"options action" next friday 5:30 p.m. eastern time. have a great weekend. >> my mission is simple -- to make you money. i'm here to level the playing field for all investors. there's always a bull market somewhere and i promise to help you find it. "mad money" starts now. hey, i'm cramer! welcome to "mad money." other people are trying to make friends, i'm trying to make money. my job is to educate and teach you so call me at 1-800-743-cnbc. or tweet me at jim alibaba dea

behind us, we can go back to our regularly scheduled earnings. no, we can't. i'll give you explicit instructions about how to handle the stock, but overall the damage i expected from the too hot opening -- meaning an opening that was much hotter than i would have liked -- wasn't that threatening to the rest of the market. the average is worth much more in anticipation of alibaba's open bug it wasn't that unhealthy. not that much collateral damage given the deal speculation on the floor of the stock exchange. which brings me to the game plan for next week because i think we can focus on events at hand and not just ipos. although there's an intriguing

now we take it for granted because credit is so hard to get and the average person can't take advantage of the low rates the trawl rich hedge funds managers cash in on. i'd like to see the number that

tells us the recent dip in rate-spurred sales. we also hear from auto zone which has a history of selling off after it reports and almost instinctively rallying lazarus like the next day as people realize the old the cars on the road the more we need auto zone. i expect we'll hear it continues to buy back stock aggressively and that's amazing given that auto zone is among the most voracious crunchers of its share count. in other words, by the dip. after the close on monday we get the results. here's a chain that's been putting up disappointing numbers. i expect cnet stop like kohls. i wonder if this quarter won't show the same upside surprise we used to get all the time. if so, it's a buy just like kohls, tjx turned out to be. companies can also benefit from the huge dedplien the cost of cotton which has been a boon.

how about bed, bath and beyond? that reports tuesday. it's a place i like shopping even has azt company ended in the cul-de-sac of heart break. and get rich carefully, i detail about how the co-portfolio manager of my actionalertspl actionalertsplus.com bought this for my charitable trust. didn't rally back but we gave up on it. here we go again. i expect nothing good from bed bath & beyond although there's chatter it might attract equity money because it's gotten too darn cheap to stay public but i think the private equity guys feel they're too easily hurt by amazon so i think the stock will most likely continue to twist in the wind even as i spend a fortune at one of its divisions. z sometimes stocks signal changes before that happens. i think that will map with carnival cruise. the stocks have been going up

quietly the rest of the players in the cruise sector, as if the tragedies are finally being left behind it. if we get a decent number, i have to tell you, it's not done climbing. it can go higher, much higher. i also expect to hear about the pricing of the citizens financial group ipo, philadelphians know the bank, that's citizens financial. this is being spun off from the world bank of scott land. banks have been red hot and while this is no ali ban baah be i'll give you the parameters for it. wednesday's chock full of earnings. i like to get the skinny from pay chex but the stock has been flat lining, that's because i believe small business formation has taken another step down, perhaps because we're coming closer and closer to the penalties of the affordable care act and that's making it much more difficult than what your payroll should be. alsoing a censure. this is a stock that's had a history of disappointing. yet it finds itself trading

above where it was by the time the next someone recorded. this is a classic dip bought equity. thursday we get nike. once again, remember, we here in a red hot bull market from what i can tell. we've heard from companies running shoe lines delivering smoking results. we know underarmor put up great footwear number. the only problem is that nike stop has run up too much because of how great decker is doing and how great underarmor is doing. micron also report there is's a real tug-of-war going on with micron that doesn't involve demand, which is robust. it involves supply. mainly a potential for too much supply from korea where the two other companies that make the same semiconductor are located. i haven't liked the action of micron of late. finally friday, blackberry. i think company is in a long-term decline accentuated by that new apple iphone. i would be very careful about speculating blackberry because it's been inching up too much for my liking. i know many of you can't resois

