good morning it is 8:00 a.m. at amazon headquarters in seattle. it's 11:00 a.m. on wall street and "squawk alley" is live.

♪ good thursday morning. welcome to "squawk alley." i'm carl quintanilla, post nine, along with julia boorstin, jon fortt. morgan has the morning off big interview of the day, buffett and dimon speaking with our own becky quick and how it could lead companies to make poor decisions to satisfy shareholders >> you can change exposure by making a phone call, do some swaps and hundreds of millions of dollars revenue a lot of people cut marketing. that's one of the easiest things to cut. >> right. >> you can pay people left

it's like airplane maintenance you can reduce airplane maintenance but it's a really bad idea. >> yeah. >> yeah. tell me if you're doing that any place. >> covered a lot of ground big op-ed in the journal about this corporate guidance theory they're putting out there. along with other comments about the economy, the consumer, the markets, the euro, trade and a lot more. >> so much there i really think this issue of short termism is something i hear a lot about on the west coast. bob iger doesn't provide quarterly guidance for disney. whenever we report the result compared to expectations, he says what are these based on he says we're managing for the long term. and deciding to buy something like lucas film that's a long-term decision last week at the code conference, daniel eck, ceo of spot if i, said the hardest part of being a public company is when they release guidance three weeks before the end of the quarter. then they met the guidance they

provided three weeks before the end of the quarter and the stock dropped. it's an issue that's not just about meeting guidance there's now a built-in expectations that company also be able to exceed guidance that they provided. >> to a certain extent, this is the game, right? they know that when you're releasing a product, releasing a movie, you build up anticipation you try to find out where the audience is and appeal to the right people it's not that much different than the stock market. byron was on with you last hour, saying it makes sense for bigger companies to avoid doing the -- playing the guidance game. look at apple, the biggest company of all and they give quarterly guidance, not the same way that they used to, but i think they understand the psychology behind it even if you don't give guidance, the street is going to create their own arrative. >> the street will create their own narrative, certainly when you're talking about

playing the guidance game that raises the question of whether you want ceos to devote energy to figure out how to give guidance so they surpass it just enough that -- you're asking them to play a game that -- >> it's not either/or. it's not like now i don't have to worry about the street thinks investors and analysts will make their own interpretation either way. if you're not playing the guidance game there's another game you have to play. >> tesla plays the guidance game, at least on production we know where the street stands on that. that's a wrinkle and byron pointed to large cap tech especially, and ownership structure to have owners say i am playing for the long term i'm going to buy what's app for $19 billion. you may not like it today but you'll like it tomorrow. >> the danger for large cap tech is not with the larger public shareholder. i think it's with the employee base there's so much equity that

employees have, so much stake that they have in stock price movements, there's a war for talent right now for example, in silicon valley, and so much of compensation is stock based. if your stock tanks, because you didn't meet the right kind of expectation, that ends up affecting the way you run your company. it's not just about guidance it's about expectations, too there's one game to play if you're not playing the other. >> jeff sidonnenfeld of yale jon us on the phone. >> i think it's well timed. >> i'm trying to guess where you come down on this. the whole idea, some suggest, is a reaction -- the guidance environment we're in is a reaction to investors hold iing stocks for shorter periods of time over the past few decades. >> yeah. there's a volatility of ownership, which is one big issue. of course, related to that has

to do with the volatility that follows of ceo tenure. there's been several misleading studies out, suggesting that ceo tenure of major companies has only fallen modestly, maybe 11 years to 8 or 9 years. data shows us it's actually fallen to five years at the average ten-year that has a lot to do with this. the timeframe has been so shortened. the lease has been tightened and that leads to abhorrent behavior people gaming the system it's not good data for investors to use as guidelines there's so many problems you could have a bad storm affecting certain businesses or fda approval that holds up one drug or something, and a pharma company gets misjudged or bob iger has the film "solo" doesn't take off as well as people expected the "star wars" saga to do and you have earnings that don't

quite match up with what expectations were. who knows for sure what film will be a blockbuster? >> obviously you've been talking about this issue of quarterly guidance for a while now now that buffett and diamond came out and wrote this op-ed, do you think this will drive change >> yes it's been driving change already not even a third of major companies are using corporate guidance anymore it used to be we would have these kind of discussions on cnbc, start to list some of the companies like bp and coke, u.p.s. and others. now it's become the norm to not rely -- this is not -- and warren buffett and jamie dimon emphasized this on cnbc today, of course. they're not saying get rid of the transparency of quarterly and regular reports, of actual information. it's just the crystal ball gazing out there is what they want to get rid of mike santelli was on with you

guys just before the break saying, companies have internal forecasts and plans. why not share it they have it on a daily, almost hourly, certainly weekly basis planning a business, you run a business on a five-year horizon. but certainly you can share data, actual data on a quarterly. the forecasting is what's so misleading and leads to a lot of gaming, lot of manipulation, a lot of the needless buybacks if you don't know what to do with the cash, give it back to the shareholders. >> jeff, as you're joining us this morning, we're joined by scott galloway here on set good to see you. i'm trying to understand if you would argue that they deserve every tracking, even if it is crystal ball gazing.

