tv Mad Money CNBC February 4, 2010 11:00pm-12:00am EST
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show's beginning five years ago, sometimes you do need a madman to find the rationality when it isn't in your screen or on your paper or on your tv. so let's make some sense of today's decline. i think there's some money to be made here in all of this panic. especially because no one has ever made a dime panicking. and i saw trillions of dollars, quadrillions of -- well, that's how many dimes i saw obliterated in today's panic. first, does it make sense that everything went down? on any given day it can make some sense, right? we were up huge last year, right?
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we're aware there are major problems out there. our budget deficit is terrible. china is slowing down. these countries we never thought could impact us but fortunately because we have kids in school, we knew the geography of, greece, spain, portugal, are triggering big declines because their governments are impoverished. they're spending too much money. hey, so is our government. so therefore the world comes to an end? uh-uh. i am not disagreeing with what we saw on our screens today. it happened. i am simply here to draw a distinction between the notion of observation and the notion of explanation. i can make the observation all you want that because oil is down, gold is down. i can observe that the dollar is up, oil is down. but you know what, that's just me looking at the screen. hearing the chatter. it explains nothing. and as i knew from my hedge fund when i used to work with people i would say hey, look, the dollar is up, gold is down well, tell me something i don't know. tell me something that can make me money tomorrow. what explains this wholesale selloff today is more complicated. much more complicated than the oil boom connected to the gold
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boulgmented 6 -- bone. that kind of logic isn't logical. to understand it, we have to do a little quick history. i want you to go back to 2008, early days of 2009. the last time we saw this kind of violent reaction. that was instruction. a common mistake to say is because something trades at a given level, it's right. was it right that oil traded at $147. was it right that it traded at $33 soon after? was it right that wells fargo, $27 right now, trade the at $7 last year? was it correct that ford at $11 right now traded at $1 and change a year ago. should apple at $192 traded at $82 a year ago? in a word, no. but when you think of the things not in terms of the fundamentals of given stock bus rather the fundamentals of the business of
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money management that i am from, that i am spawned by, then i can make it clearer for you. when i first started trading stocks 30 years ago, we measured a stock by the prospects of the underlying company, what its earnings might be, what the company might be worth to another company. to an acquirer. how much a cash does it have? listen, i would love to tell you it's -- i would love to tell you it's up to date. i just reread it a couple of years ago, but it doesn't work on days like today. it can work but not on days like today. see, when we decided to lump stocks into gigantic baskets. we linked all stocks together in what's known as an asset class and they started on days like today to trade together. whether the prospects were good or bad, positive or negative. of course, this turned stocks into one big commodity as if it
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was corn or wheat. corn is a lot like corn. wheat in minnesota is a lot like wheat in pennsylvania. but you know what? it doesn't work like that for stocks except when they're in baskets. we didn't limit this to one country. one by one, other countries decided they were wheat and corn. stock markets were commoditized. but things happened along the way. money managers, hedge fund managers were also able to pool vast amounts of money together. amounts of money so large they dwarfed individual stocks. they can't buy individual stocks. they'll end up owning the whole stock. they don't want to do that. so what did they do? they gravitated to the baskets and the futures markets that trade them. they can get in and out. they have what's known as liquidity. and the chief managers, chiefly global hedge fund managers, as i once was, so i know it, developed a group think. if they see gold go up, they buy gold. if they see gold go up, they buy oil. this is the kind of nonsense. they buy the dollar when gold
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goes down. they all trade in sync. that's what you saw today. the height of this group think occurred in 2008 when so many bought and sold the exact same companies and they did it with borrowed money. when many were whip sawed by events they didn't see coming they had to sell, sell, sell. and everything they had, they sold. because they were what's known as being positioned wrongly. they had to sell, why? their very survival was at stake. that's what hurt your portfolio. their survival hurt you. i said it was going to create fabulous buying opportunities. while many stocks deserved to go down, not everything deserved to go down. that's like today, isn't it? and they certainly didn't all deserve to go down. that's like today. after that ridiculous unwind, i was a bit of a pollyanna. i thought we were done with those nonsense. that smarter people would take their money away from these jokers, but they didn't. that was just wishful thinking.
