Apple Weighs Using Intel, Samsung to Build Device Processors

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1:46Geetha Ranganathan:attention apple's held exploratory discussions with intel and samsung about producing main processors for its devices in the us that's a secondary option beyond taiwan semiconductor manufacturing that's pretty interesting that's a pretty big change i'm looking at intel stocks up another 13 percent today 52 week high i'm going to say an all-time high and i'm old enough to remember when the last time it hit an all-time high my boy frank yuri who's the chairman of board Intel, one of my Solomon brothers running buddies. He just announced he's stepping down from the chairmanship. So a good day for my boy, Frank.

2:20Geetha Ranganathan:So good for him going out on a high note there. Caroline Hyde joins us here, B-Tech co-anchor, along with some dude named Ed Ludlow. This Apple news, it seems kind of interesting, Caroline, because, I mean, Taiwan Semiconductor is such a huge supplier for all of the technology space. What's Apple doing here? It's almost going back to its partners of old. Remember, Apple didn't always design its own chips. It used to rely upon Intel and Samsung. And Samsung, it still depends upon a lot for other parts of the iPhone. Remember the screens, for example. But this is about the dominance of Taiwan. TSMC obviously has most of its manufacturing out of Taiwan.

2:56About 90 % of all chips in the world are made in Taiwan. That is a huge potential choke point, bottleneck concern, particularly when Taiwan is in the eye of the storm, not only weather storms, but also in terms of geopolitics. And what if China was to start making any sort of aggressive moves? This just means that for Tim Cook, the supply chain god over at Apple, who's now moving to the chairman role, he's always trying to think ahead of how he can be less dependent. So remember, TSMC is manufacturing in the U.S. more. They're likely to be committing ever more billions into Arizona. That is something President Trump wants.

3:30But Samsung, too, is investing in the United States and Texas. We understand that people have been from Apple to go and look around those fabs over in Texas. And then what about Intel, a company that the U.S. administration has skin in the game in? And this would also be a political move in many ways.

3:45Geetha Ranganathan:So this is Apple's way of sort of insulating itself best it can. And one of the last major things I guess Tim Cook will do during his tenure as CEO before he passes the reins. What about supply shortages? We know there's a lot of demand for the Mac. How are they doing with that? And also, would this deal with an Intel or a Samsung for these microprocessors help with that? Well, I think that was what was surprised many, was the admission that maybe the memory chip issue wasn't so much Apple's problem this time. It was more the sheer desire to buy Macs, trying to buy basically Apple products to run your own open claw, run your own agents overnight.

4:23And suddenly they see Mac minis fly off the shelves. They just cannot get the equipment fast enough. And so, yes, that has been a bit of a blocker for Tim Cook. basically they've got a lot of demand and it's the supply that's the issue in terms of their previous quarter. How quickly this can get off the ground, that's a question, Alexis. And so whether or not we'll see Tim Cook make any moves while he's CEO to fix that is still an open book because look, they're still building fabrication points for Intel. This is a long-term play coming from Lit Boutan, but we know that the CEO of Intel has in many ways been the issue of, look, I will build it if they come.

4:56So if Apple is coming, they will start to build out that Ohio presence, for example, be able to become the fabrication partner of choice. Samsung already is building out in Texas how quickly they can start running off. But you're right. The supply chain issue has been what chips are getting into their Mac and their hardware products more broadly.

5:13Geetha Ranganathan:Apple is also preparing a new Create-A-Pass feature for its next major iPhone software upgrade, allowing users to build and customize their own digital tickets and gift cards within in the wallet app. That seems pretty cool. It also seems pretty confusing. What does that mean for me? I put a lot of stuff in my wallet. I mean, that digital wallet. I'm putting more and more stuff in there, right? Yeah. And that's with even certain events that you go to, certain gift cards you might get, not actually having the ability to put it on your Apple wallet. So this is the, instead, say you get a one-off event down at Jones Beach, you're going in New Jersey, I know spending your summer by the shore there.

