we -- >> no comment. >> it feels like just yesterday whenever it was, i'm sure. and -- >> my cruise or your cruise. >> i've actually never had the pleasure of being on a cruise but my parents go frequently and they love them. >> it's a good place for families. >> so what have owe got in this hour? >> there is quite a bit. ll cre expecting at the clinton global initiative. we have iphone 6 tear down. we've got just a number of things coming up. but we want to take a look at the picture now. it is new york. clinton global initiative, we're awaiting president clinton who will be there with our own becky quick. and the timing is crucial. i mean we just heard that news from meg terrel about ebola and a half million to potentially 1.4 million infected by january.

this crisis, having somebody of his stature on this issue is a important. and then isis, president obama was on the news a few minutes ago talking about the bombing campaign there and bill clinton was fighting global terrorism during his campaign as well and has spoken about that. >> let's just refresh ourselves as to what obama said. >> it must be clear to anyone who would plot against america and try to do americans harm that we will not tolerate safe havens for terrorists are who threaten our people. i'm pleased there is bipartisan support for the actions we are taking. america is always stronger when we stand united and that send a powerful message to the that world that we will do what's necessary to defend our country. >> and that's an important message that not only are they

trying to attack islamic state or isil but also this al qaeda linked operation within syria which they believe were targeting american airlines. they were briefing on that. so they were trying to strike two birds with one stone. but that's probably not a good metaphor. >> clearly the message is the u.s. is not alone. congress is on board with the president. he is coming to meet with the iraqi prime minister and other world leaders about building support. which is why becky's conversation with bill clinton is going to be important. here we are escalating this fight in the middle east. something we've tried to avoid for so long. there is your live shot. we'll take it to you. i do want to mention we are watching the markets of course because we are coming off that slide yesterday, the worst in months for the s&p 500.

a and it looks like the declines are set to continue. >> we gained 1.7% on the dow last week. we rose to a record high with al bob. we were just retrenched a little bit. >> down 30 on the dow. >> i also want to mention rizsk indicators. gold is a little higher. nothing sharp moves but the japanese yen is stronger and we have seen demand for u.s. treasuries. there is this big for save haven with lower yields. something important to remember here. this does not impact global earnings and world economy. >> let's talk about that. good morning. would you give the same advice? buy the dips here? >> i think so. and it's interesting put things in perspective where last week everything seemed to go

perfectly well. now we are reconsidering valuations here and feels as though we are going through a bit of a rotation where momentum stocks are sold off but the broader market is hanging nicely. this is part of the volatility we're going to have to get used to but think think there is a lot of runway ahead for this market. certainly in the s&p 500 and we'll get rational evaluations there. >> just to pick up that point you make and i should mention for people tuning in at this stage we are awaiting president bill clinton's speech and we'll go to that as soon as he does start speaking there, uptown, as it were. you mention the rotation. where do you think people should be in the market now. >> we've done a lot of damage to the energy tape and that makes sense to come out of the complexes and come under pressure with the strong dollar. we just added liberty global to our focus list. we're excited about that and the interesting thing is they have just closed an acquisition so

they can get back in the market and start buying back shares but great exposure and one of the bet best in the business. >> i was just going to ask you what about this idea that we sort of shifted in terms of small caps bearing the brunt of the selling and the larger more global firms in the s&p 500 maintaining resilient. what does that tell you about risk appetite now? >> it's interesting. we went through the exact same process in the spring and the big concern was that momentum meltdown whether the russell two or the nasdaq. all the big stocks came under pressure then. we are seeing the same type of selling now and that was temporary and worked itself out. i think you have to get used to an environment where stocks are trading on their own and company by company basis. end of the quantitative easing in october. and sometime in 2015 we're probably tightening a bit.