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after a nice, quiet strong market to bring back the benjamin graham book, please. what we saw was a return of 2008, hedge funds gone wild. suddenly we're learning of credit default swaps of spain. i'm sorry, i would rather know of the credit default swaps of the hedge funds that blew up. i do care about washington and beijing. so hedge funds sold. they sold everything like they did back then. they're piling into cash. that's why your screen looked like it did. does it make sense? they had to, right? maybe it makes sense for next week if the employment number is bad. could be it makes sense if the hedge funds go wild. it took some stocks way, way below where they ever show gone. think at ford at $1.50. was that ford's fault? it was the hedge fund's fault. they can turn in losses for a lot of reasons while unnatural ones of hedge funds gone wild. what do you do? you let it play out. look for the same kinds of bargains we found then.
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companies that had low yields that became accidental high ones. cisco should have been up huge. you saw that before the market went out of control. but most of all, be skeptical of how stocks trade and how commodities trade. what you saw today isn't a referendum on the fundamentals of the different companies you own in your portfolio. but the culmination of a series of mistakes by the big hedge funds gone wild that now have to sell everything to preserve their own businesses. their preservation of business hurt your capital. the bottom line -- use the hedge funds paying for your gain, not your panic. just like we did with the big commodity stocks in 2008 and the accidental high yielders in 2009. companies with dividends that were rock solid but the stocks were knocked down by weaknesses in the shareholder base.
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the hedge funds. the hedge funds gone wild. we can't have their panic turn into our panic. we need to profit from them, not vice versa. and if that's the only takeaway you ever get from "mad money." it's darn good one. let's go to don in pennsylvania. don? >> caller: boo-yah from pennsylvania. >> we whipped them in 1972 on an october day where i was -- never mind. that's a long time ago. >> caller: okay. thanks for talking about limited partnerships in the energy sector. i use them for income. i got a question. last week, hgt and pbt both paid their monthly dividend, but it was only around 10 cents. but around the dividend, both stocks took a dive of like 50 cents and $1 and then rocketed back up a day or two later about a dollar each. which is way more than the 10 cent dividend they're paying.
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>> those stocks trade on the future prospects of the dividend which is why i've been recommending permian trust. let's remember, we like long-lived assets and we like mlps. if you really want the safety, don't go with those. go with kinder morgan partners. let's go to jim in new hampshire. jim? >> caller: hey, double bubble boo-yah, jim. >> i was going to give you a live for your die boo-yah. i like the double-bubble. >> i just got stopped out of my position in amt. do you think i can get back in at lower levels? >> yes, i do. when i started the year, i talked about themes, themes that were going to last us through 2010 and one of them is the notion of your cell phone dropping calls and therefore they need more towers and infrastructure. american tower is deep within it. it's why we buy stocks that are down that are part of the
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broader themes. i think you'll get a chance to buy it lower because this market is headed lower for now. >> jim, a southern new hampshire b-b-b-boo-yah. >> i like that boo-yah pop i'm bullish on the fashion sector. i already own steve madden and am looking at adding limited, urban outfitters. or true religs. i like -- >> what are your thoughts? >> true religion, ixnay. limited is okay. i don't like the growth. why don't we start thinking about tjx. they deliver once again. that was the single best comp number i have seen other than nordstroms. want high end, go nordstrom. low end, tjx. tjx is rock solid. did a lot of work on it today. dow down 268. you' got to use the pain of the hedge funds that created this to get the gain for you. it doesn't happen overnight. we buy on scales. want to buy 200 shares of a stock marked down. tomorrow you buy 50.
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our gain, their loss. "mad money" back after the break. coming up, cosmetic cash? could a botox boom held this company ride the recovery? cramer is talking to allergan's ceo to find out. and later, all eyes on tech. can the semiconductors continue to connect your portfolio with profits? cramer is going one-on-one with novellus' ceo on "the executive decision." plus, natural trash? could this company turn trash into cash? kramer is going head to head with the coo to find out. all coming up on "mad money".
