>> this is "taking stock," for monday, april 28, 2014. i am pimm fox. today's theme is perspective. you will get a lot of it. this hour, you will hear from an energy investor, t. boone pickens, and another speaking from the milken global conference. boone pickens gives his perspective, while the governor of colorado discusses the benefits of his perspective of legalized marijuana.

plus, an actress, bridget moynahan. she tells us how living below the poverty line can change one's perspective. my producers will once again try to stop me over the next hour, but first, let's get headlines from my radio co-host carol massar. >> thanks so much, pimm. after the close of trading, herbalife raising its forecast. top-down estimates. plus, they halted their dividends. the stock is higher in after-hours trading. and buffalo wild wings out with results, a company reporting their earnings exceeding estimates, higher in the after hours of trading, and there is a lot of backlash over donald sterling. companies, including virgin america and carmax, ended their sponsorship of the team after a

after a -- after alleged racist comments attributed to sterling. >> thank you very much, carol massar. and another delay in the keystone xl pipeline, and we have t. boone pickens. erik schatzker and stephanie ruhle are standing by at the milken global conference in los angeles. >> thank you. as you just said, we are here with one of the legendary oilman, t. boone pickens. he has been in this business since -- >> 1951. >> amazing. >> why are you laughing? >> i am impressed, that is all. >> that i am still alive? [laughter] >> i went to begin with activism. it is a hot topic. you are involved in this back in the 1980's.

the business was so reviled to transform itself into a force for good. how? how did it transform itself into a force for good? >> oil? >> activism. >> right. i thought you were talking about the oil industry. i was there before they had cars. because you guys in the media figured it out, that what was happening was a huge investment was made. i bought stock in a company. i want to make a company better, and it was reported that i was an asset stripper, that i was going to destroy assets. for me to put my money in it and then destroy it, you have to be crazy.

>> so stuff like icahn and bill ackman and others are doing today -- in your opinion, is this any different from what was going on in the 1980's? >> no. why do you think it is different? >> they are embracing the media, using the media as a tool, coming after each other. >> sure, i did. i took interviews and everything else. i was described as, you know, a raider. who is the raider around here? i put my money in. these guys running the company, they did not have any stock to speak of. >> so when you see what carl icahn and bill ackman and the others are doing, the way they are conducting their businesses, do you think it is a good idea? >> sure, i do. it creates value for the stockholders. -- shareholders. wait a minute.

what does long-term mean? >> you wrote in "time" magazine that carl icahn is the best thing going. for corporate america. a lot of people would say that carl icahn is the best thing going for carl icahn. >> he is a stockholder. stockholders make money off of icahn. how would they respond to that? >> what if they make money in six months, but two years later, what the company did in order to make shareholders money in the short run turns out to be a bad idea? >> they are there for the long term. sure, they are. salaries. they are not shareholders. shareholders would rather make money fast than slow, ok? ask them sometimes. >> you do not think activism is being misused in any way? >> no. oh, it is not perfect, but, no, i think it is more good than bad. >> what would you say about the state of corporate america?

are boardrooms more susceptible to that type of approach today or less so than back in the 1980's? >> lot more sensitive to it than back in the 1980's. can you show me one place in the united states where somebody gets to hire their bosses? >> good point. >> fair point. >> the directors. >> that may practically speaking be true, but in theory, the shareholders continue to reelect them. >> are shareholders really paying attention? do you think though that corporate america is waking up to this? >> sure. >> traditionally, it was an old boys network. >> that is right. it is better than it was in the 1980's, that is for sure, but you need to have another system.