and i think the outlook is going to be pretty solid. what we are trying to ascertain now is when the massive amount of liquidity gets taken out of the market and it's just a smaller amount of the accommodation what does that mean for stocks? i still think stocks are certainly going to be the play certainly over fixed income. >> what impact are we seeing from the massive tech events that have kicked off this fall? the apple iphone 6, the alibaba ipo. is that causing money to move around? >> it certainly is. investors had to make way for about 200 billion dollars of the market cap for the alibaba deal that. went very well. and priced very tight to their filing range and drifted up a nice percentage. it seems like apple has a new announcement a day and certainly will continue their road back. looks very solid. and one of this things you have to be conscious of though, these momentum names have gotten very crowded. as you have a lot of asset

managers who haven't beat their benchmark. when that stops working the momentum stocks go down just as fast that is ago up. i think we're seeing part of that now. essential between tech conferences and the announcements and alibaba ipo and the m and a activity going on you're seeing a lot of attention drawn to the space. and that momentum works both way. >> i feel duty bound to ask you this. we seem to live in a more dangerous world, almost by the day. and let's not forget last night this country and five other arab nations was bombing deep into syria not just for the isis but also the al qaeda linked state. and can the market continue? and we've got the ukraine? we've got russia, so many other things that are going on. can the market continue to sale past all this detail with qe

ending? >> well the market certainly can. i don't think the markets depending on the quantitative easing necessarily. what it is dependent is the feeling that this is the most secure place to be. economy or living in. some of the concerns you bring one things we care about on a human level. and others are the economic. russian ukraine is more economic because any sanctions on the russia cause a slowdown in european economy and they are have very important trade partner. in terms of the other geopolitical hot spots where we are just participating without boots on the ground that's impact on the humanitarian basis. so we have the dissect and look at hot spots as they impact earnings. you always get back to what it means for earnings a and the companies we're invested in. but you are right. it's a dangerous world and that can have a effect on psychologies. >> thank you very much.

if you are just tuning in we are awaiting a conversation with president clinton to start with his own global initiative. we'll squeeze in a quick commercial break and be right back. act i. scene 3. open port twenty-two-oh-one-seven on the firewall for customer db access. install version two-point-three of db connector and ensure verbose flag is set in case of problems. (clapping sound) isn't the cloud supposed to make business easier?

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welcome back to squawk alley. as you can see a live shot in new york city. we're awaiting president bill clinton and his conversation

with becky quick. tons to hear about. but this comes the morning after u.s. and regional allies launch multiple air strikes against islamic militants in syria for the first time. that will be part of the conversation. they have a lot to tackle. we'll take you here live as soon as president clintonen begins speaking. >> and climate change. >> gee politics. there you go. >> i think actually president obama is going to speak at this initiative himself at about 2:00 this afternoon. in advance of that he'll also speak at the climate change summit going on alongside with the united nations. >> tim cook was just speaking about apple's initiative to prevent climate change in the midst of all these protests and all going on. green peace coming out and

saying tim cook and apple are going after this. it's interesting that tim cook was able to turn it around with green peace. a number of issues, of different scale happening here. whether philosophical and scientific with climate change. geopolitical with isis/isil. a lot to talk about. >> a lot of the big tech companies have been on the back foot because of the energy consumption on server farms, to the extent some are talking about siting them in iceland to cool them with locally produced cold air. >> they are absolutely doing it. and also in washington state where they can take advantage of the hydro. you have apple committing to doing its data centers, 100% renewable with huge solar farms. they have that going on in maiden north carolina. and tim cook voicing his

commitment to making apple itself run 100% renewable down the line. >> the new york stock exchange, there were hundreds and hundreds of people protesters. >> and hundred arrests as well. >> it got ugly they were trying to break in the gates of the wall street, to bring attention to climate change and that companies have a social responsibility. tim cook talking about it. jack ma, of course the man at the moment, the founder of the alibaba was invited to the clinton global initiative. he spoke this morning on a panel. and we have some sound i think from mr. ma which we'll play for you later. >> this is becky quick coming in to start the conversation with bill clinton. >> welcome, pleasure to see you all here today. i have the distinct pleasure of introducing our guest right now. the 42nd president of the united states, bill clinton.

