Transcripts For CNBC Squawk Box 20171127 : comparemela.com

percent. shanghai stocks down by close to 1% a decline of more than nine tenths in europe there have been some green arrows the dax is up by .2% the cac is up by a quarter percentage points. stocks up in italy, spain and london crude oil prices which ended last week just shy of $59 a barrel, check this out right now, down by about 44 cents. still, wti trading above 58 at $58.51 a barrel. now this morning the big news of the day. publisher meredith buying time, inc., for2.8 billion that's the price meredith will pay $18.50 for time, inc. it publishes well-known magazines such as "time," "peopl "people. meredith received $650 million a lot of people raising questions about what this means. raising $650 million in backing from the billionaire koch brothers, charles and david koch are widely known for supporting conservative causes. they say the magazine business is a good investment in the press release koch industry says it will not have any seat on meredith's board and will have no influence or editorial or managerial operations check out shares of meredith we'll talk to the former time editor you're looking at that stock up. rich bautista, the ceo of "time" is on his way out. the next question is whether the meredith/time inc. keeps all of the titles whether "time" or "fortune" magazine which are not the cash cows of the company, "people" magazine is the big cash cow of the company and "sports illustrated" and the swimsuit issue. the question is do those things get sold off do the koch brothers, by the way, end up buying time inc. afterwards if you want to get not con spir spiritorial. do they get first dibs. >> do you like including debt in the deal is that what you think we should do >> the $2.8 billion price is inclusive of debt. >> right >> by about a billion dollars. >> what do you prefer? >> i'm more of an equity guy sometimes i leike to see both. >> it sounds higher? >> no. >> 1.8 in equity or a billion in debt. >> it's assuming debt, not really paying that i think it's equity. i'm equity. >> go straight equity. >> go straight equity. don't you? you could add the market capital of both. >> that's not -- >> i've seen some deals -- >> we could get this thing up to 12 billion. >> the other piece for those in the media business who are interested in this they do say the synergies are going to be between 4 and $500 million a year. >> what are the over liers. >> more on the behind, ad sales? >> ad sales, subscriptions, circulation, all of that. >> you could bring in both koch brothers, bring bannon in and seann hannity, put them where "time" is right now and maybe get somewhere to the middle of the road if you put all those guys on one -- put koch in there, let bannon have some influence and put seann hannity, you might get somewhere in the middle, maybe just barely in the middle. >> i disagree. >> have you seen "time's" covers >> you're spending too much time on twitter. >> have you seen "time's" covers >> there are a couple of people who have done montages of "time's" covers. >> i didn't see that i saw them when they happened. i saw them when they happened. i can -- i have eyes i have a brain. >> you're a subscriber good >> no. no no, no, no, no, no, no >> okay. other things to tell you the big other news, bitcoin surging past $9,000 to a new high over the weekend. it means it took seven days from the digital currency to go from $8,000 to $9,000 analysts cite the influx of retail investors and fear of missing out, ff omo. coin base added 300,000 accounts in the last three weeks. bitcoin has surged 900% this year i wish i was -- i wish i had done that, like the rest of us. >> the whole rest of the year thing, i don't want to get into the ridiculous controversy there. >> but you do. >> no, i'm not going to talk about that i'm going to talk about something even more insane, and that is you know how time has nothing to do with whether you have a good person or bad person >> zbliet hright. >> hitler? >> kim jong-un -- >> he's not my pick. >> weinstein >> that's interesting. nkts stasht at the -- start of the -- >> this is a cultural -- >> you know what, that is -- >> -- reset of -- >> although "time" sometimes does those composites. >> you might do a sexual harassment composite i think colin kaepernick potentially in terms of the conversation i'm just -- if you think of the short list of who it could be. kim jong-un could be one trump was one until he wasn't or until he -- >> right >> -- took himself out, was dismissed, whatever happened >> i'm not saying he's good or bad but i don't think it's influential enough. >> you're talking about from the cultural watershed moment. >> i thought of that that's what i mean i thought of that in a -- sort of a -- you know as like you certainly have to qualify it even saying it if you think about where we are, what happened, i mean, what was -- it was conyers all weekend long and roy moore, everything else. it's just -- >> and, by the way, that's what most people talked about at the thanksgiving table is not even politics >> you know, if it was 27,000 for him and what was the -- what was the total number >> $30 million or something. >> they're trying to get all of that because it's all top secret right now. >> it's shocking >> with however many millions, we're going to know a lot of the names -- >> conyers says he's going to take a bunch of them down. if you force me, i'm going to tell everybody >> if you really do the most and you ascribe no good or bad to the person you pick, it could be kim jong-un or harvey weinstein. >> right or it could be this man who's been the "time" man of the year. he just surpassed $100 billion $100 billion man, jeff bezos watching his net worth soar. he was the "time" man of the year in 1999 he became the first person to reach a net worth greater than $100 billion since bill gates in 1999 black friday rise of more than 2% in amazon stock pushed bezos over that. >> he spent some money on -- >> space >> no, on a personal trainer because he looks nothing like the guy we used to see as jeff bezos. >> he looks good healthy. >> he spent some money on a very good trainer. >> and he's followed the trainer's regimen because he is now -- >> would you give him more credit if he didn't hire a trainer? >> no, i'm giving him credit. >> he looks buff. >> i'm saying if he could get that -- >> on his own. >> -- that would be great. >> i don't think anyone can get there on their own, i don't. i now know. >> he has a trainer. >> got nothing to do -- i'm going to use him twice he's going to show me what i need to do you're too easy. i don't need the last -- let me do one set >> oh, no. >> you need the guy -- >> you need help. >> no, i go to a cross fitty kind of class. >> we all go to pilates. >> no, like a cross fit class. >> have you been to a pilates class? >> never. >> yoga? >> i've never -- i'm so inflexible in fact, one of the new year's resolutions for 2018 -- >> yeah. >> -- frankly needs to be a yoga kind of thing because i need to stretch. it's a big problem. >> do you mean what the word numastia means >> no. >> i only know that from curb your enthusiasm. what about a third eye has that got something to do with yoga, the third eye >> that's like ohhhmmmm. >> i'm not a yoga person i'd like to be i don't know if i would like to be. >> you are a davos man. >> germany and angela merkel is getting bad press. >> all right let's talk a little bit more about what happened over the weekend. adobe says consumers spent more than $5 billion online on black friday that is up nerlly 17% from last year mobile shopping via smartphone accounted for about $2 billion of that spending strong black friday numbers follow a record $2.9 billion in spending on thanksgiving day some analysts expect today, cyber monday, will be the largest online shopping day in history. we'll be getting a live report from courtney ragan. people talk about records that they're expecting records. we should expect records because this is still a growth industry. if you don't see records, you've got a problem. >> president xi. >> he could be it, too i put him on the short list. >> definitely. >> i think the harvey and others -- i like the montage. >> you do? >> i could get behind that >> nobody is going to want to put harvey weinstein on the cover? >> right >> they would do it as a montage to avoid putting anybody to make them more famous. >> maybe so. remember that stupid mirror when i was -- >> when you were the person in the mirror >> or the p.c. was, the gimmicky stuff. >> i don't think a montage would be gimmicky in this instance >> maybe not it's a person, not a concept of the year >> maybe harvey would -- >> no, maybe president xi. the most powerful guy since the leveling of mau. in washington showdown over the consumer financial protection bureau. two people claim the acting director job both plan to show up to lead the agency. like co-counsels in ancient rome kayla tausche joins us. >> reporter: if they were co-counsels they would be on the same side. this is heating up and getting very bitter. it's a legal saga that's unfolded over the last day over the succession of the consumer financial protection bureau following the resignation of the director on friday using a provision in dodd-frank, he appointed someone but the white house used a different statute to appoint mick mulvaney they have 1600 employees and $600 million budget. mulvaney is the only one with the authority to run it as of today. white house counsel points to an obama era court decision as proof its authority would supersede any authority of that of dodd-frank. the case they're pointing to took three years to resolve. one simple solution would be to appoint a director a decision is close but it's still months before that person would take office. democrats in droves have thrown their support behind english president trump calling the bureau's prior leadership a, quote, total disaster that has devastated banks under the new white house they could freeze imports from banks. the futures underscores an already bitter relationship between republicans and democrats that face this mounting year-end to do list two crucial items, raising the debt ceiling and avoiding a government shutdown require bipartisan support tax reform as we know is the chief priority which the senate hopes to pass this week. on that front, trump will meet with the senate finance committee today and congressional leaders from both parties tomorrow they're going to try to find some common ground this certainly, joe, isn't making things easier >> yeah. who are the two guys at citigroup, andrew? john reed and -- they had two of them, remember that? >> reporter: there are a lot of banks that had two people leading the investment banks. >> they were at each other's throats and be co-counsel but not -- >> reporter: co-ceos >> they hated each other. >> kayla, can congress change the law very quickly on this >> reporter: not very quickly. they could potentially change it the vacancies reform act that the white house is using is, of course, older and has much more legal precedent than any of these newer statutes i asked if anyone could dissolve the consumer protection finance bureau he supported a bill. they said, no, congress would have to put forth a bill to pass into law if they were to decide to do that the question is whether one of those cfpb hawks could be named as a permanent director which could tell you about the white how's intentions it could get nasty and be protracted. >> did you see dickdurbin in the wall street journal. they're trying to put an end to it the statute is specific and clear and says the deputy shall take over. i thought that was -- >> although the cfpb's own legal counsel said, no, the vacancies act should take precedent. it has to be adjudicated or congress has to make it clear. one or the two. >> i think we lost kayla kayla, thank you all right. let's get to the markets on this monday morning joining us right now is ellen zentner. chief u.s. economist at morgan stanley. jim urio is at tjm institutional services and a cnbc contributor. ellen, why don't we talk about where we are right now gains for the market once again last week. getting towards the end of the year what do you anticipate, if anything, will be pushing direction? >> well, you know, there's going to be a lot of volatility even though we only have just one month left in the year simply because there's going to be a lot of headline risk around what congress may or may not deliver this year. and how the expectations for that time line are adjusted. i think though we come in monday after thanksgiving, all of our 2018 outlooks are out. fresh outlooks and we're already looking beyond to next year where our chief u.s. equity strategist mike wilson thinks the s&p 500 peaks at 2750. that peak comes in the first half of next year. basically downhill from there. >> what drops it from 27.50? what's the problem >> it's going to be a tough year for comps because we're coming off a very good year in 2017 some of it is just that effect, right? earnings beats will become tougher. i also think that the promise of tax reform is better than the delivery of. either it's a sell on the news event early next year or it's disappointment because congress didn't do as much as folks thought that they would do so that's probably some of what's fwlapd there as well. but i think it's difficult to get another surge like we saw in 2017 coming off the euphoria of a change in congress, change in white house and what that might lead to. and that's sort of lifted spirits and sentiment all year once that's delivered though in whatever form and shape that it takes, you can get a hole on the other side economic activity as well. that's something we have to watch. >> jim, how about you? do you agree with that >> i agree with everything she said i think it's difficult to talk about the next year in stocks without mentioning the fact we still have the back beat of ultra low rates when you compare it to the global economic situation. the fed just a couple of days ago talked been they're being a little bit worried about the lack of inflation. we have a 235 ten year we have negative rates around the globe. to me, i look at everything. everything seems good. not only do we have good earnings this year again, we're throwing another $1.5 trillion into the corporate sector if this tax package gets approved that's not insignificant to think that just the 1.5 trillion, that's going to show up on balance sheets and make the stocks go up is silly. there has to be a lot of other activity that comes through those things so i think everything looks good right now. i do think once it feels like the tax package is going to pass, i think it will be a buy the room or sell the fact thing. we could see a 5 point correction at that