you should use headhunters to get directors, not managers to pick whatever. >> should the age limit be raised? many companies have age limits. they cannot be over 75. >> i was on a board. they wanted to get me off, so they gave me one year. i didn't want to be on the board anyway, i resigned. all they had to do was ask me. >> i want to ask you a question about the energy industry. for a long time -- >> back to the directors -- that is the way you really fix america. if i want to be on a board, say, like ge, i would have to have at least an average number of shares. there was one board, the ceo had 23,000 shares, and the last one,

the new director, he had 67 shares. do not give a dam about this company. i have got millions of dollars in it. it is very disruptive. they can put up their directors, and i sent my resume in. i qualify as a stockholder. and they have three openings on the board. they had come up with two directors for the board seats. the way to do it, like you run for congress. >> i was going to ask the question before we run out of time about alternative energy. you surprised a lot of people a few years ago by taking a very positive attitude towards

alternative energy, especially wind power. it seems now that you have backed away from that position. >> i lost $200 million. would you back away? >> i might. why is alternative energy a bad idea? >> i am for wind. you have to have six dollar natural gas to make wind work. the margin is natural gas. >> so when we build wind farms, and a lot of people are building wind farms, are they just throwing good money after bad? >> no, they are using somebody who has to have that in their portfolio, to have a renewable in the portfolio. >> does make sense to you that the koch brothers are taking a public stand against subsidies

for alternative energy, or do we need subsidies is alternative energy is going to be a viable industry? >> i do not care if you have it or not. i don't need subsidies. they were against me for natural gas, because they want natural gas very cheap because they're in the fertilizer business. they were afraid i was going to run up the price of natural gas. >> so where do you and they stand right now? >> them? >> yes. >> we disagree on that. they do not want natural gas -- but i do not have any conversation with them. >> this has been an honor and a pleasure. >> are we through? >> we are through. we have to leave it there. we have had an awesome line up today.

>> are we on? >> yeah. t. boone pickens. >> i did not even know we were on. >> my thanks to erik schatzker and stephanie ruhle, speaking with the bp capital chairman and chief executive at the milken institute conference in los angeles t boone pickens. coming up, pfizer. well, they want to offer nearly $100 billion to purchase astrazeneca, but astrazeneca, based in london, says no. is the price too low? are all of these big deals good for medical science and for patients? we will get some insight. and our mystery guest. time for our first clue. a twisted life. ♪

>> this is "taking stock" on bloomberg. i am pimm fox. big pharma. pfizer with nearly a $100 billion takeover offer for astrazeneca. the london-based company

shrugging off the bid. saying it's too low. coming up with options. our bloomberg news reporter is an expert, and we have the president of a securities company that specializes in the pharmaceuticals industry. great to have you both here. shannon, i want you to start it. what about the play for astrazeneca? >> as you said, pfizer made a play for astrazeneca, and astrazeneca said no way. too low. we're not even talking. coming back with a better deal. in the meantime, maybe somebody else can make a play, maybe amgen possibly. otherwise, bigger money, or someone else's going to come in. >> steve, if anybody else comes in, don't they have to check their balance sheet and see how much money they have offshore outside the united states?

>> that is incredibly important. we are trying to figure out an acronym. divert attention. increase profit and reduce taxes. >> so doing all of you are of these things with this potential deal? >> if you can pull it off, doing all four, because what you have here is a situation where they can have people focus on what is happening right now, extending the pipeline a little bit, and, of course, increasing the profits, because just by adding the revenue and discontinuing all of the expenses, you are good to go. and then with a lower tax rate, you are in good shape. >> explain that to people. >> pfizer has got about $70 billion outside the u.s. if they want to bring it back to the u.s., they are going to get taxed on it. this is really a deal about taxes, and the other tags

tags -- tax element is if they buy astrazeneca, the company can be domiciled in the u.k. meaning they pay the u.k. tax rate. >> and the u.k. tax rate is lower than the u.s. corporate tax rate. this is about taxes. >> does this seem like a deal about pharmaceuticals or about research and development? >> astrazeneca is not known for their pipeline. they've been struggling with products. this is a deal about taxes, about increasing revenue, increasing profits. i do not think this is one of those good old deals, where you look at a company that has products, and you say, i have to have that, the future of medicine in there. >> steve? >> we have been looking at this. when medicare part d came by, they said no negotiation of prices. but, guess what? you buy the lowest-priced drug, and that is what we have been waiting for, and it is happening right now.

all of the 60 ipo's that we had last year, that is the real research. the question, who pays for it? who goes out there an pays the money necessary so that all of these new technologies can go out there. >> who does pay? >> the pharmaceutical industry should. will they? that is the $64,000 question. or in this case, $70 billion. >> if big pharmaceutical companies are going to be funding their own research and development, then these are just financial engineering deeds? >> a lot of analysts are saying that. if you look at the pfizer products on the market, their top 10 products, their blockbuster products, even even -- aside from viagra, they came from acquisitions at one point or another. they have not come after the pfizer research and development lab.