>> and here you see bill clinton entering the room. questions on a wide range of topics. let's listen in. >> mr. president, thank you for being here. >> thanks becky. >> we are fortunate to have a lot of news that's been going on today. so it is an opportune time to have you here today. last night the united states bombed isis from several locations inside syria. i just wonder if you think that this means that america should prepare for another long battle in this region? and if this can accomplished, if this goal can be accomplished without putting american soldiers on the ground. >> the answer to the first question is i think it will be an extended involvement with air power and with providing intelligence and other

institutional support. to the people who are fighting isis and trying to create a more inclusive set of governments in the middle east. if you look at iraq and syria, they have got a lot of diversity. they need a government ironically more like tiny lebanon where you have mandated participation by the sunni the shii shiite, the drews. the inclusive government is the only thing that works in a situation like that. i think we'll be involved in this for as long as somebody is trying to have total control. particularly isis and they are trying to kill people. they beheaded americans and murdered a bunch of other soldiers in a humiliating way in the desert. and even though we don't support the syrian government in this conflict in syria. those soldiers were just doing their job. they deserve to be treated by

the rules of war. so yes i think will be going on a while. on the other hand no i don't think a prolonged involvement and a land war. we learned in a iraq, it worked. the surge was accompanied by sunni tribal leaders, deciding they wanted to fight for the integrity of their country against al qaeda and iraq. they got angry and they fought. now, if they can keep a united government, they will keep fighting and we'll be able to do that. but we don't need to be there on the ground. and i don't think that it means a land war in iraq. i actually think in this case the president of the administration's strategy has a chance to succeed. but i wouldn't expect it day after tomorrow. i think it is going to take a while. >> you think this takes years and years though? >> no. no, and i think there is a difference in eliminating all adversaries and reducing the

threat, both to americans and others beyond the borders of iraq and syria. but also to this stability of iraq itself, to the possibility of a reconciled unifying government and syria. there is a big difference. you don't -- no one expects in the world we are living in now that every threat can be eliminated. it is too disperse. power is too dispersed. but you can get to the point where the winning side is inclusive, participatory government and a reasonably secure environment. do i think that can be achieved in a reasonable amount of time? i do. >> does it require us either arming the rebels in syria? or would we somehow wind up working with the president there? >> that is now above my pay grade. the more i say about that, the more likely i am to cause trouble for the decision makers. i'm not sure i know enough to make an intelligent comment.

i'll defer to the americans for that. >> let's turn to some of the things we've been focusings on the united states, the economy. and stock market has been going gang busters. a lot of people are feeling better because home prices are rizzs p. but at the same time we've seen the middle class stagnate. under your presidency we saw the median income go from 39,000 to 49,000. we haven't seen growth like that for a very long time. what's wrong? and how do we fix. >> it three reasons. one the labor markets aren't tight enough and we haven't raised the minimum wage as we should. i hope we will. if the congress doesn't, then all the cities and states are going to. the second reason is we haven't changed the job mix enough, that is, to raise the median income and have more poor people working their way into it. the combination of jobs has to pay on average higher wages.

so you got to have a source of new employment that pays above the average wage every five to eight years. in the last two quarterly job reports for the first time i think in ten years this has happened. 40% of the jobs were in higher wage categories. so we may be getting there. so i think that is very important. the third thing is, is that gdp growth need to growth in median incomes because company after company takes more of its profits and spends it on dividends, stock buy back, management increases and less on sharing it with the employees broadly. although i wouldn't be surprised if in the next five years that didn't start to change again. i saw jack ma just on one of our

panels this morning saying that he thought his investors would make money over the long run if he placed his customers and employees first. this market basket case in massachusetts and new hampshire was a big issue because the family that owned it wanted to get rid of the guy that was running it. they thought he gave too much of the wealth of the company to the employees. the customers loved it. so the employees and the customers left when they got rid of him. they had to bring him back. new core steel was very controversial when it became the third biggest steel mill in america, run by a conservative republic republican, it was not a union firm because they paid with bonuses and wages 130 to 200% of the average wage that the steel workers got in traditional. and they all got educational supplements and were all in profit sharing plans and had a strict no layoff policy.

and it was controversial at the time but it worked. they actually made more money and the communities loved them and the workers never quit in hard times. so i predict to you that the next big front in this will be corporations moving away from what was a new idea in the '70s which is the only thing that mattered to the stockholders and the executives should all be paid according to the stock price back to maybe the employees and the customers should matter more. and then the stocks will be a good investment over any 3 to 5 year period. >> i but you think that's companies do themselves out of the goodness of hearts? or do you think that's something that the government has to mandate and push? >> well, i think the government can have incentives that would encourage it. you know, they can lengthen the time period for capital gains to trigger, for example. but i think by and large, it will happen, if it does, because of proof that markets work better that way.

