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Rich Kleiman, the Knicks, & Barry Diller’s Bid for MGM 6/1/26
00:40:17
Andrew Ross Sorkin breaks a scoop: Barry Diller’s People Inc. is preparing a bid for MGM Resorts. Meanwhile, Nvidia is jumping into PCs, Blue Origin’s rocket explosion has delayed progress at the company, Berkshire Hathaway is buying Taylor Morrison, and CNBC’s Dan Murphy reports on new waves of strikes in the Middle East. Director of the University of Minnesota Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy Dr. Michael Osterholm issues a warning about the United States’ ability to manage an Ebola outbreak. Plus, Boardroom co-founder and CEO Rich Kleiman discusses the Knicks and what the team’s success means for media ratings, MSG, and owner James Dolan’s reputation. Dan Murphy - 11:06 Dr. Michael Osterholm - 23:17 Rich Kleiman - 36:49 In this episode: Dan Murphy, @dan_murphy Joe Kernen, @JoeSquawk Becky Quick, @BeckyQuick Andrew Ross Sorkin, @andrewrsorkin Cameron Costa, @CameronCostaNY
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- [00:00]
Narrator/Announcer
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- [00:27]
Becky Quick
Hey Fidelity, how can I remember to invest every month?
- [00:33]
Narrator/Announcer
With the Fidelity app, you can choose a schedule and set up recurring investments in stocks and ETFs.
- [00:39]
Becky Quick
Oh, that sounds easier than I thought.
- [00:41]
Narrator/Announcer
You got this?
- [00:43]
Becky Quick
Yeah, I do. Now where did I put my keys?
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Narrator/Announcer
You will find them where you left them.
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Commercial Voice
Investing involves risk, including risk of loss. Fidelity Brokerage Services, LLC Member nyse, SIPC
- [00:58]
Joe Kernan
Bring in show music please.
- [01:02]
Cameron Costa
This is Squawkpod and I'm CNBC producer Cameron Costa. On today's episode, a warning on our ability to manage an Ebola outbreak from the director of the University of Minnesota's center for Infectious Disease, Dr. Michael Osterholm.
- [01:19]
Dr. Michael Osterholm
We actually had a very serious Ebola outbreak back in 2014, 2015 in Western Africa with over almost 30,000 cases. I think this has the ability to far outstrip that.
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Cameron Costa
But don't panic, he says transmission is nothing like COVID 19. Then a lighter note, famed sports agent and entrepreneur Rich Kleiman.
- [01:43]
Joe Kernan
When I was younger, a lot of times I always imagined that when the Knicks were in the finals that the whole world would be watching what this
- [01:49]
Cameron Costa
extraordinary run for the Knicks could mean for the media.
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Joe Kernan
I think the ratings in this series because of the story around the Knicks, because of Wemby and I think the ratings and just the overall demand on these events right now, I think these finals could be the highest rated or one of the more high risk rated in a long time.
- [02:07]
Cameron Costa
Plus the many other stories that got us squawking today, a delay at Blue Origin after a rocket explosion. Barry Diller's People Inc. Preparing a bid for MGM Resorts. And Berkshire Hathaway is getting busy under its new CEO's direction.
- [02:24]
Andrew Ross Sorkin
And that's kind of the Berkshire way to try and move quickly on these things.
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Cameron Costa
It is Monday, June 1st and Squawk Bot begins right now.
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Joe Kernan
Stand Becky by in 3, 2, 1. Q please.
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Andrew Ross Sorkin
Good morning everyone. Welcome to Squawk Box right here on cnbc. We are live from the NASDAQ markets at in Times Square, I'm Becky Quick along with Joe Kernan and Andrew Ross Sorkin.
- [02:49]
Becky Quick
Meantime, Nvidia jumping into the PC business. The company dominates the market for AI data center chips. Now it it's going to be making chips that serve as the main processor for personal computers as well. Speaking at the Computex Tech event in Taiwan, CEO Jensen Huang unveiling a new N1X processor made alongside Microsoft. It's going to be incorporated into a new RTX Spark super chip. It debuted this fall in a new line of Windows pieces from Microsoft, Dell, HP and several other manufacturers.
- [03:20]
Jensen Huang
There is no question this reinvention of the computer is as big of a deal as the reinvention of the phone into what we now know as the smartphone. And so this is the beginning of that journey. This is the beginning of a new line. And so we have a roadmap for this. This is a brand new product family for us. Every single generation of architecture, we will have a desktop, a laptop, a workstation, and then a desktop, a laptop and workstation.
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Becky Quick
And this may be the beginning or at least another indication of just this idea of quote unquote, moving to the edge. More and more, AI processing ultimately may get processed by physical computers. That's not been the case thus far for the most part. But if that is true, perhaps this is to some degree even a hedge, if you will, against whatever you think is going to happen in the cloud. Shares in video are rising while shares of PC chip maker intel, we should mention, pulling back in a pretty significant way about 5% this morning. So if you own in video, you are happy. If you're a taxpayer, you may be less happy, which becomes sort of the next interesting sort of dynamic in terms of how folks root or root against different stocks.