>> when i listened to mr. buffett's comments, i think warren buffett is the problem. specifically, investors are the problem. every ceo i work with would love to invest in the long term and be more focused on strategy. miss your earnings by one cent and see what happens in terms of mr. buffett and the rest of the investment community a small number of companies have been able to bust out of this downward spiral of quarterly earnings and they have access to cheaper capital because of their vision the majority of companies are painted in a box by investors. and that is investors say think for the long term. be innovative. but don't mess with my earnings. >> it's not just investors, is it, scott? it's also boards, to some extent look at amazon amazon gives guidance. they give a wide range they set up front. hey, look, we invest for the long term. there will be ups and downs. sometimes there will be a profit sometimes there won't. perhaps they get that leeway

because jeff bezos, the ounder is still at the helm that tends to go away when you bring in a second, third ceo is that the issue? because boards don't give those ceos the leeway either to say they is going to play out and let's tell them up front. >> that's part of the problem. it's a longer conversation, a more boring conversation that is the importance of metrics. what is the most important metric in terms of influence, indicator or signal of the health of the united states? what is the one metric you would say everybody looks to >> for the u.s. there's questions of gdp, right? >> nobody knows gdp. but what does everybody know every day? >> unemployment. >> the dow. >> the dow, hands down an indicator of the economic well-being of the top 10%, the majority of stocks what's more important indicator? life expectancy. the last two years for the first time since world war ii, has

gone down. when you pay ceos, based on earnings and the metric is quarterly earnings and the competition committee says 98% of your compensation is going to be based on the stock price, which investors have linked to the earnings, competition drives behavior we are not going to get out of this short termism until we change the metrics and investors actually put their money and their trades where their mouth is and invest to the long term as opposed to quarterly earnings. >> one quick word from you, jeff, before we let you go. >> i do think that this is a problem. i never disagree with scott. he's exactly right, once again, that it has to do with the investor focus but there are companies that have gone through points of inflection that can't do it as a public company dell is the only integrated technology company left in the united states. michael dell had to take the company private to do t look at whole foods, panera.

ask them why did they change their ownership structure? it's because as a public company, they can't do it. big private equity portfolio retreat of the companies, they all wanted to be liberated ten years ago. now they don't want to be. they don't want the companies to go public. they like being in the portfolio. it has to do with the focus on these quarterly earnings it's way too short-term oriented you have one bad quarter at dupont one bad quarter brings nelson peltz back into the board, collapses like lawn furniture because of a quarterly miss. it's ridiculous. >> we'll find out if this gives executives cover, starting in q2 maybe. who knows? jeff, thanks again jeff sonnenfeld joining us from yale

english premier league starting in the 2020 season. uk prime members will have the ability to stream 20 matches per season the most watched soccer league in the world amazon fire tv cube, a combination of an echo device and fire tv. some said the premier league news is historic. >> huge. >> these are exclusive rights not a simulcast. >> the last break in the firewall, keeping the mongrels from invading the advertising industrial complex was sports. we'll always have sports they don't skip the ads. but none of these leagues are, in any way, loyal to any network they go to the highest bird. nobody watches the super bowl because it's on nbc. they just watch the super bowl when you have portable franchises like the european league and uefa world cup and it goes to the highest bidder, another question, who will be

the highest bidders for any content over the next decade it's going to be amazon, apple, facebook and google. this is literally breaching the firewall of the industrial complex. you're about to see the biggest sporting events broadcast at big tech where there will be, by the way, no advertising. super bowl, barcelona versus munich is about to be awesome. >> you have to be a member of prime. >> and who isn't 62% of households in america subscribe to prime. >> streaming rights, 10 nfl games last fall. these investments seem to be paying off for amazon. i wish they would disclose these numbers. what is their metric of success? how much more are their prime members spending or how much more time or how do they calculate why this major investment in the billions of dollars they're sure to spend on sports the next couple of years,