that companies are more profitable over the long run if they take good care of the communities and the people. one of the companies that always comes here to cgi is corning in new york. one of my all time favorites and one that hillary's worked with a lot. you know, they are popular because they have always -- they have stayed where they were born. they do lot of business around the world but they take care of the communities and people that work for them, wherever they are. i think that is going to be come more and more of a gold standard, just like the corporations here who do so much good around the world taking care of the people at the bottom of the pyramid they would like to sell products to. i think all this is going to happen. where power is dispersed, doing good and doing well will become closer aligned. it will be profitable to do the right thing. >> our corporate inversions

unpatriotic. it's been called that lots of places in washington? >> well whether it is or not. company, particularly though that are answering to shareholders have the short-term perspective. a lot of -- a lot of these companies feel duty bound to pay the lowest taxes they can pay. america has to face the fact that we have not reformed our corporate tax laws, when 100% of the people from democrats and republicans, independents agree we need to. we -- i should make full disclosure here. i signed and supported the bill that raised had corporate taxes in america to the level they are now. okay? so let me make full disclosure. however, when i did it, let me make further full disclosure. when we were deciding that we had to reduce the deficit to get interest rates down and spark an investment boom in america -- and it worked -- we decided to

have spending cuts and revenue increases about 50/50. and that corporations should pay a little more because their share of the overall tax contribution had dropped dramatically. but i remember the decision we made and the day we made it. i said, look, we can ask for more. but don't go above the average rate of oecd country, that is the wealthier countries. that average rate was in 35% and we hit it bull's eye. now only japanese companies that for a variety of cultural reasons don't leave pay about what our companies do. we have the highest overall corporate tax rates in the world. and we are now the only oecd country that also taxes overseas earnings on the difference

between what the companies pay over seas and what they pay in america when they repatriot the money. so a lot of these executives even if they want to bring the money home think crazy. ky borrow in america for 2% and interest rates are below inflation. and better that i borrow the money at 2% than repatriot it at 20 or 10 or 5 or 6. we need to rereform the tax system. meanwhile i think the treasury secretary and people in charge of tax collection have a duty to collect as much revenue as they can from companies, particularly that earn it in america. but nothing that has been done will prevent the treasury from collecting taxes -- wherever these companies with set up shop

in palao if they want to. they will still have to pay the american tax rate on the money they earn in america. and we have to come to terms with the fact that everyone else in the world has stopped taxing on the difference between what their companies earn in another country at home. so we normally think of norway, sweden, denmark, finland as very socially liberal, unifying countries that they would always have higher taxes than we do. they do have as percentage of gdp but don't tax the overseas earnings of their obserwn compa. so we need tax reform. meanwhile it is the duty to collect whatever tax is you owed under american law. if they can discourage people from moving overseas they ought to but the best is to give taxes

and incentives to repatriot now overtaxes --. and to put the rest of america to work. that is another thing that will change the job mix. >> doing something like that, over hauling the corporate tax code was probably take two sides to talk with each other and work with each other in washington. and i just wonder if you know anyone who might go to washington in 2016 and start that process [ applause ] >> that may be the -- i vn have been assaulted by cleverness on all fronts for quite a long while now. that may be the cleverest in i've ever heard. yeah, i think first of all let me posit the first thing you said is clearly right. we can't do this without some bipartisan solution. and, you know, i may be naive,

but i always thought we could get a corporate tax fix. because the democrats who believe wealthy corporations should actually pay their fair share of america's load understand that you can't -- it is their money and you can't make them do something they wouldn't have to do in any other country on earth that makes it much more expensive to operate here. so a lot of democrats are in favor of changing the law. and the republicans who don't think corporations -- they think they are pass throughs and corporate taxes or double taxes and all that, they understand that in a world where all the gains have gone to people at the very top of the income level, they are not going to get very far pushing the total evolution of corporate taxes. so there ought to be a basis for resolution and i hope there will be. and i hope they do it next year. look, everything we are doing now including the inversion rule, i understand the treasury

department is legally obligated to get as much revenue as is owed that they can collect. but we are bailing water out of a leaky boat. and the only things that the plug the leaks in that boat, either we undertake corporate tax reform or every other country in the world says we are wrong and we'll go back to doing it the way we used to do it. the latter course steams unlikely and this is not a morality play. this is practical economics and politics. and we've got to find a way. and by the way because we still give more loopholes and deductions than most other countries we could actually lower the corporate tax rate quite a lot and eliminate the loophole and collect as much as we're collecting now but we do it in a more competitive way. dow chem sl a company that's really made an effort to leave

