know, and also share that with my family. And
Speaker 14: they have taken this and run with it. You know,
Speaker 14: when you think about somebody in the entertainment business.
Speaker 3: Usually they do.
Speaker 14: It and they thrive and grow and perform on their
Speaker 14: own and with me, we get to do it all together.
Speaker 14: It's not just one of us trying to do it
Speaker 14: all by ourselves and create this world for the whole family.
Speaker 14: But we all get to have a part in our
Speaker 14: are present and our future and what we're going to do.
Speaker 14: So there's lots of family meetings and we discuss what
Speaker 14: next steps are going to be. And the kids are
Speaker 14: I mean, they've got amazing work ethic and they never stop.
Speaker 6: So I feel like it.
Speaker 14: You know, it takes a village, It takes all of
Speaker 14: us together, and I think that's the magic.
Speaker 2: Chris Jenner there from our first ever screen Time event
Speaker 2: in Los Angeles. Well that does it for this edition
Speaker 2: of Bloomberg Technology. Don't forget check out the podcast wherever
Speaker 2: you get your podcast, Apple, Spotify, iHeart, and of course
Speaker 2: on all of the Bloomberg platforms. That wraps it up
Speaker 2: for what's frankly been one massive week in the world
Speaker 2: of technology.
Speaker 3: Caroline's off today. She'll be back next week.
Speaker 2: But from here in San Francisco and Silicon Valley wherever
Speaker 2: you are in the world. This is Bloomberg Technology