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Netflix, Comcast and Paramount Make Bids for Warner Bros · Bloomberg Intelligence

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Speaker 2: M and A Media m and A pending big, big
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Speaker 2: deal Warner Brothers Discovery. It's in discussions and accepted bids
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Speaker 2: from Paramount, sky Dance, from Netflix, maybe even Comcast. Now,
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Speaker 2: I guess we wait and see what happens. But this
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Speaker 2: is when this deal crosses a tape, it's going to
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Speaker 2: be a big deal. It's gonna have enterprise value of
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Speaker 2: north of ninety billion.
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Speaker 3: I can't wait for them to make a limited TV
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Speaker 3: series about this parting process.
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Speaker 4: Yes, it's gonna be great.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly right, coming to Netflix on soon. Keitha rang
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Speaker 2: Andathen She covers the media space for Bloomberg Intelligence as
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Speaker 2: the media analyst there Ethan. What's the latest on Warner
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Speaker 2: Brothers Discovery. I guess the question now is that BIS
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Speaker 2: has been accepted. What are next steps? Yeah?
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Speaker 5: Next steps, Paul is that these were just first round bids.
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Speaker 5: They're non binding bids. You know, as far as the
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Speaker 5: news reports go, it looks like all three companies that
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Speaker 5: were in the race, Paramount skuy Dance for all of
1:19
Speaker 5: Warner Brothers, and then Netflix and Comcast for just the
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Speaker 5: studio and streaming assets, have all placed their bids. This
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Speaker 5: is going to be a very long drawn process, so
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Speaker 5: we're going to have multiple rounds.
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Speaker 6: You know.
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Speaker 5: We've had some conflicting reports actually on what Paramount sky
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Speaker 5: Dance was offering. There was something earlier this week but
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Speaker 5: suggested they were offering something north of twenty eight dollars
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Speaker 5: per share. They came out refuted that report, and the
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Speaker 5: latest reports seemed to suggest that it might be it's
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Speaker 5: definitely going to be something much lower than that, probably
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Speaker 5: something above twenty five, but still below twenty seven. But
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Speaker 5: let's remember David Zaslav has publicly said that he wants
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Speaker 5: something north of thirty dollars per share, So this is
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Speaker 5: going to play out for quite a while.
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Speaker 3: I think, yeah, that is a pretty big gap between
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Speaker 3: what David Zaslov wants and what the reporting indicates Paramounts
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Speaker 3: Guidance is likely to pay. So if this is going
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Speaker 3: to be a long drawn out process, does that benefit
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Speaker 3: Warner Brothers Discovery or these bidders, who comes out ahead
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Speaker 3: in that kind of scenario.
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Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean, the long drawn out processes is really
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Speaker 5: not good, I think for for Warner Brothers Discovery. But
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Speaker 5: having said that, let's remember that they do have another
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Speaker 5: plan B in place, and the Plan B is that
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Speaker 5: they are going to go ahead and split their company
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Speaker 5: into two parts, so you have the TV Networks business
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Speaker 5: and the streaming and studio business. And the good news
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Speaker 5: for them is that the studio turnaround, which was you know,
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Speaker 5: kind of in progress, is now really kind of taking shape.
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Speaker 5: We're seeing some really tangible, you know, growth come out
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Speaker 5: of both streaming as well as studio. And so worst
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Speaker 5: comes to worst if nothing you know, materializes from all
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Speaker 5: of these bids and from all of this same chatter
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Speaker 5: and buzz, they are still on track to separate their businesses,
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Speaker 5: and who knows, maybe that would be the better path
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Speaker 5: for them going forward. So all is not lost even
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Speaker 5: if you know these bids don't work out.
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Speaker 2: KEITHA, I know you've done the work. What do you
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Speaker 2: think the entire company is worth?