jobs in america and repatriot with growth going up and energy supplies ample and competitive i priced. i think they paid like 33% tax last year with something like that with all their deductions. and exxon which makes more money overseas but has access to more ample tax consideration paid something like 17. this is a huge gap. and surely, if we reduce the range of the gap we could figure out, you know, what is our revenue stream now. and hold on to it. if we just had an alternative corporate minimum tax. then nearly every american ought to be able to agree to. and it would be below the global min many mum. >> you have been on the global scale for decades. you know what is happening around the world, where the problem spots are and you

understand philanthropy from working with the clinton global initiative. over the last nine years i think cgi has helped improve the lives of i think millions around the globe. if you had 40 billion dollars to play with, what one or two problems would you attack, and how? >> well, if i were working around the world, what i would do is try to empower people -- i would try to first of all end the deaths of children under 6, which is not very expensive. and get them started in school. you could do that for not very much money. and then establish the

competent, honest government in the basics. if you do that, people could work themselves out of the poverty. because the new markets a s ars attractive to global companies. and the internet mean has the entrepreneurial spirit around the world is in tact in every country. and then if you just got everybody ready and had honest government and the framework in which effort could be rewarded i think a that would lead to rapid economic growth and resolution of over matters. if i had 40 billion dollars that's what i would do. if i had 40 billion dollars in america, i would try to create universal access to rapid broad band and make sure that we could

in essence create all these job opportunities flowing out of it. and then i would try to get other people to match it and do what really seems to work in education from finland to shangh shanghai, which is i'd pay teachers more, try to get really good teachers and try to create an environment in which we really believed all our children could learn and they did. and then we would create an opportunity here that would create more jobs and higher incomes. we are going to have to share the future. it doesn't really matter what you do here. we are going to share inequality, misery and conflict. we are going to share prosperity and responsibilities and a sense of community. in that sense even though it is a little off topic here. i think scotland did a world a favor with this vote. >> because? >> because the scotts were

saying we could be our own country. we after all made unique contributions to science and philosophy in the 1600s. the first british king was james of scotland. we could well be our own country. we'd punch way above our weight. but maybe we'll stay. maybe we can have a unique and decisive independence and identity and be part of a larger whole. and our lives will matter more that way. because in a way, that is a challenge facing everybody. how can you be proud of who you are, raise your children to know who they are, understand their distinct identity and heritage and be part of a larger whole. inclusive identities work.

conflict, exclusive identities don't. if by working you mean you get to live instead of die. you get a chance to educate your kids and earn a decent living. and share the blessings of common humanity. and scotts, it is the psychological conflict they had to resolve. it was tough. i was very sympathetic for the people who voted in favor of independence but strongly in favor of those who voted to stay. and that little drama and that is being played out in billions of peoples lives every day in another way. >> i'd like to end it on that note of hope. and thank you very much for your time today. >> thank you. [ applause ] >> thank you so much. really appreciate it. >> and that was president bill clinton talking to our very own becky quick.

anchor of squawk box on a wide ranging of issues. tax inversion. president clinton saying although he signed our corporate tax, which is the highest in the world, he is advocating strongly for corporate tax reform. saying it is something that a 100% of people in congress will agree to. he did talk about president obama's new strategy with isis and the air strikes in syria last night and he talked about corporate responsibility. >> really interesting he set up the talk about the tax rate in terms of when he raised the corporate taxes, he pointed out. other countries were about at that level. he said we won't raise it above the average. now is u.s. is the highest in the world. that is not acceptable. that won't work. he did a proposition there, talked about raising the minimum wage. brought up market basket in new england and how he thinks there is this idea that corporations will see that doing more for

your employees versus just shareholders will be good business and pointed out jack ma's comments about shareholders coming third. then he went to the tax issue. so it's interesting. he's always been good at straddling the line between the liberal on the one hand, conservative on the other. we saw it there in economics. he could out a few companies specifically he thought were doing a good job. corning and dow chemical specifically. >> al baibaba. and companies and employees and customers first. and shareholders second. let's just listen to what he did say on this issue of inversions and corporate tax reform. >> we need tax reform. meanwhile, the treasury should do what they can. it is their duty to collect whatever money is owed under