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I don't think we're going to be able to spend any of that intel money anytime soon as, as taxpayers are we getting, I mean we, I feel like an owner, but I don't feel like we're ever going to really.
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I remember when we were all supposed to get dividends. Do you remember when the Trump dividend was coming? So I was, I'm still waiting.
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I've looked, I haven't. There's no address on my house. You know what I'm saying? There are a lot of people have them, but we don't have an actual. I don't know why. Maybe, maybe it's in the mail when we talk about chips in South Korea, the cost be surging to a record high amid a tech stock rally in South Korea and Samsung shares rose by 10%. I'm looking at someone to read in a second. Very troubling topping a $1.3 trillion market cap. LG shares were up by 30%. Executives from both Samsung and LG are expected to meet with Jensen Huang later this week, raising expectations for potential collaborations on AI and robotics. And I was just going to say 400 points on the Dow again on Friday. So it's like every version of some type of resolution for Iran. Even though then it sort of peters out. The market seems to go up and then it doesn't pull back and then there's more talk about it. The market's up again today.
- [06:03]
Right. And oil prices are up and it goes. And we sit here, we talk about
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it and then I read this today Day got very troubled market watch. It's not just tech stocks. The broad based strength of the market right now gives investors reason to stay the course.
- [06:21]
Andrew Ross Sorkin
Make you nervous a little.
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Becky Quick
People are starting to buy into it and it was. We're not, we were not buying into it for a long time. We were like, this makes no sense. This makes no sense. Why does this keep happening? And as we close in on 76, 7601st on the S and P, we're getting near year end targets.
- [06:39]
Why cite that? The Journal's front page, the s and P500 just posted one of its best two month runs ever. That often means more good times.
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Yeah, both of them. I saw both of them. And both of them.
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Andrew Ross Sorkin
You're thinking it's the Sports Illustrated.
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Becky Quick
I'm just thinking it's starting to. I love it when the rally is really hated. Whether it's hated enough to continue. This is good. Probably right?
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Andrew Ross Sorkin
It is. There's some deal news to tell you about. Berkshire Hathaway is buying homebuilder Taylor Morrison for $72.50 a share in cash, or $6.8 billion. That excludes debt. If you include the debt, it's eight and a half billion. It's a 24% premium to Friday's closing price. It is expected to close in the second half of 2026. And it will add the home builder to an already sizable housing portfolio that includes Clayton Homes and Berkshire Hathaway Home Services. There are also a lot of kind of derivative companies that Berkshire owns that go into home building. If you think of Acme Brick or Shaw, which makes carpeting and flooring, you've got Benjamin Moore paints, you've got Johns Manville, which makes insulation.
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Becky Quick
So there's a lot of Acme Brick. I have.
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Andrew Ross Sorkin
You have an Acme Brick. You and Wile E Coyote.
- [07:55]
Becky Quick
Yeah, he sent me. Warren sent Me an Acme Brick when I asked for a Netflix Net jets card. Probably was.
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Probably was.
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I still have it. I've never put it into anything I've built.
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Andrew Ross Sorkin
That's valuable. It's a gift. It's a gift. This is the first big deal for Greg Abel since he's been the CEO. I did speak to Warren Buffett about this yesterday. He said, Greg did this faster than I could have done it, smoother than I could have done it. And I never talked to the CEO he has launched. This is just really interesting in the idea of would Greg Abel be able to move quickly and to do these deals quickly, as Warren Buffett has always done. If you had Warren's, Warren's. Warren's word on a deal, it was as good as done. And it sounds like this is basically what Greg has picked up and done, too. He spoke with Warren Buffett about it, told them, I guess when he first went down to meet with the CEO with Sheryl, he went down to Arizona, spent about five hours with her, and when he came back, he didn't think that he had a deal, talked to Warren about those things. But I guess about four days later she called back and said that her directors were OK with it. The price is fair. Nobody else we would do a deal with like this. And again, he spoke with Warren Buffett about this, and I believe he spoke with the lead director, Sue Decker, about these things. Things, but didn't talk to the rest of the board until after they had completed the deal. And that's kind of the Berkshire way to try and move quickly on these things, if you've got a deal that goes through with some of these. We did speak with Sue Decker in May, I guess, just last month, beginning of the month, at the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting about what the parameters would be for Greg, whether he'd be able to do deals like that. She said at a certain limit level there would be.
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Becky Quick
So what's the size? Do you know what the size is?
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Andrew Ross Sorkin
I don't know. I threw out numbers like 10 billion, $20 billion. She just said at a certain level there would be something. This is, I guess, eight and a half when you assume the debt that goes through with it.
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Sue Decker
It's a practice that's been happening for a while to consult a couple people if there's a deal going on, but it's not. It doesn't take away at all from the core principles of being able to act quickly, that our trust is our bond. If we say we're going to do A deal. We're going to do the deal and to not have leaks by involving a lot of people. So.