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Speaker 5: So, Paul, you know, it all again depends here on
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Speaker 5: who's making the bid for what parts of the business
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Speaker 5: they're making. But so as we kind of look at
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Speaker 5: it right now, I don't think David Zaslav is far
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Speaker 5: off when he says he wants thirty dollars per share
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Speaker 5: for all of the company. We think majority of that
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Speaker 5: value will actually rest with the studio and streaming network.
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Speaker 5: So we when we kind of crunch the numbers, we
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Speaker 5: get twenty five to twenty eight dollars just for the
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Speaker 5: studio and the streaming business. But at the end of
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Speaker 5: the day, Paul, it all comes down to synergy. So
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Speaker 5: if you look at you know, combining the entire corporation,
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Speaker 5: all of Warner Brothers Discovery with all of Paramount for instance,
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Speaker 5: and they both have you know, substantial linear network exposure,
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Speaker 5: they both have studios, they both have streaming assets. You know,
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Speaker 5: we're looking like something like at about four or five
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Speaker 5: billion dollars in synergies, which you know, then then adds
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Speaker 5: to the deal value.
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Speaker 7: Also, stay with us. More from Bloomberg Intelligence coming up
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Speaker 7: after this.
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Speaker 1: You're listening to the Bloomberg Intelligence Podcast. Catch us live
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4:31
Speaker 3: A column that I read this week really resonated because
4:33
Speaker 3: it hits upon three key themes that we're seeing across
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Speaker 3: the markets. Retail earnings, tech forward companies, and people worried
4:41
Speaker 3: about losing their jobs in this AI era. Beth cow
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Speaker 3: It is a Bloomberg opinion columnist, and she's written a
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Speaker 3: story about Walmart and it's masterclass and reputation rehab. But
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Speaker 3: it really rests on this idea that Walmart invested in
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Speaker 3: its workforce and its treatment of workers at a time
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Speaker 3: when it was being criticized for not treating its workers well,
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Speaker 3: and this is paid off in many ways. Beth joins
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Speaker 3: us now in our bloom Work Interactive Brokers studio. So Beth,
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Speaker 3: just take us back a couple of years to when
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Speaker 3: Walmart decided that it was going to spend on its workforce.
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Speaker 3: It was going to invest money into the workforce, and
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Speaker 3: investors did not like hearing that.
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Speaker 8: Yeah, I mean, it's hard to think about this now,
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Speaker 8: but a decade ago, Walmart was one of the most
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Speaker 8: reviled companies in America. Right it was being criticized for
5:21
Speaker 8: paying its employees low wages. For wiping out mom and
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Speaker 8: pop retailers for basically creating a culture of disposable consumerism.
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Speaker 8: So it really was getting hit from a lot of
5:32
Speaker 8: different angles. And rather than just ignore the bad press
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Speaker 8: or army, you know, hire an army of pr people,
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Speaker 8: it decided to do something about it. And Doug McMillan decided,
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Speaker 8: we're going to invest in our people and two point
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Speaker 8: seven billion dollars over a couple of years, and we
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Speaker 8: now know this really paid off.
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Speaker 2: So I mean, for Doug McMillan, I mean to me,
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Speaker 2: after reading your article, this could be one of his
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Speaker 2: as he's stepping down, could be one of his lasting
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Speaker 2: legacies at the company.
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Speaker 4: I really think so.
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Speaker 8: I think I think that you know, he's been at
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Speaker 8: the company now more than a decade. I think this
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Speaker 8: will be amongst the most enduring things that he has done.
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Speaker 8: I think this. I'm not sure that the company would
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Speaker 8: be in the place it's at today if he had
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Speaker 8: not really addressed this.
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Speaker 3: And let's be clear about what exactly he did with
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Speaker 3: that two point seven sharing dollars. Pay increases, there is
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Speaker 3: training and really just attracting a better quality worker.
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Speaker 8: Yeah, and the way he did this was right. It
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Speaker 8: was pay increases, but more than anything else, it was
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Speaker 8: creating not low paying jobs, but a career.
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Speaker 6: Right.
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Speaker 4: There was now a path.