time. >> what if the tax package doesn't pass >> that could be devastating what i think would happen then is 10 to 15% correction but i also think the fed will quickly get on its horse to save the day as it has before the fed is terrified -- >> how it's not going to lower rates. >> stock markets breaking down institute another qe they're not going to do another round of qe and they did another round of qe. >> you think because the stock market drops they would institute additional qe? >> yeah. i can back that up two years ago in august we broke like 8% in one day, they had been on a tightening path. that same day fed representative came out and said the tightening is less compelling right away i mean, i think they're terrified of being the ones sitting at the controls when we see a bear market ensue. i think they jump into that at 10 to 15%. >> i don't know. you -- >> i don't know. i think it takes more than 10 to 15%. taken in a vacuum to get the fed to respond to that i think they would actually be a little bit more comfortable with some sort of selloff to me 10%, 15% is not enough it's all about financial conditions for the fed. >> right. >> what else is going on that is causing the markt selloff. are other factors involved. >> ellen and jim, it's always good to see you. >> thank you. coming up when we return, we're going to talk meredith buying "time" for $1.8 billion equity, joe. >> yes, i like that. >> another $1 billion in debt. backing from the koch brothers as well. we're going to talk to one of the magazine's former editors. we're going to do that when "squawk" returns right after this and high-dividend strategies. sure, these are investments. but they're not what people really invest in. what people really invest in, is what they hope to get out of life. but helping them get there takes a pure focus. because when you invest their money without distraction, hidden agenda or competing interests, something wonderful can happen. they might just get what they wanted out of life, and maybe even more. ♪ at t-mobile, when you holiday together, great things come in twos. like t-mobile and netflix. right now when you get an unlimited family plan, netflix is included. ho ho ho! t-mobile covers your netflix subscription... best christmas gift ever! ...so you can binge watch all year long. now you're thinking christmas! and now when you buy any of this season's hot new samsung galaxy phones, you get a second one free to gift. that's one samsung for you. and one to give. t-mobile. holiday twogether. wifiso if you can't live without it...t it. why aren't you using this guy? it makes your wifi awesomely fast. no... still nope. now we're talking! it gets you wifi here, here, and here. it even lets you take a time out. no! no! yes! yes, indeed. amazing speed, coverage and control. all with an xfi gateway. find your awesome, and change the way you wifi. ♪ ♪ welcome back to "squawk box" this morning the big news of the morning, publisher meredith buying time inc. for $1.8 billion excluding debt $650 million backing from the koch brothers. charles alexander is joining us, 23 years with the company. welcome to the program your initial thoughts hearing the news i know it's now been out for close to a week in terms of the speculation that a transaction like this would take place put it in historical context for us >> well, i'm upset, disa ibt ppd like a lot of other former "time" staffers. i guess i was fearing that soon we would be seeing "time" by epa chiefs saying we don't need environmental regulations anymore. joe's gotten me scared with seann hannity. >> it's just a move from -- to move from "mother jones," salon, somewhere in the real world would be okay, charles just i think you've got -- maybe you wouldn't be -- maybe "time" wouldn't be in such dire straits if it appealed to more than just the radical left fringe. >> i wouldn't put "time" in the same category. >> you're part of the institutional problem probably. >> just put it into context a little bit the problem is not so much that they're conservative actually, "time" began as a conservative publication it was co-founded by henry luce. henry luce is rolling over in his grave you're comparing "time" to "mother jones" but what upsets me, i spent 13 years editing time's environment coverage and we had -- starting with when we named endangered earth planet of the year about 30 years ago. >> that was on the global cooling, i think, right? >> we had many other global warming covered after that and of course the koch brothers are the biggest funders of climate change. >> oh, my gosh oh, my gosh. >> charles -- >> my whole life's work is in danger of being repudiated. >> let me take this back and ask you this you saw the press release, i imagine, last night. time and the koch brothers and the meredith said the kochs will have no board seat, no operational management does that make you feel any better >> oh, yes. >> the big question this morning is actually whether "time," the magazine you worked at, remains part of the combined meredith, which is to say there are titles there, including "fortune" magazine, perhaps, and "time" and others that maybe meredith will ultimately sell off >> that's a big question because, you know, this is the third time that meredith has tried to buy "time" and the third time's the charm in the past one of the sticking points was that meredith wasn't interested in "time" and "fortune" so, yeah, you raise a good danger here that the company is going to spin off "time" and "fortune" or some entity closely controlled by the koch brothers. the first question, i did feel better that they at least are saying that the kochs are going to have no editorial interest. they know this is very controversial. maybe naive. i'm going to be hopeful. joe has me all upset again. >> putting politics aside. five years from now if we were having this conversation, do you think all of these titles still exist? meaning given the way the magazine industry trends are going? putting the quality of the good work that "time" and other magazines have done, it just seems that we are on a steady march unfortunately in a bad direction. >> i fear that and i suspect that "time" magazine staffers, the people that are there now, whether or not they like the koch brothers, whether they're conservative, iberal, they're probably glad to have somebody putting money into this business and so they're probably more hopeful today. >> okay. >> i don't be know "time" still has a circulation of 3 million. >> charles alexander -- >> hopefully it can hang in there and maybe outlive the koch brothers, i hope. >> charles alexander, we hope "time" exists or continues to exist. joe may have a different view. nevertheless, thank you very much >> thank you when we come back, your black friday scorecard dana is here with the winners and losers and the rundown of cyber monday take a look at last week's winners and losers for your heart... your joints... or your digestion... so why wouldn't you take something for the most important part of you... your brain. with an ingredient originally found in jellyfish, prevagen is now the number one selling brain health supplement in drug stores nationwide. prevagen. the name to remember. flexshares etfs are built around the way investors think. with objectives like building capital for the future, managing portfolio risk and liquidity and generating income. that's real etf innovation. flexshares. built by investors, for investors. before investing consider the fund's investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses. go to flexshares.com for a prospectus containing this information. read it carefully. i thyou never got the brakes looked at?l... oh yeah. no. at cognizant, we're helping today's leading manufacturers make things that think and do automatically. imagine that, a world of new digital products and services all working together for you. can i borrow the car when it's back? get ready, because we're helping leading companies see it- and see it through-with digital. ♪ ♪ welcome back you're watching "squawk box", live from the nasdaq market site in times square. good morning, everybody. welcome back to "squawk box" here on cnbc let's take a look at the u.s. equity futures last week was an up week for the markets. about a 1% gain for the dow. you can see this morning there are green arrows once again. dow futures indicated up by 20 points s&p up by 2.5 and nasdaq just up over 8 let's talk retail this morning some analysts expect today, cyber monday, will be the largest online shopping day in the history of the united states cnbc's courtney ragan is live at an amazon fulfillment center it better be. >> reporter: that's right. that's what everyone is expecting. amazon has its own pretty high bar to meet. they do that prime day every year now in july and this year's prime day was bigger than last year's cyber monday or last year's black friday. so we'll see if they can set some more records though most analysts do think they'll be able to do it. key marketer says in fact when you look at an average day, 44 cents of every $1 spent online goes to amazon when you're looking across the board, even with a record thanksgiving day, a record black friday and pretty strong online november sales altogether so far, adobe still predicts that today will set records for u.s. ecommerce at $6.6 billion. that will represent a 16.5% increase over last year. captify was looking at trends. they found shoppers were searching for more cyber monday deals on saturday than on sunday which is what we saw last year suggesting maybe some earlier deal planning. we will be watching website performance pretty carefully though we know that retailers stress test their capabilities under heavy traffic and under strain at checkout, but sometimes that's not enough to deal with traffic that can sometimes be 30 times an average day we know that over the weekend h&m.com experienced three outages. lowe's was down part of the day, lowe's.com macy's reportedly had some customers in part of the country experiencing some checkout issues when it got to that point. that's in addition to the trouble macy's credit card processing had in some stores. there's a lot at stake today to see if we can hit the records. things are already up and moving here at amazon in robinsville, new jersey andrew, back over to you. >> thank you, courtney appreciate it very much. great to see you happy thanksgiving again. here to break down holiday performance, dana kelsey has more time. last time it was 10:00 at night at macy's. >> right. >> what's the weekend look like? >> weekend looked pretty good. i think what happened overall is you had fewer stores open on thanksgiving day those that were open on thanksgiving day opened earlier. they opened early friday morning. traffic built as you got to noon and afterwards for the most part, promotions were the same as last year that's encouraging the fact that traffic was essentially flat is a good thing. you're not seeing the deterioration. we have a long season to go and christmas falls on a monday. it helped that the weather was good it was seasonal for everyone what everyone saw was saw apparel selling, denim was hot >> coats >> coats still worked. you know why retailers had less inventory of coats so that helped them. >> okay. >> this instapot is the hottest thing out there. >> cyber monday? >> you've already done yours. >> flat out. >> not even paying attention to the show. >> is that today is that today? >> it's today all day. >> cyber monday, i was getting deals all weekend. i did plenty of online shopping over the weekend. >> i compared the deals over midnight compared to what was black friday most of them stayed the same there were a couple that went a little bit more. there may be some free shipping deals. >> i didn't step foot in an actual brick and mortar store over the weekend i spent a lot of money between carl and the ads on cnbc, i got talked into the instant crock pot on amazon. i bought two of them because they had a big discount. >> to they work? >> i think so. they're supposed to be much faster i tried to make a crock pot thing last week and i didn't have 6 hours. >> i've been holding out all weekend. i want the bose noise canceling headphones i thought they would come down in price. >> and >> i even checked this morning. >> for the first class flight to davos. >> i lost -- >> cancel out the kids. >> might be a baby. >> i lost my noise canceling headphones. >> is this for at home >> i can use -- >> both. >> i could use them all the time i could use them on this show actually probably help. >> i could have used some after the last interview. >> the new ones that they put them on sale the ones i want are the wired ones it's a whole long story. >> you'll have to look around and see if you can find it >> so who's "the biggest loser"? we always talk about "the biggest loser. >> dick's and foot locker. had a tough time black friday weekend is not a luxury weekend black friday is about value and experience dick's and foot locker were slow, slow over the weekend. >> why do you think that is? especially without the competitors that they used to have so many other competitors went away you would think they could have a better shot at things. what's -- d >> i think nike's re-inventing itself you had better adidas sales. some is on sale. >> nike is on amazon now, too. >> exactly exactly. you have more availability. >> if you read this, the number of people visiting u.s. stores on thanksgiving and black friday fell 4%. if you didn't follow that up with the online up 18%, that would be like recession. >> yeah. i mean, you're still -- you're still talking about a growing base it better be -- >> formal people that would be like the country is mired in a deep -- 4% foot traffic at stores, if you had no -- you know, if you were fully brick and mortar and weren't multi-channel at all, that's really bad up 18% on all the other stuff. that shows we're in a -- that cancels it out. >> look at the buy online and pick up in store target had almost three times the people buying online and pick up in store when you buy online and pick up in store, you're buying something else also. >> give me your one unexpected winner that nobody's appreciated. >> gap old navy there were lines out the door. >> really? >> out the door. gap is probably the one that's going to be one of the surprising ones. >> even with banana republic how did they do? >> not as good as old navy that's the crux of the business and that's key. >> why can't banana get it together >> it isn't what it used to be. >> wear to work clothes? >> casual. >> dana, it's great to see you. >> thank you nice to see you, too. >> happy thanksgiving. >> we'll see more of you this month. >> look forward to it. coming up, as our guest host in the next hour, the billionaire ceo behind retail