5:50Caroline knows you. Yes. I love working at Longside Pool and I get to know the New Jersey love. But say that particular event doesn't have the feasibility of a relationship with iOS, you can take a QR code that they send you and just load it into your wallet. So there it is. So you can have all things in one place. They're trying to become more of a hub in that respect. So this is a nice little upgrade that we're going to see to the software operating system. Stay with us. More from Bloomberg Intelligence coming up after this.

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8:43Geetha Ranganathan:Paramount Skydance reported first quarter sales and earnings that beat analyst expectations as the company moves closer to acquiring Warner Brothers Discovery. Investors underwhelmed, I would say. Stocks off 6.5 % today, off 22 % year to date. So there's a lot of moving pieces at Paramount Skydance. Let's break it down with Geetha Ranganathan. She is the media analyst for Bloomberg Intelligence. down there in Princeton. Hey, Keith, first of all, let's just kind of go to the earnings here. How's the Paramount Skydance managing under new management? They actually did a really good job, Paul. So, you know, just from the results that they reported yesterday for the first quarter, it was really strong.

9:25Both revenue as well as adjusted EBITDA came in well above consensus estimates. And, you know, the really encouraging thing and what investors look at quarter in and quarter out is how well they are progressing on the streaming front. And they had pretty good subscriber growth. A lot of this has been driven by their new UFC deal. But more importantly, they actually reported profits. Remember, this is a service that has been a very, you know, has been racking up loss after loss, quarter after quarter. But for the first time, you know, there was an inflection. They reported about$250 million in adjusted EBITDA.

10:01And they are actually going to sustain momentum when it comes to that profitability. So across the board, actually pretty good numbers. But then, as you said, there's just a lot of different moving pieces and a lot of investor anxiety about those moving pieces.

10:13Geetha Ranganathan:And I want to pick at some of those moving pieces right now, Geetha, because revenue from Paramount's film studios grew 11 percent. There was a strong theatrical performance from the horror movie Scream 7. So I guess lots of fans out there. But sales in Paramount's TV unit fell 6 percent. Was that driven by just lost business or is there a fall off in advertising or maybe a little bit of both? Yeah, there was definitely, you know, advertising. So remember, Paramount derives about 33 percent of its revenue from advertising. So huge, you know, very, very critical part of the business. And yes, you know, across the ecosystem, Alexis, we are seeing a weakness in TV linear advertising.

10:56And of course, no exception there at Paramount as well. They're obviously going to have a little bit more weakness for the second quarter. That's what they guided. They did not have the March Madness Final Four, which they had the previous year. So, you know, we're seeing tough comps and just general core ad weakness.

11:14Geetha Ranganathan:So, Geetha, what are the companies saying here? I'm thinking about the big companies that own broadcast and cable networks. What are they? That's a declining business. It's in a secular decline. It kind of feels like newspapers 30 years ago, radio 20 years ago. What do they plan to do that structurally wise? So structurally, Paul, what all of them are doing really is moving to digital. So, you know, it's the big shift from linear TV to what they're calling connected TV. That shift couldn't happen any faster. You know, they're all trying their best. It's a$55 to$60 billion linear market. But there really still remains this huge gap between eyeballs and monetization because we've seen all of the eyeballs move from linear TV to streaming.

11:58we haven't seen an equally fast or an equally rapid shift of that monetization from linear to streaming. And that's really what all of these companies are trying to capitalize on. Netflix, of course, made its big move into advertising. But then all of the linear companies already have advertising relationships, whether that's a Disney Plus or a Paramount. But again, it's about how fast they can get there, but they're all trying.

12:25Geetha Ranganathan:We know that Paramount, you know, clinched the$110 billion deal for Netflix. It hopes to close on that deal in the third quarter. But Paramount has asked the FCC, Geetha, to sign off on a funding structure that includes more than a third of the company's equity coming from Middle East government entities. Are they going to get that FCC approval? And I'm wondering if the war in Iran is, you know, putting any of that in jeopardy. I think they will get the FCC approval. I think so far, all the indications that we've gotten on the regulatory front seem to indicate that, you know, the administration is definitely going to give them the go ahead.

