Tech

In this articleTDISCAThen-WarnerMedia CEO John Stankey speaks in 2016.John Lamparski | Getty Images Entertainment | Getty ImagesJust three years ago, AT&T finally closed its $85 billion deal to buy Time Warner, ending a protracted battle with the Justice Department under then-President Donald Trump, which sought to block the deal.Now it’s spinning off its media assets from the deal to combine with Discovery to create a content giant. If the deal is approved by regulators, AT&T will receive $43 billion in cash, debt and WarnerMedia’s retention of some debt, while effectively undoing its earlier merger. The companies said they expect the deal to close in the middle of 2022.The deal marks a stark change in direction for AT&T after it spent a year fighting to buy Time Warner to create a vertically integrated empire of both content and distribution. The company that fought so hard for brands such as CNN, HBO and Warner Bros. just a few years ago is now ready to let them go.The shift highlights how fast the media landscape has changed, as people switch away from pay TV and toward streaming video services in record numbers. The competition for those subscribers is fierce, underscored by the launch

In this articleDISCATJohn Stankey, senior executive vice president of AT&T Inc. merger integration planning, arrives to federal court in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Monday, April 30, 2018. Andrew Harrer | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesIt didn’t work. It was misguided. It never really made sense to begin with. And we’re not talking about Quibi.AT&T announced Monday it decided to spin off WarnerMedia, merging it with Discovery to form a new media and entertainment company likely worth well over $100 billion.AT&T’s decision to split out WarnerMedia comes less than three years after closing its $100 billion transaction, including debt, is an admission that putting a large content asset with a wireless phone company had few long-lasting synergies. If anything, WarnerMedia became an albatross on AT&T shares, which have underperformed Verizon and T-Mobile since the deal’s completion date on June 14, 2018.AT&T CEO John Stankey also sold a 30% stake in DirecTV and other linear pay-TV assets in February, along with operational control, to TPG. That deal also partially unwound a major AT&T acquisition from just a few years earlier. AT&T spent $67.1 billion, including debt, on DirecTV in 2015.Stankey was former AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson’s right-hand man. He had defended the DirecTV and

Source: Play-To-EarnAs the Covid-19 pandemic hit the Philippines, people in Cabanatuan City north of Manila have found a unique way to ease the hardship brought on by lockdowns — playing video games.The gameplay, however, isn’t just for fun. Axie Infinity, created by SkyMavis, allows players to earn income through nonfungible tokens, or NFTS, and cryptocurrencies by breeding, battling and trading digital pets called Axies.A new mini documentary, released Thursday on YouTube by crypto consulting firm Emfarsis called “Play-to-Earn,” follows several Filipino people who play the game — a mother, three young entrepreneurs, a recent college graduate, a pedicab driver, an elderly married couple and one of the first people in Cabanatuan City to discover Axie Infinity.The phenomenon that first began last summer exploded after a Coindesk article published in August significantly boosted the player base, according to the documentary. Nearly 60,000 people are now playing Axie Infinity, Axie’s head of growth Jeffrey Zirlin told CNBC.While the digital game knows no borders, it has really taken off in the Philippines, which has been hit hard by the pandemic. GDP contracted 9.6% in 2020, the largest annual decline ever recorded since data collection began in 1946, according to IHS Markit. Several cities

In this articleTDISCAU.S. telecom giant AT&T announced Monday a deal combining its content unit WarnerMedia with Discovery, paving the way for one of Hollywood’s biggest studios to compete with rivals like media giants Netflix and Disney.Under the agreement, AT&T said it would receive an aggregate amount of $43 billion in a combination of cash, debt and WarnerMedia’s retention of certain debt. AT&T shareholders would receive stock representing 71% of the new company, while Discovery shareholders would own 29%, it added.If approved by regulators, the deal effectively reverses AT&T’s years-long plan to combine content and distribution in a vertically integrated company.The deal would create a new business, separate from AT&T, that could be valued at as much as $150 billion, including debt, according to The Financial Times.Shares of U.S. media company Discovery were 27% higher in premarket trading, while AT&T’s stock price was up more than 4%.”This agreement unites two entertainment leaders with complementary content strengths and positions the new company to be one of the leading global direct-to-consumer streaming platforms,” AT&T CEO John Stankey said in a statement.”AT&T shareholders will retain their stake in our leading communications company that comes with an attractive dividend. Plus, they will get a stake

Integrated circuits on a circuit board.filonmar | E+ | Getty ImagesTiny pieces of silicon with intricate circuits on them are the lifeblood of today’s economy.These clever semiconductors make our internet-connected world go round. In addition to iPhones and PlayStations, they underpin key national infrastructure and sophisticated weaponry.But recently there haven’t been enough of them to meet demand.The reasons for the ongoing global chip shortage, which is set to last into 2022 and possibly 2023, are complex and multifaceted. However, nations are planning to pump billions of dollars into semiconductors over the coming years as part of an effort to sure up supply chains and become more self-reliant, with money going toward new chip plants, as well as research and development.South Korea became the latest country to announce a colossal investment in the industry last week. The nation’s government said Thursday that 510 trillion South Korean won ($452 billion) will be invested in chips by 2030, with the bulk of that coming from private companies in the country.Abishur Prakash, a geopolitical specialist at the Center for Innovating the Future, a Toronto-based consulting firm, told CNBC by email that it’s a “a wartime-like effort by South Korea to build future security and