sites fanatix and rulala michael rubin will join us he sold his first company for a couple of billion and he didn't go off on a yacht somewhere. he started another company he owns 90% of this one which is valued at over $2 billion. didn't go to college. >> no. waste of time. >> waste of time etsy ceo josh silverman will join us. then the c of weight watchers will join us the comeback story, it's up 500% since oprah bought a stake beautiful blue background on bc so you're looking for male customers, ages 25-54, who live within five miles of your business? like these two... and that guy. or maybe you want to reach women, ages 18 to 34, who are interested in fitness... namaste. whichever audience you're looking for, we'll find them we're the finders. we work here at comcast spotlight, and we have the best tools for getting your advertising message out there. anywhere, any way your audience watches. consider them found. . welcome back, everybody. the u.s. supreme court hears a case divided by big tech and big pharma meg terrell joins us with a look at why this battle is heating up and why there are billions of dollars at stake hey, meg. >> good morning, guys. this is the most sweeping change to our patten system in half a century. at the time it was supported by both the technology and pharma industries they were at the ceremony where president obama signed the bill into law the challenge of the energy group on one side are tech giants apple, facebook, google, others on the other are big pharma companies. at issue is the interpartes review the argument for it which is championed by tech companies is that system is more efficient than going through the federal courts joshua -- listen to this >> been a really useful tool for companies to defend against, patents that shunnouldn't have e issued in the first place. >> joshua landeau estimates this has saved $2 billion in legal fees they say the ipr allows them to defend patents with different standards. critics say it's lowered the value of patents in the u.s. by as much as $1 trillion though that figure has been disputed. one drug maker, allergan, transferred patents to a billion dollar drug to a native american tribe in order to avoid the ipr challenges we'll have more on that. this will be closely watched. >> it's strange to see the technology companies line up on the side going against patents they're the ones traditionally trying to defend them. >> they would say they're not going against patents, they're going against bad patents. this is a way of dismantling them held by patent trolls this is a faster way of challenging them for big pharma it's caused headaches. >> no middle ground in all of this winner take all? >> the pharma industry says it would like to see reforms to the ipr system a lot of people are saying it's unconstitutional and should be overturned. >> meg, thank you very much. >> thank you coming up when we return, the squawk ceo call is officially in session. we're going to talk to jim whitehurst the ceo and president of open source tech company red hat. as we head to break, take a look at what's happening in european markets at this hour we have greearwsn ro across the board. squawk returns in a moment zar: one of our investors was in his late 50s right in the heart of the financial crisis, and saw his portfolio drop by double digits. it really scared him out of the markets. his advisor ran the numbers and showed that he wouldn't be able to retire until he was 68. the client realized, "i need to get back into the markets- i need to get back on track with my plan." the financial advisor was able to work with this client. he's now on track to retire when he's 65. having someone coach you through it is really the value of a financial advisor. another day of work. why do you do it? it's not just a pay check, you actually like what you do. even love it. and today, you can do things you never could before. ♪ ♪ you're developing ai applications on the cloud. finding insights hidden in decades of medical documents. and securing millions of iot sensors. so get back to it. and do the best work of your life. ♪ ♪ our next guest says staying on the cutting edge of tech innovation is not only smart business, it's also better for the bottom line. let's bring in jim hitehurst. >> we yoflt deliver technology when projects fail, it's not the technology it was what are the charngsz in projects and systems i know you talked about jeff besoz hitting the $100 million net worth mark if you look at amazon, we can look at how it goes to market, but if you actually look at jeff and what he talks about in his shareholder letters, it's very much around how the company operates what we're seeing more and more is companies need to change how they operate as much as kind of what products they take to market in order to be successful in competing in this new digital world. >> jim, can -- does every company just need to hire millennials? who else knows how to operate in the current environment? it seems like, you know, there needs to be a mass transformation in the way people think in businesses to get -- to open source, to get to digital, and just to embrace this new technology it's tough >> well, it is hard because traditional enterprises have been so successful in executing and kind of more static environments i was talking to the ceo of one fortune 100 company, and as he described it, he said our world used to be we would inyo innova once every ten yoerz, and then we would explo it that and drive towards the next innovation. now because innovation cycles have gotten shorter, coming up with innovation is more important than exploiting it and executing it because the time horizons have shortened so much. really understanding how it get more innovation out of your work force is becoming more and more important. i don't think it's necessarily about millennials. it has a lot to do with change in mind set, change in process, change in, you know,ing how you communicate, what you communicate, how you hold people accountable, how you get people to work together in teams versus driving individual performance it's really taking existing performance management systems, planning systems, budgeting systems, and tweaking those to reward innovation as much as rewarding compliance against an existing plan. >> a lot of mckenzie terms in there. i'm not sure how you do that in a concrete way so you want to go digital, but you want to also change the culture of the organization as you're going digital what do you have you have meetings? who institutes things like this? how do you do it from the top down >> well, look, i think it really does start at the ceo. i'll say the ceos of most traditional companies are starting to recognize you need to make this type of change. it's not as complex as it sounds it really starts off with leadership saying we need to drive a different set of behaviors to get a different set of results it's more focused on collaboration and teamwork it's having reward systems that don't necessarily punish failures that are actually around experimentation and learning if you think about kind of failure in the way we think about it, right now failure is generally discouraged in the way we pay people in performance management systems, but there are failures of execution which, you know, you do want to kind of punish or discourage, but there are failures where you have spermed and tried things, and those cases you actually want to encourage people to try things and make mistakes and learn. bezos is great at that he says if i have a one in ten chance in making 100 to one on my money, i would take that every day. i can't take the nine who failed in that and punish them or i'm never going to get anybody to take chances using reward systems and how you can communicate can have -- any ceo can start to do that, and it can make a dramatic difference in relative levels of performance. especially relative levels of innovation >> i'm not sure what i new ed to do i think i'm going to -- just having you on and saying these things, i'm going to check my box for having done my part. is that all right? you think that i can take criminal credit for what you just said and that i have now tra transformed my culture to be more dinl tagital? am i okay? >> different people have different rates of change, and i would say you could be a little on the slow side >> yeah. yeah a lot of ways i've been characterized that way anyway, jim, thanks for bringing us the results of the survey appreciate it. glad to have you we have some breaking news out of the u.k. this morning britain's prince harry announcing his engagement to actress meghan markle the details about the wedding day will soon be made. prince harry's brother and sister-in-law released a statement saying, "we're excited for meghan and harry and it's been great getting to know meghan." >> breaking news for only those four watching. it's been rumored for a while. >> pixar's cocoa winning at the box office it brought in more than $71 million during the five-day holiday weekend. if focuses on the mexican holiday of day of the dead the d.c. comic "justice league" slid to second place it's been struggling with bad reviews domestically, but it's raked in $300 million overseas >> i got to put a plug in for a movie. i saw "wonder" over the weekend. >> i have been wanting to see that where. >> henry kane is so great. such a feel good movie julia roberts. it was a great, great -- tears you know what, it will make you cry. >> i'm asking you about. >> yes, yes. i also saw the show "jump. we'll have the writer of that > en a little bit later. >>wh we come back our guest host this morning is billionaire owner and ceo of kinetics. stick around we'll be right back. at cognizant, we're helping today's leading life sciences companies go beyond developing prescriptions to offering subscriptions with personalized, real-time advice for life-long, healthy living. honey? you almost done? nope. get ready, because we're helping leading companies see it- and see it through-with digital. i just finished months of chemo. but i don't want to talk about months. i want to talk about years. treatments have gotten better, so... i'm hoping for good years ahead. that's thanks to research funded by the american cancer society. the same folks giving me free rides to treatments, insurance advice,and a place to stay during chemo. i need that stuff like you don't know. and now that you do, please give. call 1-800-416-4357 today. your contributions to the american cancer society fund valuable research but that's just the beginning. a cancer diagnosis can kick off years of challenge. and that's where your donation truly shines. you help us fund free rides to treatment. a live 24/7 help line, free lodging near treatment centers, and even efforts to expand access to insurance. so, please - donate today at cancer.org and help attack cancer from every angle. i am the proud father of aeness very strong little girl named adelaide who was diagnosed with infantile spasms an incurable and debilitating form of epilepsy. it's been a devastating journey that has robbed my baby girl of normal development. that's why i have launched the my shot at epilepsy campaign and i'm asking you to join me. take your shot at the hamilton pose, donate to help us find a cure, and lastly, share it on social media. this is our shot to take. learn more at: myshotatepilepsy.org >> now the focus turns to cyber monday and on-line shopping. we'll hear from the billionaire founder of several e-commerce sites that you'll probably visit today. michael ruben of kinetic is our guest host for the hour. plus, wall street and washington will be focused on tax reform this week. a preview of a possible vote and what it could mean for the markets. it's the second hour of "squawk box" that begins right now >> take a look at the futures on this monday morning. the dow looks like it will open up higher. about 15 points higher s&p 500 up two points. nasdaq looking to open about 8.5 points higher. we've got a lot of headlines to tell you about at this hour. retailers hoping americans keep shopping following thanksgiving weekend. adobe analytics expecting customers to spend $6.6 billion this cyber monday. that will be up more than 16% from a yoer ago. adobe says web traffic from smart phones and tablets expected to top pc's that will happen for the first time ever. speaking of the internet, an internet sales amazon ceo jeff bezos' network is north officially topped $100 billion that's thanks to a surge in amazon sales on black friday, and bezos is the first person to reach the $100 billion mark since bill gates did it back in 1999 there's also a big deal in the publishing world this morning. meredith on time inc for $1 .8 billion. that excludes debt >> consumer confidence coming up on wednesday the second estimate on q3 gdp pending home sales thursday, mark your calendar personal income and chicago pmi. i know that's high on everyone's list then on the ism manufacturing index in auto sales. what's your joke, joe? always has a joke. run to the tv? >> honey pmi is coming out. >> do you look at him and say, wow, if i had -- i would be much happier. you would be having a whole lot of stuff are you looking at him and really jealous >> i'm looking at him and jealous because of his business success. >> there's no difference really in temz of living, there's no difference, i don't think. >> once you have that kind of money -- >> really between any of us. >> it's a private jet. we're all here >> i'm a competitor. i love to compete. >> you don't even know >> it's not what i worry, but to me it's not what you keep score to me. you keep score of your business success. >> he has 50 times more than you, and you're not mad? you're not jealous you're not envious >> oh, i don't like him. he is not like -- if you come up with my top 1,000 favorite people, he would not be that -- >> is that just from a competitive standpoint or something else >> it's competitive. >> there he is >> no. if you don't have any -- you know, when -- i know you're pretty ripped there, but -- >> he is actually looking a little better than me. i know we have -- i think she's coming to give me an intervention for weight watchers because of how much i ate this weekend. >> more money, and he is in better shape >> fanatics, rulala. for people that aren't familiar with you, let's talk about how you first started out. you created a company that you sold to ebay for $2.4 billion. what was that company? >> i started gsi commerce in 1999 it was really the larnlest provider of e-commerce ask digital marketing services to big retailers. companies like gnc, ralph lauren, dick's sporting goods. we ran most if not a lot of the e-commerce businesses. this is in 1999. e-commerce bought it for $2.4 billion. it was handling tens of billions of dollars of