they have been bought, acquisitions here and there. this has been happening for a while, this shift, where big pharma is becoming the acquirer of the financial company rather than real research-based items. like they were back in the 1990's. >> a lot more coming up this week with all of these deals. all right, thanks very much, shannon, our bloomberg news health reporter, and steve. much appreciated create all appreciated. coming up, we're going to be introducing you to actress bridget moynahan, looking at extreme poverty around the world and doing something about it. more on live below the line. that is next on "taking stock." ♪

>> the global poverty project

says that more than one billion people, in fact, one point 2 billion people live in extreme poverty around the world. now, in an effort of in gauging gauging -- in engagine, what it is like to go hungry, my next test actually participated in a program called live below the line. they are living on just $1.50 per day, for one week. joining us from washington, d.c., hugh evans, and here with me in new york is the actress bridget moynahan, who i hear has a birthday today, so happy birthday. >> thank you. no birthday cake this week, i think. >> hugh, i want to start off with you. how did you come up with this idea for the global poverty project live below the line? >> well, for the last few years, we have had this question, pimm, what it means for people to live on less than $1.25 u.s. per day,

and until we have experienced it for ourselves through the live below the line challenge, and one man in australia challenged himself to do it for a month, and he founded, obviously, incredibly challenging, and he built a movement out of it, and people started doing it all over the world, and now, just one one -- just three years later, there will be 25,000 people over the next five days living on just $1.50 per day, including drink. to raise money to support some of the best anti-poverty initiatives around the world, and that is on the website. >> bridget, how did you get involved? >> i was at a summit at the u.n., and they came up to me after my speech, and i enjoyed what they had to say. they take something like this, and they do not just throw money at it. they ask people to purchase

purchase -- to participate, and by doing that, you are forced by putting your mind and body into a situation into it. you are making different choices. you are thinking about things differently, and hopefully people will take that forward. >> now, you helped start this. $1.50 per day. what are some of the restrictions? it's not like you can go to the refrigerator and trying to live on that amount of money? >> i cannot eat anything in your studio here, no bottled water. i have a team of four, and we pooled all of our money and bought in bulk. we made a very strict diet, tried to keep it healthy, and we are just going to keep with that for the rest of the week. >> hugh evans, what is the menu for you for this week? >> i actually have to say that i am feeling very hungry because i was up in the studio, but i started the morning with a

banana and a tiny bit of porridge, because that is all i could afford today. my diet is probably not as nutritious, but the truth is, i am really not going to know what it is like for 1.2 billion people living in poverty, so i have got it comparatively good and do not take anything for granted. >> a few quick questions, if i can, because it fits into the plan. what is your favorite food if you could have it this week? >> steak with potatoes chips. >> steak with potato chips. hugh evans, what would you love to have this week? >> i would like enchiladas. i like everything mexican. >> all right, hugh evans, what is your worst habit? >> you will have to ask my wife. i am not sure. she would probably have a better idea. >> i eat tortilla chips and

other chips about 9:00 in the morning. that is a habit. >> thanks very much, hugh evans and bridget moynahan. this is "taking stock." ♪

>> this is "taking stock" on bloomberg. i am pimm fox. for a look at the headlines, let's go to my radio co-host, carol massar. >> thanks. new sanctions against russia because of its actions. the sanctions target individuals and companies in the inner circle of vladimir putin. measures includes bans of visas and assets restrictions. and increasing dividends and buybacks, bank of america says it made a decision after finding an error in its stress test.

and general electric may find some competition. siemens could make an offer if they get access to the same financial information as ge did. this is from sources familiar. that is a headline this hour. >> thank you. let's go to the milken global conference taking place in los angeles. bloomberg's erik schatzker and stephanie ruhle have been speaking with the guests all day, and currently, they are with the governor of colorado. >> thank you so much. we are, again, with governor john hickenlooper. >> glad to be here. >> colorado has fascinated the area for many reasons, but recently, the nation's fascination is with marijuana. >> it's true, a question we get all of the time.

