alix: welcome to the most important hour of the session -- 60 minutes left until the closing bell. i'm alix steel and this is "street smart." concerns about growth and race about greece. we are counting down to earnings from herbalife and electronic arts. plus how warren buffett and bill ackman are influencing the u.s. bond market. "street smart" starts now.

some breaking news for you -- microsoft considering to be considering a bid for salesforce. alex sherman joins me for the latest. this is peeling the onion about who might buy salesforce. tell me what we know. alex: microsoft is evaluating a bid for salesforce -- we are still getting the details about how advanced this is. we reported salesforce hired tanks and we are reporting to banks are working with salesforce on evaluating a bit. -- in evaluating a dead. the company that kick this off is not microsoft. still another company out there that kicked out -- that kicked off the process. one of our sources tells us if another company looks at salesforce, they would have to get involved and this would be the largest pure software deal of all time. salesforce is a huge company and

a difficult transaction to pull off. microsoft is one of the few companies that could do it. a 10 of cash in a good relationship with mark benioff and salesforce. that's at least the process of evaluating a bit has begun. alix: we did see the chart of salesforce skyrocket on the news. who else is on that if there is a rival offer? alex: we had reported sap had conversations last year but sap has come forward saying they are not interested. oracle is the company that continues to be out there people suspect may try to get involved. oracle has publicly slammed salesforce for the last couple of weeks but have not said they are not interested, so they could see the -- they could still be in the mix. then as a long shot ibm could get involved.

it would be a huge deal for any company and ibm is not known to take these in or miss that's -- enormous that's -- bets. alix: salesforce has a market cap of 49 billion dollars. could you tell me how a deal of this size could get done and potential regulatory issues? alex: there will be issues and that regulators will look at something of this size. we hear parks -- we hear talks are in early days. from the perspective of salesforce, things are still early, so we don't expect anything to happen imminently. a deal of this size and complexity takes a little while and is not agreed to overnight. we do not have a timeline but we are in the early stages, not the later stages. alix: talk about how big this

could be for the whole industry if salesforce was taken out and do they even want to be? alex: it probably depends on what the offer is. they are not for sale. they only hired banks and they got this initial approach. it would be huge for the industry in that this is one of the biggest players in the cloud computing world. other players would likely see additional solid players if this one guy got taken out and you have seen the rise in shares just since we started reporting about it last week. what that tells you is there isn't necessarily and m&a -- necessarily an them in a premium baked in. -- and mna premium ached in. alix: their market cap growing -- huge implications for the whole company. we have less than an hour to go until the close of trading.

we want to go to our chief markets correspondent, scarlet fu, who is looking at all the action on the street. overall, stocks are on the lows of the session. scarlet: the global equity selloff was in full swing when they began. you had concerns they may try to cool their markets, but there rescue pushed european stocks to two-year lows. biotech list on the nasdaq climbing and you have apple lower for a fifth day. economic data was fairly mixed. we did not get a clear picture on whether the u.s. was going to rebound on a week first quarter. the 10 year treasury turned directions the report showing a pickup in the services economy but we saw prices of treasuries turn lower which was consistent

with the selloff in european government bonds. the german bond, 52 basis points versus 7.5 two basis -- 7.5 basis points two weeks ago. that is certainly weighing on the dollar right now and oil after three days of trying and failing has finally broken past the $60 a barrel level, bringing the rally to all of 28%. alix: an impressive l -- an impressive rally for oil. a red flag for the federal reserve -- a wider trade gap signaling the u.s. economy may have contracted in the first quarter. all of this ahead of janet yellen's remarks tomorrow. for a closer read, john corcoran of stanford university is here with me in the studio.

and of course our bond reporter, lisa abramowicz. thank you for coming. let's talk about this trade data we saw. what is your prediction for the first quarter gdp taste on this worst deficit in seven years. john: i would not go as far to take gdp. i would say relaxed. [laughter] alix: great message. john: i just came from california, dude. [laughter] it is a forecast based on trade data. if you are trying to trade stocks based on forecasting gdp, you need a better model. trade to deficits are often a sign of strength. it means borders want to invest here in the u.s. is a stronger economy than other places. lisa: what it shows me is how interrelated the global economy is and how difficult it will be for the u.s. to move away from

its to me was program without some kind of similar cycle overseas. we see this in the bond markets right now. they responded somewhat to this data but yields are continuing their up at march. bond prices are going down largely in response to its going on in europe. it's the worst rout in euro area sovereign debt since at least 1993. and why? john: chill out again, dude. [laughter] it's only up to the unimaginably low. spanish debt still in the 1.5% range. today it is a route but overall things are still there. alix: you have the fed chair who's going to speak tomorrow with christine lagarde. you have a fret -- you have a fed dealing with pressure saying don't mess with the markets too much. you have a fed dealing with a stronger dollar. they need to look at the first

quarter which could be revised lower. john: absolutely. they want to raise rates but in an environment with the dollar stronger, can they? with the euro lower, can they? bond prices have to go down and interest-rate prices have to go up. it is going to happen sooner or later. lisa: i have to give janet yellen some credit. she's saying you are worried about oil prices, they're going to rebound. and maybe she will come back tomorrow and say you guys should chill out. it's exley pushing peoples inflation expectations upward which is what is happening in the bond market. yields are coming up let's not cry a river, but you see hundreds of ilion's of dollars of target value losses and that can be painful for a lot of people. john: this is the event we have been worried about for a long time. alix: lots more coming up.