transactions in e-commerce we were really early adoption to help brick and mortar retailers going on-line. >> joe alluded to it you didn't take the money and run. >> i took a night off. we sold the company on a friday, and then i went back to work on saturday saturday -- i had a good 1212 hours off. >> some of the stuff in the company you sold to ebay didn't fit in with what they wanted to do, so you bought these things that they thought they didn't need, and that turned into your new $2 billion company >> they wanted to have a ralph lauren or dick's sporting goods or levi's. they wanted to get these brands into their marketplace they weren't interested in owning consumer brands themselves and kind of competing. >> there's an appeal on those, no doubt >> i think at the time we really brought them at the appropriate value. for me the biggest thing i learned in my old company we did so many things, and we didn't do each thing well enough when i got a chance to start over, we've been laser focused we've had the three companies since i restarted in 201 1 we haven't done anything new, and that's led to exponential growth >> let's talk about what the companies are. shop runner. you have to be a member to get into it. >> yeah. >> it's got some big name brands >> i hope you're going to be shopping during the break and supporting all the merchants >> might be busy, but -- >> you're efficient. you could support the cause. shop owner today has hundreds of merchants and has millions of members that spend billions of dollars. think of it really as the only competitive product to amazon prime. amazon prime has obviously been in incredibly successful loyalty program, and shop runner is really the only other way that retailers can compete. >> we're able to have the members concentrate at the shop runner merchants, and that's important. today retailers are all fighting for that consumer to shop with them we have our members to shop running merchants. >> i would assume most of it goes to the retailer, and you are just -- >> it does the business is growing very quickly. >> next year we'll do several billion dollars in gmg it keeps 3% of revenue, but it's 3% of a re fast number this could be a business over the next five years that could be tens of billions of dollars collecting a small percent, but really helping the retailers to be more competitive with amazon and really help to contribute that spend to our merchants. >> it's the same thing with all of these companies, right? you are only getting a percentage of the revenue. fanatics is different? >> it's completely different fanatics is the largest retailer in the world of sports merchandise. >> fanatics is the largest v-commerce or verticalized e-commerce company that's where the next traunch of success in in e-commerce is going, which is the verticalized companies which designed and developed a set of their own products, which really has a huge competitive advantage because he can't be kmcommo dot ized >> particularly when you have the licenses with the sports franchises >> it's not just the right to sell the merchandise it's the right to design and customize. it best serves fans and does it in a differentiated basis. >> you're not the only ones that can do this, though. >> i would say within the sports business, within fanatics, we are really the only verticalized e-commerce company, and we're doing it at scale. i would say in general we're probably the largest verticalized e-commerce company around most companies sell other people's merchandise, which, to be honest, if you are selling third party inventory, in 2017 you're kind of on a death march. if i'm going to sell the same merchandise that everybody else is selling, it's going to get commodot ized, have no way to succeed long-term. we are selling our own products to the consumer, and that's a huge point of differentiation, and we can better service them and it's a much better financial model. >> is it fair to say that fanatics is your favorite -- >> i have no favorite children >> what you just laid out describes fanatics and shop runner >> shop runner is the opposite of fanatics where, fanatics has 5,000 full-time employees that wake up and are obsessed with a license sports industry. shop runner has 100 employees. it's an employee-light business brsh it owns no inventory. they're both great businesses. >> sounds to me like you -- the content you create keeps control of the business, so you're not commodotized >> with how well amazon is doing, people don't get it amazon today is about $200 billion in gmv in north america. they're growing at 30% if you slow the growth rate down to 2%, over the next decade, amazon will be $1 trillion north american retailer. total retail in north america is only 3.5 trillion dollars today if you take out travel, take out gas, take out food if you think that amazon could be a quarter plus of all retail sales in a decade, you have a differentiated business model. if you don't, you're dead. >> people in the tv business know that google and amazon will step in and try to compete with cbs and nbc. >> the team is right, but why -- >> why do you at any time think that jeff bezos or wal-mart is not going to show up at roger goodell's doorstep and say, you know what, these guys over here are doing this i'm willing to pay more, almost do it potentially as either a loss leader to get other shoppers in the room in in the same way, by the way, for certain tv events that tv doesn't. >> if you think about our business today, we have more than a million different products we sell just to fanatics when you think about the breadth of the irk isle we have, every team, every player, every gender of merchandise, every colorway of merchandise, our entire business designed to maximize everything that could happen in sports we sell millions of skews. you need scale to make this business succeed without having the billions of dollars of volume that we have and the hundreds of millions of dollars of inventory that we own and having the scale of all the properties it's really very difficult to replicate. >> very quibble, you sold your last company to ebay would you sell this one to amazon >> it's funny. i love this business i wake up in the morning and go to bed thinking about this business 24-7. i really think for us the right opportunities we're a well-funded private company today. we just took a billion dollars of capital from soft bank a few months ago we think this is a great long-term public company over the next several years, you keep going to the company. we also have a massive opportunity, and we think it this business could be a $10 billion company just within the licensed sports industry, and we think we can go beyond as well >> you have las vegas golden knights jerseys? >> smoking >> really? >> smoking >> you ever heard of them? it's a new hockey team >> it's one of the most -- >> i just found out about it they're going to make the playoffs in their first -- >> they're in first place. it's one of the most successful launches of a sports team ever >> you got $1 billion from soft bank >> you are making me feel very -- bezos talk >> this is about me now. so you don't need any, like, small amount of money that i could help you with if it you got some new ideas that you want to do something? >> i'll take any help i can get any day of the week. >> should we try to, andrew? >> i heard andrew is a cheap skate. >> he thinks -- okay let's start. >> i don't know if he can -- we'll talk about that. a lot to talk about there too. >> coming up, the senate gets back to work as we head for a possible tax vote later this week we'll hear from jonathan swan of axios aftethbrk. ayitusr e ea not rebalancing your portfolio. focused on what you love, not how your money will last through retirement. we make it easier to plan for retirement with day one target date funds from prudential. look forward to your 401k plan. we've been watching the futures, and they have been trading slightly higher wresh the dow futures are now down by about nine points below fair value. s&p futures just a fractionally lower, and the nasdaq right now still looks like it would open up by about 2.5 points here. >> okay. showdown today over the consumer financial protection bureau as two people claim to be the acting director. both plan to show up to lead the agency kayla has what has been a remarkable story that has unfolded over the weekend. good morning to you, kayla >> good morning, andrew. there is now aprotracted legal battle underway over the cfpb, and its succession plan as the outgoing director richard and the white house both claim legal ground to appoint its successor. the pick is former chief of staff and new degt deputy director leandre -- from taking the job today. a white house official tells me only mulvaney has the ability to take the helm of the agency at 1600 employees and $600 million budget white house council points to an obama era court decision as proof its authority supersedes cordrey. president trump on twitter over the weekend called the bureau's prior leadership a "total disaster" that in his words has devastated banks for that industry mulvaney's expected leadership is expected to bring pending lawsuits against companies like san t santandar. there's a regulatory package already agreeed in a senate committee. also endangering cooperation on the mounting year-end to do list two crucial items raising the dead ceiling and passing a spending bill required bipartisan support tax reform, though, as we know, the chief priority for republicans, which the senate is still selling party members on in order to pass it this week. trump will meet with the senate finance committee today and congressional leaders from both parties tomorrow will see to what extent they can find common ground on these issues back to you. >> all right, kayla. thanks meanwhile, congress is heading back to work today, and tax reform is front and center the senate plans to vote on a bill later this week joining us now is jonathan swan, national political reporter at axios. you know what makes -- and, jonathjo jonathan, i know you ho you operate. you have it all over the place i'll tell you what caught my attention over the weekend was that, you know, we got trump meeting with the -- president trump tomorrow with congress about this tax plan. >> samg thing could happen to this, couldn't it? >> it could. i mean, the senators you are talking about, john mccain, bob corker, jeff flake, none of the normal laws of politics apply to them they have -- they never have to face the voters again. you know, two of them are retiring and john mccain obviously has health problems. and all three of them relish the opportunity to defy the president. i will say that it does feel very different to health care. you've not seen senators draw the same red lines that they did when the health care fight was going on you have a senator, for example, susan collins of maine, very difficult senator to get to vote for anything that's republican i will say some of the people are being at least in this stage more amenable than they were during health care >> could be interesting, though, and time will tell you need to keep this updated. you have my e-mail when you hear about -- i can't believe it's going to -- i can't imagine it goes smoothly maybe it gets -- >> nothing does, joe nothing does >> and then, you know, when we had corker on, he made the point that every single person involved is not going to like something. even the people voting for it, and there's going to have to be firm resolve to get this through, but i didn't know it would get to this extent tell me if i'm wrong on this i'm hearing that this plan from certain sectors say it's totally about tax cuts for the rich. those are the only people that can benefit, but then i hear from some people that are high income people in new jersey and new york that the rich are actually paying for the entire corporate tax cut because, you know, anyone that lives in new york or california or new jersey and makes $1 million more, is going to pay exorbitantly more you know, rich people hate it because they're getting socked with it, but they're getting accused of getting all the lion's share of all the gains. nobody -- >> except for seniors hate it because you're going to get medical deductions and because the real estate tacks have been particularly hard if you are living on a fixed income >> it seems like -- now, the question is and the way i sort of justify it is anything for growth if it really does get to 3.5% growth or it enjernds that long-term for the future, then a lot of our problems with the deficit go away. all of this stuff that they don't want to do, like cracking down in state and local deductions, was all to serve that corporate rate cut, but you have members -- you have senators like ron johnson -- are not getting the treatment they zev and corporations are being favored. >> you are going to get hosed. >> we already won the lottery in this by living here and doing what we do i'm okay >> it was bound to have eye huge -- >> and last but not least, we're covering everything because, you know, like i said, you are like a big gossip monger. so does flynn -- >> i'm not a gossip monger >> does flynn have anything -- >> i mean, if he rats out somebody on a turkish movie, it's one thing does he know anything about russia collusion, do you think, if he gets squeezed? >> i don't know. i don't know >> call someone or give me their number >> i'm trying. i'm trying >> i'll call them. >> i'll try. >> give me your sources. we'll call from here thanks we'll see you again soon thanks keep us updated. coming up when we return, pulitzer prize winner will join us to discuss his new play it is called "junk." it is about the high-flying risk-seeking financial world of the 1980s. i saw it over the weekend. "squawk box" returns in just a moment eally in but helping them get there takes a pure focus. because when you invest their money without distraction, hidden agenda or competing interests, something wonderful can happen. they might just get what they want out of life, and maybe even more. i thwell wait. what did you meetthink about her? it's definitely a new idea, but there's no business track record. well, have you seen her work? no. is it good? good? at cognizant, we're helping today's leading banks make better lending decisions with new sources of data- so, multiply that by her followers, speaking engagements, work experience... credit history. that more accurately assess a business' chances of success. this is a good investment. she's a good investment. get ready, because we're helping leading companies see it- and see it through-with digital. good morning, everybody. welcome back to "squawk box" here on cnbc we are live from the nasdaq market site in times square. among the stories that are front and center