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Speaker 8: For people who started at Walmart to move up the ranks,
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Speaker 8: and that was really important, right to attracting more ambitious employees,
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Speaker 8: to getting them to stay, and I think that that
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Speaker 8: shifted the whole culture of the company.
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Speaker 2: So what's the company saying about AI? Because there's a
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Speaker 2: lot of answer just in the overall economy about what
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Speaker 2: the impact AI will have upon jobs. One could look
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Speaker 2: at big box stores as industry that might be at
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Speaker 2: risk because.
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Speaker 7: They do employ so many people.
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Speaker 2: What does Walmart say.
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Speaker 8: Walmart's taken a very different approach, I think than some
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Speaker 8: other big employers, and it has embraced a EYE. Let's
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Speaker 8: be clear, Like there's a AI is throughout embedded throughout
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Speaker 8: the company, but it has not used a EE to
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Speaker 8: have some of these mass layoffs that were justify some
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Speaker 8: of these mass layoffs that we've seen at other companies.
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Speaker 8: And I think part of that is this history, like
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Speaker 8: it knows how important these entry level workers are and
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Speaker 8: that they need a path, they need this workforce to
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Speaker 8: sort of grow the company. So it said AI will
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Speaker 8: change every job. It knows that, but it is trying
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Speaker 8: to get every worker through to the other side, so
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Speaker 8: whether that's retraining, finding new rules, rules for them. So
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Speaker 8: it's just a very different outlook, I think than what
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Speaker 8: we're hearing from others.
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Speaker 3: And you've noted as well that the last ten years
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Speaker 3: at Walmart has led to tremendous return for shareholders, but
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Speaker 3: also it's become a case study at heart Heard Business
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Speaker 3: school on how to on how an experiment on paying
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Speaker 3: your workers war or investing your workers can pay off.
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Speaker 4: Absolutely.
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Speaker 8: I mean we you mentioned this at the beginning, but
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Speaker 8: Wall Street hated this plan. I mean the company lost
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Speaker 8: tremendous value, about that much tremendous value when they announced it,
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Speaker 8: and now you know, we have the receipts a decade later,
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Speaker 8: and the I think the market gap has tripled. The
8:24
Speaker 8: stock has returned more than four hundred percent. So they
8:28
Speaker 8: really took a gamble on this and stuck with it,
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Speaker 8: and it really has it has paid off for them.
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Speaker 2: I mean, every time I look at the dees screen
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Speaker 2: on the Bloomberg terminal for Walmart, had just blown away
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Speaker 2: by the fact that they have two point one million employees.
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Speaker 2: What's the retention of those employees. I'm wondering if there's
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Speaker 2: like I would think in the warehouses it might be
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Speaker 2: really really high.
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Speaker 7: I'm not sure about the stores. How is retention sure?
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Speaker 8: So they've actually increased retention by ten percent since twenty
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Speaker 8: fifteen they when they started this plan. And another thing
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Speaker 8: is that they've some of the more management len roles.
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Speaker 8: Seventy five percent of those are hired from with it.
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Speaker 8: So this pipeline is really critical for them. And so
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Speaker 8: that's why I think that they are so focused on
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Speaker 8: creating a place where people stay.
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Speaker 4: That's key.
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Speaker 3: And you only have to look at the outgoing CEO
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Speaker 3: and the NTO, right, Both Doug McMillan and John Ferner,
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Speaker 3: the successor, are Walmart lifers. They started off as hourly
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Speaker 3: workers there.
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Speaker 8: Right, They know the importance of that and having worked
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Speaker 8: their way up, that needs to be something that continues.
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Speaker 2: There is this something that you think the new CEO
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Speaker 2: is as committed to as the prior CEO.
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Speaker 8: I would think so because he has the same background.
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Speaker 8: I mean, I think he knows the importance of emerging technologies.
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Speaker 8: He's really focused on that. But I think because of
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Speaker 8: his history and he's worked very closely with McMillan for
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Speaker 8: a long time, so they must be aligned on this.