if you feel compelled to own this thing, ring the register if the number seems strong because i expect analysts will distance themselves from the stock. here's the bottom line, it's back to business as usual with alibaba behind us. we survived it and wednesday's fed meeting without much damage and i think barring any more geopolitical catastrophes that we can be in for decent sailing from here until the real earnings season begins a fort night from now. let's go to irwin in my home state of new jersey. irwin? >> caller: how are you, jim? >> i'm good. how are you? >> caller: my question to you is in the not too distant pass remember some third world country that said the price of gold would spike $20 to $30 an ounce. i've had groeld the 1800s and now the world is in turmoil and the price of gold has dropped down to $1200 level. is the play on gld done? >> i don't think it is. i'm telling people you can have up to 10% of your none gold. my retirement money is like

that. don't expect the insurance of gold to make you money any more than the insurance right now of your auto or house but that's all we have it for is insurance. john in arizona. john? >> caller: jim, thank you for hosting such a great show. >> thank you. >> caller: my question for you today is about aflac, symbol afl. it's near its 52-week low and i wanted to get your thoughts about that. >> i'm not crazy. it doesn't have earnings momentum. it yields 2.5%, if it yielded 3% i'd take a shot. i think travelers and hartford is better and i know aig is better and that stock was down after the resignation of a key person. we're pitching to buy more. we're back to business. i think we could be in for decent sales until the real earnings season begins. from printers to paper clips, staples has you cover bud it could use nuclear weapon the growth department. i'll tell you how it can pinch a deal. then alibaba's record breaking ipo made a former english

teacher one of the richest men on the planet. what can the stock do for you? plus pier 1 is taking a beating after another weak quarter. i ke'll can ask the ceo if ther any hope for a comeback. they're custom made trains.

you can't get any better than that. siemens trains are not your grandparent's technology. they're something that's gonna change the cities we live in today. i find it so fascinating how many people ride this and go to work every single day. i'm one of the lucky guys. i get to play with trains. people say, "wow, we still build that in the united states?"

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going to prom. i want to learn to swim. it's hard to feel normal, when you can't do the normal things. to help, sleep train is collecting donations for the extra activities that, for most kids, are a normal part of growing up. not everyone can be a foster parent... but anyone can help a foster child. there's one thing that can keep stocks heading higher. recordless of the pessimists out there who keep saying this red hot yaibl deal is signaling a top, i'm talking about consolidation, especially in sectors like retail where there's too many competitors and stores unlike china where alibaba thrives so the whole industry could benefit from taking a few players out of the equation.

a couple weeks ago i suggested a massive merge saying gene see should buy vitamin shopp, an idea i stole from the deed of retail analysts at credit suisse. sure enough, yesterday we started hearing rumors that gnc is exploring strategic options and vitamin shop's shareholders are pushing for a sale, hence why both stocks rallied nicely. although i bet the move is far from finished if there's any truth to the chatter. i think where there is smoke there is fire. buy, buy, buy. in an increasing omni channel world where the biggest competition comes from the web, there are huge benefits from consolidating the bricks-and-mortar side of the business and the market recognizes these benefits instantly. if you look at mergers in hard line retail space, the stock of the acquirers average rallied 40%. that's dramatically up from the s&p 500 from the same time. no wonder there's so many mergers and acquisitions and that's why tonight i want to

propose another retail merger. once again borrowing an grd the great gary balter who is singing "this is the end" about sears and that seems to be resonating from the plunging stock of that company. he thinks it's time to consider some consolidation among the office supply retailers and i agree. i think that staples, which has been a real dog lately, down 18% year to date, should buy office depot. now, gary laid out his thesis for why this deal makes sense last month but since then the conversation, it's fizzled. i've taken some time to stud think analysis and after deep review i have to say a merger would be the best thing that could happen to staples and office depot. the synergies would be enormous and the combined company would be stronger than either player on its own. it makes a ton of sense both for the companies and especially

shareholders. how do i know that? the n part because two years ago office depot announced it would require office max. term time people said it was too drunken sailors trying to hold each other up. wrong. this is the number two and three players in the office industry combining to form one larger competitor. the results of the deal? they've been fantastic. office depot stock has doubled since the deal was announced. a double in two years, not too shabby. just as important, by closing overlapping stores, shrinking their sales force and slashing corporate overhead, office depot's acquisition of office max created $700 million in synergies. that was astounding. in fact, the synergies from this merger were more than six times greater than the combined earnings of the two chains before the deal. they were killing each other! gigantic. buy office max and then aggressively cutting stores and closing costs made office depot more money than they could have generated on their own. so given how well they've done since acquiring office max, it