>> i can imagine. it would appear from where we sit and from where others sit that the experiment, if we can call it that, has been a success, and in many cases better than expected, generating more tax revenue than expected, creating jobs. what are some of the unpleasant surprises? >> so far, there have not been too many unpleasant surprises, but the jury is out. we will find out about that later. you know that some kids, perhaps bipolar kid or kids that have adhd, that they are going to be more susceptible to falling off the tracks, right, dropping out of school, running away from home, so we are very worried about the consequences for kids. so far, we have not seen any increase of driving while high. at this point, i think we have got the regulatory framework doing a pretty good job. but we are not claiming success.

what i keep saying, let's be cautious. let's not claim victory. the war on drugs was a disaster. i opposed legalizing, i did not want to be the first. i did not want jimmy fallon to be saying things. that is not fun for a state. >> how long do you think it was going to take for colorado and other states experimenting with legalization, whether they will follow suit? >> i think it will take a couple of years. we want to track the behavior of the youth. when we take a poll, most adults, if they used to smoke pot, and they are still smoking pot, and they are paying taxes. those that didn't aren't interested in trying pot. the thing that we are worried about is kids, and that is a legitimate concern. >> does colorado become a gateway state for other vices that are not illegal yet, like

prostitution. >> we are going to be all over that and make sure that people are not smuggling. we are looking at corruption. we are trying to figure out how to do the banking, even despite it hearing against federal law. >> and banks do not necessarily want to do business with those running -- >> we do not want to be a cash business because that does loss loss -- that does support things like prostitution and gang behavior. this is going to be one of the great social experiments this century. i really think. even amsterdam, they just decriminalized it. they did not tax it and building a whole regulatory environment. >> so true. governor, i want to talk to you about gun control. colorado, as we know, it has been the site of some of the worst gun violence in america, and every episode of it is tragic, no question, but there remains a very, very vibrant and at times unpleasant debate in colorado over the guns. you are right in the middle of it, governor. is the debate over gun control going to turn colorado into a red state?

>> i do not think so. we are pretty moderate. people got pretty inflamed. you're touching, in the west, the sense of freedom. we look at universal ground checks, right? i went home, and my son was saying, what do you do at work that is so hard every day? make decisions. get the facts. he said get the facts, make a decision. we have not gotten the facts. i memorized it. we went back to look at 2012 at the gun purchases, and there were 38 people convicted of homicides trying to buy guns, over 100 people convicted of sexual assault, 420 people with judicial restraining orders. 236 people that when they came to pick up their guns, we came to arrest them for an outstanding mortgage. -- outstanding warrant. it is a shared responsibility. we are not trying to take people's guns away. we are just trying to keep guns out of the hands of dangerous criminals. i do not think it is going to be

as divisive and issue as people think it will be. >> it is such a topic that divides. >> well, it was, and it has, but, again, we used a very moderate approach to universal background checks. we do not go crazy right over the top. you can still loan a gun to your brother and sister over the weekend, whatever, but we made it very flexible. >> you're saying you need to review the facts and do the homework. you also said one of the issues with tracking, what do they not get? >> well, you know, it is funny. when i had that conversation with my son, he said, every day i have to go into school and learn something new that never existed before. if i don't get it right, the next day is miserable. and i said, you are right, the sixth grade is harder than being governor. i woke up the next morning, and

we do not all have the same facts, and i think we need a stronger regulatory environment. we had the environmental defense fund. negotiating fugitives. natural gas is gaping from these these -- is escaping from wells. in the end, they together created regulatory environments that are going to dramatically make our air cleaner. >> but, governor, you know that many of your democratic supporters are thinking, here is our governor that we put in office trying to give fracking a good name. you may be doing it with the best of intentions, but why would you be alienating your supporters when the democratic party has such a narrow margin of control in the state legislature? >> colorado is the first date to to -- first state to regulate methane, right? and they see that we did this with the environmental community working side-by-side, not always happily, but in the end, both sides stood up to claim credit.

getting cleaner air is progress. fracking has been going on for 30, 40 years, 50 years. it has not had the mythic and damage, or certainly not the extent that everyone says, and if we get those facts out and let people hear there is another side. carbon emissions are down to the lowest level since 1961 per capita. it's because we're taking natural gas, you cannot do that without fracking. we are replacing coal plants with that. it is cleaner. it is cheaper. it puts an additional $800 in every household budget. >> governor, before we run out of time, you have been a geologist in the oil industry. you are now the governor in the state of colorado. >> i would love to be commissioner of baseball, but that might be a stretch. >> many influential people in new york are getting on the hickenlooper train. >> take a good look at this space.