9:51
Speaker 7: Stay with us. More from Bloomberg Intelligence coming up after this.
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Speaker 1: You're listening to the Bloomberg and Intelligence podcast. Catch us
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10:13
Speaker 2: Jody Lori joints us here in our Bloomberg Interactive Broker
10:16
Speaker 2: studio in the Big Town.
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Speaker 7: How about that, Jody.
10:19
Speaker 4: We love your coverage.
10:20
Speaker 2: You covered from the credit perspective, all the fun industries
10:25
Speaker 2: like hotels, like cruise ships and all that kind of stuff.
10:27
Speaker 2: I know, you guys put out a survey talking about
10:30
Speaker 2: how people are spending their vacation money.
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Speaker 7: What'd you learn?
10:34
Speaker 9: So we do the survey every half a year, and
10:37
Speaker 9: so we just got the results out for the most
10:39
Speaker 9: recent one that we ran last week. And what's interesting
10:43
Speaker 9: is that we're seeing more people planning on keeping their
10:46
Speaker 9: budgets the same.
10:47
Speaker 4: But what's more interesting is.
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Speaker 9: That if costs succeed, budgets fewer people than last year.
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Speaker 4: So they'd increase their budget.
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Speaker 9: And that's on the back of them knowing that inflation
10:58
Speaker 9: is a much higher risk for them for their portfolio.
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Speaker 3: So in other words, people are making room for time off,
11:04
Speaker 3: but they're going to have to scrimp more in order
11:07
Speaker 3: to make it happen because their money is not going
11:11
Speaker 3: to take them as far as it used to correct.
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Speaker 4: And Scarlett, I mean, I think to piggyback on that.
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Speaker 9: If you look the eating out, anticipation of spending is
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Speaker 9: higher this year than last year, and I think that's
11:23
Speaker 9: lesser reflection of people wanting to eat out, but more
11:26
Speaker 9: that they're expecting eating out is going to be more expensive.
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Speaker 9: And so even though we're seeing people want to spend
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Speaker 9: on paid activities and experiences, which could bode well for
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Speaker 9: the cruise lines and the theme parks, at the end
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Speaker 9: of the day, when cost succeed budgets, more people this
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Speaker 9: year over last year are planning on cutting and looking
11:45
Speaker 9: at free options. So going to the free museums, going
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Speaker 9: to low cost.
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Speaker 3: Options, well, now that the government is open DC is
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Speaker 3: an option once again. How about in terms of destination,
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Speaker 3: maybe staying closer to home, maybe not going quite as
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Speaker 3: far internationally, Yes.
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Speaker 9: And staying closer to home is very very much key
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Speaker 9: if we see the data, the international trend is to Canada.
12:09
Speaker 9: Canada bumped up to the second spot. So we saw
12:12
Speaker 9: that in the midyear, and it was pretty curious for US,
12:15
Speaker 9: particularly because when you look at it the opposite way,
12:18
Speaker 9: and we did this announced a few months ago. Canada
12:21
Speaker 9: is not coming to the US. They don't want to
12:22
Speaker 9: come to the US. It's too expensive for them, they
12:25
Speaker 9: don't really like the current government situation, and on top
12:28
Speaker 9: of it, I think they're scared about crossing the border
12:31
Speaker 9: and what it means for immigration. So we're seeing Canadians
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Speaker 9: not come to the US, and we're seeing a lot
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Speaker 9: of companies comment on that.
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Speaker 4: But we are seeing a lot of Americans go to Canada.
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Speaker 9: And I am curious how much and this is going
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Speaker 9: to come in further reports. How much of the Canada
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Speaker 9: move is a reflection of the World Cup next year.
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Speaker 9: There's a lot of people going to Vancouver, for instance,
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Speaker 9: for the World Cup. I'll actually be there during the
12:52
Speaker 9: World Cup, but not going to the World Cup.
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Speaker 7: Why we.
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Speaker 9: Might be doing a very family friendly cruise to Alaska.
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Speaker 2: Nice.