makes sense for staples to turn around and snap up office depot. especially since staples seems to be really struggling on its own right now. all right, so now i can hear you. many of you are saying hold up, cramer, there's no way the government would ever let this deal happen. i mean, staples tried to buy office depot before and the federal trade commission shot them down in 1997 to which i say a lot's changed since 1997. don't take my word for it, here's how the ftc put it when they blast office depot's acquisition of office max. "the market for the sale of consumable office supplies has changed significantly due to proliferation of mass merchants and club snores the explosive growth of online commerce. the evidence of anti-competitive effects that caused the ftc concern in 1997 was simply absent in 2013." translation -- with all the

competition for the likes of target, walmart and costco not to mention amazon, all of which have gotten into this business in a major way, there was nothing anti-competitive about office depot buying office max and i think the similar logic applies to stay ps buying office depot. so assuming regulators allow the transaction to happen, how good would bit for staples and office depot to combine? they are both already out there closing stores aggressively. staples has more than the 2,100 locations. what were they doing? earlier they announced plans to shut down 225 of them in north america, including the one two blocks from me which i have to tell you was almost always empty. here's what i thought of every time i went in there. it was a bowling alley. and back in may, office depot told us they're planning to close at least 400 stores in the wake of office max's transaction a little more than ten months ago. both companies have embraced a shrinking-to-grow strategy. office depot is expecting $100

million in synergies from their store closures. but if staples were to acquire office depot, i bet they could make even more money per store closure. because there's much moror lap between the two chains. how much? in addition to the locations they're particular planning to shut down, a combined staples and office depot could close another thousand stores. that's $300 million in synergies, or 300,000 per store. we have so many more we need. when you throw in that corporate overhead that could be cut, the consolidation of the two sales forces and the increased purchasing power of a larger chain, i think buying office depot could lead to over $1 billion in total synergies for staples. that could be conservative. can you imagine how high stock would go? instantly it would go. instantly. what would it mean for profits? a billion dollars in synergies would represent a 50% increase for the earnings for interest access depreciation am orization in 2015 which would translate into 110% boost per share. buying office depot would let

staple doubles its earning power. no wonder gary thinks they could pay an 80% premium and still make a killing. here's the bottom line, the numbers speak for themselves. if staples wants to turn things around in the midst of a challenge environment, if staples wants to nick its stock off by 50%, the easiest and smartest try do that is by acquiring office depot. i think the deal would be a win for both companies and more important a win for the shareholders. if staples drags its feet, i wouldn't be surprised if an activist or two forces the issue. it just makes too much sense not to happen. larry in massachusetts. larry. >> caller: jim, sincere compliments to you, david, and carl this morning on your respectful, efficient, and probing interview of jack mott. >> sometimes in life you're fortunate to be a journalist. how can i help? >> caller: his plan to help money to help young people succeed reminds me of bill gates

and warren buffett. major kudos to you. to a favorite other subject of yours, beer. with asb miller unsuccessfully approaching the heineken family monday, there's been speculation about other possible spiritual consolidation. the growth is slowing by almost half and various others tap are being suggested as either buyers or sellers. monday on half time i expected stephanie to at least mention cramer fave constellation. is it getting lost in the shuffle? >> i think that a what's happened is people feel that if molson coors were able to buy miller, it forces the sale of miller that would make it so molson coors is a better performer than constellation. if you're just looking at earnings, constellation is a better play. basically what i'm saying is constellation is probably two down and seven up. i like that, but people think coors can be gigantic.

merger mania, listen. sometimes consolidation fixes things. if staples were to turn itself around i wouldn't be surprised if an activist comes in. much more "matt money" ahead including what could be the hidden secret behind alibaba's success. then pier 1 missed the quarter. can the ceo rite the ship? i'll find out in my exclusive. plus, big tech news that has nothing to do with apple. stick with cramer. .

