>> welcome to "lunch money" where we tied together the best interviews and videos. i am matt miller. it is time to break up ebay and paypal, says activist carl icahn. what would you tell your 25 your old self? you will hear what ceos have to say about that. in davos, how to escape an ambush, if you are a billionaire. and are the billions worth it to nbc with the olympics? the good, the bad, and the ugly

of chicken wing fitness. we kick it off with dominoes, the annual forum in the swiss alps. known as a place to rub elbows and make deals. when the leader of the islamic republic of iran showed up, you know he meant business. >> i am here to convey my people's message of friendship, engagement, cooperation, and peaceful coexistence. >> this is the first time and iranian president has come to davos in more than a decade. international sanctions have prohibited it from doing business with other countries, and that shrank the iranian economy by 5%. now they have a deal with the international community to curtail its nuclear program in exchange for $7 billion of sanctions relief, and that means the iranian president wants

investment. >> i hereby announce one of the theoretical and practical pillars of my government is constructive engagement with the world. without international engagement , objectives such as growth, creativity, and quality, are unattainable. >> so the iranian president's first order of business, obviously, oil. iran needs companies to come in and get out of the country. he met with 30 executives, most of them from the oil business. he told them iran has a good business environment and that risk is low. the chairman of italy's largest company believes he has game. >> we have been in iran for a long time. we will see. >> renault chief carlos says that there is no reason to sit

-- no face time with iran's president. >> the president made some great news, that the process is well engaged. before the conclusion happens, i do not think you can expect anything to happen economically or in terms of investment. >> are you starting to meet with iranian officials? >> i have no meeting at this davos. it depends mainly on the political solutions. >> that does not mean the original rockstar car ceo is not interested. >> the largest market in the middle east. even with all the sanctions, the market represents 800,000 cars, the largest in the middle east. with the sanctions lifted, i expect this summer we will move

up 50%, which in this market can go up to 1.5 million cars. there is a big opportunity here for the iranian consumer and for the carmakers. >> especially with renault. >> french brands have often been popular in iran. the french brands were not exposed to the u.s. market. in a certain way, there were much more presence in iran. with the sanctions, it was popular to do any business. >> the elephant in the room is, is iran serious about curtailing its nuclear program? >> accordingly, to those who are under the influence of propaganda and still believe iran is seeking to develop nuclear weapons, i strongly and clearly declare that nuclear weapons have no place in our security strategy, and that iran has no motivation to move in that direction.

>> why didn't he say so in the first place? arizona senator john mccain is not buying it. >> mr. rouhani is a great pr guy, but the fact is, when you get down to it, they will insist on the right to enrich. as long as they have the right to enrich, they will move forward to the acquisition of a nuclear weapon. there is no reason for them to want to enrich these materials. if they want a nuclear capability for peaceful purposes, we will provide them with it. >> john mccain says he is a great pr guy, great image? i do not think that is the case. will there be a full nuclear deal by the end of the year? here is british prime minister tony blair. >> it depends on whether iran is

prepared to give up nuclear provisions. the previous negotiations gave a space to conclude the real deal but we should not be any doubt at all. they may step back from the threshold. if they do not, the implications are serious for the region. other countries will try the same capabilities and then you have more instability in a region that is already unstable. >> let's get an economist's perspective. here is tom keene. >> a lot of people were wondering if it would be appropriate, if you would talk about america as the great satan. if anything, the concerns raised were, did he go too far, push the envelope in a way that may offend the hardliners or cause instability in iran? it is a diverse community, civil society, women are educated. >> this is so good, because, nouriel, there is such a stereotype of iranians within

america and within the western sphere. help us with the stereotype you have of the iranian people. >> i grew up as a jewish iranian. their culture goes back thousands of years of history. if there was true democracy in iran, the mullahs would have already been kicked out of power. you have a vast middle class. there is something about iran, but because there is an elite of mullahs, they will be in control of the country. maybe rouhani will be moving in a more moderate direction. >> secretary kerry will be visiting. he will probably hide as not to be seen with these elites. how will he respond to what we heard from iran today?