- [10:04]
Andrew Ross Sorkin
But could Greg, $10billion deal, a $20billion deal, could he just do that? Or is there a clear set of rules that you got to talk to these people before you do it?
- [10:13]
Sue Decker
There's a practice that would happen at a certain stage of size, but Greg
- [10:19]
Andrew Ross Sorkin
can do these deals pretty quickly and he can do them without necessarily asking for the full board approval on it
- [10:25]
Becky Quick
really doesn't help with the amount of cash that they have that they need to.
- [10:29]
Andrew Ross Sorkin
No, this is like less than 3% of the cash on hand. They have close to 397 billion in cash on hand. So it's small numbers. But the idea that they are betting on home building is pretty important. Some of these stocks have been fairly depressed because interest rates have remained high above 6%, you know, high over the last 10 or 15 years. Not high historically what you would think of, but it has. The number of house housing starts has been down, has been declining. And so they're buying into that market.
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Becky Quick
Right.
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In geopolitical news, the US Saying it struck air defense, radar and drone sites in Iran over the weekend. And CNBC's Dan Murphy joins us live from Abu Dhabi with the latest. Good morning, Andrew.
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Dan Murphy
Good morning. Well, the Iran deal remains elusive this morning. President Trump also seemingly losing some patience with his critics on Truth Social. Trump said Iran wants to make a deal, but he also hit back at what he called political hacks on both sides of the aisle for negatively chirping, he says, about his approach. Just sit back and relax. It will all work out well in the end. It always does, he wrote. Markets aren't so sure, though. We're watching oil prices pop right now after Israel's prime minister gave the order for his forces to strike inside Beirut. Today, Prime Minister Netanyahu posting on X saying in response to the repeated and ongoing violations of the ceasefire by Hezbollah and the attacks against our cities and citizens, I've instructed the IDF to strike terrorist targets in the Dahiye district that is Hezbollah's stronghold in the southern suburbs of Beirut. Kuwait also reporting a new wave of attacks this morning. And strikes between the US And Iran also resumed over the weekend, with each side claiming to have hit north military targets near the Strait of Hormuz. Tehran also weighing in, the senior negotiator, Mohamed Galiba responding on X, saying the naval blockade and escalation of war crimes in Lebanon are clear evidence of US Non compliance with the ceasefire. Every choice has a price he says, and the bill comes due. So we don't know how the Israeli strategy in Lebanon could complicate this latest US Debate diplomatic effort. But we do know that Tehran wants a halt to fighting in Lebanon as a condition for any deal. Right now it appears that there is an escalation path in Lebanon which is certainly going to ultimately perhaps delay the diplomatic off ramp that the President has been pursuing. So we're watching and waiting to see exactly what happens next here. It's back over to you.
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Becky Quick
Hey Dan, what's the explanation there for how we're, we're just talking about the equity markets. We keep looking at these equity markets moving higher and higher and yet here we have, you know, WTI crude back at, at 90 bucks, Brent at 93, $94. What's, what's the, what's the feeling on the ground about that?
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Dan Murphy
I would say it's a headline driven market right now. We also had Axios reporting over the weekend that the U.S. and Iran were discussing this MOU that would lift the blockade in the Strait of Hormuz that has of course pushed oil down double digits through the course of last month. Inside this MOU there is also talk of extending the cease fire and setting up this 60 day negotiation window to resolve the big ticket item here, which is Iran's nuclear program and for the Iranian side that sanctions relief as well. The reporting suggests that Trump is asking for several amendments to that draft right now, particularly around the nuclear issue. CNBC has not independently verified that report, but analysts that I'm speaking to today are saying that that is the primary reason why we've seen oil move off the back of this, you can see just a modest pop in the grand scheme of things up around 4% right now. But again coming off a pretty low base here given the positive momentum, the positive headlines that we've seen around the diplomatic track that have really helped to pull crude off the higher highs that we've been following over the last couple of months.
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Becky Quick
Okay, Dan, thank you. Appreciate it.
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Andrew Ross Sorkin
There's also a shocker at the weekend box office. The movie Backrooms, which is a film based on 20 year old Kane Parsons popular YouTube series brought in $81.4 million in North American ticket sales. That set a record record for independent and independent distributor A20. That film cost just $10 million to make. It's about a furniture store owner who finds a door to an endless maze of empty off putting spaces. The box office hall is roughly on par with the opening of the latest Star wars film on Memorial Day, weekend. That one, which is the Mandalorian and Grogu I think had a budget of $166 million to make.
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Becky Quick
There's some other weird thing going on too that I've been told called, called Obsession.
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Yep, that's the other one that.
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750000 to make.
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Yep.
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That's 60. That's 60 million.
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Wow.
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Right now it's another four. The worst horror movie is great, you got to admit, right?
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Horror movies are the way to make
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money certainly, but they're fun to. I mean that's the, that's this day,
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but that's always been the model. I mean this is the Jason Blum model.