-- this face. read that name. do you think there is anything electable? talking about fracking? >> if a guy named schatzker can end up on television, yes. >> the governor of colorado, john hickenlooper. >> all right, thank you very much, erik schatzker and stephanie ruhle, reporting from the milken conference in los angeles. coming up next, how the world champion boston red sox went from worst to first in one season, and it is time for mystery guest clue number two. the mystery guest is rolling in the dough. ♪ >> one decade ago, the boston

red sox had gone 86 years without a world series championship. fast forward to today, three championships in the past 10

years. at the helm of this dramatic turnaround, the boston red sox owner john henry, on the cover of the bloomberg businessweek, which looks at success stories. our bloomberg own, joshua green, wrote the story and joins us from washington, d.c. all right, joshua, i know you have to be a fan of the boston red sox to take on john henry and produced this story, but you must have felt pretty good when you learned that the boston red sox were all for you. tell us about this story. >> well, basically, i wanted to look at what brought about the red sox' success, the world series, and then suddenly three championships in the last 10 years, so i went down to spring training, which was a tough assignment, to do a profile on john henry, and it turns out that henry made his fortune as a commodities futures trader and has essentially applied those

skills to baseball, and baseball is, itself, a game that is really changing in a way where the prize commodities are younger players, like the ones the red sox are focusing on, and much less on the older, more expensive superstars, like the teams like the new york yankees used a generation ago to build their championship team. >> now, just describe how john henry came to own the boston red sox. >> henry has a fascinating personal story. he grew up on a soybean farmer in arkansas that he inherited when his dad died when he was 26, and he began buying corn and soybean futures, as farmers do, to hedge against crop crises, but he found that he was much more interested on speculating on commodities futures ban on farming, and henry, who is a mathematical genius, eventually turn that into an algorithm for trading commodities futures that by the late 1980's had made him a billionaire. he first bought the florida marlins in 1999 and then traded

up to the red sox in 2002 and has been at the helm ever since. >> now, josh, you have obviously seen the movie "moneyball," and he is in that movie. is this how he is using algorithms to make the team better? >> one of the interesting things you see in pro sports, and baseball especially, is this influx of owners from the financial world. henry, when he came in around 2000, was one of them. he actually went and try to hire the hero of "moneyball" he took over the red sox before the book was even published, so henry had caught into metric before other people did. as it turns out, he accepted the job and then recanted a day later. he decided to spend his day in

in -- his career in oakland, which the movie recounts, but henry went ahead and wound up applying a lot of those formulas, a lot of that data analysis, to the red sox, and, obviously, 12 years later, three world series titles later, we can see the results have been pretty positive. >> is there any connection between the team payroll and the results in the season? >> no, there is not, and that is one of the interesting things. when henry took over, you might remember, bud selig had just produced this blue ribbon report, and enormous report, and the yankees had just won three series in a row, and it was a big, existential fear in baseball that having a big payroll or elated with winning. -- equated directly to winning. interestingly enough, the skeptic from that major league handle was the federal reserve chairman, who i spoke to and quoted in this john henry profile who set that is actually not true. if you look at the oakland a's and the teams like them, they seem to do ok with low payrolls, and smart financiers are buying these teams, which they would not do if they were a losing