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>> i don't know, could it really be -- oh we're down 260 today. i shouldn't be focused on botox. i like to look at companies whose stocks were able to go higher. can you imagine how good they are? they can get some lift in spite of the hair-trigger selling. and you know what? today you lost money if you own gold, oil, you lost money if you owned a stock in portugal or here. but you made money if you owned the brand botox. the one that offered superior breast implants. you made money if you owned allergen. who knows where it would have been if it weren't for the rain in spain and portugal for that matter. it didn't stay on the darn plain like it was supposed to it, it hit us on wall street. that's right, allergen was up. why? beautiful quarter. no wrinkles on it. and boy does this company know about beauty. allergen is a terrific drug
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company that has the best medical aesthetic companies in the world. they make botox, derma-filler, as well as eye care drugs that make you feel bet e, not just feel better. to treat glaucoma, dry eye, infections and allergies. this is a great recovery play, if you believe, as i do, the wheels of commerce are driven or at least greeced by our desire to look younger and more attractive. well, we love the aesthetics, it's the eye business that fascinates me. it represented 47% of sales in 2009. so far this year, we had two big eye deals priced at levels that suggested alllergen is seriously undervalued. nestle and abbott buying advanced medical optics.
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if you value allergen's eye business, then it would be $9.3 billion. back out that low ball eye care number, the market is paying $7.7 billion for the rest of allergen, which is the majority of the company. allergen's ceo has put his money where his mouth is. he bought stock in november of 2008 at $38.35. he's got cred and that's why i wanted to hear from him on a really bad day. >> hi, jim. it was indeed a great looking quarter for what you described as a good-looking company. >> i got to agree. any stock that can be up and buck the trend today is pretty amazing. a lot of people said, a lot of people told me when you get into the great recession you had, first thing people do is stop spending the money, the big money to look as good as they did.
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they're going to start saving it for the basics. that was a lie, wasn't it? >> yep, it's all weathered the storm very well. and of course, in the depths of the recession, it was our reimburse business, the great eye business that pulled us through. and then we saw of all the categories, botox was the most resilient. and then less so dermal fillers and then high-ticket items, breast implants was the one that was most affected. and now you can see it all flipping around. we had the medical device business, the cash-pay business going from negative to positive in the fourth quarter. and some nice numbers where we look at, say, dermal fillers, 18% growth. >> one of the things that has happened that has really made me focus on your eye care business, and candidly i wasn't focused on it, were these two big transactions, the alcon transaction and the abbott transaction.
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have you ever thought that your eye care business, that your actually health care eye care business should be a separate company? i've got to tell you, it's really buried within a lot of other great things and no one is giving you the value for it? >> well, i've often to spoken to investors that they need to step back and look at the value of eye care. 21% growth worldwide isn't shabby. but i think it does fit well into the allergen portfolio because each of these is about being specialized and focused around a finite group of customers. as we have it in our portfolio, some six vertical businesses, that's something a management team can get their hands around. >> there's a guy we've had on the show, he is your competitor. he's got this thing lled dysport, an injectable anti-wrinkle drug and it comes in under the price of botox. makes me worried that you have some serious competition that
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should mean that your gross margins could go down on the future in botox. am i out of line? >> yes, i think you are. there's nothing new about dysport. it's been around in europe for as long as we have, about 20 years. we've competed very successfully with them over there. and looking at the market share development it's been pretty tough for them in the united states. they're kind of bouncing around to low double digit market share. i remarked on my call that it looks like it's leveling off. although we do take it very seriously, because it's not a bad product. >> right. and if people go over the conference call, you can hear a frank discussion of the competition. it was not brushed off. and i appreciate that. you dodged a bullet this year in congress. there was a botox tax that looked like it was coming our way. at the last minute, we ended up getting a tanning tax. can you talk about protests of
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how congress dealt with your product and how you were able to turn the tide against a botox tax? >> well, this unfortunately was very last minute. no accident that it was the very last page of the health care reform bill. and we immediately jumped on it. we organized a grassroots campaign and a website. it was called stopcosmetictax.org and there was literally an outpouring from our community, not just the doctors, but particularly the consumers. in seven working days, 20,000 mail pieces were sent to the u.s. senate. and i think after the outpouring, they realized that it was not a good idea and the bo tax went away as fast as it appears. >> wasn't it sexist? >> it was indeed. this was originally conceived to be against the lady shopping in park avenue or rodeo drive. but this was aimed right at the working mother. and that is isn't a popular factor when it all -- when the