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Andrew Ross Sorkin
That's what I was just thinking.
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Becky Quick
Is this a Jason Blum?
- [15:51]
I don't know. I don't know. I don't, I don't think it is. But, but I'm saying the horror genre is a lot cheaper to make than typically most other kind of movies. And the margin can be meaningfully higher. Blue Origin reportedly faces a months long setback. This after last week's new Glenn rocket explosion damaged the launch pad. We talked about that damage to the launch pad when it happened. That is the big challenge that they now face. Among the projects said to be impacted the rollout of Amazon satellite Internet service, LEO and future NASA Artemis Moon missions. And we discussed LEO as well and what that ultimately means. Whether Amazon is going to have to try to put some of those satellites on X flights or others in the future to try to get that service up and running. And there's a downstream effect as we discussed, because there are big customers. I don't know if the customers in this case include Delta. But for example, Delta is planning to use the LEO satellite service instead of the service. And so they need to get as many of these satellites in the sky as quickly as they can.
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In hindsight. Did you read any of the analysis about how devastating this really was? That it really wasn't.
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There's not a backup, it really wasn't
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covered right by media correctly that it was like existential, like almost an existential threat to Amazon's business? I mean the rocket business, the blue origin business, what it. So it destroyed everything.
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I mean it was, you saw the images. It really destroys the entire launch pad. The launch pad is, you know, it's interesting if you go into that factory which is gigantic, they're building, you know, lots of different engines and all of the different stages and the like, but that, and that exists far away from where that's taking place. That's not the part that you need to worry about. You need the launch pad to be able to actually do this. And if you don't have the launch pad when, by the way, the launch pad unto itself is custom for the designs of what they've already done too.
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Andrew Ross Sorkin
I read some analysis though, that suggested that X had multiple launch pads for reasons like this, that they, that SpaceX had problems when they were doing some of these things. We all remember some of the early on that they had, but they had duplicates of many of these things, redundancies, so that you weren't reliant on having to rebuild that one. I don't know how quickly they can rebuild this.
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Becky Quick
I mean, they're talking about months. It could be, could be two, three months, could be longer. And then the question, of course is, you know, you're going to have to start up and do all of the stuff again. So it's not just. And then there is a question and maybe the answer to this point of duplication, maybe if you're going to do this again, you would create two launch pads or three launchpads. And I also don't know how much real, I mean, they have a lot of real estate down there, but I don't know how, you know, the spaces that you can get to do that as well.
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SpaceX, did the valuation go up on the IPO based on that?
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Andrew Ross Sorkin
There were some people who were talking about that Friday we mentioned it on the program.
- [19:02]
Becky Quick
It clearly puts Space X more in the position of being the monopoly power. I mean, right now SpaceX is the monopoly.
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How long does it take to, how long will it take to get back to where they were?
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I think the argument is a minimum of several months, of just months.
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Andrew Ross Sorkin
I mean, that doesn't, that doesn't seem
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Becky Quick
like as big of several months at a minimum. Yeah, but it could be longer. And by the way, they need to also make sure that the engines work so that, you know, it's not just.
- [19:27]
Andrew Ross Sorkin
This was just a test.
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Becky Quick
This was just a test. So you have to, you have to get the whole thing up and running and then, and then make it all work. The big issue is, I think we all have to root for competition in space. And so you have to root to some degree whether, whether you, whether you want to or not for Blue Origin to work so that there are at least two of these companies that are, that are, that are competing in space. Otherwise you do have a single company.
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Andrew Ross Sorkin
I mean, by the way, was pretty,
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Becky Quick
also a single point of failure to some degree. Too.
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Andrew Ross Sorkin
Yeah. And Bezos himself admitted it in his statement that he put on X.
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Becky Quick
He said it was a tough day.
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Andrew Ross Sorkin
Explosion is a very rough day. Well, yeah, but we will rebuild whatever needs rebuilding and get it back to flying.
- [20:09]
Cameron Costa
It's worth it.
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Becky Quick
What I think it will do. And I think we talked about this briefly in the interview with him. There is, or at least the plan had been to start to take outside money for Blue Origin. Thus far, Blue Origin has been completely and utterly financed straight by sales of Amazon by by Jeff selling Amazon stock. What I don't know is how this impacts that plan. Meaning if you're does this make you more likely to try to go out and get outside money because you maybe want to actually build more? That could be one answer. But on the other end, are the investors going to be as excited as as they might have been otherwise? I think these are all the questions.
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Andrew Ross Sorkin
Rocket science is hard stuff. SpaceX had a lot of fiery crashes in its early days.
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Becky Quick
Surgery is not easy.
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Andrew Ross Sorkin
Yeah,
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Joe Kernan
CHEESE will be next.
- [20:59]
Cameron Costa
Coming up on Squawk Pod, a warning from the director of the University of Minnesota's center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, Dr. Michael Osterholm. Cases of Ebola are rising and the US health agencies are still looking pretty lean.