coming up, the blame game continues in the troubled talks over greece, the country blaming its creditors for the impasse saying they need to coordinate their message better. we want to recap the breaking news -- mark -- microsoft said to be evaluating a salesforce.com bid after rival firms approach. we did see salesforce trading in the last few minutes and it's up over 4% with the news that microsoft is perhaps evaluating a bid for the company. ♪

alix: an update on a breaking headline we are following -- microsoft is said to be considering a bid for salesforce. for more, we want to go to scarlet fu at the breaking news desk. scarlet: i'm getting my chart ready -- microsoft is said to be evaluating a bid for salesforce.com the cloud

software provider after an unnamed company approached salesforce with interest as recently as april. this is according to people with knowledge of the matter. we reported salesforce hired to investment banks to field these takeover requests. microsoft is not currently in discussion with salesforce and no deal is imminent. nonetheless, take a look at the shares of the target -- the share price popping right here on the headlines. we have come off our highs but we are still up by about 4%. what's interesting is the knock on effect of other software companies. i'm going to pull at this other chart that shows the movement in next week. workday has paired its losses and service now is off by only .3%. you can see workday right here. i'm going to pull over here -- a

five-day chart. then we continue to move higher. certainly, these software companies other companies are getting a bit of a move based on the reporting. alix: we will be on this story throughout the show. in a meantime, time is ticking for greece. they have to come up with 200 million euros for the imf tomorrow and the standoff is choking off growth. the european commission downgraded its forecast for the greek economy 2.5% down from two point -- forecast for the greek economy to .5%. john cochran is here from the chicago booth school of business. and training me on the phone is the president of euro intelligence. how does this revived growth play into negotiations between

greece and its creditors? wolfgang: it makes it more complicated than it was before. there was a request by creditors that greece should implement reforms and there was a discussion about the reforms, but they agreed on the numbers. they knew those numbers were wrong, but these official numbers were out and the mathematics was done on those optimistic numbers. the imf came up with a new estimate on the debt sustainability of greece and the european commission came up with a new forecast basically saying it has gone very pear-shaped and that is much larger and the growth is going to be much smaller, so that greece not only needs to reform but the eurozone and creditors need to accept a haircut on their credits and the

whole thing has gotten a lot more complicated than it already was. alix: does that slow growth persist and is a become a short-term and medium-term problem for creditors? john: the slow growth is likely to persist in to lists situation gets out of the way and greece agrees to perform. the solution for greece is to do the reforms they agreed to do. almost all of greece's debt is held by government institutions including the imf. are they going to lens of new money to pay off the old money that they of the old institutions? which side -- it's a fun negotiation to watch but not terribly deep for the markets. alix: does that mean default inches closer here? wolfgang: one should not exclude the possibility of default. it's hard to say what will happen because it depends on a lot of things that are yet to

happen and a lot of clinical assessments by various people involved in these negotiations. greece will have an incentive to default maybe introduce the power -- i know john has made some proposals on this which are very sensible and i agree on that. there are gray zone options that i thought the time will come when things become too complicated. we have to look at some of these alternative options about let's try to do this in a different way. neither of which would really work. alix: thank you for the insight. john, you are sticking with me. coming up, the european union trade commissioner tells us why a deal between the u.s. and eu could fall apart. ♪

alix: the 12 nation transpacific partnership appears close to completion but the deal with europe is still a work in progress. today, peter cook sat down with european -- the european trade commissioner to ask if the sides are halfway to a final agreement. guest: maybe halfway. we have gone through nine negotiation rounds and it's really important to get to all of the technical work. we hope by the autumn, we could start to go into the clinically difficult once depending on what happens here in washington. peter: the president has lots on his plate. what do you make of the opposition he is facing in the

united states from within his own party over not only the european dealer but with the pacific trade agreement and fast-track authority? does it raise concerns about whether a european deal could be approved? guest: we follow it closely because it's affecting many deals. the president is doing a formidable job to get his people on board and we hope there can be an agreement soon. but that is for congress to decide. we hope it will be done. peter: you had meetings this week with the ambassador and commerce secretary. have they asked for your help to share -- to sell trade agreements? guest: this is -- i don't think external help is helpful in this case. we are trying to do the technical work and we hope there will be a successful outcome. peter: we have heard there are sticking points. these are difficult

negotiations. what are the biggest obstacles? it seems agriculture may be at the top of the list. guest: agriculture is always big because you have stakeholders here and in europe as well. this will be a major difficult issue. government procurement, energy but we have made good progress. we are trying to establish a state-of-the-art agreement for the two biggest economies in the world. also establishing a system where we can recognize each other's standards and set a new global standard in the world in different technical areas. this would be unique. we have made good progress. peter: do you think the transpacific partnership, if a gets concluded successfully, is it a help or hindrance to getting a final european deal? guest: we think it is a help.

we are negotiating with singapore and vietnam and negotiating with japan. i think there is a dynamic in all of this, given the 100% focus on it. fast-track authority for the president -- still a question on whether he's going to have a successful vote. does he need tpa to get a final deal with you? guest: that is what i understand, that he needs to get his trade agreements. peter: so it is a necessity? guest: we understand it is a necessity. peter: if i'm an american and i'm skeptical about what kind of -- what the agreement might bring to me personally, what kind of message would you have? guest: 80% of the global growth will come from outside europe and outside the u.s. need to get together and facilitate and get rid of tara