american law. if they can find a way to discourage people from moving over overseas. they ought do. but the best incentive is to give tax reform and repatriot now nearly over 2 billion av overseas. and that's another thing that will change the job mix. >> he didn't go to whether it was unpatriotic or not. that was the original question. he was very political correct. >> that would have been polarizing so he stayed away from it. >> and what about the question where he said that becky's cleverness was above all the assault he's gotten in terms of questions on who would run in 2016 to brimg the divide. >> and you know the cleverness of his dodge, he never got to the second part of his question. i also got to call out he mentioned universal access to broad band access.

one of key things to spur job growth in this country. >> and the conversation becky quick and bill clinton which you can find snippets on the website all day long. up next, john's exclusive interview with michael dell. he talked about tech value wrat and the future of his company as a private one. (vo) rush hour around here starts at 6:30 a.m. - on the nose. but for me, it starts with the opening bell. and the rush i get, lasts way more than an hour.

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top of the market? why one says the bull market might have ended on friday. here's here live to explain. the u.s. launching air strikes in syria. so retired colonel jack jacobs gives us his insights next. then he's disrupting the -- can he do for other brands what he did with mega hit vitamin water. >> sounds good. we get it. you love the new iphone 6, but what is inside it. which companies are behind the cam remarks the touch id button and the battery? and how much could apple be making off each new phone. experts are compiled a tear down exclusively for us. and here to break it down is senior editor. thank you for joining us. okay, so the apple making more money on this long-term based on

the bill of materials? lessal? >> the you compare to the original iphone. the gross was about 55%. today a gross margin about 69, 70% depending on the model. so i'd have to say yes. >> who benefits? >> the main one, we borrowed this from would be of your producers here. the main producer i'm thinking about is tsmc. they are the new supplier for the main processer chip inside. used to be 100% samsung but because of the akry monoous. >> there is a lot of mysterious things. a new sensor in there. axel rom ter. they added a second excel romter

in there. >> a second axel rom ter. there. >> there are two in there now. >> so it's fast. >> exactly. >> could this be to tell things like elevation. >> there are a lot of new sensors and a new chip that goes alongside the apple a 8 that interprets all the data flowing in. >> and that's apple designed. >> apple designed and manufactured by samsung 40% of the time, and tse 60%. >> is there anything by samsung in the machine. >> they are still the biggest memory supplier in the world. and flash. and apple gets them from a lot of different suppliers. sa samsung is still in the mix.

equ qual com is there in too. broad com is in there with wifi. and bluetooth modules as well. >> how much better is the camera quickly? >> definitely better. they have the focus pixels. >> is that a new thing. >> it is a new thing. one mysterious thing. they can never tell exactly who makes the cameras. they hide the identities too well. >> i know it was rumored to be sony at one point. >> yes. >> that was nerdy. >> you love it when we get nerdy. we have a content sharing partnership. up next, our exclusive interview with michael dell after the break.

whenwork with equity experts who work with regional experts who work with portfolio management experts that's when expertise happens. mfs. because there is no expertise without collaboration.

from alibaba to recent tech valuation, michael dell, crow, sat down with me for an exclusive interview. here is what he had to say about the massive ipo. >> certainly an interesting company. it's been good to see jack, you know, succeed so much with that platform. siva seen a few studies that have shown this founder-controlled shareholder structure seems to be working well empirically a cross a large number of companies. as a private company that is not something we think about. >> you were an earlier adopter of software as a service both

internally and externally to interface with customers. and that whole arena of social has really exploded. are the valuations getting out of the control? >> i'm sure you can find a better guest to ask that question. >> not around here. not in this room. >> i'm not going to -- not going to opine on the valuations of -- >> i mean, when you look at things to buy. because you have purchased companies in this space in the past particularly when it comes to dealing with small business. certainly those types of companies must be more expensive now than they were three or four years ago. how do you feel about what is going on in the value and elsewhere, where these companies are growing up and how acquisition worthy they are based on how much they cost? >> we're free cash flow people. so we absolutely look at getting