this morning -- significant global action is needed to steady the company the company made comments in a letter to the israeli parliament the parliamentary committee called an emergency meeting to talk about media reports that temple was planning a massive wave of job cuts also, regenerative pharmaceuticals are planning to drop a new i drug -- it comes as disappointing results from two midstage clinical trials bitcoin, the crypto currency surging to a new high over the weekend. it took just seven p days for the digital currency to go from $8,000 to $9,000 analysts cited influx of retail investors and that fomo, fear of missing out, all of that happening at the same time the largest bitcoin exchange in the united states added about $100,000 accounts just in the last three days last week, and you can see this morning it's up another 4.3% may not sound like a lot, but it's almost $400 >> wow >> it's almost $10,000 it's going to hit 10,000 in the time we just talked. pixar's "cocoa" winning the box office the animated movie brought in $71 million over the five-day holiday weekend. the film focuses on the mexican holiday day of the dead, and the d.c. comic book movie "justice league" struggled widomestically let's talk etsy. gearing up by implementing a number of new additions to be more competitive with sites like amazon they've already made a number of changes under its new ceo helping the company to start growing its revenue at a faster rate again, here to discuss etsy's future, the hottest gift trends, our joe josh silverman and dana johnson, etsy's trend expert there was a big article about you. what did you think of that article? >> we are growing faster we accelerated quarter over quarter. we accelerated revenue by 21% in q3, and we had our highest ever ebida. >> last time i went on i noticed it was easier. i forget what you all did. was it keeping my credit card information on hand or something? it was easier for me to go tloo. >> thanks for noticing that. weave been improving the buying experience in many ways. we announced that the improvements we made just in the past six months to the search engine we expect will generate more than $100 million in additional sales we make it more clear that we don't share your credit card information with the sellers we've done a lot to really streamline the buying. >> it allows them to put items on the stand, and now we're running our first ever cyber week sale. we ran our first sale ever over labor day, and the results were terrific not only did we dramatically increase sales for sellers who put their items on sale, but they also increased sales for sellers who didn't the opportunity to run sales in promotions has been something we've given to our sellers, which is really delivering for buyers and the delivery from your -- >> your christmas season has ended mid-december historically. is that going to change, or is that a function of the fact that so much of this stuff is custom-crafted things that people can't get later >> siemz i order something thinking two and a half weeks is going to be enough time for it to get there, and it's not >> there are items that can be delivered in just three or four days we're really highlighting those items as we get closer to christmas. we've also given our sellers the ability to gift wrap items and send them directly to the recipient. that's also making the shopping season -- >> talk about the macroenvironment how much has hand made and amazon -- everyone watches amazon we've been talking about amazon a lot this morning when they plaunched a few years ago, did this ahave a a small or medium or big impact on your business >> you know, amazon does a great job with convenience, selection, and so the place you go kind of every day, again and again, you want to feel when you want it to feel special, there's no place like etsy. >> convenience they get by warehousesing things in advance, and then shipping. >> the traditional advantages simply don't translate >> do you think sellers are not selling in amazon today for the most part. >> many of our 207 sellers say they're multi-channel, but the vast majority of our top sellers say the majority of their sales come from etsy, and that they expect that going forward the majority of their sales will continue to come from et cetera why i. >> you'll send a photos of your pet to shannon she is then going to screen print it on a pillow, and you will be able it on display that on your couch or wherever. it's a great gift for yourself or for someone else. >> i'm going to get this for joseph and his dogs. what do you think about that >> if you don't -- >> yeah. big operation day for -- i'm sad with my dog. we've got some things going on thank you. i need to get her something. maybe a get well -- >> you can do that or you can get a custom illustration done >> that could be breakfast >> well, you know, in terms of the shipping, the really wonderful thing about shopping with etsy sellers is the fact that you have the opportunity to have that open dialogue because you're working with a person, says so talk about when it is that you need to receive it, and it's all about just starting the conversation >> what's in the circle? >> so this is a bag. this is a little side -- >> like a canteen. >> but it's a purse. one of the major trends this year is all about treating yourself as well add yourself to that gift list and treat yourself to a handbag or a personalized candle another major trend is showing hometown pride and some love keep that place very special to your heart >> what's the coolest thing you've gaut since running this company? >> i bought a backpack for my daughter to send her back to school and show her that i love her and care about her it's a good way to show that i'm thinking about her it's a great example that special can happen at any time during the year, not just christmas. when we come back, more from our guest host today, michael ruben of kinetic right now, though, as we head to a break, take a look at the u.s. equity futures they've turned negative this morning. we started out slightly positive now you can see the dow futures look like they opened down by 15 points s&p futures aoff fractionally "squawk box" will be right backe t kohler's walk-in bath. excellent! happy to help. huh? 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[ phone rings ] it makes you wonder. shouldn't we get our phones and internet from the same company? that's why xfinity mobile comes with your internet. you get up to 5 lines of talk and text at no extra cost. so all you pay for is data. choose by the gig or unlimited. and ask how to get a $200 prepaid card when you buy any new samsung device with xfinity mobile. a new kind of network designed to save you money. click, call or visit today. >> coming up, more from guest host michael ruben and e-commerce giants like ruelala and retail fanatics where, here's a look at the futures right now. "squawk box" will be right back after a quick break. opportunities aren't always obvious. sometimes they just drop in. cme group can help you navigate risks and capture opportunities. we enable you to reach global markets and drive forward with broader possibilities. cme group: how the world advances. and in this swe see.veryday act, when we give, we receive. ♪ your insurance on time. tap one little bumper, and up go your rates. what good is having insurance if you get punished for using it? news flash: nobody's perfect. for drivers with accident forgiveness, liberty mutual won't raise your rates due to your first accident. switch and you could save $782 on home and auto insurance. call for a free quote today. liberty stands with you™ liberty mutual insurance. >> founder and ceo of kinetics are there other things that you are thinking about right now besides the three main businesses of kinetic? i mean, are you -- >> no. there's not. the biggest mistake that i made in my old company is i wasn't focused enough, and now i believe in laser focus when we separated from ebay in 2011, fan at atics was about $20 million. it's now $2 billion. that comes from a laser focus on that business and really changing the model from where it was six years ago. my belief is if you do too many things, you don't do them well enough >> you have the benefit of the diversity. we talked about that with the new hockey team in las vegas i mean -- >> it's been amazing it's been one of the most successful launches in professional sports history. i mean, it's the number one -- they're winning their division the product is flying off the shelf. >> yopg there's been any -- has there been any protests in hockey i don't think there has been >> there has not >> can you speak to that whole controversy? that's why i said with the benefit of diversity, because i think the nfl does have a little bit of a problem i was watching games yesterday i cannot believe the number of seats that it seemed to -- i mean, it's not great i think it's better on tv sometimes than to be there >> no question they're having near-term pains. i think what i commend them for is not rushing to solve this based on pressure. you have players that feel very strongly owners of fans that feel very strongly i think they want to get to the right outcome over a measured period of time when be think about the nfl business -- >> what's the right outcome? >> no one probably they probably sold ten units of that jersey before we carry every jersey from every team i think when you go with back to the ab them. i think what they want to get to in my view is an outcome that the players and fans and everyone can feel good about, i think players have a right to express their opinions maybe not the best way they're doing it today, but i think they want to get to the right outcome. >> what does it look like, though >> i think it's going to be a good platform for players to voice their opinions not through the anthem i think, by the way, we've seen -- >> stand for the anthem and go protest and do something else. >> i mean, i know -- we looked at the comments papa john made i thought they were completely wrong. when i saw that, i kind of cringed. i was,ic loo, first of all, we're not seeing it in our business, and it seemed like just a bad p.r. effort in addition to that we certainly, you know -- we certainly believe if you rush to kind of solve something and you do it the wrong way and force people into an outcome, i this i it doesn't pay dividends >> the problem is it's been politicized. you are going to lose no matter what >> you don't want -- >> you may lose in the near term i think if they get to the right outcome over the next several weeks, months before next season and everyone feels good about how they got to them, i think the league will be stronger as a result that's what i believe happens. they will solve this i think the players and fans and the league will come together, and i think it's going to be a good outcome for everybody else. i have been through a lot of bad times in my business, and you have to suffer through tough times. look at the 6ers that i'm a minority owner in. we went through a couple of really tough years, and now it's a blast because we did it the right way, and i think for the nfl i think they're going to be in a great place long-term, and i think this is going to be a difficult year and a blip in the big picture. again, black friday, we hit a record day our international business was 1 00% in the nfl we're seeing tremendous excitement about the nfl look, i won't mince words. there's noise about the anthem we've got a few packages from people that say i don't like what's happening, but the nfl wants to solve this the right way, but long-term as it relates to ratings, people always talk about television ratings. there's no question that television ratings in sports in general are down in a lot of places the thing that is looked at is really fandom. today fans are getting their content in so many different devices. i get stuff on social media while i watch it on tv >> that actually may show up in your business, but the real money business of the nfl still is in the television -- >> absolutely. >> you know, i can tell you that people love the newspaper -- people love reading newspapers before than they ever have before, but the economics of it don't work the way they used to. do you see what i'm saying >> here's what i say -- >> people are getting it for free in different places or what have you, and then the dynamic is -- >> i'll say two things to you. one, i think the leagues in general and certainly the nfl is no different they're very good at monotizing new businesses think about our business we didn't exist really ten years ago in any meaningful way. now we have nine figure checks it's brand new revenue >> if you look at what they're making from sports >> they pay out a lot, and they agree to do it in vangs. >> there are many people fighting for that as well. >> i think the value of sports franchises and the value of -- >> when you say they monotizet is even more >> the sports leagues will, but the tv guys won't. >> i think they could make less money because there's a huge competition for these media rights you have five or six buyers fighting to buy every media right. that's just in traditional broadcasting now look at the digital guys now you have amazon, netflix, facebook, google all fighting for the same rights long-term. to me if i'm a sports owner, like i used to have five or six buyers, and now i have ten or 15 buyers >> i so he thsee that on the nal platform then it gets more complicated. >> social media and social commerce, three years ago we couldn't have monotized it at all. today, this will blow your mind, facebook and social media is driving more business than google adds. just changed this holiday. we're doing ten extra business today than we were a year ago. my point is change happens all the time sports media is no different e-commerce is no different i'm confident in the leagues to continue to find a way to service their fans in any channel they want to watch their media. >> baseball for you too. what a season. >> not a season. what a great couple of years i mean, talk about rob manford comes in as commissioner he is two of his first three world series you have the cubs in houston and dodgers for the first time our baseball business is amazing. >> i'm sure it is. all right. we'll talk more. thanks okay coming up when we return, the era of high risk and debt hitting broadway screen writer and pulitzer prize winner will join us next to talk about his new play it is called "junk." it is not junk as we head to a break, check out european markets this morng. quk x"etnsn just a moment and high-dividend strategies. sure, these are investments. but they're not what people really invest in. what people really invest in, is what they hope to get out of life. but helping