-- get rid of tariffs, red tape and bureaucracy. if we can do this while setting standards, everything from electric cars to textiles, we can be setting the standards for the rest of the world and this is something that is good or consumers and citizens on both sides of the atlantic. alix: still with me is john cochran from the stanford hoover institution. what could this trade deal do for our growth here at home? we saw the export numbers really trail off. john: trade is not about exports it's about imports. the reason you care issue get to buy stuff cheap. adam smith showed us it was a good idea in the 1760's. when need to open trade, we need to open trade to services and why is this so difficult? because all governments are trying to subsidize them. maybe we should stop that. alix: thank you for all of your

insight on the trade and greece. economist and finance professor from the university of chicago school of business. coming up, we are going to talk about salesforce. ♪

alix: we are just under 30 minutes until the close of trading. want to go back to the breaking news desk where scarlet who is looking at the action today. scarlet: lots of money moving through declining stocks -- of the five most active stocks only one is gaining and a would be netflix, getting an upgrade from tank of america from underperform all the way to buy. one analyst is more optimistic on their subscriber and earnings potential because of its growing portfolio what he calls its aaa original content. last year at this time, netflix was trading at $314. it gained as much as 22% today.

that is a new record high on an intraday basis. on the other end of the spectrum, you have avon products taking its biggest drop after one half years after reports they are struggling to find a buyer. potential suitors including pe firms are not interested. avon posted three straight years of losses and have seen its sales struggle. the stock is stuck at its lowest level since 1995. avon had no comment. apple is the biggest drag on the dow in terms of points, posting its fifth decline in six days. i sound like a broken record -- apple has fallen 4.4% since reporting its quarterly earnings, which were strong, but there is skepticism on whether apple can keep up this pace of growth. alix: talking about one other stock making moves today -- salesforce surging on moves --

surging on news that microsoft could be looking to buy the company. do you think we will see a deal between microsoft and salesforce? tom: if you asked me this question a week ago and some people were, i would have said you are crazy. it seems like the headlines have been moving very quickly. at the end of last week, there were some very vocal rumors and speculation there was a bitter for salesforce that prompted the company to hire bankers and there is further breaking news today suggesting microsoft is evaluating. from the perspective of the buyer, it makes perfect sense. if microsoft is a bitter or oracle is a bitter, there's no shortage of people who may want to get in. whether salesforce is a seller remains to be seen.

the price would have to be right and i think that's where we get to the question. alix: we have seen the market cap increase about $3 billion. cory: let me counter what tom said. you can see plenty of reasons why a company would not want to own salesforce. yes, they have a lot of revenue and they've grown revenue as sort of a one time gain. it is a company with zero profits and no free cash flow. some people look at the asset on the balance sheet and those could be some great things going down in the future. as a paid professional skeptic, i would look askance at that a little bit. whether a company buys salesforce, whether it's oracle

or microsoft, they will have less earnings as a result and will suffer massive dilution. to choke down a $50 billion acquisition for microsoft is easier than or oracle, but why would they spend $50 billion to see their earnings are down? a diluted deal like this is extraordinary. alix: what do you think about the case against some kind of merger. tom: no doubt about it, it would be an expensive acquisition and in the near term, it is diluted. if you look at three to five years, the train has left the station. this is the platform where software is going. yes, it would be expensive. if you look at it around $90, right about where other takeouts have been, the point i'd make to look at all the dilution is for something like salesforce.com with $.50 of every dollar spent on sales and marketing, a buyer

like microsoft could take a billion or maybe even a billion and a half off that annual expense check and make it a lot more palatable to the bottom line. cory: why would salesforce spend all of that money on marketing of the marketing doesn't work? it's an ongoing expense, not a one-time expense. i hear that argument all the time -- if salesforce would stop spending the money they are going to spend, they would be profitable. tom: at some point, the growth will slow. it's a debate between the sales and marketing. the sales works, the marketing works, but you don't need to duplicate his salespeople for every account and that is the merit for joining forces with the likes of microsoft. to your point on marketing, it is a good point that cost a lot to get these marketers up front, but there's a reason investors pay for these revenue streams --

they are sticky unprofitable longer-term. if you could sell them on top, it makes a lot of sense. alix: are you rewriting your price target on salesforce? we've seen the market cap grow there are allegations and rumors starting to trickle out. tom: we did that last week and when the first noise of this came out and it seemed there was some legitimacy to salesforce having hired bankers, whether or not a deal actually gets done re-rates the stock higher in the near term and creates a higher floor under it and we took our price target of $283 from a prior target of $75. a modest bump but it's reflective of our belief that there is something legitimate under all of this noise. we think a higher floor in the stock is created in the near term. alix: what does it do to the

space you have seen salesforce and its competitors rise -- what kind of premium? tom: that's a great question and it just underscores the fact that there's no shortage of appetite for a cloud-based software company with enterprise exposure. pick your poison -- whether it is a company like service now -- just a handful of companies that sell into the enterprise, if microsoft or oracle is not able to find the market leader in this space -- workday is another good example, there will be an appetite for other players that have the platform, technology and sales force to be able to sell. anything that has enterprise grade accessibility is a potential target whether in the midterm or near term they will have microsoft and others looking at them. cory: we should point out that microsoft is not currently in

talks. but we have been working on this doggedly for weeks and we have a lot of companies who are not interested. you say there's no shortage but there are only so many companies big enough to buy salesforce. when you said tract those that would not be interested -- exxon oil, probably not chevron probably not going to happen. alix: could we see a bidding war considered that there are so few buyers? cory: i look at the valuations being placed on companies like vito -- vevo and workday. these kinds of valuations, it's hard to imagine strategic buyers. alix: it is a thrill to have you sitting next to me while talking about salesforce. we are going to break. we will be right back.

lots more coming. rubbermaid makes everything from pens to pots and pans. what are shoppers spending their money on? i will ask the ceo would we come back. ♪

alix: welcome back. you got pens, strollers, pots and pans and hair accessories. rubbermaid makes products we use every single day giving the company unique insight into the u.s. consumer and the state of the economy. joining me to discuss that is the company's ceo. you guys reported earnings. it was a little light on top and a little light on the bottom line. where was this enormous tax windfall we were going to get from these oil prices? michael: we felt good about our core growth and underlying growth in the business. more than 5% growth in the u.s. so strong topline numbers.