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Dr. Michael Osterholm
If you look at the CDC and the expertise there, they've pretty much routed out the expertise with in many cases, up to a third of the employees in given areas are no longer there. So we really have been left hamstrung.
- [21:36]
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- [22:35]
Narrator/Announcer
you confident that you could do something that hadn't been done before?
- [22:38]
Andrew Ross Sorkin
I have no fear of failure.
- [22:40]
Narrator/Announcer
Trailblazing wind Changing the game One of
- [22:43]
Becky Quick
my favorite pieces of advice.
- [22:45]
Narrator/Announcer
Think about what your boss's boss needs.
- [22:48]
Cameron Costa
Leadership can look in many, many different forms. It really does come down to just trusting yourself.
- [22:52]
Narrator/Announcer
Life is short and you just gotta
- [22:54]
Andrew Ross Sorkin
think big to accomplish big things.
- [22:56]
Cameron Costa
Julia Boorstin hosts CNBC Changemakers and Power Players. New episodes every Tuesday.
- [23:02]
Narrator/Announcer
Wherever you get your podcasts.
- [23:07]
Cameron Costa
This is SQUAWKPOD from CNBC with Joe Kernan, Becky Kwik and Andrea Ross Sorkin.
- [23:13]
Andrew Ross Sorkin
Our next guest argues that budget cuts and vacant job posts have left us unprepared for the latest Ebola threat. Dr. Michael Osterholm is the director of the University of Minnesota center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy. And doctor, thank you for joining us this morning. Thank you. Why don't you lay out where you think we where you think we are in terms of Ebola and getting our arms around this virus at the start?
- [23:39]
Dr. Michael Osterholm
Well, first of all, just remember that Ebola is a virus that's transmitted primarily through body fluid contact. So unlike the hantavirus situation we just went through where we were worried about respiratory transmission, in this case, that's not the situation. However, that would make it seem like it's easier to control. And in many ways it is. However, it is so such a massive issue in Central Africa with the closeness of people, the rituals requiring touching the bodies of dead, they're dead before they're buried, has put this really into a very rapid transmission situation. As you may recall, we actually had a very serious Ebola outbreak back in 2014, 2015, in Western Africa with over almost 30,000 cases. I think this has the ability to far outstrip that. It's a situation where with what we have on the ground right now in Central Africa, among the countries what we're seeing, this is just inadequate to respond in any meaningful way to slow things down.
- [24:40]
Andrew Ross Sorkin
This is a different strain than the 2014 strain that was the Zaire strain. This one we don't have any real medicine to kind of go after with to impact this strain in particular.
- [24:52]
Dr. Michael Osterholm
Yes, exactly. We didn't really have any medicine in 2014 either, and we don't have it now. However, what we did finally get in 2014 was a vaccine. We don't have a vaccine for this particular strain, Bundabujo, which is the one that we're dealing with. And our hope, though, is that in days ahead, we're going to find that by vaccinating with that other vaccine, it still may provide some protection, even if not against getting infected, at least dying from it. But one other challenge we have is this virus does not show up on usual testing. It takes a special kind of test to do this, and they're in very short supply. So imagine you have somebody coming into your clinic with a severe fever, and your first question, is this malaria, or is this, in fact, Ebola? And so this has made it very complicated. The other thing that's going to make it complicated is, for example, the United States supporting this effort. In the previous outbreaks, we have sent people on the ground where they have provided incredible support for controlling the outbreak. Right now, the message is to Americans, if you come to Africa and you're willing to basically roll up your sleeves in the sense of getting involved with this, but you should get exposed to the virus through an accidental needle stick, or you should come down with Ebola, where you're not welcome back in our country. To me, this is absolutely a very impossible situation to try to convince people to go and help out. And I would just add that to me also as a public health practitioner, I always thought that we never left our soldiers on the battlefield, and that's exactly what's happening with this government right now.
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Andrew Ross Sorkin
The Trump administration's plan was to keep American Ebola patients in Africa. A Kenyan court ruled against that. What is our backup plan in light of that? I know we have one doctor who's being treated in Europe.
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Dr. Michael Osterholm
We don't know at this point, it's really up in the air. If you look at the US Plan on responding to the Ebola in the previous two administrations, in fact, in Trump one, there was actually a very detailed plan that had been written that had been prepared to how we would respond at the. At that time. Remember, we had the USAID and we had pepfar, both organizations that, while they were dealing with a number of different infectious diseases, particularly hiv, with pepfar, the resources they brought to bear immediately in Africa was remarkable. We don't have that anymore. If you look at the CDC and the expertise there, they've pretty much routed out the expertise with. In many cases, up to a third of the employees in given areas are no longer there. So we really have been left hamstrung as a country to help respond. And this is not just an altruistic issue. This is about for all of us. If we start to see Ebola spread because of contact with people in Africa who then are leaving the countries going elsewhere, it's just going to complicate the issues even more in terms of how do we end up stopping this outbreak.