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truth comes out. >> last time you were on the show, you talked about a product and i was skeptical because i didn't think it would be as big as you said. this eyelash growing, latisse. is it working out? has it panned out the way you said on the show? >> very much so. every quarter was sequentially higher. we closed the year just over 70 million. in the, 74 million in sales. people have remarked they've seen a lot of brook shields in general, but particularly in our ads on tv. this is a main line consumer-style launch. and we've pegged this one at in excess of $500 million in global peak sales. the other thing that's great about latisse sit's brought in a
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completely new category of consumer into medical aesthetics. younger consumers and there's very little to be learned. it's like applying a liquid eyeliner. we're very excited. this is another category builder for the company and fits just perfectly with botox, juviderm and for the breast aesthetics as well. >> people said your company would be the worst to suffer because it was luxury. you said it wasn't. you were right. i our investors who watch the show are most gratified. thank you for coming on the show. congratulations on a monster good quarter and stock that's higher on the worst day we've had since april of last year. coming up, all eyes on tech. can the semiconductors continue to connect your portfolio with profits? cramer is going one-on-one with novellus ceo on "the executive decision." and later, natural trash? could this company turn trash into cash? cramer is going head to head with waste management coo to find out. ( whooshing )
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i want you to think about a company called novellus. this is a company i followed for ages. a semiconductor equipment manufacture that makes the gear chip maker needed to produce more chips. when the semis begin to make lows of money, they turn around and spend it. last night novellus reported a genuine upside surprise as we predicted. it's probably not a surprise for us, but no one else predicted it. today the stock took a 4.4% pounding. but it's still just a stock and they're all going down. the panic has given the opportunity -- why speculative, this is not a company like a cereal company. it has some of what we call beta. i think it should be higher, not considerably lower. it beat wall street's consensus by 6 cents. revenues were better than expected. guidance was better than expected. we heard a lot of things that made me feel real good about
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novellus. some of that is fuelled by windows 7. how about security spending? massive demand for electronics in the developing world. by the way, that's six times larger than the developed world. spending could be up 60%, 70% in 2010. that's a lot of upside. this is an integral part of the tech food chain. and that's why i want to familiarize yourself with it. it's really important. no better way to find out about it than talking to richard hill, the chairman and ceo of novellus to learn more about his company and the overall industry. mr. hill, welcome for the first time to "mad money." great to have you. >> thank you very much, jim. great to be here. >> a lot of people here, semiconductor equipment. semiconductor equipment maker. they don't understand what goes in.
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i go into an intel factory, let's say, what do i see? >> you see big large equipment that either spray down a paint or they etch off a paint or they clean off a wafer. >> and i cannot make a semiconductor that goes into my pc without using a novellus machine or something just like it? >> not possible. >> all right, i think that's important. one of the things that's missing is we take it for granted all these companies are the same. now, it is true that you do have some powerful competitors including applied materials. so you have to not only have the pie grow but you have to take a share of the pie, right? >> you show me any market there's a big opportunity, i show you competitors and we continue to take a big piece of that pie. >> one of the things i loved -- i got to ask everyone to go over this conference call. most of the time the analysts just want to talk about well, what's the latest in copper.
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how have you taken 1% share away. you talk about a triangle. a triangle that reminds me of the larger themes that i like to talk about the show, particularly on down days of emerging markets, of terrorism as a theme. of gadgets as a theme. can you talk about the three legs of the triangle and why we should not give up on a stock like novellus just because the market is down 260 points on a given day. >> you just hit the reason why high technology is where you need to be. if you look at what's happening today, i haven't seen the semiconductor opportunity be as good since the mid 90s. the reality is we've got a great infrastructure rebuild with windows 7 going aggressively all the corporate spending. you've got a value proposition for people to make i.t. investments. they're making it.
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second leg of the triangle, always fear, uncertainty and doubt. governments are pouring huge amounts of money into cybersecurity. it's all driven by semiconductor technology. and finally, you can't have a complete dynamic market without the consumer. and this time around, it's going to be the chinese consumer. they're consuming six times as much of the electronics being bought today as the developed economies are today. and that's a big opportunity and we can't ignore it. >> now one of the things we hear endlessly is wait a second, china is put on the brakes. why is mr. hill talking about china as a consumption place. could you also help us with some common sense and explain that if a market goes from 11% growth to 8% growth that does not mean the chinese have rediscovered tin cups and phones? >> exactly. i think that, you know, the chinese have been prudent in trying to slow down a little bit of the housing market in order to avoid a bubble. but make no mistake about it. from a standpoint of consumerization, it's hit china. >> now, let's talk about when you said things were last this good. i agree with all the analysts that have come on. this may be the last good quarter. what was going on in the '90s and what was going on now that makes these two periods look alike. you can make money quarter after quarter.