In this articleTSLAElon Musk, founder of SpaceX and chief executive officer of Tesla, waves while arriving to a discussion at the Satellite 2020 Conference in Washington, D.C., on Monday, March 9, 2020.Andrew Harrer | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesTesla CEO Elon Musk implied in a Twitter exchange Sunday afternoon that the electric vehicle maker sold or may sell the rest of its bitcoin holdings, sending the price of the cryptocurrency down.Bitcoin dipped nearly 8% to around $44,000 per coin.A Twitter user who goes by @CryptoWhale said, “Bitcoiners are going to slap themselves next quarter when they find out Tesla dumped the rest of their holdings. With the amount of hate @elonmusk is getting, I wouldn’t blame him…”Musk replied, “Indeed.”A potential sale comes just days after Musk said the company planned to hold rather than sell the bitcoin it already has and intended to use it for transactions as soon as mining transitions to more sustainable energy.Musk has been a big supporter of cryptocurrencies, helping rally the prices of digital coins, including bitcoin, several times in the past year. In an SEC filing in February, Tesla revealed that it bought $1.5 billion worth of bitcoin. The company later said it registered a

Combined images of AT&T CEO John Stankey (L)and john stankey WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar.ReutersAT&T is in advanced talks to merge WarnerMedia with Discovery in a deal that will strengthen the combined company against rival media giants Netflix and Disney, according to people familiar with the matter.A deal could be announced as soon as tomorrow, said the people, who asked not to be named because the discussions are private. Talks aren’t final and could still fall apart, said the people.AT&T and Discovery declined CNBC’s request for comment. The likely structure of the deal will combine Discovery with all of WarnerMedia, which will become a new publicly traded company co-owned by AT&T and Discovery shareholders, the people said. The exact split between the two companies couldn’t be determined. Discovery has a $16 billion market capitalization and a $30 billion enterprise value. AT&T acquired Time Warner, since renamed to WarnerMedia, for $85 billion in equity value in 2018.Bloomberg News first reported talks between AT&T and Discovery for their content assets.

Yusef Jacobs, CEO and founder of GravitiPhoto courtesy Yusef JacobsYusef Jacobs is changing microfinance and giving people access to life-changing appliances with a simple notion: Even those who don’t have a lot of money will pay for what they really need.Jacobs, 28, launched Graviti, a “buy now, pay later platform” for basic home appliances for the unbanked sector of the population in Mexico.Graviti gives low-income people the ability to buy solar hot water heaters, refrigerators, and washing machines even if they don’t have the money to pay for such an appliance in a lump sum or the ability to get access to credit.”What we measure is whether this customer truly truly needs a certain product. And if they truly, truly need it, they’re going to pay for it well,” Jacobs tells CNBC.Graviti puts internet-connected meters on the appliances to collect data about how the customer is using them — and turn them off remotely if a customer falls behind on their payment.”What traditional microfinance institutions do is if a customer gets behind on their payments, they charge late payments,” Jacobs said. “In Mexico, they go over 100 annual percent interest rates … which is crazy. And that just over-indebts the

In this articleGOOGLGoogle’s senior vice president of advertising and commerce Sridhar RamaswamyKrisztian Bocsi | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesThe following Is a transcript of Big Technology Podcast, edited for length and clarity. You can listen to the full episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your app of choice. Sridhar Ramaswamy is CEO of Neeva, an ads-free search engine he helped found after running Google’s ads and commerce business. Ramaswamy spent seventeen years inside Google, and eventually grew disillusioned with its ad business. Now, he’s trying to build the solution with $77.5 million in funding. In this conversation, we discuss his evolving view on advertising, what decoupling search from ads allows from a product standpoint, and how the current antitrust environment is opening Google up to competition.Alex Kantrowitz: Google, where you used to work — they call it Alphabet now — made $31.9 billion in search ad sales last quarter alone, up from $24.5 billion in Q1 2020. YouTube ad sales were up 49% to $6 billion in Q1. This growth is going to hit a ceiling, one would imagine?Sridhar Ramaswamy: That will happen when digital advertising is most all of advertising, and we have not quite hit the ceiling yet. We’ve hit ceilings

Thomas Fields, founder of GRIND basketball.Source: GRINDThe term has become popular in pro basketball, but Thomas Fields really did “trust the process” as he lured money from investors, including Mark Cuban, to expand his company.Fields is the founder of GRIND, a sports equipment company, and convinced the Dallas Mavericks owner to buy into the business. The 26-year-old Houston native received $250,000 from his appearance on “Shark Tank” for his portable shooting machine.In an interview with CNBC on Wednesday, days after his May 7 appearance on “Shark Tank,” Fields recalled the process of launching GRIND in Mach 2020, days before sports shut down due to Covid-19.”It was literally two weeks before the pandemic hit,” Fields said. “After that, we were operating in a Covid world, so we don’t even know what that non-Covid world looks like.”Pitching the sharksOn the business front, Fields said GRIND has done well while operating during the pandemic. The basketball machine is set up for a single user and automatically returns the ball to the player, allowing for 1,000 shots an hour.Fields said the company generated roughly $217,000 in sales during the first five months, as lockdowns were in place and large gatherings banned. The product currently