we were up 6% despite having overcome significant for x challenge is connected to the strong dollar. the results are led by the ideals rather than some underlying macro unit. alix: we saw a ton of important not a lot of -- a ton of imports not a lot of exports. the demand is for stuff overseas -- how does that affect the business they gets most of its revenue from the united states? mike: it is a challenge for us. we source a lot of are finished goods from asia. we have significant headwinds we have to overcome connected to transaction for x -- transaction roforex.

for us in total, the impact is $.35 to $.37 of foreign exchange impact on a two dollar eps base. it's a massive challenge. 5% to 9% eps growth despite the head went. we are doing a lot of work within the business to deal with that. alix: in the u.s., we are looking at .2% growth in the first quarter, many are saying we could see negative growth in the first quarter. what is your outlook? mike: i think our ideas have to trump the macro. irrespective of what's going on we have to bring ideas to market that -- alix: but people still want to buy it and have the money to buy it.

mike: i will give you an example -- our writing business route 9% in first quarter and that is on top of 7.9% growth from a year ago. with the right ideas and right value propositions, we can grow and you have to believe you can grow irrespective of the macro context. people are willing to pay for good ideas. alix: when it's tough, people still buy pens. mike: they are buying pens, they are buying car seats. alix: coming up next will infidelity website ashley madison prosper with a london ipo? we will talk with the ceo right after the break. ♪

alix: welcome back. the dating website for unfaithful spouses is looking to look up with investors. ashley madison is pursuing an

ipo and is looking to raise as much as $200 million. the company's ceo noel biderman joined now. what kind of response are you getting from investors? noel: what's interesting is we were an idea back then and now we are a global business generating over $100 million a year. these investors have said the online dating space is a cornerstone of the internet space generating billions of dollars a year. who is growing? we are. who's in multiple countries and cultures? we are. if you believe online dating is here to stay come ashley madison is a safe bet. alix: does that mean because you had a failure in your ipo in 2010, it's because it was a idea ahead of its time? noel: it was looking to be done

as a merger in canada where they are more comfortable getting things off the ground like -- getting things out of the ground like gold or oil. alix: in london, they like to hook up? noel: i think they have gone forward with a couple of more controversial businesses as well as a global investor base as opposed to new york. alix: bloomberg sources say you have had a hard time lining of bankers because of the type of is this you are. noel: we find a little irony in that. you can look at warren buffett the most lauded investor investing in things like coca-cola. but that leads to obesity in kids. we don't shy away from the fact we are controversial and unique. but it is an incredible business and we've had a frank conversation. is great interest at the investor level for institutions and individuals.

they just want to lie down on their bed at night. they know they would invest in ashley madison, but they don't want to tell them. alix: talk about your business. where are the cheaters? noel: japan was the most interesting launch we ever did. we got to a million users within a year and in america it took five years. sex becomes very casual there and there's a procreative element, but not necessarily the intimacy. women in japan are very unhappy in their marriage is for the most part. when we came to town, there's a lot of pent-up demand. it's like when the bikini came out -- you see a similar effect. alix: where is your slowest growing area? noel: latin america -- places where they -- were women are behind in society, where they

don't have the economic opportunities. the more women earn, the more likely she is to be unfaithful. there, it doesn't lag behind a little bit. alix: you are looking to raise $200 million. what are you looking to do with the money? noel: the attraction of talent -- ashley madison does not necessarily bring everybody you would want, even though it's an incredible business offer the second part is the fact that i as the ceo, i love running the company do seek out validation. the ability to make this available to hundreds of thousands of people at a retail level who understand the business that's interesting to me. alix: thank you for coming in. we are counting down to earnings from herbalife and electronic arts -- the closes next on "street smart." you are looking at stocks

snapping a two-day winning streak. ♪

mberg television and this is "street smart." investors going concern about the american call -- american economy and you can forget about greece. we're moments away from earnings from my one, electronic arts and others about to release their quarterly results. i want to get right to scarlet fu at the breaking news desk. we are looking at the smp on pace for its worst day since the end of march. scarlet: it was kind of premeditated because we saw

weakness overseas. treasuries are extending their selloff following the decline in european bonds. prices down and yields up, the prices of and mixed economic data here at home. traders say the catalyst for the selloff is rooted in signs of inflation in europe, pushing those bonds lower rather than a reflection of u.s. growth. this is the 10 year treasury in blue and the german 10 year bond in orange. this is the yield and it goes back five years. prices have gone up and yields have come down. you also have demands for it during the debt crisis. the first half of 2012 -- then they begin to pull away. this is where we start to see the trend reverse itself with yields heading higher. i'm going to go back to this

were second and you can see the widening between the two. that's the spread -- stay with me -- it has really moved apart. that's the spread between the treasury and the bund. i'm going to end with the dollar because it erased it gain after the march trade deficit widened to a six-year high. that could lead to a downward revision in u.s. gdp and oil prices did break through the $60 a barrel level. wti has rallied 28% since it's mid-march bottom. alix: i'm here with paul and doug -- thank you so much for being here. we are looking at stocks around the lows of the session. we have this terrible trade data which widened to its highest

level in years. a kinds of revisions will we see in the first quarter? guest: it has been pretty good because the quarter started off -5% and now we are about flat to positive. it looks like corporate earnings are coming in way better than expected. there was so much has him as a man now you see markets volatile on good news from europe -- the european commission raised their forecast for european growth. greece, we write off as much a do about greece. alix: maybe earnings are coming in better but if we have discontinued murky economic data, revisions cannot be good. guest: murky is the right word. one theme is the strong dollar hurting exports and leading to a flood of cheap exports. at the same time, we had a virtual shutdown of west coast ports and we have conflicting factors here.