>> given that they said nothing about being disinvited to the talks in geneva, that is a nice opening. i expect a meeting with the iranian foreign ministers. nothing has been announced but i think it will happen. one important point, yes, the iranian regime has a problem with the u.s., but the people do not. the saudi regime is close to the united states, but the people do not like us. if you were to ask me which political system the u.s. is more likely to be engaged with, it does not take a rocket scientist or an iranian jew to figure that one out. >> some great perspective there. that is why surveillance is a must see tv show. from a business perspective, blackstone group is the largest alternative asset investment in the world. steve schwarzman, would he invest in iran? >> we are a long way from that. this is a forbidden country now.

>> maybe for not much longer. >> that is why he is here. >> for americans, nothing will change unless we make some type of arrangement. we tend to be pretty cautious people. even though iran has been around for a very, very long time, you would have to see if things normalize and get a sense of what is going on. it has been a productive country with a smart population, well-educated. >> the ukrainian president was banned from coming to davos. you must come here and look for interesting places to invest do you think there is opportunity there or is it not a place you would touch? >> mostly i try to invest in places that i would like to visit twice, as a simple rule. >> that is a good rule, actually. the bahamas, for example, where adam johnson is right now

spending the weekend. more from carlos ghosn and his plans for production ramping in china. first, carl icahn once split sville for paypal and ebay. is it a good idea? and that is the canadian prime minister, stephen harper, rocking out at a dinner hosted by his israeli counterpart benjamin netanyahu in jerusalem last night. ♪

>> the activists are hard at

work today. bill ackman got some help from congress in his campaign against herbalife. senator markey calls for a federal investigation into the company of nutritional supplements. shares plunged on the news. >> he has taken on companies in the past and has done damage. the concerns that he lists to regulators stem from complaints from his constituents, including one who lost her entire retirement savings. his concern is that this is a pyramid scheme. other complaints he has heard about, companies pressuring folks to sign up family members, spend money on products, and that herbalife has been targeting low income and vulnerable citizens. >> the senators sent letters to the sec and ftc, as well as the herbalife ceo. in a statement, he says -- he continued --

he is serious. bill ackman is not the only activist making out today. >> this whole business of the divorce between ownership and management, i think it is hurting our economy greatly. in the big picture, not micromanaging, we have got a lot of work on ebay. we believe without question, it is a no-brainer that paypal should be spun off. >> carl icahn telling us yesterday that he wants to split up ebay and its electronic payment child paypal. >> there is no reason they should be together at this point. in fact, it would be helped by a

management team that is separate and can go their own way. the multiple would go up dramatically and also the health of the company would be better. >> ebay ceo john donahoe says the company should stay together. he said a unified entity helps fund their expansions into mobile. the question is, is that a good idea? >> when you have these conglomerates, one person benefits, the ceo. they get to smooth out earnings and diversify, but investors do not need ceos to diversify. they want them losing sleep and want them accountable. spinning off paypal would absolutely be a creed to shareholders, the right thing to do. it probably will not happen. >> there is no long term value to combining payments and sales, as people move more towards the web for their shopping?

>> there is probably some vertical integration. early on, paypal got its training wheels from a captive customer in ebay, but there are probably a lot of customers that avoid paypal because of their relationship to the ebay. paypal is the future's payment system. you are talking about an unbelievable juggernaut with a higher multiple. donahoe should be responsible for ebay. >> ebay disclosed his proposals to spin off paypal before he did it. >> the best thing you can do to silence an activist investor is to put him on your board. you are a big owner, you are supposed to be fiduciary for shareholders. you do not want to be on the board and wake up in the morning and see your logo next to carl icahn's picture. he is mean, smart, and well

resourced. he is the elvis presley of the activist movement, if you will. >> are there other investors like him? >> one of the more tone deaf moves this year was dan loeb suggesting that sony would spin off their motion picture unit. an american man telling an iconic japanese company what to do. sometimes these men miss it, but it is good for companies to go after. >> the elvis presley of activist investors still has his sights on apple. he has been calling on the tech giant to give some of its massive cash hoard back out. icahn announced he was building more leverage in that push, boosting his stake to $3 billion.