them get there takes a pure focus. because when you invest their money without distraction, hidden agenda or competing interests, something wonderful can happen. they might just get what they wanted out of life, and maybe even more. ♪ we that's why at xfinityic. we've been working hard to simplify your experiences with us. now with instant text and email updates you'll always be up to date. you can easily add premium channels so you don't miss your favorite show. and with just a single word, find all the answers you're looking for. because getting what you need should be simple, fast, and easy. download the xfinity my account app or go online today. zblierngs our next guest is bringing wall street to broadway his new play is called "junk." it's at lincoln center it takes us back to 1980s financial world filled with debt, risk, betrayal, and junk bonds. joining us right now is the pulitzer prize winning play write and creator of "junk." >> actually, in your movie >> bingo do you know who he played in too big to fail? >> take a guess. i look like him. >> neil cash -- >> i just got the chance to see this play over the weekend, and i will say i'm recommending it especially if you are into the world of wall street and finance. how did this come about? >> i have been wanting to write a big play about finance for a very long time when i first moved to new york in the early 1990s my dad made a deal with me if you read the "wall street journal" every day, i'll pay your rent. >> i first thing i have to say when i talk about this play is that to me it's easy to criticize capitalism, but it's even easier to enjoy its benefits that's the pair docks, right if it you want to not be the bleeding heart liberal who doesn't really get money and write a screen against capitalism, that's fine, but i don't know that that's going to have any real emotional resonance in the world that we live today by the same token, i do think that our -- the fact that we are so beholden to leverage to debt, to the monotizing process, to financing a way of thinking and being, i think those are having affects on our nation and on the wor world. >> this is a sophisticated play. in terms of just even the language that you use, there's a whole -- this is a hostile takeover that takes place. >> it turns into a hostile takeover, and i put the deal on stage. every part of the deal at the beginning of the deal and the end of the play. at the end much the deal, i wanted it to be authentic. you know, if you are going to show the thipg really show it. >> have you heard from any of these guys >> i have heard from a lot of friends of michael milkin's. >> and >> we thought you should see it because we think you're fair about it i don't know you know, i don't know if he is going to come. the show is not junk, but it's called "junk." congratulations. >> thank you when we come back, the ceo of retailer neiman marcus joins us to talk holiday shopping trends and deals, and then we'll drop the puck with nhl commissioner gary bettman. squawk will be right back. looking from a fresh perspective can make all the difference. it can provide what we call an unlock: a realization that often reveals a better path forward. at wells fargo, it's our expertise in finding this kind of insight that has lead us to become one of the largest investment and wealth management firms in the country. discover how we can help find your unlock. for her compassion and care. he spent decades fighting to give families a second chance. but to help others, they first had to protect themselves. i have afib. even for a nurse, it's complicated... and it puts me at higher risk of stroke. that would be devastating. i had to learn all i could to help protect myself. once i got the facts, my doctor and i chose xarelto®. xarelto®... to help keep me protected. once-daily xarelto®, a latest-generation blood thinner... ...significantly lowers the risk of stroke in people with afib not caused by a heart valve problem. it has 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dental procedures... ...and before starting xarelto®-about any conditions, such as kidney, liver, or bleeding problems. it's important to learn all you can... ...to help protect yourself from a stroke. talk to your doctor about xarelto®. there's more to know™. not rebalancing your portfolio. focused on what you love, not how your money will last through retirement. we make it easier to plan for retirement with day one target date funds from prudential. look forward to your 401k plan. a new era for "time. meredith striking deal to buy the magazine publisher the i tie-up backed by the billionai billionaire coch brothers. digital sales following a blockbuster weekend of on-line shopping plus, are you wearing your post-thanksgiving fat pants? >> you're wearing sweat pants. it's monday. >> sweat pants are all that fits me right now >> well, the ceo of weight watchers joins us on set to talk about high-tech dieting and the stock's hefty gains. as the final hour of ""squawk box"" begins right now ♪ just another manic money >> live from the most powerful city in the world, new york. this is "squawk box." good morning welcome back to "squawk box" here on cnbc live from the nasdaq market site in times square i'm joe kernan along with becky quick and andrew ross sorkin our guest host this morning michael ruben, founder and ceo of kinetic, the holding company behind major e-commerce brands like fanatics, ruelala and shop runner we'll have more from michael in just a moment. a quick look at the futures after another big week, again, last week. even though it was a holiday shortened week you can see this morning a little bit of give back. down 17 on the dow nasdaq down 4.5. the s&p down less than a point treasury yields i saw earlier, 231 on the ten-year or so. now 233. the dollar is kind of interesting. you see the euro back to 120. the dollar weaker. check out oil prices kind of an interesting thing you see did mark grand send you that this morning about the battle royal as being set up between who is the swing producer the saudis in line with russia we're going to try to take on the fracturers here to transform our industry here with horizontal drilling. >> they're a swing producer until prices go back up to $60 a barrel, at which point it makeso turn things back on here >> we've been able to keep supply a little bit lower, and we got back to 60. we'll see -- >> it depends which end of the spectrum you're at at the low end, sautdy and russia are the swing producers at the high end, it comes back to the frackers here >>. >> we got top stories to tell you about. the big one publisher meredith buying time inc. that excludes debt of another $1 billion. they've held several rounds of merger talks in recent years at least three times thus far. no deal emerged until now. meredith will pay $18.50 a share for time inc, which was spun off from time warner back in 2014. the company publishes supper well known magazines as "time,"" sports illustrated," and "entertainment weekly. family circle and better homes and gardens are included both companies, should mention, have struggled to replace shrinking ad revenue meredith has received backing from the coch brothers charles and david coch are widely known for supporting conservative causes. they say it's agood investment in a press real estate lease koch industries says it will not a seat on meredith's board the big question now is actually whether meredith will keep magazines like "time" and "fortune" or others and whether they sell them off to perhaps the koch brothers or not that's sort of the new speculation this morning "people magazine" is the biggie. sports illustrated still has some real value. entertainment weekly is sort of a question mark. >> fortune >> fortune also could go originally when meredith was looking at this, the first time, they didn't want time or fortune. that's why this question has been raised. >> whether the koch brothers and koch industries gets right of first refusal. >> i don't know if it's contractual, but at least the talk in the business now is whether they end up bidding for it or if somebody else bids for it also, by the way, talk about magazines. we should hear about the sale of rolling stone perhaps as early as this week a lot of magazines in play some breaking news this morning. omb director and cfpb acting director nick mulvaney speaking out for his first day of work at the agency kayla joins us right now with more on that kayla, who showed up first >> well, it's unclear who showed up first, but nbc news's cameras did catch the acting director mick mulvaney, the white house's appointment for the acting director at 7:30 this morning when he was walking in with doughnuts before being greeted by staff here's what he told those cameras. >> do you believe you have legitimate authority >> yes yes, i do. >> i just got off the phone with a white house official who says that mulva in tey was granted access to the director's office and all of the transition binders and materials that would be required for him to take the job, but, of course, this follows a fairly thorny succession plan over the weekend following director cordrey's resignation on friday. a tussle between the deputy director who swoo have ascended to the acting director if the white house had not appointed someone, so a little bit of some legal hairiness, but this white house official i spoke with said that they feel optimistic because the general counsel of the cfpb put out a memo say that the white house was in the right and did have the authority to appoint mulvane to the job and add to that that leandra english, the deputy director, who would have otherwise become the acting director, whether she filed a lawsuit blocking mulvaney, she was filing in her individual capacity, not with the backing of the agency. the expectation of the white house is that any legal issues could clear up in the near-term rather than taking a longer team to play out, about ut we'll see how the other side of the aisle reacts to this guys, for now, back to you >> okay. kayla, thanks. let's get back to the broader markets. mike santoli has what he calls the late market cyber playbook >> taking a look at this theme as people look towards 2018 of calling this a late cycle environment both to the economy and the market i hearted earlier you had morgan stanley talking about their firm's call. you get more upside in this stocks earlier next year than maybe a significant top. merrill lynch has a similar call i want to get behind what's exactly behind athis talk. of course, the economy and the market have made tremendous progress you have unemployment just above 4% you have equity valuations pretty high at levels where you have had prior cycles come to an end. of course, you have all of this concern about the yield curve and whether it's narrowness is telling you that, in fact, this cycle is approaching something like an -- that would be the risk of a relatively near term recession. however, i want to point out that the cycle can stay late for a really long time meaning, many months or even a couple of years. this idea that we're getting to a point where the risk is more overheating, the risk is more of the fed being closer to done with its job of tightening is not necessarily a time to say the market has had all of its gains because stocks have actually tended to do well as we approach that point when the cycle truly ends even after the yield curve is totally flat, it's not totally the end of the cycle based on cash period. all this stuff is -- makes it tough if you said, look, the market looks like it's telling me that it's gone up enough for this cycle on the other hand, being early in exiting is also a risk at this stage all that stuff is coming into play i still think next year the risks and the volatility might co come from this idea that we're overheating and inflation in pockets might be are month of a concern than an imminent slowdown >> we'll talk about this because i think he thought it might have happened last year let's bring in peter bookfar, analyst at the lindsey group, also a cnbc contributor. i think at the beginning of 2017, peter, you were, in a nutshell, just trying to summarize your thinking back then, you thought that trump trade in terms of deregulation and tax reform would be a positive, but fed action sort of the inflexion point being hit at least in this country on the fed would be the negative. you thought that might have greater influence. that didn't necessarily happen, and the trump trade sort of took over in terms of global growth as well, but also deregulation and tax reform here. much better year than you thought. >> yeah. the fed tightening was more than offset by the doj and the ecb in the print of it $2 trillion. >> then you had all the stuff here deregulation >> exactly which is a clear positive in terms of business, corporate tax reform via clear positive. the question for 2018 is that the monetary tightening intensifies. the fed will take out $420 billion of liquidity in 2018 the ecb will shrink their run rate by $500 billion you're talking about $1 trillion of less liquidity in 2018, and even the bank of japan is talking about stepping back. will mop taer tightening begin to matter? seeing early signs in japan -- i'm sorry, in china, rising interest rates at the beginning to impact the market because we had to understand the context. a lot of debt has been created via easy money, and will interest rates in the context of a lot of debt start to matter? we'll see. >> well, it's always been the hope and supposedly they're trying to do this to have the wealth effect that the fed and central bankers try to engender around the world, and eventually that passes the baton in the underlying economy, and there's been some evidence that they've been successful. i don't know if that may have happened, but they certainly seem to assist the yurntd lying economy in getting stronger. maybe now you can pass the baton hopefully. >> just wonder whether -- we're not going back to 7% or 8% you're saying a percentage move going from zero to 3%, it's all that matters >> yeah. i mean, look at -- we're hundreds of billions dollars of debt are priced off. that rate has doubled. commercial and industrial balloons is growing at .7% year-over-year they pretty much collapsed now, that could be maybe because companies are tacki tackling th capital markets. maybe its uncertainty would be -- it could be a variety of things the cost of capital for a lot of borrowers is going up. it's still very low, of course the rate of change we'll have to focus on >> you know, ruben over here no matter what the fed does or what the economy -- he is going to be worth $4 billion in two years instead of $2 billion today. you're over there like -- >> i only focus on what i can control. i can't control interest