we saw the opening of the floodgates after they resolved the labor issues in late february. that means gdp in the first quarter, we have a .2% initially which could be revised down to a .5% contraction. alix: the dow jones down about 142 points, the s&p up by 24 and the nasdaq off by 77 -- all in all, the stocks are snapping a two-day winning streak. all 10 s&p sectors finished lower. utilities were the worst performer, falling more than 2% as we see yields climbing higher. we are waiting for earnings from mylan, electronic arts groupon and pioneer energy. we will bring you those numbers as they cross.

we talked about first quarter growth. what are we seeing in the treasury markets? we see a climb up in yields over 2% despite the murky data. guest: we have gone from deflation scares which were predicated on file -- on falling oil prices. i don't buy into that story, but nonetheless, that was happening. forecasts continually downgraded across the quarter from 3% growth at the start of the year two a lousy 1% growth forecasted last week and we got even worse than that. now we see evidence the economy is improving and deflation concerns were overblown. so naturally you should see some backup and treasury yields. guest: we have had a positive surprise in weakness. europe we rode off at the beginning of the year and we are

getting strong surprises. the ecb did this cutie program and the euro came down. it was a big benefit and now it looks like it is actually working. what happened today is expectation in the futures market got moved forward. instead of five years out, it is three years out and that got some anxiety in the market. it was like did news/bad news. this happened several times in the u.s. and you have to look at it -- always became opportunity. europe earnings are going to be better and u.s. corporate profits are going to eke out a positive. every single sector of the s&p 500 is positive. we think that's a good barometer of future growth. we had this last year and every subsequent quarter was positive. alix: we had first quarter

weakness -- we do have earnings, so hold that thought. scarlet fu has more at the breaking news desk. scarlet: results for last quarter be estimates because of the "dragon age as quote title. -- "dragon age" title. the outlook comes in little lighter here. adjusted earnings per share will be breakeven when analysts were looking for a profit of $.19. revenue of $4.4 billion will be shy of the contestants -- consensus estimate. that is the outlook coming in shy of expectations, but electronic arts announcing a share buyback plan. it is a $1 billion of share repurchases -- so in terms of how the stock is trading in the after-hours, $60.99 was the last trade here, so that's a move higher.

looks like the stock buyback plan is taking attention away from the disappointing forecast. alix: lots more earnings to come. electronic arts announcing a buyback plan does that mean we see reflation due to financial engineering and not actual fundamentals? guest: absolutely not. stock buybacks are part of normal financing and a lot of people miss the bull market because everyone said it was fake numbers. those are real bottom line numbers and we are at an all-time record high of corporate profits. the other thing that is going on is m&a. we are having the biggest m&a run we have had since 2007. alix: is that a good thing? guest: this is different. mergers and acquisitions that make a lot of is this sense and the market is not missing it. that's why the market is up this

year. investors are missing how much our animal spirits or risk on is in this market. you need to be fully diversified. this has legs. guest: a lot of critics point to the buyback and say this is money thrown away or they have so much money they don't know what to do with. shareholders are owners in the company and should have some compensation whether it's paid in a dividend or buyback. these are actually improving the balance sheet of the company because it gives them the wherewithal when the economy is growing faster or they find any more capital, they can issue more shares. alix: doesn't that lead to week? -- to week --weak capx? guest: once to the economy is

bumping up against those constraints, businesses will spend money on these types of private investments. guest: one of your other guests said 80% of growth will come from outside the u.s. and europe . it's going to be in the emerging markets. you have to have capx to be in these countries. alix: speaking of m&a, mylan earnings are out. scarlet fu is at the breaking news desk with more. scarlet: an unrequited love triangle -- mylan actually says in its news release that it is committed to the legally binding commitment to acquire perry go. clearly it is not letting go of that one. in terms of the quarter that ended -- adjusted earnings per share, $.70, an increase from the same time a year ago but comes in lighter than what

analysts were looking for -- they were anticipating $.71. nonetheless for they are reaffirming their forecast for the full year. revenue was $1.87 billion. that comes in less than what analysts were looking for. they were expecting $ cory:. -- $2.5 billion. mylan says it's not changing its outlook and remains committed to six dollars in adjusted earnings or share i 2018. for the full year, it is not changing its outlook. alix: pioneer natural resource is our next. it looks a little ugly on first blush. julie: this is not normally a

company we would talk about but it was highlighted by david einhorn yesterday at the investment conference where he targeted the company and said he doesn't think it's a good investment. and the numbers as you see don't look like they are meeting expectations. the adjusted loss per share is three cents. analysts had been looking for earnings per share, a gain of six cents. the company's oil and gas revenue coming in well below estimates. the estimate was $709 million. the company says it's capex cost will be declining. pioneer also saying the sale of its eagle ford midstream business should be completed at some point in may and saying in the statement today, the ceo commenting that once that is complete, the company should be able to move forward with other

investments and do drilling on new wealth. on balance, does not look like a strong report and it looks like we see that reflected in the shares which are pulling back by more than 5%. alix: earnings from groupon are out. cory: analysts were wrong, big deal because analysts are often wrong. the numbers are worse -- the analysts were optimistic. what is more important is the sales figure. the expectation was groupon had not turned their business around and perhaps was hope in the future things were going to get better and sales would be higher. sales were lower. maybe more importantly against the comparison a year ago -- only $750 million this year.