that means he owns 1% of the company. >> there is nothing wrong with the management of apple. i cannot necessarily say that with ebay, but i will with apple. i just think the board is wrong in not taking advantage of a very undervalued situation and not using their capital to help the smaller shareholders. >> looking out for the smaller shareholder, that is very noble. >> thank god carl is looking out for the smaller shareholder. [laughter] in both instances, the level of cash they have is a little over the top. >> apple plans to return 100 billion dollars to shareholders in the form of dividends and buybacks, but it is not bound to that, not a promise. if you can go back and talk to your 25-year-old self, what would you say? we will hear what some of the biggest names in the business are saying to themselves. and how much are the olympics

worth? nbc's multibillion dollar endeavor. and snow, will it be a problem for the super bowl? the nfl and metlife officials are using this week's winter storm has something of a dress reversal to see how quickly they can clean up the 80,000-seat facility. hopefully they do a better job than new york city. ♪

>> this is "lunch money." you can also watch us streaming on your tablet, phone, and on bloomberg.com. we are focused on leadership. betty liu is out with a new book "work smarts." what ceos say you need to know to get ahead. all this week, the biggest names in business answer a different question each day. today's question is what would you tell your 25-year-old self? >> what i would say is relax and do not be so driven. enjoy the journey more. find what you love and do that. >> take chances. every time i took a chance and moved on to the next step,

whether it was moving geographically, moving from houston to japan, it turned out to be one of the best experiences in my personal and professional life. >> hang in there. keep doing the things that matter. it will pay off in the long run. >> lose some weight. relax a little bit. not too much. you are 25. take a chance. you go to school and you bury yourself in debt. there is nothing wrong with taking a chance and starting a business. >> grow a few more inches, a few more pounds, and try to make it in the nfl. >> take advantage of new opportunities and never look back. >> all this week we will have more from betty liu's interviews from global leaders on how to get ahead. every 25-year-old would want this next experience, driving an audi a8 in switzerland on an ice lake.

and less words, more eating. ihop is getting you to order more pancakes. ♪

>> this is "lunch money" on bloomberg television, streaming live on bloomberg.com, also on your tablet and smartphone. i am matt miller in for adam johnson. today is moving pictures, where the video is the story. opposition leaders in ukraine are meeting with the country's president today, the antigovernment leaders want an election to vote for a new president. they also demand new protest laws be overturned and stop calling the country the ukraine. because it is just ukraine like any other country. demonstrators have agreed to a truce with the right believes in kiev this evening as they await the outcome of the meeting.

more than 70,000 workers at south africa's three biggest platinum mines went on strike today. union leaders say the lockout will continue until wages for the lowest paid entry-level workers are doubled. labor leaders and representatives of the south african government will meet tomorrow to end the strike. the captain and tenniel are also going solo. the pop singing duo are getting a divorce after 39 years of marriage. tony tennille and daryl dragon had a string of hits in the 1970's. the pair sold more than 23 million albums worldwide. the grammy award winners announced the news on their website. back to davos, focus on cars continues. nissan is the second largest carmaker in japan.

renault is the third biggest. together, those companies make one in 10 cars worldwide. the company just received the green light to build its first renault factory in china. we asked the ceo carlos gomez -- carlos ghosn about the company's five-year plan. >> china is the largest market in the world. we represent nothing in china today. 30,000 imported cars in a 20 million car market. our milestone is to reach in china as fast as possible the market share we have globally, 3.5%. you put it on 20 million, this represents 700,000. the first step is 150,000. it is a small first milestone in this direction. >> who do you consider your biggest rival? >> today, renault nissan sells 8.3 million cars a year.

obviously, we are behind toyota. our ambition is to close the gap with the three manufacturers. we do not have one rival because we are special. >> everyone has a rival or two. >> in our case, we have benchmarks that we follow strictly. in terms of marketing and technology. the three companies which are our rivals. >> hans nichols got some specialist training on how those

drivers would handle an icy ambush. >> when you are driving, you are safe. you are not safe when you are standing still. when you're in an armored car, you are always safe. power. there is a roadblock in front of us, somebody with a gun. we do not wait for this. we go. full power. change gears, change gears. power, power. it is very aggressive. withthere is somebody out a gun, then you are aggressive. >> how is your insurance, pretty good? >> no. >> tomorrow, goldman sachs ceo lloyd blank fine, as well as ecb

president john kocher shay speaking here. something you do not want to miss. nbc is pushing for olympic gold coverage, but can you miss that? how much will it cost? we go behind the scenes of nbc covering the sochi olympics next. ♪