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Speaker 4: It just works out that that's the same time as
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Speaker 4: it was bad timing.
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Speaker 2: It's bad time, all right, talk to me. This is
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Speaker 2: when I go to Aruba, we go to an all inclusive.
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Speaker 2: How come I didn't know about this all inclusive thing
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Speaker 2: when I had four little kids.
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Speaker 3: I mean, were they were they a thing back then?
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Speaker 2: I don't know, but I mean I would get the
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Speaker 2: bill which would be five inches thick with like smoothies
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Speaker 2: and chicken fingers and all that kind of crap that
13:26
Speaker 2: they'd eat throughout.
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Speaker 7: The day four kids.
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Speaker 2: Man if if I knew about the all inclusive, that
13:30
Speaker 2: would have been a savior for me. What are people
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Speaker 2: doing when they are they willing to still pay it
13:35
Speaker 2: for travel? Because I still here people going to Europe
13:39
Speaker 2: and stuff like that. I mean, they're not going to Poughkeepsie,
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Speaker 2: They're going to Parish and things.
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Speaker 9: Yeah, I mean Japan is certainly a popular destination. Strong
13:46
Speaker 9: dollar there, yeah, very much increased.
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Speaker 4: Italy has increased.
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Speaker 9: We're seeing among the upper income level, you know, Portugal
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Speaker 9: and Spain as popular destinations. And I think probably what's
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Speaker 9: even more interesting is onboard spending for cruises is still
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Speaker 9: continuing to have momentum.
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Speaker 4: At the moment, I.
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Speaker 9: Think where we're watching is when that onboard spending shifts
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Speaker 9: and then the cruise lines, for example, don't get that.
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Speaker 4: Gravy for cash flow.
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Speaker 9: And to your point, Paul, I mean, even though you
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Speaker 9: have something called all inclusives, even though you have the
14:16
Speaker 9: cruise lines, that they all are considered these package deal
14:19
Speaker 9: what every company is doing, and we're talking the rental
14:22
Speaker 9: car companies. You know, Avius is doing this too, obviously,
14:25
Speaker 9: the airlines is they're all.
14:26
Speaker 4: Doing these premium products.
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Speaker 9: These you know, you do different tiers of products, so
14:30
Speaker 9: the add on so you can get the base level,
14:32
Speaker 9: which is really the skeleton package. But anyone from cruise
14:36
Speaker 9: lines to you know, theme parks, to some extent, to
14:40
Speaker 9: the all inclusives, to the airlines, to the rental car
14:42
Speaker 9: companies are all segmenting to give you know, the lower
14:45
Speaker 9: income consumer the ability to say that they traveled and
14:47
Speaker 9: the higher income consumer the ability to travel luxury. And
14:51
Speaker 9: in terms of the add ons, what are these add
14:53
Speaker 9: ons are they? You know, things that they used to
14:56
Speaker 9: offer for free and now charge.
14:58
Speaker 4: You for for some of it.
14:59
Speaker 9: It is so you know, a good example I have
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Speaker 9: is anecdotally, I know that some of the cruise lines
15:04
Speaker 9: that used to not charge to get people into the
15:07
Speaker 9: center of a city, say in Europe, you're on a
15:09
Speaker 9: European cruise.
15:10
Speaker 4: They used to give that for free.
15:12
Speaker 9: Now they say no, you have to be a part
15:13
Speaker 9: of one of our you know, expeditions, one of one
15:16
Speaker 9: of our excursions in order to get that for free.
15:19
Speaker 9: Otherwise we charge you twenty dollars to get into the
15:21
Speaker 9: Senate's colwn in you know, Czechoslovakia and not Checklisvokia, check Republic.
15:26
Speaker 7: Stay with us. More from Bloomberg Intelligence coming up after this.
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Speaker 1: You're listening to the Bloomberg Intelligence podcast. Catch us live
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Speaker 1: weekdays at ten am Eastern on Apple Coarclay and Android
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Speaker 1: Auto with the Bloomberg Business App. Listen on demand wherever
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Speaker 1: you get your podcasts, or watch us live on YouTube.