a return on our investment in a potential acquisition. and certainly some of the prices are pretty inflated. >> what is your tablet strategy? do you think of the tablet as being different from the pc or do you view it at this point as on evolution of the pc. and when you look at your core customer, how do you serve them best? >> we see the notebook is a lineal decent of the desk top. and the tablet of the notebook. if you see a tablet a keeyboard. you separate those two now it's a notebook. so the first half of the year our pc business without tablets grew about 15, 16%. if you include tablets it was up in the 20s. so we have very, very fast tablet growth, both in windows and android. and both in commercial and in consumer. and certainly there is growth

there. you know, we see the seven, eight inch type platform as more of a secondary machine as posed to a replacement. but there is also this interesting two in one transformer type machines. that is a very fast growing category. and we are all over that. we just showed a new thinnest in the world 8.4 inch, oled screen tablet, high resolution, 3-d camera, only 310 grams. fantastic, super light tablet. so we are absolutely in that space. >> a year ago, a year plus you were in throe os thf battle for the future of your company. and it seemed to me to be probably especially personal because your name is on the company.

what kind of conversations did you have, maybe with your family, with your kids, why why you were doing what you were doing? and a year removed from that, what are you proudest of? and what if anything you regret. >> >> i'm certainly proud that we got it done. it's gone -- i thought it would go well. it's gone much better than i thought it would go. and what did i tell my kids and my wife? well, until we announced it, i didn't tell them anything. because that is kind of the way things work. but once it was announced, you know, i told them what i was doing and why i was doing it. and yeah, it was -- it was a difficult thing, for sure. but we got through all that and, you know, business is doing really well and we're growing and expanding. and like you said, our team at dell really held together and

continued to persevere and so for whatever challenges, you know, we had in doing that, it's all been worth it. and superexcited about the next, you know, chapters ahead. and you know, i'm still a pretty young guy as far as ceos go. certainly younger than the average ceo. >> certainly younger than larry ellison. are you going to stick around until you are 70 plus? >> we'll see. could be. >> all right. will you be private until you are 70 plus. >> could be. all right. michael dell on the future of dell speaking with john fort. the return of jack ma, from alibaba, hear what we had to say just this morning at the clinton global initiative, next on squawk alley.

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requires challenging your business inside and out today. at cognizant, we help forward-looking companies run better and run different - to give your customers every reason to keep looking for you. so if you're ready to see opportunities and see them through, we say: let's get to work. because the future belongs to those who challenge the present. welcome back to squawk on the street. i'm mary thompson with a developing story. police in birmingham, alabama say three have been killed in a ups facility in that city.

among the dead, a gunman who was an employee of ups still wearing his uniform. and two others killed. we have no further details but we'll bring you up to date as soon as additional details stars surface. >> tragic story. thanks mary. want to check on the broader markets right now. the dow is still negative, down 31 at this hour. the nasdaq has flipped into positive territory. fractional moves but interesting to note given the nasdaq from yesterday's selloff had its worst day since july. financials are in the lead right now. and in terms of the losers, consumer staples, that group, down half a percent. >> just a few days taf alibaba's ipo jack ma speaking at the global initiative this morning, reiterating who is looking up

too. >> if i'm not optimistic would never survive for 15 years doing internet in china. my best american idol was forrest gump. and the sentence i like the most is life is like a pox of chocolate. you never o know what you are going to get. >> that's kind of perfect for the chinese audience saying his best american idol is the forrest gump. >> but he's fictional. he doesn't really look up to any real people in the u.s. we like it and they like i'll get. >> i just want to point out that the alibaba stock. we're down about 4% yesterday. down another 2.4% today. along with yahoo which has also been under pressure. what are you hearing? the analysts in general to me have seemed very optimistic that perhaps alibaba is fairly priced. and it is not a bargain anymore.

>> i still see people arguing that, you know, there could be some way for it to go in either direction. but that is all we've got as we hit noontime on the east coast. let's get to the fast money halftime report. with scott wapner and the gang. >> have a great rest of the day. welcome to the halftime show. the starting lineup. joe terra nova. pete, and mike. we begin with stocks trying to stave off a three day losing streak. some serious damage done to small caps in the nasdaq in recent days and that has some asking if the biggest ipo of all time may be the culprit. did alibaba mark atop for the market? >> maybe. but we don't know for the year. >> do you think? >> anything's possible. but i think