>> in media, we are now over two weeks away from the 2014 winter olympics. nbc is set to deliver a record 1539 hours of programming. we spoke to the two producers in charge. >> sochi will be the first winter olympics ever where all competitions will be streamed live. we did that in london as well. we found that people were engaged in olympic content whether it was streaming or

online or on apps, then they were likely to watch television, whether prime time or the afternoon. for us, live streaming, the ability to take advantage of that capacity, has been a success on all fronts. >> in this world of social media, how can you decide what will be shown live? >> we have found through these last few olympics as we had made more content available, is that it simply galvanizes and circulates more communications and chatter around the olympics and more excitement. we have seen our primetime audiences continue to grow. >> it is not a traditional sports audience that wants to know who won or lost, because the result may know in advance means that people will turn away. in london, we saw the opposite was true. you are talking about a different event, sports and athletes that most people do not know.

by being able to put it on on a time delay, in a polished presentation, where families can gather around to watch, it is one of the things that makes the olympics unique. >> what are the sports that people are watching the most? >> one of the great example of the winter olympics is the excitement of the speed and acrobatics you will see in sports like half pipe, snowboarding, shaun white will be competing. probably the most recognizable team member of usa. a number of sports in sochi that are noteworthy, designed to appeal to a younger audience. we think we have already seen success with that. they have added some of these things and i think sochi is getting so big, that before the

opening ceremony, we have coverage, which is atypical. >> nbc paid 775 million dollars to air the olympics. here is the former ceo of nbc universal. >> certainly expensive but it is a trademark for them. they have an extremely good sports organization, which benefits greatly from their exposure to that and it carries over into nbc sports channel, golf, a lot of activities they do. i would guess they are pleased by it. they know going into this, the russian winter olympics, someplace that nobody has heard of, would not be first on your mind. nbc has control over what can be streamed. they had to have that as part of their deal, otherwise it would be shredded. >> these sponsors who are not official sponsors tried to get some of the glory.

>> they probably wish they had china. >> the cost of these big sporting events, have they gotten out of hand? >> truly astronomical. >> what would something like that cost now compared to what you when you were doing it. >> about double. what was a billion dollars is probably $1.5 billion. >> how about the nfl? >> the nfl is the most successful television business ever. the nfl generates more money on television right than anybody else, any programming company, studio, anybody. this is the most unusual development over the last number of years that any of us have seen. >> the sochi winter olympics begins on february 7, in case you are planning on watching. mcdonald's has a spicy chicken problem.

about 10 million pounds too much of those wings, what should they do with them? it seems like chicken is having a bit of a pr problem these days. the debate over food safety, next. ♪

>> mcdonald's posted weak fourth-quarter profit and falling sales, but that is not the only problem the company has. ronald mcdonald has 10 million pounds of chicken wings he does not know what to do with. >> mcdonald's cannot find that home run product and we saw that with mighty wings. those 10 million pounds cost about $130 million, so they have a couple of options. throw it out and risk the money they've bought the wings for.

others believe that they will sell them at the super bowl. they will do some promotions around the big game. after all, americans will be eating one billion chicken wings during the game. frozen wings, they are not that big of a deal, but it shows the fact that they cannot find his home run product. chicken mcwraps fizzled, the premium quarter pounder did not do well. the angus burger was pulled off the menu. salads have not delivered either. >> there is a high cost for cheap chicken, the name for a consumer reports study published in december. the results were not very positive. chicken could have the most disease-causing bacteria, more than any other foods that we commonly eat. >> we found about 14% of all samples had salmonella, which is not good odds. every six or seven times you have chicken, you will find salmonella.

worse than that, just about every piece of chicken you buy will have something in it that could make you sick. >> what are those other things? >> e. coli, other bacteria -- we check for six disease causing bacteria in total. >> and more than half of the samples have something? >> more than 90% have something. half of those bugs qualify as superbugs. >> what is a superbug? >> something that is resistant to more than three classes of antibiotics. if it makes you sick, it will be hard to find a cure. the usda has far from a zero- tolerance on chicken. in fact, it is perfectly legal. in chicken parts, there is not even any standard at all.

they have a standard of 7.5% for whole chickens, but for breasts and legs, it is just fine to have salmonella as long as you are operating the plant along basic sanitary rules. >> of course, the chicken industry was not pleased with that interview. here is their defense. >> the u.s. chicken industry takes the safety of their product as a top priority. it is bad business to produce a bad product. we treat that as our top priority. not only is it bad business sense, but our families eat the same chicken as yours. we want to produce the safest and most affordable and wholesome products. we do that on a global basis. >> there is salmonella action plans put together by the usda.