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my immediate reaction this morning when i met jack, the man who built alibaba which just became public today into what may be the most lucrative fast growing company. not just z not just the e-commerce. i figured alibaba's stock would be red too hot and that's what happened with its opening, a huge gap up from its $68 pricing. and i thought it would sour the whole fair with excessive exuberance. i know it would meaning deals

like facebook which dishearten investors or the dot-bombs from 1999 and 2,000 that ended in such heart break. i wanted to point out that you could argue alibaba's valuation is too high. you know what? a few minutes into the conversation of the new york stock exchange, i found myself quite taken by this mild-mannered 50-year-old gentleman. frank frankly, his humility aastounded me and not just because overnight he's become the richest man in the people's republic of china, yet he acted as if he were one of the gang of hundreds of thousands of teammates with whom he works. it was when i asked him who his here rewas who he aspired to be he positively took my breath away when he answered. >> the hero i had was "forrest

gump." 14 years ago -- >> you know he's a fictional character, though. >> i liked that guy for coming to new york. because i watched the movie again telling me that that a few years ago i couldn't earn that. there's more too lifetime than anyone in history but he carried himself like the humblest man on earth. what a perfect man this fellow just might be when he pulled out a present for us in neatly ribbon tied golden box. all i could think was he was about to pass it the candy box from "forrest gump" because for ma life is just a box of chocolates, i wasn't disappointed that the box contained a alibaba t-shirt, but the chocolates would have been a

fitting gesture after the revelation of his true gold model. wow. "forrest gump" as your role model. i've read the coverage and i regard much of despairive the. there's mugness basically suggesting the company's ipo could represent the key dmard the house of cards that is the stock market. i'm bracing myself in the stories that say it marks the beginning of the end, another dotcom bomb from china, i know the cynics won't be able to resist the story line of the ipo, how can they not? i mean, put it this way, who's going to remember that you called the top of f the marquee goes higher. no one, free pass. but you can be the sage of wall street for years if you say that the largest ipo of all time was the death nell for the bull and you turn out to be right. hey, i wasn't happy with the deal, i was hoping the stock would open ten points lower, you

watch the show, ten points lower than it did so it doesn't overheat and you can make money if you bought it there. let's go back to jack ma and what he's created. he battalion company that fulfills retail needs for half the people in his home country. they have internet access. the other half await usings alibaba as their all around retailer because there's so few retail outlets in china. the country as understored as we are overstored and there's no way it's going to need to build as many stores as we have because of alibaba. and unlike amazon, ma's done this without sacrificing profitability. in fact, alibaba is more reminiscent of the early days of walmart where sam walton always thought that growth and probability go hand in hand. ironically, at its peak today, alibaba's marking cap was almost exactly the same as walmart. but because he cares so much about making money for shareholders even as he professors a love, an obvious love for his customers, including having a lucky 8 of them ringing the opening bell, off stock that even at $93 isn't

classically overvalued. at this price, for example, alibaba trades at 37 times next year's earning. it's going faster than facebook and just for comparison's sake twitter sells at 140 times earnings but that's a bet on big numbers to come. with alibaba you have a burden hand. i wasn't just taking my ma's edition of profits, though. i found him to be a great american success story -- except he's from china. he was dirt poor when he started, he had a vision of using the internet to harness retail for the masses, not just retail but wholesale, matching entrepreneurs for from all over the world, poor people from africa, people -- poor people all over the world. and you can match those entrepreneurs with craftsmen worldwide to manufacture products to help them realize their dreams. he's an inclusive capitalist in a country run by communists and i got the feeling he wants to make everyone worldwide as rich as he is. there is nothing zero-sum about this man. he's not a modern day mao making

everyone poor, he's trying to make everyone wealthy. so, yes, i like ma. which we had more ceos that shared those deals. at the same time, i fear my judgment is so against the grain right now that if the stock falters i'll be regarded as a fawning acolyte of just another overhyped stock. i'll take that risk. oh, and about the stock, i'm sure there will be plenty of people who wake up on monday with the negatives i just described and they'll ring the register. possible to there's a swoon and you can get the shares of the capitalization company at a discount where i said it was worth it back in the low 80s. i think you do it. i believe in the company. i believe in the man. here's my bottom line on the largest ipo of all time. i think alibaba is not crazily expensive. while i prefer to own both facebook and google here, i can't dismiss either jack ma or the enterprise he's built as overvalued. even though both do seem almost too good to be true because

maybe, just maybe, they're not. much more "mad money" ahead. pier 1 is making a habit of taking a dive. find out if the sale of the century or maybe you should be eyeing different merchandise. then arguably the biggest thing to happen in tech in the last hours is not the iphone 6. don't miss my take. plus all your calls on a fast fire friday edition of the lightning round and the week that was. stay with cramer. z