bet, and sure enough, you can see 12 years later that we have teams like the oakland a's and the tampa bay rays, who have managed to have quite a bit of success despite having small payrolls. what is interesting with henry and with the red sox going forward, not only do they have to that statistics approach, they also have an enormous payroll. fifth largest in baseball. they are kind of combining the best of both worlds, and they hope that will bring them more world titles. >> josh green, john henry, in addition to the boston red sox has also got the boston globe, right? >> he does, he does. my focus really was the red sox, but i did some asking around about whether you can apply sabermetrics to a newspaper chain, and the answer i got is that nobody has figured out how to do it yet, but having said that, henry has applied it to trading and major league baseball, so who knows? maybe he can find the secret algorithm to make newspapers

profitable again. >> and he also has liverpool, right, the football club? >> he does. and i got shame on facebook and twitter for not having grappled with liverpool and talking about that in my profile of henry. i am not really a big soccer guy myself, but henry did want to talk about this. i understand that liverpool is in first place, so obviously, whatever it is he is doing lent itself to english or merely merely -- premier league soccer as well as baseball and commodities future trading. >> i see a soccer game in your future. thank you very much, josh green, the author of the cover story on john henry. it is available now on newsstands or on your businessweek mobile and ipad app. coming up next, my mystery guest will be revealed, and it is time for my final clue. my mystery guest has franchises. more next on "taking stock." ♪

>> all right, it is mystery guest monday, and i have no idea who my next guest is, but my producers provided us with some clues. clue number one, a twisted life. number two, rolling in the dough. i do not think that is money, maybe it is. and number three, has has franchises in his blood. doesn't have anything to do with baking? >> yes. >> twisted baking products, with bread? >> yes. >> with pretzels? we had national pretzel day. saturday. >> we did. >> did you celebrate national pretzel day? >> yes. >> are you in the pretzel business? >> yes. >> are you from philadelphia? >> no. >> are you are part of annie's

pretzels? >> yes. >> that's you. i do not know anybody who works there, so i am just going to have to say that you stumped me. how did you get into the pretzel business? >> the "e" on "anne" is silent. as long as people get close, i am happy. auntie anne's. my name is bill dunn. >> thank you for being here. i get half marks were being there. >> actually, i thought you did pretty well. >> national pretzel day. what is it about pretzels -- why is this such a big deal right now? >> there are so many opportunities to celebrate things throughout the year. national pretzel day is something we have been experiencing along with our franchise partners over the

years, so it is just an exciting day for people to enjoy pretzels. >> background in franchising or restaurant concepts? >> yes, my father had a wendy's franchise in florida, so back in the 1980's, i was involved in his operations and oversaw it. >> so you really do have franchising in your blood. >> i do. >> talk about menu items, because it is not just simple pretzels anymore. you have to have the condiments and flavors. >> we have everything from our original, which is the soft pretzel, to the cinnamon and sugar, with the various toppings, a lot of variety, and then we have signature things things -- dips that can be enjoyed with the pretzel. >> auntie anne's. how did you get that name? >> the company was founded in

1988 at a farmers market in pennsylvania, and our founders wanted to start a business that would generate enough revenue so they could provide services. >> i remember that. family counseling services. >> yes. >> and it took off? >> yes, and it is the largest in the world with what we do, and it is a humble beginning and a wonderful story. >> let's do some of the stats. how many pretzels do you make every year? >> well into the millions. we have 1600 stores around the world, so i do not know how many. >> 40 states, 30 countries. what are some of the most popular locations? airports or sporting events? >> actually, airports, we do extremely well. traditionally, we are in malls, but the nontraditional ones, colleges and universities, amusement parks, other transportation. it is a great on the go product as people are moving from place to place. >> one of the things i heard recently about pretzels is about protein. >> it depends on what you put on it.

we have our pretzel dog wrapped in our signature dough, and the combination of the sweet and savory dough with the flavor profile of the dog is tremendous. >> what is the newest? >> we introduced a new product which was the mini pretzel dog. right now we have a number of products that are in tests, but it is too early to see what will make it out there. >> what is it about pennsylvania and pretzels? >> i've been in pennsylvania 14 years, and i think it is this snack capital of the world. my goodness. every thing from potato chips to candy, i cannot tell you, but it is something special. >> do you have a favorite pretzel? >> i do. it is the original. >> the original. >> yes. >> everybody is hungry now. bill dunn, the president and the chief officer of auntie anne's. i am pimm fox. good night. ♪