15:47
Speaker 2: Obviously, the theme this week, one of the things has
15:49
Speaker 2: been Nvidian It's strong earnings. AI fight has been really
15:54
Speaker 2: a driving theme for this overall market for going on
15:57
Speaker 2: three years now, and Investor has been looking for your
16:00
Speaker 2: privative ways to play that theme, and one of that
16:02
Speaker 2: has been how do you get tompower all these data
16:05
Speaker 2: centers out there? And that leads you to utilities, and
16:07
Speaker 2: that leads you to our next guest, Calvin Butler, CEO
16:10
Speaker 2: of exelon it is a publicly traded company. EXC is
16:14
Speaker 2: the ticker of the stocks up about one percent today,
16:16
Speaker 2: up about twenty two percent year to date, so certainly
16:19
Speaker 2: performing well with the other utility stocks. Calvin, thank you
16:22
Speaker 2: so much for joining us here. Again, when I look
16:26
Speaker 2: at your industry, you guys are critical to the rollout
16:29
Speaker 2: of AI because we've got to power this stuff, these
16:32
Speaker 2: data centers.
16:33
Speaker 7: How do you guys view it?
16:35
Speaker 6: Yeah, Paul, thank you for having me and exactly how
16:38
Speaker 6: you said it. We're critical to the development of AI
16:44
Speaker 6: data centers and large load quantum and we take that
16:48
Speaker 6: responsibility very serious. And from a standpoint of building that infrastructure,
16:54
Speaker 6: protecting that grid, it's going to be the backbone of
16:57
Speaker 6: all this. We always say that the energy in sector
17:00
Speaker 6: there is five percent of the GDP, but we power
17:02
Speaker 6: the next ninety five and we take that very seriously.
17:06
Speaker 4: You take it seriously.
17:07
Speaker 3: So walk us through some of the plans you're making,
17:09
Speaker 3: how you're preparing for this transition, for this increase in demand.
17:15
Speaker 6: Yeah, thank you, Scarlett. What we have done, We've done
17:18
Speaker 6: a few things. Is one understanding for your listeners, excellent.
17:23
Speaker 6: We are truly a transmission and distribution company, you know,
17:27
Speaker 6: proud to have six utilities operating the electric gas side
17:31
Speaker 6: through the pipes and wires. So having said that, being
17:34
Speaker 6: the backbone of that, we're encouraging those data centers and
17:38
Speaker 6: large developers to come into the states in which we operate,
17:41
Speaker 6: and we put together a comprehensive plan to get them online,
17:45
Speaker 6: up and running sooner rather than later. Speed is everything
17:49
Speaker 6: for them, and so what it takes is a coordinated effort,
17:54
Speaker 6: and we've worked very hard to move upstream to get
17:58
Speaker 6: them online so they can do what they do, which
18:00
Speaker 6: is on the technology side. Now, as we do that,
18:04
Speaker 6: we have to keep in mind first and foremost the
18:07
Speaker 6: affordability factor for all of our communities, and that's where
18:10
Speaker 6: we're working with them to identify sites that are more
18:15
Speaker 6: ready to put their equipment and their technology in place.
18:19
Speaker 2: We had a couple of governor races recently in New
18:23
Speaker 2: Jersey and in Virginia, and affordability was one of the
18:26
Speaker 2: big issues. And in New Jersey the governor elect who
18:29
Speaker 2: actually won, one of her number one issues was bringing
18:32
Speaker 2: down electric utility bills. So this is an issue we
18:36
Speaker 2: got to fund, We got to I guess create and
18:39
Speaker 2: develop these data centers, but we got to do it
18:41
Speaker 2: in a way that it doesn't cause.
18:43
Speaker 7: Everybody's power bills to go up.
18:45
Speaker 2: How do you think about that transition.