. what's the matter with pier 1 imports and can it be fixed? not no that long ago, pier 1 looked like one of the greatest turnaround stories of the post recession era. but after a string of missed numbers, including a disappointing quarter reported this wednesday night that caused a stock to lose 18.5% of the value, just yesterday, we have to wonder if the company is facing serious long-term problems and if so can it be turned around? when pier 1 reported they missed on the top line and bottom line and slashed their four year guidance, at the same time management said they have a strategy to turn things around and provided a plan to get back to profitable growth. that has stock been overly

punished? let's look at alex smith to learn more about the quarter. mr. smith, welcome back to mad money. >> jim, thank you for inviting me. >> alex, you say it up top in your release. you say "we were challenged by soft store traffic and, more significantly, by declines in our merchandise margins." can these be reversed within the next two or three quarters, sir? >> well, jim, we have a great confidence in our merchandise that's coming in in the third and fourth quarter and as you know, pier 1 is good at the holiday season. we know our store execution will be great and we're confident in the enhancen'ts we're making to pier 1.com which come in to play the next month or two. so we'll give it our best shot. >> do you think -- i was trying to -- you're online is very compelling. one time when we spoke a few years ago it wasn't that good. are we at a position now where i

detect from the call that maybe you have too many stores because online is so good? >> online is amazing and our customer is voting and saying this is how we want to shop which is why we accelerated our whole omni channel strategy which we call 1 pier 1. but the amazing thing about this, and this is so what's so cool about 1 pier 1 is 50% of our sales are actually touched by the store in some way or other. so what i mean by that is 25% of all online sales 33% of our order online is pick up in store. so that's a very powerful model and we see stores and online

linked. they play together and that's what our customers like. now, having said that, on the margin are we going to take a very, very close and hard look at our store portfolio? absolutely. maybe there are three-store markets that should be two-store markets and maybe seven-store markets that should be five-store markets but rest assured we'll look at that very, very carefully. >> your company has been buying back a lot of stock. it bought stock back this quarter yet the can quarter was poorly received by the analyst. was it a mistake to buy that chunk of several million shares. should you pull back from the buyback? maybe rethink until you offerings come through that you'd like to see? >> i think that's a very -- a very good question, jim. here's what we think. we're going through that bumpy patch in a moment but we have a strategy which we're confident in. but this major transition as we

move from the hugely successful bricks and mortar business which you kindly kindly alluded to i introduction which will be a successful omni channel business, we know that as we move a little further into this transition and the investors start to see some of the benefits of all the investments we make coming through, we know our stock will start moving again as it did in the past. so we feel really comfortable about buying back stock because in the end it's going to be great for our shareholders. >> one last question. i know that you talk about the omni channel and how you've been integrating the stores. when i go in for halloween, for instance, i might go in for one particular item. i have walked out for my daughters when i go for when they're at school, i have walked without maybe twice as much merchandise as i thought i would when i went in. but if i'm on the web site, i don't do that. i'm targeted. don't you terrific idea that

people like kme just go and get what we want and not necessarily what we didn't know that we wanted because we went to to store? >> well, i think that's one of the interesting things about this whole sort of move to online. we're very focused on building the omni channel multichannel customer. and here's why. we are the moment -- let me back up. at the moment 60% of our sales or thereabouts are coming from brand new customers who are shopping as online only. the bulk of our sales are cofrom store shoppers who have converted to online shoppers. and what the data tells us is that the multishopper shops more frequently and spends more money than the store only customer. in other words, we get an extra visit and an extra purchase. so what we're trying to foster is the best of both worlds because to your point when you here in the store and browsing

you're going see something you didn't know you wanted and you'll pick it up. so we have to make the two work in harmony and that's, again, why we're so focused on not only the in-store experience and the online experience but the two working side by side. >> i appreciate you coming on. i know it was a tough week, you didn't duck it. i want to thank you. alex smith, the president and ceo of pier 1 imports. good to see you again, sir. "mad money" is back after the break. anncr: now you can merge the physical freedom of the car, with the virtual freedom of wi-fi. chevrolet, the first and only car company to bring built-in 4g lte wi-fi