they are selling your ticket business, which we knew, but they are guiding down numbers for the rest of the year and blaming it on losing the ticket business which they sold a few weeks ago. fundamentally come at this quarter was worse than analysts thought it was going to be and more importantly, worse than groupon thought it was going to be a year ago. alix: you are positive on earnings, but we keep eating negative headlines, especially when in comes to the stronger dollar eating into the growth of companies. guest: let's look at the dollar and let's look at oil prices. if you look at the past 30 years we have just come back to normal. why is normal bad? it was so low that it has just come back to the mean. oil prices, same thing. everyone was worried when oil $24 and we sit would normalize at around $68. the 30 year average is $42, so we see normalization in the

market, so we don't have anxiety about the dollar. net/net, some companies benefit from a higher dollar and some companies get hit. but we have positive earnings growth year over year. that is all i need. alix: we have herbalife earnings out. cory: i'm looking at a press relief -- the press release -- analysts thought things would be worse and the company puts her adjusted earnings per share at the adjust -- at the top of their press release, which i thought was against the rules of the sec. analysts estimates were smaller, so they are exceeding that. i'm going to continue to go through these numbers but they say sales and currency hit them by 4%. herbalife as a very peculiar way

of reporting numbers, not the least of which, putting the adjusted number ahead of the actual numbers. alix: herbalife, of course, the stock bill ackman hates. news corp. earnings coming across. julie: earnings coming in at five cents. analysts estimated seven cents. not a huge miss on the revenue side. the company saying the majority of its revenue decline, which was about a 1% decline, which -- was because of the stronger dollar. not just that, but a change in the phenomenal business with lower ad revenues at the news and information services segment. remember, news corporation drones -- news corp. owns the "wall street journal was quote and their digital publishing, it

brought harlequin enterprises, the romance novel publisher. those acquisitions helping to boost numbers during the quarter, but overall, it did not do enough to boost the top line and help it beat estimates. alix: everyone, thank you so much and breaking the earnings down. we will have more of those earnings after the break. lots more coming up. ♪

alix: herbalife earnings just crossing and the company raising its full-year guidance reporting and he -- recording a heat on earnings-per-share and the stock is really popping. what moved this stock so much? cory: i dig it was the big perception of the quarter was going to be a horrendous.

-- i think it was the big perception that the quarter was going to be her and us. one thing that has gotten attention is the stocking of distributors warehouses in mexico. there was a belief that maybe if there was a drawdown in that the restocking may not happen this quarter and that would lead to a week quarter instead. when we go region by region and look at what happened in terms of the change in sales, north america, down 9%, asia down 13%, mexico, very important, down 13%. south and central america, down 34%. china is the only place that was up and it was 21%. those kinds of declines in net sales are significant. that includes currency. they shoot -- they should say -- they say it should exclude currency. alix: what kind of growth are

they expecting the back half of the year? cory: they say things are going to get even better in the back half of the year. overall am a worldwide sales were down 12% year-over-year. it's better than expected, but still a business in decline. alix: we have will act men continue to come out and say this is a ponzi scheme and wants her own regulars to look at business practices, but does guidance like this -- and wants regulators to look at business practice, what does guidance like this say? cory: the ponzi scheme accusation and investigations thereof -- we know that they are in fact being looked at by a number of government authorities in a number of jurisdictions -- we will get an update either on the conference call and in the 10-q that they will probably file sometime this afternoon. the third thing is bill ackman

-- it's a fun narrative at bill ackman is a colorful guy, a rich new york guy and had fun -- hedge fund manager guy. a short seller versus the long seller guy -- carl icahn was part of the narrative. that's a different story and separate from what the company is doing. the company's results are the company's results. i will say this is one of the only companies i've ever seen of my life it changes their business practices after being accused of something by an investor on wall street. i've seen companies say this is how we do business or you are getting it wrong, but i cannot think of a company that says we are changing our tactics because of these attacks and our line item cost -- herbalife is a unique beast. alix: thank you for listening -- four talking about those issues. coming up let's raise a corona

forcing good my oh. we will hear the company behind these popular mexican beer brands coming up. plus i will speak to a semi conductor company on the future of wireless devices. ♪

alix: devon energy earnings are out. scarlet news is at the breaking news desk. scarlet: they are reporting corps etf's of $.22, shy of what analyst predicted. the average estimate was for $.25. it reduced its capital expenditures view, which is consistent with what we have heard with these big companies because of the plunging price of oil from a year ago. it is producing its production outlook going forward and sees

2015 production up between 25% and 35%. we care about devon because it is one of the big e&p companies and dan loeb began a position in the company saying the market undervalues its bnp business in the u.s. alix: interesting point. thank you so much. it is cinco de mayo. who wants a beer? constellation brands, the company behind popular mexican beers like corona rang the closing bell at the new york stock exchange. joining me now is the cfo. thank you for joining us. constellation is really betting on corona in a can, but consumers are dying for craft beers. how do you compete with that?

robert: we don't consider ourselves competing with craft. if you look at the beer category in general, the winners have been craft but we are growing almost as fast. last year, the beer category grew about 1% and we grew double digits so we are quite happy with where we stand. alix: craft beer accounts for about 19.3% of the u.s. market. how will corona in a can help offset that kind of growth? robert: we are not looking to offset craft. we think corona and it can has great growth opportunities. if the great taste of corona that you can take out on occasions that are not suitable for bottles -- take it to the park or volleyball games -- that's the purpose, to increase coroner's ubiquity. alix: what is your operating margin when it comes to a can versus a bottle and what have you been seeing?