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>> i've been reading these guys longer than you have. the reality of the situation was we had the internet buildout. that was a big driver. but that wasn't it. the other fear and uncertainty leg of the triangle was really y2k. everybody feared airplanes were going to fall out of the sky, cars were going to stop. we all needed new
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microprocessors. big deal. finally it was the personalization of the computer. we took it out of the office, put it into the home. today, almost the same. this time we've got an infrastructure that's scrumable crumbling. you drive around new york city your phone drops out at an unbelievable rate. that's all infrastructure. cisco announced positive -- that's more proof to the fact that infrastructure is continuing to come up. on that second leg of the triangle, that fear, uncertainty
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and doubt is again fear of planes falls out of the sky. you saw what happens on christmas day. can you imagine barack obama talking to his people saying how can a guy walk into the u.s. embassy, tell us that his kid is a terrorist, how kev the cia over here tell us that he's gone to an afghanistan training camp, then he shows up at the airport with cash in his pocket, no coat, going to detroit in the winter and we let him on the plane. what do you think the answer is? the answer is these systems don't communicate. and what do you think they're going to do, they're going to make them communicate. >> the answer is technology, which is why we have said one of the biggest teams will be anti-terrorism. you are integral, even though we don't think of it. but we better start think of it as novellus is integral play. thanks so much for coming on the show. >> thank you. it's been great to be here. i know this industry, all right? this is integral to the next layers. these are big things for 2010. and let's remember, they're throwing everything away here. maybe you ought to think about a company that reported a dynamite quarter on the worst day of the year. novellus is a winner. stay with cramer. coming up, the clock is ticking. call cramer at 1-800-743-cnbc for the "the lightning round."
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even on a down day, do you know what time it's for? for "the lightning round." here we take call, you say the name of a stock and i tell you whether to buy, buy, buy or sell, sell, sell. >> i don't know the callers ahead of time. when you hear this, the lightning round is over. are you ready, ski-daddy? andrew in new york. >> caller: boo-yah cramer how you doing? >> i'm doing fine. how about you? >> caller: not too bad. your boys at goldman upgraded mcdonald's. my question is what about burger king? they beat the street today. if they have days like these, we're all going to be eating at burger king? >> well, i have to say svelte, but i hear you. mcdonald's wasn't an upgrade. it was a move to the conviction
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buy. it caused the stock to go up $1 and the stuck gave up a buck. i prefer mcdonald's to burger king. why? because of yield and international. mcdonald's is the better of the two. alex in massachusetts. alex? >> caller: big boo-yah to you, jim. >> i'm giving a boo-ya h-back to you. we were talking about the patriots-ravens game, do you remember the first half? this is what the markets felt like today. that was mean, i'm sorry, out of line. >> caller: the stock i'm calling about is microsystems, mcrs. >> you know, this is a niche play, a technology niche play. global hospitality business. i still haven't reviewed the unbelievable starwood quarter today. everyone tells me i have to. but this kind of thing is too niche for me. i'm going to send you to cisco. why? because this very morning we heard cisco say good things. it's inexpensive. why should i fool around with
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something that's too speculative. i'm going to go to ryan in my home state of pennsylvania. >> cramer, boo-yeah from temple university. >> where my mom and dad went. boo-yah. >> caller: what do you think about allied irish banks, aib. >> you're really rolling the dice with that one? i remember i used to own a huge percentage of that after i had been to ireland twice and felt it was the greatest thing since sliced bread. but ireland has lost all fiscal discipline. i don't think so. citi, back to that level where i like to buy it. nancy in florida. >> caller: boo-yah, jim. campbell soup. >> you know, kind of okay. it's really been stuck at the same level. used to be a big position. campbell's, hershey's and heinz. i'm okay saying they're fine, but i like growth.