rates i can't control the economy. >> we lost you on this whole -- you're looking around. >> i'm just thinking about you keep giving me the bezos competition level. >> richer and in better shape than you i'll say it again. bezos looks leaner >> if you could test, i'm going to stop sleeping and make sure we don't do anything to let anybody get a stitch of business from us. >> he shubt focus on the external economy he should focus on is had business and continue it to growth >> which you're a growth company like we are, i think focussing on outside forces aren't a good use of time. i think you need to focus on what you can control, and we're today all of our companies combined have $4 billion or $5 billion of gross transactions within e-commerce, and e-commerce is a trillion dollar plus global industry we're focused on how do we get a much bigger share within a fast growing industry, and that's to me where we can spend -- get it is best out of our time. >> as you should >>. >> keep motivating me. >> we're going to open and close every segment with you're a loser. >> bezos, i think he is better looking too. >> this is a handsome man. >> well, he is >> he is comparing jeff bezos to himself wrshs ten years ago. >> anyway -- >> i don't think he is good-looking, by the way >> he has gotten better looking. >> he still is >> i have a lot of respect >> i know you do this is great. you do compete directly, don't you? >> we do compete, and i think -- >> does he know who you are? he may not even know are you on his radar at all? >> i think that -- i think, no i think amazon -- i think am azblon -- >> i don't think so. >> if i could just hide under a little rock and get from $5 billion to $10 billion to $20 billion, i would be really happy. >> i wish we had that -- >> we're focused on our specific businesses i like that. >> we don't have -- >> used to have -- >> it's going to come. i know it in my head >> you know, you should add that to the echo, by the way. right. you ask alexa a question, and then -- >> it's ridiculous he just heard -- >> like your question so ridiculous >> are you worried about that? >> he doesn't e definitely doesn't -- >> i haven't heard the laugh in a while. >> we have to get the laugh. >> right now, folks, some news for you. a royal wedding is coming this morning. actress megan markel the couple who have been dating since last year got engaged earlier this month the announcement says that details about the wedding day will be made soon. prince harry's brother and sister-in-law, the duke and duchess of cambridge, released a statement -- first up, it is cyber monday neiman marcus is investing in major digital pushes the retailer's chief executive will join us next. later, watt waechers also investing in technology for diet plans. we'll talk to the ceo at 8:30 a.m. eastern time. stay tuned you are watching ""squawk box"" right ren bche ocn i think that she's a very nice girl... you never got the brakes looked at? oh yeah. no. at cognizant, we're helping today's leading manufacturers make things that think and do automatically. imagine that, a world of new digital products and services all working together for you. can i borrow the car when it's back? get ready, because we're helping leading companies see it- and see it through-with digital. this morning check out stocks of square the analysts saying recent bitcoin driven rise in shares is overdone mobile payments company recently would begin testing a feature to let users buy and sell the crypto currency on its platform. the stock down there now close to 4% in premarket all right. let's talk retail. neiman marcus just celebrated its 110th anniversary. the luxury retailer has been investing heavily in its digital first strategy to offer exclusive on-line services joining us right now is karen katz, the president and ceo of neiman marcus. thank you for being here today >> yeah, good morning. thanks for having me >> so tell us a little bit about what it is you're doing in terms of investing on-line obviously, that's a key components what are your plans? >> well, our digital first strategy is really focused on how our customer likes to shop, and our research shows that about 85% of our customers start their shopping experience by researching on-line and then either buying on-line or coming into one of our stores we're really trying to make sure that every step along the customer shopping experience, we are personalizing it that's been a hallmark of our business for, as you said, 110 years. now we're really trying to replicate some of the experiences and that personalized approach to service on-line now. >> do you do that? >> that's a big focus of what we're doing. >> do you do that by actually having personalized shoppers, or is this something more using artificial intelligence to try and figure out what shoppers like and offer those selections too? >> yeah, i think it's going to be over time a combination of both today we're testing the stylus concierge level service, and we've had early results in our tests that have been quite good. i think as we move along the spectrum and as we, you know, test and learn things, i think artificial intelligence will be part of it i think it will be about trying to use all the data and the analytics that we have on you are on customers or customers that look like people that are shopping with us, and aggregating that to make sure we're delivering a highly personalized view of what we believe the customer is going to want from our shopping experience >> karen, for a long time the luxury retailers have done very well by offering some of their excess inventory at discounters. you have made the decision to go ahead and close more than 25% of the last -- is it not having enough inventory to sell with the stores >> we've been i would say very, very focused on our full price luxury experience both in store and on-line. our goal is to make sure we're staying very, very focused on what's most important to our customer, which is beautiful, differentiated product offered in a really wonderful environment, whether it's on-line or in it store >> hey, karen. when you think about the luxury market, there's probably not another -- what impact do they have on your business in luxury overall? >> i think although there is affordable luxury available on amazon, where we have to really watch amazon is in terms of how i also think just breadth of assortment they do an extraordinary job with breadth of assortment yet, they personalize that breadth so the customer feels like they're getting the assortment specifically as they want to look at it >> what are you doing to try and make sure that you appeal to millennials, the new shoppers out there? >>. >> it's funny. we're not actually so overly focused on the e-mail enales i think naturally we're attracting the millennials as well as gen-xors they're over 50% of our customer base i think really what is driving our business today is that we've done a major investment over the last 24 months in terms of our merchandizing systems,ure infrastructure, our erp, and we are very focused, as you mentioned, earlier on our digital first strategy, which is really making sure that we're understand i understanding -- to get every spot along her shopping experience >> hey, karen, so many retailers are closing stores now and not opening new stores i understand you are opening a new store and bringing neiman marcus to new york for the first time in 2019 what gives you the courage to do that at such a difficult kind of brick and mortar environment >> yeah. well, i think the first thing you have to remember about the ne neiman marcus group, we don't have many stores we only have 42 neiman marcus stores and two bergdorf goodman stores we thought it was a very, very intriguing opportunity when it was presented to us. i think that the the development that related is building on 28achers is going to be one of a kind in the world. >> i think that the product will be the hero in the store, but it's also going to be filled with incredible service offerings and really unique experiences for the customer as she shops. >> i want to thank you for your time today >> thanks for having me. i really appreciate it and happy holidays >> you too >> okay. coming up when we return, the over-effect. we're going to talk to the weight watcher ceo about the stock's hefty gains. up more than 270% over the last year alone "squawk box" is going to be ghba price.. in our investment experience around the world. call us or your advisor... t. rowe price. invest with confidence. still to come this morning, the business of hockey the nhl celebrating 100 years on the ice. commissioner gary beckman is here he will be joining us on set at 8:40 eastern time. qustk ou "sawk box" will be right back. when a critical patient is far from the hospital, the hospital must come to the patient. stay with me, mr. parker. the at&t network is helping first responders connect with medical teams in near real time... stay with me, mr. parker. ...saving time when it matters most. stay with me, mrs. parker. that's the power of and. your bbut as you get older,ing. it naturally begins to change, causing a lack of sharpness, or even trouble with recall. thankfully, the breakthrough in prevagen helps your brain and actually improves memory. the secret is an ingredient originally discovered... in jellyfish. in clinical trials, prevagen has been shown to improve short-term memory. prevagen. the name to remember. >> good morning. welcome back to "squawk box" here on cnbc we are live from the nasdaq market site in times square. let's talk about the stories that are front and center this morning. exxonmobil ceo darren woods is reorganizing the company's refining and chemical operations that's according it a reuters report that says the changes will attempt to squeeze more profits from the fuel and chemicals businesses to protects against volatile oil and natural gas prices >> the film focuses on the mexican holiday of the day much the dead the d.c. comic superhero movie justice league slid to second place. it's been struggling with bad reviews domestically, but it has raked in $300 million overseas since its debut. >> i'm still plugging wonder from this weekend. i cried. it made me crew. >> good morning. >> good morning. great to be here >> what has happened over the past two years with weight watchers and also just culturally with dieting? everybody was always on a yo-yo, but you're not on a yo-yo anymore. it's working >> weight watchers has never been a yo-yo diet. today we really are going from the concept of it's just about weight to a more wholistic view of health and wellness starting with beyond the scale and moving forward and that's made a very big difference culturally as well as in the business overall >> how big was oprah >> you know, oprah has certainly been an asset, a great asset who wouldn't want oprah as a board member in their company? she is inspirational she's a strategic businesswoman. she's been a great partner for me if you look at the business overall, every single geography has had significant growth, and certainly in the u.s. where she has been part of the articulation of where the brand is going, it's had an impact input it's so much deeper. >> the amount of food -- she is very good about not eating the food, but she had -- >> i'm less good at that, by the way. >> you don't understand. the thing about weight watchers is its liveability there's no food you can't eat. we basically teach people healthy habits for real life you want to eat with your family you don't want to go on a diet where you have to disappear for 30 days. >> joe was on the scarsdale diet >> wednesday night >> yeah, but how is it you can't eat with your family you can't enjoy. >> i have been eating peanut m & m's this whole day >> how many pounds have you lost >> when you go on a diet, it's so painful >> you don't really start eating again. >> that's why you can't think of diet anymore you have to think of retraining yourself to have sustainable healthy habits, and that's what we do. that's why it's the most effective weight loss program on the planet actually, you can have peanut m & m's. you just have to balance it with everything else. >> but i do want to understand, what do you think has changed over the says past two years, because it really -- the business, the stock, everything has been on a tear >> so i think it's a number of things we've owned the behavioral science of weight loss and healthy eating we now have taken it beyond that we've also always owned community. it started 54 years ago. now today we've accelerated our capabilities and in particular digitally. >> it's an on-line community now. >> it's totally. the company is really a technology experience company with a behavioral science, humanity behind it >> meaning it's easier to do it now because you don't necessarily have to go to meet people >> it's a great experience both to track activity, track your eating, connect, which is our digital community that's very powerful social is very important to inspiration. if you want to have a meeting, we have 23,000 meetings a week globally >> when you talk about community, and i think about social commerce and how important it is to fanatics and the sports business, how important is social commerce to your business and where weight watchers is going, you know, in a world of obviously social media starting to be really meaningful to e-commerce >> that's at the core of everything, and certainly fanatics has passionate community, and you see that every day. in our business community is a critical factor. >> it's also hard. i mean, i get that it'ssuppose to inspire you, but also there are trolls on-line and it's crazy. >> you know what's interesting had the lack of negativity is so powerful in this community the second somebody is negative, they're off the reservation. people are -- want to be inspired people are sharing and celebrating food >>. >> the community manages that themselves >> you also have people on instagram and on twitter who are sharing their stuff with everybody. >> they're sharing food and celebrating food because there's nothing you can't eat. they're celebrating success stories, and they're inspiring each other >> what lessons from hsn are planning to work >> there's a lot of lessons from my background. about solving problems and being so consumer-centric, i think from hsn it's really about cure ating things that have going to be important to people's lives and being able to articulate i think brand and culture now is more important than anything i think the brands that are going to be most powerful are ones that are really providing meaning for people too many brands are still transactional. yes, it's great to have a good black friday or good cyber monday, but what is your long-term sustainable relationship >> who