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ahh! four days? yep. find out how fast aflac can pay you, at aflac.com. it is time for the lightning round. are you ready time for the lightning round. jay in new mexico. jay? >> caller: thank you for taking the call, tremendous amount of training today in yahoo! please tell me what's going on. >> people are feeling that they bought it too high and now they got remorse and it's going to come down and marisa meyer won't know what to do with the money. i say own yahoo. they have so much money and

alibaba is not going to go down that much and they'll be able to ring the register over multiple years and they will reinvest in the good things. i like yahoo! brad in massachusetts. brad? >> caller: jim, i've been watching etn. what's going on? >> my charitable trust owns it and i'm horrified. i can't believe someone doesn't try to do something here. this has been a big disappointment. and the stock does seem to go down everyday, it doesn't have the yield support that i like. i'm very unhappy with etn. they have to deliver this quarter. let's go to harriet in illinois. harriet? >> caller: yes, hi, happy friday, jim? exactly. what's up. >> caller: what do you think about txt? >> i think it's a very inexpensive stock. i should have included it when i did my -- my big long pieces about defense, the defense budget is going up, i think it's a good idea. tim in california. tim? >> caller: hey, cramer, i speechless over the run in

schwab. >> it's forecasting that higher rates are coming and that the individual investor is back. i don't see either but i see that that's how people are playing it. i've been playing it with goldman sachs so i understand schwab. the whole come splex goiplex is. let's go to zach in new york. zach? >> caller: how are you doing, jim? >> all right, how are you? >> caller: good. good. >> go ahead. go ahead, zach? maybe zach dropped and we should take another call. why don't we go to chris in rhode island. chris? hey, chris. >> caller: hey, jim. big booyah too ya from rhode island. how's it going? >> not bad, you know, kind of a long day but a good interview with jack ma, i was proud of the work dewe did. how about you? >> not bad, my question is about apo. has a decent dividend, special dividend been good and the ee is

attractive. what do you think? >> if we're going to go down that path i'd want to go with kkr and henry kravis. that's an outfit i want to be more closely affiliated with. mark in california. mark? >> caller: booyah, cramer. your thoughts on steel dynamics. >> i like them but all the business is going toward letter x and new corps. new corps in particular overlooked. i'd prefer you to by b there. brian in mississippi. brian? >> caller: booyah, cramer, welcome to alibaba-palooza. >> what's going on? >> 1300 shares of nokia, bought it in 2012. >> hold on to it. they reconfigured themselves. the rest is good. i think you can own it. andrew in new jersey. andrew? >> caller: jim? >> you're up!" >> caller: thank you, jim. quick question, jim. hudson citibank corporation located based in new jersey.

it was supposed to be a merge we are mnt bank and they're having troubles. your prognosis? >> i'd rather own other banks and there are many other banks i would like to own but i feel badly for the family of ron hermanse who was a fan of this show and a friend of the show but i won't recommend that stock. let's go to bob in new york, please, bob? >> caller: jim, the most entertaining way to learn about wall street is jim cramer. >> that's the plan. i gave a talk at nj pac and i'm thrilled. how can i help? >> caller: how much do you love fnfg? >> what is it, eight bucks now? that is too darn cheap. i think you buy it, maybe ahead of citizens finance. fnfg is for me. agnes in florida. agnes? >> caller: yes, jim, thank you for taking my call. i want to know what your feelings are on nee. hold or fold? >> that's a growth utility

company. it's very good. juneau beach, i have new buddies staying with me. i think that stock at 3% with a good growth pattern is good. not as good as dominion and i'll take letter d over it. ladies and gentlemen, that's the conclusion of the lightning round. remember in wh2007 when i sd the fed knew nothing. >> they know nothing!