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that's why i prefer proctor and gamble. let's go to lou in vermont. >> caller: cramer, my man. this is lou up in vermont and i want to throw you out a big green mountain sticky sweet syrup boo-yah. >> i see your green mountain and i raise you a green mountain roaster. what do you have? >> caller: frontier communication. >> i feel better with win, frontier is now 13. when i see 13%, i throw the red flag. i am entitled to have challenges. i get a couple of challenges before i expired. i'm challenging that play right now. and i am worried. i would rather see you in win. and unfortunately, much to my chagrin, down 260-point day, the lightning round is over!
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hi, ellen! hi, ellen! hi, ellen! hi, ellen! we're going on a field trip to china! wow. [ chuckles ] when i was a kid, we -- we would just go to the -- the farm. [ cow moos ] [ laughter ] no, seriously, where are you guys going? ni hao! ni hao! ni hao! ni hao! ni hao! ni hao! ni hao! ni hao! ni hao! ni hao! ni hao! ni hao! [ female announcer ] the new classroom. see it. live it. share it. on the human network. cisco.
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i was active, eating healthy. i thought i was in great shape. so i was surprised when my doctor told me i still had high cholesterol. that really hit me, and got me thinking about my health. i knew i had to get my cholesterol under control. but exercise and eating healthy weren't enough for me. now i trust my heart to lipitor. (announcer) when diet and exercise are not enough, adding lipitor has been shown to lower bad cholesterol 39 to 60%. lipitor is backed by over 17 years of research.
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lipitor is not for everyone, including people with liver problems and women who are nursing, pregnant or may become pregnant. you need simple blood tests to check for liver problems. tell your doctor if you are taking other medications or if you have any muscle pain or weakness. this may be a sign of a rare but serious side effect. i thought i was doing enough to lower my cholesterol. but i needed more help. what are you doing about yours? (announcer) have a heart to heart with your doctor about your cholesterol. and about lipitor. >> i know, tough day. but you know what, we' got to keep thinking about ideas. tonight we're sitting down with larry o'donnell, the chief operating officer of waste management.
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20 million customers, 267 land fills. this is a steady business. boy, you know, we like that. with a 4% yield, we like that even more. tell you what i look for on these down days. but what few may know is that waste management is, in fact, a pioneer when it comes to alternative energy. and it's our absolutely favorite fuel source on mad money? natural gas. waste management's land fill to gas energy properties generated enough power for 400,000 homes every day, something that offsets almost 2 million tons of coal a year. so i say two thumb's up. the company has 110 of these facilities that harness energy by the natural decomposition of waste. then there's the fleet of trucks, forward looking. waste management has the largest alternative fuel fleet of any company with 425 trucks running
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on clean burning compressed natural gas or liquid natural gas. how much do you wish the truck that picks up your trash has that instead of the diesel that i smell. it also reduces greenhouse gas emissions dramatically. if we created a nation to produce gas like this, we would create 2.3 million jobs. waste management's o'donnell should have a unique perspective on what we need to do to create a genuine recovery, giving that he's appearing on cbs's undercover where he worked as an entry-level work at his own company. a ground level view how it really works. the show premiers this sunday after the super bowl. i've seen it and it's hard for me to say anything is good on another network, but it's pretty amazing. i think it has impact on the company and the stock itself. let's talk to the first undercover boss, larry o'donnell. ceo of waste management. mr. o'donnell, welcome to "mad money." >> how are you?
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>> have a seat. waste management, i always think of it as a dirty company, but it's not. you do a lot to preserve the environment, and it makes you money. we are stuck in this notion that if you do something to preserve the environment or clean the air, it costs money. explain to me how waste is making money and doing the right thing? >> well, what we want to do is -- you know, the thing we collect, they have value. and we want to maximize the value of everything we collect. we either want to take it, recycle it and put it into new products, put it out there, back into the stream of commerce, or we want to make energy out of it, just like you were describing. >> now, when you do -- when you made your decision, we had a fellow by the name of boone pickens on, talking about the possibility of a chain of gas stations. and all they could say was you should ask waste management, if you ever get a chance -- of course we immediately called you. ask waste management about how well natural gas as a fuel works. people don't believe us. does it work?