do you think you compete with >> what's really interesting, our number one competition people thinking they can do it themselves there's really only 5% that use a commercial weight loss program. our big opportunity is to being that brand that is going to help people on that journey, and so they don't have to do it themselves >> thank you for coming in >> thank you where. >> >> planning on getting in on some of the cyber monday deals be warned. your information will be more at risk today than ever adidi roy joins us right now good morning dploo good morning to you, becky. that's right on this cyber monday, studies warning consumers and businesses to be extra vigilant about hackers. that threat assessment report by cyber security firm harvard black found that organizations saw a 20% increase in attempted cyber attacks between november and december of 2016 the study tells consumers to be wary of opening links to things like shipping notifications, holiday greeting e-cards or on-line gift cards one company that's made security a priority is pay pal. the on-line payments company has a command center to preempt threats. the company also has a bug bounty program that includes 1,500 hackers from 80 countries pay pal has paid out more than $2 million in bounties, ranging from 50 to 15,000 dollars for patch vulnerability. new york's attorney general also has the following pointers shop only on secure internet connections. when entering payment information, make sure your url begins with https and not just http, and beware of fake web sites. if you see a link on social media, don't click on it >> i almost fell for one of these on friday. if a deal looks too good to be true, that's probably another lesson too when youare on your phone, it' a lot harder to see where you're going on things. i almost fell for it finally realized it said up at the top not a secure website like you mentioned https versus http. thanks >> sometimes commonsense is the best security. >> okay. when we return, the nhl is 1 00 years old as of yesterday. we're going to talk about the new business on ice. nhl commissioner gary bettman. the deal news of the morning, meredith is buying time in a deal worth $1.8 million. we'll talk to jim cramer about the deal he is feeling really, you know, like he is exactly what's t t ning inhefl >>hat will be at 8:50 eastern time "squawk box" will be right back. is the monolithic view of emerging markets obsolete? at pgim, we see alpa in the trends, driving specific sectors of out performance. where a rising middle class powers a booming auto industry. a leap into the digital era draws youthful populations to mobile banking and e-commerce. trade and travel surge between emerging markets. everyday our 1,100 investment professionals around the world search out opportunities for alpha. partner with pgim, the global investment management businesses of prudential. >> welcome back to "squawk box" this morning take a look at futures on this monday morning and see how things are setting themselves up the dow was in the green it's come down a little bit. off by two points. s&p 500 off marginally the nasdaq off two points as well >> ubs saying that reading reflects a more balanced risk-reward scenario raised the target to $148 per share. that's from $140 also, ubs lowering its iphone sales forecast a survey that conducted showing more muted demand for apple's flagship product apple -- uvs -- usb stick. ubs keeps still taking the call with a price target of $190. >> the national hockey league celebrating its 100th birthday on sunday. aical century on the ice starts today. gary bettman we have been through a lot together you know that. >> really? i must have missed some of it. >> you remember when i stuck with you when nbc -- we bought the rights for -- that was a low point for some reason. >> well, we had just come out of a long work stop >> now it's unbelievable >> the system we have in place gives us incredible competitive balance. the best in our history. perhaps the best in all of sports >> i urged you to embrace high definition tv. did i not? so you could see the puck. you did that as well >> you are just a harbinger of good things. >> the family became huge -- and hockey is just -- i mean, it's never been brsh i think -- you are a commissioner that deserves $50 million a year, i would say. >> i do this for the love of the game >> did you see the article number one, scoring is up 12%. >> we're averaging six goals a game >> six goals a game. there could be a lot of reasons for it, but i think probably the biggest reason is we've really cracked down on slashing it's easier to get a shot off on goal, and, in fact, i think shots per game were up probably four or five a game. we're getting better scoring chances. >> did you see the big piece a couple of days ago people are trying to figure out how to bring it back >> our athletes are incredible our coaches are great. the best ever. the technology gives insights into the game. it's turned into a chess match >> did you see that piece? it used to be a game -- >> it used to be facing reggie with -- >> the game has never been faster it's never been more skillful. you it's never been more exciting as you indicated, goal scoring is up. there's something for everybody. >> no rules will change the size of the net either. has that ever been talked about? >> it's been talked about by a number of people, but it's not a direction we want to go. >> i feel like fighting is down. >> fighting is actually down over the last five years 50%. i think it's down 23% since last season >> can i say something awful i think the audience sometimes likes the fighting, though >> do some don't the fighting in the game is always mischaracterized and misportrayed frankly, the fighter, has actually evolved for the most part ahead of the game because the competitiveness of the game is so intense right now, teams want skilled players they don't want a single dimension player who they just fight, and you have seen the evolution of the game, which is now speed and skill. >> it's also kbrenl how the team has bonded with the community. their first home game was less than a week or around a week after the terrible tragic shooting in las vegas, and the players who were new to the community went into the community. they were with first responders. they went to hospitals this was a case of a sports team representing unity for a community, and part of the healing process. they've been incredible at home. i think they've won all except one of their games at home it's just been unbelievable story, and a testament to bill foley, who is the owner and george mcfee, who is the general manager. >> when you look at the success of the vegas -- does that make you more likely to say we should have a 32nd franchise more quickly? >> no. you know, you don't expand -- expansion is a very important business decision. you don't do it for notions of symmetry we've had up until this year 14 teams in the west. six teams in the east. now it's 15 and 16 if the situation were right, and we thought it was the best time for us in terms of the health of the league and all of our franchises, to expand right situation, right owner, market, building, then you take a look at it. we don't view it immediately on our manifest destiny to go to 32 teams. if it happens, it happens. >> the opportunities have never been greater there are more platforms to distribute your product. from our standpoint, nbc has been a phenomenal partner in terms of how they produce the games, the scheduling of the games, the promotion of the games, and what has also been really important to us, this contract -- now we're 100 years old yesterday. this is the first national contract in the united states where all of our games are from the playoffs are on national tv. there's -- we could spend two hours talking about why that was the case, but the evolution for us on television has brought us through a great place because of our relationship with nbc. >> that sounds like complimentary. not replacing. >> well -- >> a broadcast partner >> all things are possible because things are changing so quickly. i think the networks are always going to be an important place no matter how many people watch games on their phones. people getting together in front of big screen tvs, watching a network production is going to be important yes, the opportunities from all of the digital platforms -- >> do you want to commit to nbc again right here reasight now fr the next -- >> tell me what the number offe? >> whether it comes to loyalty, does the number matter, you're predisposed. >> it is a factor but you're predisposed, we have a great relationship with nbc. >> how long is your contract >> it runs for a bit i hardly -- i have trouble keeping track of these things but i have a bunch of years to go you'll have keep -- >> are you going to come to the winter classic at city field new year's day. >> that's up to you. >> no, you're all invited. we're having a party. >> that's really cool. have you seen that it's really cool. >> wasn't it detroit >> actually few years ago we had it in michigan, 105,000 people in the snow. >> in the snow awesome. great to be with you >> thank you >> when we come back, jim cramer will join us live from the new york stock exchange and we'll get s ke ohitan the top stories and maybe the football games from over the weekend too. stick around, we'll be right back do you want $4.95 commissions for stocks, $0.50 options contracts? $1.50 futures contracts? what about a dedicated service team of trading specialists? did you say yes? good, then it's time for power e*trade. the platform, price and service that gives you the edge you need. looks like we have a couple seconds left. let's do some card twirling twirling cards e*trade. the original place to invest online. gglobal bonds, and high-dividend strategies. sure, these are investments. but they're not what people really invest in. what people really invest in, is what they hope to get out of life. but helping them get there takes a pure focus. because when you invest their money without distraction, hidden agenda or competing interests, something wonderful can happen. they might just get what they want out of life, and maybe even more. we are the driven... the dedicated... the overachievers. we know our best investment is in ourselves. we don't take no for an answer. we fight for what we want. even for the things that were once a given. going to college... buying a home... and not being in debt for it for the rest of our lives. but we're only as strong as our community. who inspires and pushes us to go further than we could ever go alone. sofi. get there sooner. up next, we'll wrap up our special two hours with michael rubin and don't miss an interview with ken griffin we'll be back. what's critical thinking like? a basketball costs $14. what's team spirit worth? (cheers) what's it worth to talk to your mom? what's the value of a walk in the woods? the value of capital is to create, not just wealth, but things that matter. morgan stanley wow! record time.s. at cognizant, we're helping today's leading life sciences companies go beyond developing prescriptions to offering subscriptions with personalized, real-time advice for life-long, healthy living. honey? you almost done? nope. get ready, because we're helping leading companies see it- and see it through-with digital. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ what we do every night is like something out of a strange dream. except that the next morning... it all makes sense. fedex powers global commerce with vast, far-reaching networks... deep knowledge of industries... and, yes... maybe a little magic. ♪ our guest host this morning, michael rubin, founder and ceo of kinetic where's walmart in your life >> people talk about a two-horse race between amazon and walmart. i would say i don't agree with that what walmart did in buying jet.com and essentially doing probably the biggest aqua hire in the history of dealers that was a brilliant move, it was great. mark lure is probably the best person in the planet to run walmart's ecommerce business walmart does $15 billion online and amazon's growing by three walmart.comes each year. the whole notion that walmart will catch up to amazon, it ain't happening. >> in terms of total retail sales, walmart is still king. >> they are going to be decrowned very quickly that's just math one going to 32% -- >> are you a believer of long term that you need to have this omnichann omnichannel? people thought when amazon bought whole foods it was a shot across the bow now they have the deal with kohl's. >> that's not going to happen. i think they are completely happen amazon is not an inquisitive company. they boughtone company in thei 25 year history. the thought they will start buying retailers is wishful thinking by the retailers. i think amazon bought whole foods for a very thoughtful logical approach which was they didn't have a big food business and needed the capability. take whole foods and combined into the customer base and you have a big outcome -- >> different question completely given the power you think amazon has, there's a big policy conversation about the amazons in the world and googles and facebooks and whether it's too much >> look, i'm a big believer in let the world be competitive and work out the way things work out. from my perspective as an entrepreneur, i like to compete and win freely on competition. amazon has an offer that works completely for different people. we said we're not going to sell other people's merchandise but create a better business model for everybody involved i like to be able to compete i think walmart today is a -- is a bigger company than amazon but that's not going to last for long. >> retail sales almost $500 billion for walmart this year. $171 billion for amazon -- >> you've got to gross it up, they do twice that when you look at sales happening that they take a commission on $350 billion in gross sales. >> and that's not significant within the retail dollar my belief, $200 billion in north american gm v today, i think they are going to be a trillion before the next decade. >> olympics coming up. how far will you go? can i get my favorite curling player, can i get that jersey. >> we'll get you whatever you want not just for you because i like you. >> we make every product for everybody. >> if bezos calls and wants to buy you, we'll be a great public company, that's what's ahead for you. >> it's the truth. >> appreciate it this is a lot of fun, thank you. struggling to come up with my favorite curling player. >> name me one. >> make sure you join us tomorrow "squawk on the street" is next ♪ >> good morning, i'm carl quintanilla. cramer is off today. congress gets back to work senate may vote on

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