>> we just relaunched the corona can. we changed the graphics. during the nba playoffs, we had quite a few commercials with cans. cans are less expensive than bottles. we take a lot of that cost savings and reinvest it in a brand. in some of the great media you see on tv to keep the brand top of mind and keep corona as one of the consumer's favorite beers. alix: you do have a planned remake the border -- you have a plant where you make the beer just across the border. robert: it is our one and only beer manufacturing ability. when it is done, it will be one of the newest largest, most efficient breweries in the world and we are thrilled to have it. alix: thank you for your insight. coming up the cinco de mayo

celebration continues. tequila fans know agave is just as important as the line and salt. ♪

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i feel like i've been here before. switch now and get the fastest wifi everywhere. comcast business. built for business. alix: stocks selling off today. the s&p 500 recording his biggest loss since march and a ton of action after the bell. let's get to scarlet fu who is looking at these crazy headlines. scarlet: jeffrey dunlop making some comments at a presentation at the new york yacht club thomas saying the federal reserve may not raise interest rates this year because of the u.s. dollar strength. the stronger dollar has exacerbated the plunging oil prices and made our >> -- made our exports less competitive and slow down the economy even as it supposed to give more money to consumers. he says the fed may not raise rates this year.

he says the fed is being guided by the dollar and there are still three or four years left of the strong dollar trend. that means the fed will need to push out its timeline for liftoff. he says he strongly believes gold will reach $1400 by the end of the year. gold right now not anywhere near that. it was around $1190. it headed south even as it moved its way there through quite a bit of volatility. let's get to the movers in after-hours trading. mylan, a generic drug maker trying to resist a takeover bid from its rival and at the same time pursuing its own bid to buy a company. a rise in 6% but it missed analysts asked immense -- analysts estimates. it does reaffirm its forecast

for the year and says it remains committed. alix: we want to get back to a story we broke in the last hour -- microsoft said to be evaluating a bid for salesforce.com. the cloud company was approached by a rival firm. joining me on the firm is a ubs software analyst. what do you think about this possibility of microsoft evaluating a bid for salesforce. guest: it is a possibility. we highlighted it as the one that makes the most sense. it would certainly accelerate the move to their $20 billion target to the cloud. they don't have great service support. they also have an incredible platform that customers have been building custom applications on that would complement many of the apps.

they pick up $9 billion of contracted backlog, but the challenges probably outweigh the pros. we have never seen a deal this large anywhere. i think integration would be very difficult. salesforce uses a lot of oracle products. would you swap those out for microsoft? most notably, what would mark benioff do afterwards? alix: we see about $3 billion or $4 billion added to its market cap. do you think it is now overpriced eschew mark -- overpriced? guest: no. it is still below our price target. it has had a short-term big run and stocks that a big run for the year. we believe that risk factor is nothing happens.

you still have upside, but not of magnitude. alix: thank you so much. little skeptical of microsoft and a bid for salesforce. for more, the ceo of integrated device technology joins me rum san francisco. they are the maker behind the 4g lte technology. he basically makes the stuff that goes into servers and network equipment. what do you think about microsoft making a bid for salesforce? guest: this is about the future and expansion of the cloud platform and whether you have apps and whether you have a form on which you can run third party apps and how fast can you grow it before the others have it added?

this is a phenomenal market share or time increasing opportunity. the question is whether it is too large, whether it would be a cultural fit whether it could be pulled off early in the ceos tenure. it's all very valid concerns, but the opportunity is there. the question is can you surmount the odds to make the opportunity a reality? alix: you run a global tech company. how would you feel if you had microsoft going in there buying salesforce and disrupting these other cloud players? guest: i will comment on that specifically but if you look at the overall consolidation and tack, it's healthy for the industry. look at what that has meant to our own industry and semi conductors. there's been quite a bit of consolidation in the industry.

it creates a stable and healthy ecosystem, which is good ultimately for consumers and profitability. quite a bit of consolidation in thealix: asia is a big that for you. we just saw xiaomi release its phone. what is the demand you see from asia eschew mark guest: -- from asia? guest: our business is very much a global business, so if you take a look at what we do, we supply all the core technology or a great deal of it that makes the mobile internet work. whatever your 4g phone is, any voice call, text message photo you may transmit or youtube video you made download around the world, 100% of that traffic goes through idt chips in one way, shape, or form. we've made a big that on the continued growth of mobile data and we think it's a segment that will outgrow the industry for a long time. guest: to that and on your asia

telecom infrastructure business, are you getting mixed trends -- can you touch a little bit on what is happening on the lte rollout in the u.s. and in china? guest: we supply directly to that and if you look at how the business has trended over the last two and half years, it has a great run. it has been widely reported amanda met sector has taken a pause. we think that is temporary and to put it in perspective, if you look at the 4g rollout seven point 5 billion people on the planet, only about a billion people have access to 4g technology. we think that will correct itself and there are long legs for expansion in the future. alix: another part of your business is wireless charging. can you talk about us -- can you

talk about the potential of this market? guest: we are a pioneer in this area called wireless charging. if you look in the future, the easiest way to think about it is most of us are having a hard time getting through a day with a single charge on our smartphones. if that can charge on the desk, what we recently announced with a partnership with ikea or starbucks or marriott's it is an obvious advantage, but we think it goes beyond that. if you take a look at led lighting, there are ways to power many different devices. we are an early mover in the market and we think it's one of the very vague ideas for the next several years. alix: unfortunately, we have to leave it there.