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. >> if you give me what i want, i can still call off the other two but i'll need to borrow your phone. >> red is the new black. . lost amid all the alibaba hoopla, a pair of moves made by two software companies, the departure of larry ellison from his ceo job at oracle, the company he founded at the purchase of concur technologies, $129 a share, a whopping 24% premium to where the stock was yesterday. i think in many ways these two very different changes are related, at least metaphorically. one company, oracle, represents the twilight of a different way of computing, the traditional non-cloud style of software that ellison pioneered and the other,

the sap sack we sigs of concur embrace -- new role of cloud computing, albeit at a steep $7.4 billion price tag. concur recommended endsly on mad money pretty much owns the silo for cloud computing. larry ellison was a great man who organizebly made oracle into a great company. they helped name traditional ibm style obsolete by embracing client server technology which leads your desktop to bigger equipment located in house. everything sits on an trawl proprietary internal system that you pay oracle a huge amount of the-to-license creating an annuity steam for the giant that's almost i believe possible to rip out. hence why larry ellisson became one of the richest people in the world. another company often goes head to head. suddenly out of nowhere along comes salesforce.com, crm, with

a disruptive untethered platform that stores your data not only on the expensive hardware but in the cloud itself. you bring in salesforce.com and you get a cheaper, better system that has become much beloved, hence while sales force was the fastest technology ever to hit a run rate of $5 billion in sales. and $4 billion, and $3 billion, and $2 billion. and larry ellison didn't see it coming. when they were taking off, he paid up for sun microsystems for $5.6 billion. that acquisition which oracle has defended year after year has been a disaster and was one of the chief reasons why the quarter was so disappointing, hence the stock's 4.2% decline today. tough. now oracle does have its own fast-growing cloud initiative. the only bright spot i saw as allison said last night, "we're

focused on becoming number one in the cloud, being bigger than salesforce.com in the cloud." which-to-which i say ouch and good luck. it's now a slow growing legacy software company while sales force gives business that one time would have gone there. if anything, i can argue the goal is getting wilder. how about that competitor sap? it has to catch fun salesforce.com and i think buying concur which has the best stop one cloud soft swear a great way to do it. we talked to steve singh the ceo of concur many times and recognize this company has become unchallengeable. it's this far ahead of the competition. this is type of company oracle should have bought rather than buying back its own stock. now, i have a lot of respect for the two people taking over the ceo position from ellison, mark hurd has been doing a lot of the day to day heavy lifting at oracle and sophra katz. ellison stairs on as the chief technologier? but it's now herd/katz show.

herding cats, tough job. it was time for change. oracle has consistently tried and failed to play catch up to salesforce.com. maybe with this manager shift it can happen faster but the simple truth is that ellison, the vicious competitor who crushed the old guard on the try michael oracle a tech software powerhouse got beaten by a younger version of himself. mark beniot, the founder and ceo. let's hope it's not too late for oracle to stay competitive that n the world it ignored for too long that has become the gold standard in the information technology business that oracle really started. stick with cramer. ♪

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of exxonmobil in inspiring america's future engineers. energy lives here. i expect alibaba to have another move, another assault up to the mid to high 90s and if you bought it at the end of the day or the opening, you probably want to trim some back because i think it could hit back to the 80s where i might pound the table because it's not that expensive and i like that fella jack ma. i don't want to be too cynical about this man. i think he's got a lot of heart. i think he's doing a lot of things i wish other ceos would do. he seems like a real good

capitalist, even as he is, indeed, from the people's republic of china. i like to say there's always a bull market somewhere and i promise trying to find it just promise trying to find it just for you right here on >> the following is a cnbc original production. >> it may be the most recognizable brand on the planet -- coca-cola. >> the heritage of this company is equal to none. there is nothing as global as coca-cola in the world. >> a $67-billion empire... sold in 206 countries... enjoyed in every house... and we mean every house. found in the most remote corners of the globe, melissa lee reports on the brand with a buzz. >> there was a wee bit of cocaine in the original coca-cola. >> and it's more than just coke. >> zico is 100% pure coconut water. >> 500 different brands to