- [27:54]
Andrew Ross Sorkin
The US Plan, part of it, to this point, is to be to prevent travelers who have been in those nations who could have come in contact with us from arriving in the United States, that's not enough. I take it you believe that's not even an issue.
- [28:07]
Dr. Michael Osterholm
In a sense. We know that with Ebola, one does not even become infectious until you're quite severely ill.
- [28:14]
Andrew Ross Sorkin
So 21 days, the period of incubation.
- [28:18]
Dr. Michael Osterholm
Yeah, that's the period of incubation. But if once I become sick, once I develop a fever, you're not infectious for literally several more days after that. So by following these individuals and with the first onset of a fever, getting them into of the hospital and getting them into a controlled environment where they won't transmit is simple to do. In the 2014 outbreak, the one case where he had transmission in the United States was an individual who was from Africa who came to Dallas, Texas, to visit family and at that point became infected or had became ill and was hospitalized and transmitted to the nurses in the hospital, but to no one in the family that he had lived in a crowded apartment with for the previous days because he wasn't yet ill or only mildly ill. And so we don't have to have people quarantined in locked isolation areas. We can actually monitor their health and very simply, once, if they develop a fever, get them into medical care. So this isn't even a scary situation that some are portraying it as. You know, I have Ebola, or I was exposed to Ebola, I'm on a plane. I now transmit to a lot of different people. That's just simply not the case.
- [29:26]
Andrew Ross Sorkin
So what would you most like to see happen right now? What do you think needs to happen to address the situation?
- [29:31]
Dr. Michael Osterholm
Well, we are in a situation where the WHO has been greatly reduced in its ability to respond, because again, the United States pulling out our dues are no longer there available for them. We lack human resources. I think we just are going to have to find ourselves really taking this on with inadequate tools. And the best we can do is try to provide coordination. I think the United States surely should step up even more. We need to make sure that we can get people to go to Africa to help work on this situation by guaranteeing them, if they do get infected or even they're exposed, that we'll take care of them. We won't leave them on the battlefield. And I think just help people understand that right now in this time, we're going to see a lot of additional cases.
- [30:18]
Andrew Ross Sorkin
Dr. Osterholm, thank you.
- [30:21]
Cameron Costa
Coming up on Squawk Pod, Boardroom co founder and CEO Rich Kleiman is on set what the Knicks run up has done for Knicks fans, for MSG and for the owner of both James Dolan.
- [30:33]
Joe Kernan
Think about Dolan and just how much negativity he got for so long.
- [30:38]
Becky Quick
So long.
- [30:38]
Joe Kernan
The guys crushing it with the sphere, right? And the Knicks, who people thought would never win under his ownership, have had this incredible run over the last few years.
- [30:49]
Cameron Costa
The entrepreneur and longtime agent for NBA superstar Kevin Durant is up next.
- [31:00]
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- [31:59]
Narrator/Announcer
confident that you could do something that hadn't been done before?
- [32:02]
Andrew Ross Sorkin
I have no fear of failure.
- [32:04]
Narrator/Announcer
Trailblazing women, changing the game One of
- [32:07]
Becky Quick
my favorite pieces of advice, think about
- [32:10]
Narrator/Announcer
what your boss's boss needs.
- [32:12]
Cameron Costa
Leadership can look in many, many different forms. It really does come down to just trusting yourself.
- [32:17]
Narrator/Announcer
Life is short and you just gotta
- [32:18]
Andrew Ross Sorkin
think big to accomplish big things.
- [32:20]
Cameron Costa
Julia Boorstin hosts CNBC Changemakers and Power Players. New episodes every Tuesday, wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome back to squawkpod.
- [32:33]
Andrew Ross Sorkin
You're watching squawkpox right here on cnbc. I'm Becky Quick, along with Joe Kernan and Andrew Ross Sorkin.
- [32:39]
Becky Quick
We've got some breaking news to bring you right now. Sources telling me that Barry Diller's People, formerly IAC, is preparing a $18 billion bid to buy MGM, the casino giant. We're going to watch and see where this stock goes. The offer, what I'm being told, is at $48 30, 30 cents a share. The stock was trading on Friday, I believe at about $43 a share. It represents about a 10% premium over the Friday close, but represents about a 30% premium over the last 90 days. Worth noting that Barry Diller's People which of course was just renamed, had been IAC for many, many years, owns about 26% of MGM. Already the company has two board seats, one of which Barry is on himself. So he is on the board of mgm, which is going to, of course, take him out of the voting process for this transaction. And we're going to. I'm told that this, this bid could come today, is not finalized just yet, but this stock now moving on the back of that News up at 4797. The question, of course, is whether this bid could put the company itself into play and whether other suitors could emerge to try to buy mgm. Of course, one of the big sticking points is that Barry Diller's People owns 26%, not just of the company, but of the voting shares of the company. So.
- [34:25]
Andrew Ross Sorkin
And if anybody else steps in to make a bid, you're not going to get 26% right off the.