thank you very much. we do have breaking news -- let's get back to scarlet fu in the newsroom. scarlet: pepsico expects to return a .5 billion dollars to shareholders through a dividend and buybacks. after the dividend, it is raising the dividend payout to 70.25 cents -- it's very much in line with what the dividend team anticipated. pepsico under pressure from activist investors to do more, namely split up its is this or return cash to shareholders. alix: a lot more coming up. the first woman to become a four-star general in the united states -- her life, her career after the break. ♪

alix: my next guest spent her lives on the frontline in battle and remains on the front line when it comes to advancing opportunities for working women. general ann dunwoody served in the u.s. army and oversight budget of $60 million and commanded 69,000 individuals across the world. her new book is entitled "a higher standard." the phase the coo sheryl sandberg says in the forward -- i concluded my book with the hope that in the future there would be no e-mail leaders, just leaders. i did not know and -- i did not know ann when i wrote that -- alix: you are very intimidating to have onset, i must say. general dunwoody: it's great to

be here. alix: you wanted to be a gymnast and coach, how did you wind up a four-star general? general dunwoody: i was a tomboy and i loved sports. i decided i was going to be a coach and went to one of the best schools in the country for physical education and the army was trying to come -- trying to recruit women after vietnam. they made me a deal -- $500 a month during my senior year in college. it was a two-year commitment and they would teach me to jump out of airplanes. i thought it was a two-year detour. alix: what made you stay? general dunwoody: in my very first assignment, i was surprised at how much i enjoyed being a soldier and leading soldiers. i had a wonderful first platoon sergeant who taught me as a second lieutenant what it it looked like and that the army was about good leaders, not female platoon leaders but good

leaders. because of him, i found out what a passion i had for being in the army. i told my dad i'm going to stay in this business as long as i loved it and can make a difference. alix: $60 billion -- that's three times as much the market cap of gap. 69,000 people -- you are basically running a very large fortune 500 company. what was that like? general dunwoody: awesome and daunting at the same time. ira member reading the mission statement and realized the army had trained me for this job through professional development, leadership assignment, through coaching and mentoring. i thought i'm prepared for this and then i went out to other businesses and ceos and talked to them to see how they run their businesses and got best business practices. alix: what would does best

practices be? am going to highlight marissa mayer at yahoo! -- what would be best practices for a woman trying to turn a company around? general dunwoody: there's a combination -- business practice and best practices. the army is not known for running a business. it is a war fighting organization, so adopting their practices by streamlining, divesting sectors that are no longer relevant or getting into businesses that are the future. things as simple as never walk in by mistake. think about how many businesses get in trouble for doing that. second, creating a strategic vision for your organization where every employee, think

about 69,000 employees -- if everyone came to work every day and new how important he or she was to the accomplishment of the mission, how powerful that would be. alix: food for thought. you're going to stay with me. today, president obama proposed the next chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. ♪

alix: still with me is general ann dunwoody. in her new book, she writes that "after managing 69,000 employees, one thing is clear -- there is a higher standard that provides the foundation upon which every effective leadership journey is built -- president barack obama nominated

joseph dunford as the leader of the joint chiefs of staff. what is your advice? general dunwoody: he has had all the right jobs, he's been deployed, but never forget the soldier. that is who we are there to support. the men and women serving who worked so hard, they are the most important thing in our lives and as we make decisions, we can never forget the impact on them. alix: the army budget for this year is $631.2 billion. is that enough mark -- is that enough? general dunwoody: i think you've heard it leaders say that it's not. i think you have seen it happen -- after world war ii, vietnam we have had all of these disasters -- high funding dramatic cuts, reduction of forces. it is a dangerous world out there and soldiers, airmen and

marines -- alix: and it's dangerous at the home front. what can the u.s. do to be better prepared against the islamic state? solve the world's problems. general dunwoody: in my book, i mention continuing the conversation. we have to identify the enemy's whether it's an ideology, we had to name it so we can fight it. we have been elusive about that. what we call extreme is a man what we call terrorism, what we call -- when we had communism, we knew who we were fighting and what we were fighting. now there are a lot of words thrown out there and it difficult. alix: it is such a pleasure to have you on set. her new book -- coming up, we

are talking about tequila. stay with us. ♪

alix: $2.1 billion -- that is how much tequila sold last year according to the distilled spirits council of america. to celebrate this and cinco de mayo, i'm joined by a tequila master who was honored recently by the commission of tequila and mexico for her work educating the world on the history of this spirit. happy to have you here on cinco de mayo. guest: it is an honor to be here. thank you very much. alix: how did you become a master of tequila? guest: i started in the industry about 17 years ago and i fell in love because it's heart of our

culture and heritage in mexico. i was the first generation of master of tequila in mexico because it goes generation to generation. eight years ago, the university one of the universities in mexico started this officially, so i became the first generation. alix: what has been the growth change of tequila? what is the hottest product? guest: right now, we have a premium tequila that was born in 1995. every year, this edition is 100% blue agave, extra aged tequila. it has to be a minimum two months in a small barrel.

then we have one that is more than one year. alix: what kind of high-stakes today carry? guest: about $150. it's presented in boxes painted by mexican artists so every year, it is collectible. alix: how have the drinkers changed? who are you trying to appeal to? craft beer has become very sexy. what is it like in the tequila market? guest: you know what is happening is people are looking for unique things. they want to share the culture so people know more about spirits. they love tequila. now there are trendy things for the people -- older people love

this tequila. alix: how has the maturation process changed for tequila? guest: before the 60's, only white tequila. we started using barrels of scotch whiskey. right now, we prepare our own barrels to do our tequila, so we are improving and we are the first to do this since 1995. alix: what has been the biggest driver? guest: the people who are anxious to know about these products this is what i think the people want. alix: education has driven consumer matt? -- the consumer part. thank you for educating me. that wraps it up for "street smart."

tomorrow, we will talk about greece and the u.k. elections. "with all due respect" is next. ♪

>> bloomberg politics presents -- it's the heaviest jamming and the wildest ripping. >> are farmers and ranchers provide food and fiber. >> it all goes down at the university of arkansas community college. with special opening acts tony orlando.