what makes that worthwhile >> the metric is how many paper towels they sell they're using content to create intensity across the best loyalty program in the world, a. amazon prime so they no longer need the same metrics of ratings and to announce $550,000 to every 30-second app. as long as they create that intensity and they go from 62% to 64% of households, 82% of wealthy households, that investment can be monetized more easily. >> have we really had the test case for effectiveness hearing about the rolling stones playing a bar mitzvah. that's nice if you've got the money but the masses didn't get to hear that show. have we had yet the test case to see whether these smaller platforms that don't have the same demands still have the kind of impact? >> the premier league is the most watched sports league in the world. it's easy to forget that, being here in the u.s. they only had 10 nfl games last

year i think we'll start to see a tipping point and the premier league could be a big deal in the uk. >> do you know what the biggest friction point -- bandwidth. the servers crash. if there's one company that has it configured out it's the company that's providing infrastructure in bandwidth to a third of the world and that's amazon they're ready. they're lined up super bowl, academy awards, whatever you want to name it, it's going to big tech. >> bring on 5g we'll see how that plays with all of this. >> good to see you guys. the u.s. striking a deal to keep chinese telecom giant zte in business. eamon javers is at the white house. >> reporter: that's right. wilbur ross announced the deal on cnbc this morning, saying it had been struck at 6:00 a.m. this morning with the chinese. yesterday, no deal today, there say deal. here is what we know about the terms of the zte deal, which has

become controversial here in washington and around the world. zte must pay $1 billion in penalties and place $400 million in what they're calling suspended penalty money in escrow they have to retain a team of special compliance coordinators, who will actually live inside the company and report back to the united states. they also have to replace the entire board of directors and senior leadership of the company in order to be in compliance here with the united states. wilbur ross on cnbc this morning stressed just how tough this deal actually is. >> it imposes the most strict compliance that we've ever had on any company, american or foreign. we are literally embedding a compliance department of our choosing into the company to monitor it, going forward. >> now not everybody agrees with that take a look at this tweet from

senator marco rubio. i assure you with 100% confidence that zte is a much greater national security threat than steel from argentina or europe #verybaddeal not everybody on capitol hill is sold on this deal that the administration has cut here. nonetheless, we'll see now over the coming days how it plays into the overall negotiations with the chinese on trade, guys. back over to you. >> indeed, we l thank you, eamon javev. when we come back, amazon's head of product development for the fire tv. we'll have our first look at amazon fire tv cube. plus much more from our cnbc exclusive with warren buffett and jamie dimon is coming up don't go anywhere. >> i bought my first stock march 11th of 1942 we've had seven democratic

presidents and seven republican presidents the digital divide is splitting this country. we have parents who are trying to get their kids off of too much social media and computers, and then we have parents who would only hope their children have access. middle school is a really key transition point, right. the stakes start changing. students begin to really start thinking about their futures. what i like about verizon's approach is that it's not limited to just giving kids new tools, it's really about empowering educators to teach in different ways, and exposing kids to more active forms of learning. giving technology is not a total solution. teaching technology, now that is.

when companies get where they're living by sort of so-called making the numbers, they do things that are really countered to the long-term interest of the business i've never seen a company whose performance has been improved by having some forecast out there by the ceo that we're going to earn x it's not only sending the wrong message and delivering the wrong results to the company and to

the country, it's also teaching the people that work under him or her that quarterly performance is the end game. i tell our managers just pretend you're going to own -- this is the only business you and your family are going to own for 50 years and you can't sell it and you'll make the right decisions. >> that was warren buffett, an exclusive interview with becky quick this morning where he and swr jamie dimon of jp morgan discuss ed. >> bob lutz joins us. >> good to be here thanks. >> when you ran gm, was this corporate policy and do you think it could be in the future? >> i didn't run gm i was vice chairman.

but i helped run it. and i controlled product development. i did not control finance and sales. and i'll tell you, all of the american companies i've worked at, whether it's ford, gm or chrysler, i've seen a lot of bad counterproductive behavior by setting quarterly targets. the big fear is that it would come in under what the analysts' expectations were. if that were the case, ceo would rally troops and say guys we've got to make those earnings per share. what else can we do? that's when a lot of really stupid, counterproductive stuff happened to me that's one of the worst ills of american business. and i wish quarterly earnings

statements and projections and analysts projections would all go away. we would have a much better business climate as warren buffett says, it's one of the reasons that family-owned companies tend to outperform publicly held companies in the same industry. >> bob, i might argue that short termism goes beyonquarterly guidance right down the way that executives get compensated, basing them on shorter term stock movements that can come from goosing the price over one year when really the true strategic impact of the move isn't seen for a longer term would you go so far as to say that right on down to executive compensation practices there are all kinds of things that need to change or is it mainly about the quarterly guidance you pick? >> i don't know how you compensate executives any other way except to eliminate the annual bonus or eliminate stock