there have been critics of this plan that say they focus too much on the non-human indicated pathogens from salmonella. they focus on generic salmonella incidents. does the regulation need to change? >> there is no legislation or regulation out there that will magically make salmonella disappear or any bacteria disappear for that matter. it is a naturally occurring organism. what will make it disappear is to break it at every chain of the production process, from the breeder farms, all the way to when the product leaves the processing plant. one thing that we agree with consumer reports on is that we need consumers to be partners and to be that final step in the kitchen when they are preparing chicken. they are the final kill step. we do everything possible to reduce salmonella and other bacteria as much as possible before it leaves the plant, but

really the home cook is the final step. >> of course, most farms torture those chickens from birth until death, but if you want food safety, here are some tips. use different cutting boards for your different meats. cook chicken at 160 degrees minimum to kill everything left. for those of you that do not want chicken anymore, how about pancakes? ihop has a new way to get you to eat more of those. >> are you ready for a jedi mind trick involving pancakes? ihop has a new menu designed to get you to order more food. customers did not like the old menu. there were too many choices and too much text, and apparently you do not like to read. they hired a menu design expert to figure out what to do, and here's what they came up with. rule number one, more pictures. as it turns out, people want to see pictures of what they will

eat. ihop found it was a way to break up page while promoting new items. rule number two, boxes and more boxes. they are using them to remind you that you can order sides. care for a bowl of seasonal fruit? rule number three, colors. color-coded categories help customers navigate the menu. blue for breakfast, orange for omeletes, and green for those 55 and older. all of that browsing means that you may find something in the middle or the back of the menu that you may not have found otherwise. but all of this does translate into real dollars. if you notice your bill is a little higher, it is not by accident. >> you will not find today's mystery meat on the ihop menu. a giant squid measuring nearly 11 feet long was caught alive in a fishing net in japan. if you are thinking, time for

some sashimi -- ♪

>> it is 56 past the hour which means bloomberg television is on the markets. i am alix steel. we have earnings coming out after the closing bell. microsoft profits exceeding estimates. bumpsoft benefiting from a and its xbox and cloud software

sales countering a drop in traditional pc programs. also watching starbucks, sales trailing estimates in the u.s. despite later than estimated sales, the company did beat bottom line estimates by two pennies and reaffirmed its target growth rate for next year. let's get you caught up on the broader market as well. we are looking at a market in the red for the day. the s&p falling the most since the end of august. down about 16 points. you have to go back to about mid august to find a day where the s&p fell 1% in the first 90 minutes of trading. not only did you have that for limoneira reread on china manufacturing data from hsbc coming in below the 50 level, you also had existing home sales here in the u.s. coming up a little light in november. as the markets fell today, the

vix actually took off. the index that measures volatility went up for the first time in about two weeks. for more on the index, dan denning joins me now from the floor. has really been stuck between 12 and 13. is this a confirmed breakout at this point? >> i wouldn't say it is a confirmed breakout but i can tell you right now, this is a little bit of a change in momentum. the s&p,mentioned, that was a pretty significant selloff. we saw heavy buying in the mix options this morning. there was some concern that this market was going to start to feed on itself. we saw that happen throughout the morning. the market was able to come back in the afternoon. nonetheless, we did see a shift as far as the expectations. >> ethically when we have a big down day in the s&p, what is the corresponding pattern with the vix? >> typically, the vix will see

that spike and taper back down into -- we have seen that a couple of times in the past. as we rolled into february, it feels like we are seeing the s&p area,n that 18.10, 18.50 having a difficult time getting above 1850. we see some requests -- weakness rolling into february. there is more concern about the debt ceiling. i think you will see the vix stay a little sticky here. you definitely sound a little more on the bearish side. i know a lot of traders are looking at 1812, the medium-term average on the s&p. is that going to be a catalyst to the upside for the vix? >> you would think so. pivotgoing to become a point. is a momentum day, you are going to see a fairly significant pickup in the mix.

-- in the vix. we saw big buyers yesterday. you still see some repositioning as we roll into the first quarter. >> thank you so much. we really appreciate it. for on the market, i am alix steel. ♪