With its biggest acquisition ever, Microsoft buys Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion. Jason Moser analyzes why the move signals a direct shot at Meta Platforms and why Microsoft shareholders should be optimistic about the company's gaming aspirations. He also examines shares of Goldman Sachs and The Gap, both falling similar amounts, and why one of them represents a potential buying opportunity. Plus, Alison Southwick and Robert Brokamp discuss actionable ways to stay on track with your financial goals for 2022, including a rare triple-tax advantage to help prepare for future healthcare costs.
Stocks: MSFT, ATVI, META, NVDA, GPS, GS
Host: Chris Hill Guests: Jason Moser, Alison Southwick, Robert Brokamp Producer: Ricky Mulvey Engineers: Dan Boyd, Rick Engdahl
OUTLINE:
Here’s the timestamps for the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time.
(00:00) – Introduction
(06:46) – Telescope
(12:10) – Beginning of the universe
(32:23) – Science and the Soviet Union
(37:49) – What it’s like to be a scientist
(56:45) – Age of the universe
(59:37) – Expansion of the universe
(1:07:37) – Gravitational waves
(1:10:49) – BICEP
(1:36:05) – Nobel prize
(1:59:06) – Joe Rogan
(2:06:21) – Recognition in science
(2:14:30) – Curiosity
(2:22:18) – Losing the Nobel Prize
(2:35:13) – Galileo Galilei
(2:54:00) – Eric Weinstein
(3:12:21) – Scientific community
(3:30:02) – James Webb telescope
(3:35:01) – Panspermia
(3:38:32) – Origin of life
(3:43:59) – Aliens
(3:49:41) – Death and purpose
(3:53:53) – God
(3:59:49) – Power
Microsoft today announced it is acquiring game publisher Activision Blizzard in a nearly $69 billion all-cash deal. The acquisition is being widely seen as a big bet to keep Microsoft competitive in the burgeoning metaverse space. On today’s episode, NLW gives the background and explores the emerging battle between the corporate and the open metaverses.
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“The Breakdown” is written, produced by and features Nathaniel Whittemore aka NLW, with editing by Rob Mitchell, research by Scott Hill and additional production support by Eleanor Pahl. Adam B. Levine is our executive producer and our theme music is “Countdown” by Neon Beach. The music you heard today behind our sponsor is “Time” by OBOY. Image credit: Photo by Chesnot/Getty Images Entertainment, modified by CoinDesk. Join the discussion at discord.gg/VrKRrfKCz8.
A mysterious illness plagues New Brunswick. An internet celebrity sells NFTs and farts. The first full transplant of a pig heart into a living human prompts international legal and philosophical concerns. All this and more in this week's Strange News.
The Democratic Party’s efforts to pass just one progressive reform bill in the Senate are now verging on the comical. The hosts discuss their strategy, or lack thereof, as well as the imminence of 5G internet and its complications and the implications of the nascent feud between Ron DeSantis and Donald Trump.
A showdown in the Senate over voting rights. There are aviation safety concerns ahead of a 5G rollout. One of the Texas synagogue hostages recounts his ordeal. Correspondent Steve Kathan has the CBS World News Roundup for Tuesday, January 18, 2022:
The COVID-19 era is rough, to say the least. But let’s put it in perspective. Every pandemic ends eventually, and this one will too.
Today, assistant editor Jessica Roy with the L.A. Times’ utility journalism team walks us through a century of past pandemics — from the 1918 flu to SARS — and the different ways they resolved, and she describes what’s likely to happen in our future.
Then medical historian Frank Snowden, a professor emeritus at Yale, reaches further back to explore how pandemics have changed society and what we’ve learned from them.
1:08:00 – If you’re on China/international relations/war/basketball/tech Twitter, you’ll have seen that Chamath went full-on tankie… which relates to the debate over a recent article in The Nation: “What Should the Left Do About China?” by David Klion. The piece explores the lefty political spectrum, and features input from Andy and several friends of the pod. We dig in on the question of how complicit we are as “Americans.” In a time of (cold-)warring hegemons, what kind of dissenters should we be?