18:48
Speaker 6: Paul, You're absolutely right. It was a race in both
18:51
Speaker 6: New Jersey and Virginia, an issue, and we believe it's
18:56
Speaker 6: going to be an issue in the twenty twenty six
18:58
Speaker 6: elections because of affordability. Pocketbook issues are going to be key.
19:02
Speaker 6: So let me tell you what we're doing from excellent perspective.
19:06
Speaker 6: We are protecting our residential customers. You know, we serve
19:09
Speaker 6: almost eleven million customers. So as as important as it
19:12
Speaker 6: is for data center development, it's more important for me
19:15
Speaker 6: to protect the other customers in this process. So we've
19:19
Speaker 6: come up with what we consider a rather innovative solution
19:22
Speaker 6: in creating a tear up a transmission security agreement. So
19:26
Speaker 6: what that does is we require a letter of credit
19:30
Speaker 6: or a cash deposit from these large developers speculating are
19:35
Speaker 6: identifying what thir ten year revenue projections or cost projections
19:39
Speaker 6: coming back to our utility is, and anytime that they
19:43
Speaker 6: do not meet eighty percent of that load projections or
19:47
Speaker 6: cash projections, we draw down from that deposit. And what
19:51
Speaker 6: it does it protects the other customers on the systems
19:55
Speaker 6: for the investments that we're making. So we're being very
19:58
Speaker 6: intentional about protecting the other users on the system because
20:02
Speaker 6: when it's done right, it should reduce the cost for everyone.
20:07
Speaker 6: But when it's done haphazardly or piecemeal, it can have
20:11
Speaker 6: ramifications that everyone else has impacted. But what you're seeing
20:16
Speaker 6: not just from the capital investment. You're seeing the supply
20:19
Speaker 6: costs go up. Supply costs are going up because of
20:23
Speaker 6: the increased demand, and we have inadequate generation on the
20:27
Speaker 6: system to do that. You use New Jersey as an example.
20:30
Speaker 6: Let me give you a real example of what happened
20:32
Speaker 6: to New Jersey customers last year. New Jersey customers average
20:37
Speaker 6: residential customers bill rose thirty eight dollars thirty four dollars.
20:42
Speaker 6: I'm sorry, thirty four dollars. Thirty eight dollars was due
20:45
Speaker 6: to supply because they were reconciling our bill, our bill,
20:51
Speaker 6: our cost the demand, the transmission and distribution part went
20:54
Speaker 6: down four dollars, but the bill still went up thirty four.
20:58
Speaker 6: That's how important it is to get this supply stack
21:01
Speaker 6: right to help lower all customers' bills.
21:04
Speaker 3: Kevin, let me ask you about nuclear because this week
21:07
Speaker 3: the government announced it plans to buy and own up
21:09
Speaker 3: to ten large new nuclear reactors that could be paid
21:12
Speaker 3: for using Japan's pledge to fund five hundred and fifty
21:16
Speaker 3: billion dollars of investments in the US. Of course, this
21:18
Speaker 3: is part of a push to meet surging demand for electricity,
21:21
Speaker 3: and nuclear is increasingly seen as a solution to this need.
21:25
Speaker 4: What's your take.
21:27
Speaker 6: I think it's critical. I truly believe in a all
21:30
Speaker 6: of the above approach and that nuclear base load generation
21:34
Speaker 6: is going to be critical to us meeting this effort.
21:38
Speaker 6: As you know, again, we've always taken an approach that
21:42
Speaker 6: every electron matters to help unaffordability, and that's why it's
21:46
Speaker 6: so critical. I use an example the Crane Center that's
21:50
Speaker 6: coming back online in Pennsylvania. That's critical because it's new
21:56
Speaker 6: generation coming back online. A large Microsoft is paying for it,
22:00
Speaker 6: and that billion dollar loan is exactly what we need
22:04
Speaker 6: to encourage reopening of these former facilities to get more
22:09
Speaker 6: electrons back on. And that was one of the best
22:12
Speaker 6: operating nuclear plants prior to its shuttering.
22:15
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