12:59I think if at all they have any problems, it'll probably be in California. The California AG has on numerous occasions stated that this is not a done deal, that, you know, he thinks that this is actually going to be bad for Hollywood. So I think there's definitely a little bit of, you know, regulatory nervousness when it comes to the California AG. But I think on the FCC front, they should be fine. I think the reason why we are seeing so much of weakness in the stock today is really worries around post-deal execution. You know, this is a tall order. This is a company pro forma that's going to have about$80 billion in debt.

13:31That's about seven times EBITDA. So highly leveraged company. You have only about$12 billion in EBITDA. Their goal is to get to above$20 billion because they need to get to a three times leverage ratio. But that's going to be possible only if they achieve about$6 billion in synergies and really bump up that EBITDA. So there's really a lot for them to do, Paul and Alexis. And I think, you know, so execution, regulatory, and then there's the issue of dilution from a share count perspective, because right now they have about 1.1 billion shares with Paramount. When they get the WBD deal, that's going to go to about 5 billion.

14:06So we are expecting massive share dilution there. And so that's another big reason.

14:11Geetha Ranganathan:30 seconds left, Geetha. When you put all these companies together, Paramount, Skydance, Warner Brothers Discovery. Is that going to be a streaming service of scale that can compete against Netflix and maybe even Disney? It can. It can, Paul. And I think that's what investors, the bulls are definitely betting on that. I mean, this is a service that's going to have over about 220, 230 million subscribers, definitely puts in within striking distance of both Netflix and Disney. And I think what we're really kind of betting on with this new management team is how they leverage technology. I mean, this is David Ellison we're talking about.

14:43He's a tech kid. And, you know, can they leverage AI to get all of those efficiencies?

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18:07Geetha Ranganathan:Coinbase cutting 14 percent of its workforce, citing volatile markets and AI. Let's break it down with Paul Goldberg, Bloomberg Intelligence Senior Equity Analyst. Paul, talk to us about what's going on with our friends at Coinbase. Morning, Paul. I think there is a change of heart, obviously. when they reported earnings in February and guided for the first quarter, they were guiding for the expenses to be roughly flat, which kind of raised the eyebrows a little bit because the activity levels were trending down and there were some concern. But going back to December when they announced the build-out of everything exchange, there are a lot of investments that they have been making.

18:46So they basically wanted to maintain those investments going forward, But clearly, three months later, we do get some change of heart here.

18:55Geetha Ranganathan:So we're talking about 14 percent of Coinbase's workforce being cut. I guess that amounts to about 700 jobs. Is AI behind this cut? I would think that AI is probably part of the equation, but not necessarily the driver. They did in Brian Armstrong's post on X, they did mention the volatility as being the biggest issue. So even we've seen the Bitcoin price dropping from$125 ,000 to$65 ,000 and it's probably what$81 ,000 today. So it's coming back in the second quarter, but there is a lot of uncertainty. So they're trying to adjust to that mainly. They're also as part of the transition, they're cutting out some management levels.

19:39So they're trying to optimize the business and maybe AI is the helper there. where the managers can actually be individual contributors as well.

19:48Geetha Ranganathan:So, Paul, you know, I think a lot of people know Coinbase as simply a platform to buy and sell cryptocurrencies. So is this stock primarily, entirely, partially driven by the price of Bitcoin? If you look at the stock chart, part of that reaction is kind of similar to what the Bitcoin is doing. But if you look at the businesses that are in, the subscription and services businesses, the staking, the payments, and all those other things that they're building, there's really a lot of other things happening across the entire ecosystem, including the tokenization and getting even into more traditional markets like equities.

20:30Geetha Ranganathan:And certainly Coinbase is not alone, right? I mean, you've got a number of companies in this space announcing job cuts recently. Block, Gemini Space Station comes to mind, I think Crypto.com. What are the reasons why that these companies are offering for why they are tightening their belts? I think so. I don't think it's necessarily a long term problem. I think it's more of a cyclical problem. And because the cycles are so short in those businesses, the technology develops so fast, they really have to adapt and adjust almost on an annual basis or every few years when things change very dramatically.