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>> it works great. it burns very clean. one of our land fills in california, we actually put a facility out there, we're capturing the gas and converting it to liquid natural gas to power our trucks. >> just tell me the savings. it looks if other people had the forward-looking notion, and maybe even a tax credit, i don't know about that, but you make -- you save a lot of money by using the fuel, don't you? >> we do. we save money on the fuel. there's a large expense -- >> up front. >> capital expense and putting in the fuelling stations. and then the trucks themselves, the maintenance is higher. >> really? than on a regular truck? >> yes, it is. >> i did not know about that negative. that's important. talk to me about how the company itself is dealing -- i'm not talking about the quarter end, dealing with the fact that we have been in the great recession. it has been said over and over again there is some cyclicality to the business but the economy is getting better. >> jim, we are in a quiet period. >> has business gotten better around the country? >> i read the same reports that
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you are reading. i can't really talk about that right now. >> fair enough. let's talk about the show. i'm a shareholders. le let's say i am. the show is about how management treats workers. it is very clear to me that i want people to work very hard. i want people to do more with less. but you were in the trenches. that isn't always right for the people who work for the company. >> i think most employees show up wanting to work hard and do a good job. they want to feel appreciated and like they have a voice. i really thought that would
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create a better engagement throughout the country. >> at the same time, everybody needs a raise, everybody needs to make more money. don't you feel like the tension is how do you give people more money? >> we found, jim c we pauked our employees at the beginning of last year when we saw the economy going south and we sad we have got figure out how we are going to get through this. if we can find ways to make our company more efficient we can save peoples' jobs and hopefully grow the company and create jobs. our work force came up with great ideas that ended up saving
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us over $120 million in annual savings and we got there because everybody chip ped in. >> what did you learn from going with the people. to clean porta-potties, pick trash up off the side, using a stick to pick card board out. what did you learn as a manager to make your company better? >> so many things. first of all we have an incredible pork force. everywhere i went people really wanted me to be successful. >> you admitted that you didn't do a good job. >> it was the first time in my career that i have ever been fired and i hope it's the last. >> one last question. >> about a year ago. >> throughout we heard from people saying they department
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your feet to the fire and you changed. name me one change that waste management did that came out of the show. >> one thing that we did, i found a lot of things that were causing just unnecessary frustration out there. we're putting somebody from the front line on that team with us. so we can understand on the front end. >> as the nice woman said, you said that corporate doesn't know what's going on. >> she was talking me me. >> she was talking about you. other than when you were fired, that was the best moment in the show. you are doing breakthrough tv and great through corporate management. this is waste mansionment's president and ceo. please don't forget to watch
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"undercover boss gts. boss: y'know, geico opened its doors back in 1936 and now we're insuring over 18 million drivers. gecko: quite impressive, yeah. boss: come a long way, that's for sure. and so have you since you started working here way back when. gecko: ah, i still have nightmares. anncr: geico. 15 minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurance.
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>> the following is a cnbc original production. >> it's part of the american landscape and a global icon fifty years in the making, fifteen million customers a day, thirty-one thousand stores around the world. >> hi, how may i help you? >> "quarter pounder" with cheese. hi, can i help you? hi, welcome to "mcdonalds." how can i help you? >> tonight, cnbc's carl quintanilla shows you "mcdonald's" like you've never seen it before. >> we've got oven dried tomatoes, poblano peppers, lime, cilantro, really relevant flavors. >> go inside the secret
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test kitchen where new creations live... >> we are testing a seasoning today. >> ...or die. >> unfortunately, there's some work that needs to be done. >> see how "mcdonald's" trains its army of workers, and just how profitable a franchise can be. >> it's made you a rich man. >> absolutely. >> from a few small hamburger stands, see how a visionary named ray kroc created a food empire. >> they were serving hamburgers for 15 cents, french fries for ten cents. and i said, "that's for me." >> twenty-one billion a year in revenue, two million pounds of beef a day, and a lot of controversy. >> "big mac," large fry and a large coke-- 1,430 calories. >> yeah. >> fifty-nine grams of fat. >> well, you have to make choices about what you eat. >> "mcdonald's" is a business and its job is to sell more food, not less. it doesn't care what kind of food it sells. >> and take a journey to "mcdonald's" next frontier, where it's out with the old and in with the new. >> i just look at china--
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