- [34:29]
Becky Quick
So his ability to effectively have a blocking position against any other bid makes this more complicated if, in fact, other bidders were to emerge. Now, it's worth noting if you look at MGM's stock, that it's actually come back recently. It had fallen for some time. There, of course, is the competition that has been coming, by the way, in the form of Kalshi and Polymarket and the like. Part of Barry Diller's original, I think thoughts on MGM were Vegas, but also the digital side of. Of this. Also, of course, there's Macao and the plans to build out in Japan. So some big news. A lot of folks, I think, had thought that IAC was effectively shedding assets, if you will, to sort of focus on people. And I believe that people still a huge part of this. But MGM is their other major stake and this would grow that stake in a very, very big way. So we're going to. We're going to watch to see what
- [35:31]
Andrew Ross Sorkin
happens there, say Barry and mgm. And I immediately think of MGM Studios as the place that he would be doing this. Well, I thought they have a huge number of Las Vegas Strip properties. Bellagio, Aria, the Cosmopolitan, MGM brand.
- [35:45]
Becky Quick
There's some debt in this, too.
- [35:46]
Yeah. So the $18 billion figure that I just mentioned, it would include debt on an equity basis. If you just math out, the $48 that we're talking about is about $12 billion. So it's basically 12.
- [36:00]
Andrew Ross Sorkin
Friday was 11.1.
- [36:01]
Becky Quick
It's basically about $12 billion plus the assumption of $6 billion of DEB debt. I am being told that this would be financed entirely in cash. So this is not a cash in stock deal that, that people would be. It's funny to be describing a deal and saying people are going to be buying mgm. Yeah, so I keep saying Barry Diller is buying people. Barry Diller's people is seeking to buy mgm. Of course we're going to watch the wires to see whether that proposal crosses sometime today. And of course what kind of reaction we get from the board of MGM Casinos Resorts, I should say. The San Antonio spurs beating the Oklahoma City Thunder in game seven of the Western Conference Finals on Saturday. The spurs now set to host game one of the NBA Finals. It's happening on Wednesday against the New York Knicks. Joining us right now is is boardroom co founder and CEO Rich Kleiman and a long suffering Nick Follower who's not that suffering this year.
- [37:04]
Joe Kernan
Finally, no suffering, no very exciting time.
- [37:08]
Becky Quick
So what do you think is going to happen here?
- [37:10]
Joe Kernan
I mean, I think that leading into the conference finals there was this feeling that whoever came out of the west was guaranteed to win the championship. I completely disagree. I mean, I think the Knicks are playing the most connected basketball right now. Think something that goes unsaid is how much they all trust each other. And you can see it on the court. I hate how long this break is,
- [37:31]
Andrew Ross Sorkin
but I'm going to ask better that they haven't gotten beaten up or is it the break so long that they get?
- [37:35]
Joe Kernan
Listen, the spurs are a young team, so getting four or five days from the end of that series, they're at home. I don't think it becomes a real Tuesday. Yeah, I don't think it's a real disadvantage, but I think when you're as hot as the Knicks have been and obviously Mike Brown, when he was an assistant with the warriors, understands the preparation needed for an NBA Finals. I'm sure they've practiced in game mode and they're staying fresh and they're just a connected team right now.
- [37:58]
Becky Quick
Okay, but Kalshee doesn't agree with you right now. So I don't know if you believe the numbers, but right now you look at it, the Knicks, they're saying at least that they. The. The marketplace, if you think the marketplace is spoken, don't believe it.
- [38:12]
Joe Kernan
Yeah, well, because, you know, New Yorkers obviously see things the way we see them. I'm sure the odds are different than they would have been two weeks ago. But I would imagine that the majority of the country is still seeing the spurs and Wemby as the better team. They won 62 games and they just beat the Oklahoma City Thunder. Who no one thought would be knocked
- [38:34]
Becky Quick
out if the Knicks win.
- [38:36]
Joe Kernan
Yes.
- [38:36]
Becky Quick
Does it fundamentally change the economics of the Dolan family empire or is it almost irrelevant?
- [38:45]
Joe Kernan
Well, I don't know if it's irrelevant. I don't know if there's like a direct monetary impact. Day one, I would imagine having home games, obviously the prices are insane, but having more home games and having the ability to monetize this run. But in general, I mean just this entire resurgence of the Knicks, I think in the. Has done so much for the economic profile of the guard and msg. I mean, think about Dolan and just how much negativity he got for so long.
- [39:14]
Becky Quick
So long.
- [39:14]
Joe Kernan
The guys crushing it with the sphere, Right. And the Knicks, who people thought would never win under his ownership, have had this incredible run over the last few years.
- [39:26]
Becky Quick
So do you give him credit or do you say this happened despite him? I mean, there were people.
- [39:30]
Joe Kernan
You have to give him credit. How can you not give him credit? Listen, you can't knock him when the Knicks have been down for so long and then not acknowledge the fact that he is the owner of this team and the Knicks have built this. And he put people in place in Leon Rose and West that were not a guaranteed selection to the common NBA fan. And they've made changes along the way and he supported the leadership in making those changes. Changes. So you have to give him credit for sure. And the environment in the Garden is. Is like nothing that anyone has experienced.
- [40:03]
Becky Quick
Ratings?
- [40:04]
Joe Kernan
Yes.
- [40:05]
Becky Quick
Going to be huge.
- [40:05]
Joe Kernan
I think ratings will be huge. You know, it's funny because when I was younger a lot of times I always imagined that when the Knicks were in the Finals that the whole world would be watching. But the Rocket series I think that they had in 94 is pretty low rated. I would imagine similar for the spurs because New Yorkers think the whole world revolves around us and honestly does. But that's not true for everyone, I think. Well, just so I say, I think the ratings in this series because of the story around the Knicks, because of Wemby, I think the ratings and just the overall demand on these events right now, I think these finals could be the highest rated or one of the more high risk rated in a long time.
- [40:39]
Becky Quick
And do you think it changes the ratings for the NBA more broadly? Because one of the big questions has been whether the ratings can be maintained during the regular season.
- [40:47]
Joe Kernan
Right, Adam?
- [40:48]
Becky Quick
The playoffs. Hot, hot, hot.
- [40:49]
Joe Kernan
Well, Adam just made an amazing move. I don't know if you guys saw what he changed to. The tanking problem of last year and to me that instantly changes the bottom three teams. Yes. And that's all you need to do. I thought that was well put together because instead of making some completely drastic overhaul, that simple change matters will change the dynamics right away. I mean there's players that sit out that are, that are injured but potentially could have come back that I think, think the team and themselves will feel the need to come back earlier. So that competitive change, the in season cup and just the momentum of this finals and again this demand on sports. I think the NBA is actually in
- [41:27]
Becky Quick
the best place they've been talking about being the best place they've ever been in. Can we talk about two things happening in July? One is the World Cup.
- [41:33]
Joe Kernan
Yes.
- [41:34]
Becky Quick
But the other is the best that it's ever been, which is this game plan conference we put together.
- [41:40]
Joe Kernan
Yes.
- [41:40]
Becky Quick
Four years ago. But this is. This lineup this year which is happening now in concert with fanatics at the Fanatics fest is unbelievable. There he is, the goat. Can we call him the goat? Yeah, let's just call him the goat. LeBron James. I know, but people, you know that people have the debate all the time about who is the goat. I'm super excited about this.
- [42:01]
Joe Kernan
I think there's five goats on that.
- [42:02]
Becky Quick
There's a lot of goats on LeBron
- [42:03]
Joe Kernan
James, Jimmy Pitaro, Michael Rubin, the maestro of that whole week, Adam Silver, Lindsey Vaughn.
- [42:08]
Becky Quick
And there are more and there are more. Let's, let's tease that because there are. I know, I know it's a secret, but we've got some, some big secrets come.
- [42:15]
Joe Kernan
We have some big secrets coming. I think people. Joe's not paying attention, but if Joe was, he would be like, I need a ticket.
- [42:21]
Becky Quick
Listen, this is honestly going to be the hottest, hottest event. I mean I don't want to oversell, but I think given what's going on here without.
- [42:29]
Joe Kernan
First of all think about what's happening in June and July period in New York. Right. We have the finals right now. You have the US Open that will be out in Long Island.
- [42:36]
Becky Quick
Yep.
- [42:37]
Joe Kernan
Then you have the World Cup. You have Fanatics Fest which has become this like world event of like stopping the world of sports in the middle of the summer. You're going to have the ESPYs here. You're going to have game plan here. The baseball all star game is that week the Yankees play the Dodgers right after baseball All Star game. It's an incredible time. It's becoming the epic, epicenter and convergence of all sport. And I just got back from the Champions League in Budapest.
- [43:03]
Becky Quick
I saw that I have to shout
- [43:04]
Joe Kernan
out PSG in this incredible back to back victory. But it was probably one of the most epic experiences of my life. Yeah, just incredible. And that time in New York will be pretty special. And if the Knicks win championship into that, it's going to be hard to explain.
- [43:20]
Becky Quick
Okay, well, we got an epic experience coming up at game plan. Want to make sure you all go to cnbc events.com gameplan you can request an invitation to this year's event. Rich want to thank you.
- [43:33]
Joe Kernan
Thank you guys.
- [43:36]
Cameron Costa
That's Squawk Pod for today. Thank you for listening and go Nicks. Squawk Box is hosted by Joe Kernan, Becky Quick and Andrew Ross Sorkin weekday mornings on cnbc starting at 6am Eastern. To get the smartest bits from that three hour TV show right into your ears, follow Squawkpod wherever you're listening now. We'll meet you right back here tomorrow. Have a great day.
- [44:00]
Becky Quick
We are clear.
- [44:02]
Joe Kernan
Thanks guys.
- [44:12]
Becky Quick
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