grants i think corporate america thought if we compensate senior executives with stock options, they'll have the same motivations as the shareholders. obviously that didn't work either so, short of plain compensating executives without that, i don't see how you'll defeat the practice of people sacrificing the business to make the numbers. it's a terrible thing. i don't have a solution for it. >> bob, there's also a question if you don't provide guidance analysts will come up with their own guidance and it may be less accurate do you think anything should be

done in order to make a change here >> say it again. i didn't quite hear that. >> if analysts come up with guidance no matter what, what do you recommend be done to address that issue, that ceos will always be pushed to catch up with those analysts' estimates >> i don't -- ceo and top executive compensation is always contentious. and i don't know that we'll ever find a system that is going to satisfy everybody and ensure that a company can attract the best possible top management in the marketplace. >> bob, thanks so much thanks for joining us. when we come back, amazon adding echo-like features to its latest device. convenience or another microphone tuning in to your 'lrsonal conversations wel speak to amazon fire tv division when "squawk alley" returns.

good morning, everyone i'm sue herera here is your cnbc news update. rudy giuliani's personal attorney says melania doesn't believe alleged affair of stormy daniels with president trump. >> she knows it's not true i don't think there's a slight suspicion it's true, excuse me, when you look at stormy daniels. i know donald trump and -- look at his three wives, right? beautiful women. classy women, women of great substance. stormy daniels >> afghan president announcing a

cease fire with the taliban to c coincide with the holiday mark marking the end of ramadan starbucks $1.95 to $2.15 in most locations prices remain unchanged for lattes and iced coffees. that's the news update this hour you are up-to-date, carl back to you. >> sue, thank you very much. to dominic chu at hq as european stocks close for the day. dom? >> we're in, at least, losing momentum territory right now starting the day off on a generally positive note. the tone got more mixed as the day progressed more red on the screen than we thought. broader stocks europe ended up fractionally negative on the day here a drop of 2.5% in april. it already fell 1.1% in the

month in march, fourth straight drop for that particular reading in germany earlier in the session, banks were among some of the best performers commerce bank and, as you can see there, even beleagued deutsche bank seemed to find some bid today quantitative easing, those talks begin this week. british stocks didn't open on time today due to technical issues but did resume trading at 9:00 a.m. local. as you can see there, just about flat on the idea in london remy cointreau, better than expected profits, helped along by premium spirits for cognac in places like china, but fell for valuation. so julia, as we talk about remy

coin cointreau that's just off a hair back to you. >> dom, thank you so much. releasing data in the so-called gig economy. back with a breakdown of those numbers. steve? >> everyone thinks the gig economy is growing by leaps and bounds, a new government report says simply not the case the latest contingent and alternative employment report that looks at two types of jobs of the contingent work is temporary work, not expected to last alternative work is independent contractors, your on-call workers and freelancers. believe it or not the percentage of contingent workers in the workforce has gone down to 3.8% under the broadest definition or 5.9 million workers, down from 4.1% in 2005 when the survey was last done. the independent contractors, biggest part of alternative worker workers 6.9% from 7.4 % in '05

some great change in the workforce brought on by technology could be they missed a wave where it's down because of the labor market they plan to do a survey whose workers are -- aka, uber drivers. contingent workers mostly wish they had a permanent job but 79% of independent contractors wouldn't have it any other way for now there's not been a wholesale change of relationship of employee to employer, that the gig economy may not be quite as loud as people are making it out to be. of course, you know i have a gig tomorrow night with my band but that wouldn't show up necessarily in the gig economy jon? >> maybe that's part of it, steve, that people have side gigs and have full-time jobs and a lot of people giging were giging at something else before

but now it's technology enabled. >> you're right. that would be a multiple job, this other job i do. and the number of multiple job holders, the percentage of the total workforce is simply not up it's down. it could reflect the tight workforce or the idea that people ultimately like to work for traditional employers in a traditional way and you're right, use technology to make it happen. >> always good to go to the data rather than just look at the headline steve liesman, thank you so much. >> sure. first look at amazon's newest fire tv device with the head of product development for amazon's fire tv division. "squawk alley" is back after this

welcome to holiday inn! thank you! ♪ ♪ wait, i have something for you! every stay is a special stay at holiday inn. save up to 15% when you book early at hollidayinn.com

save up to 15% when you book early i we worked with pg&eof to save energy because wenie. wanted to help the school. they would put these signs on the door to let the teacher know you didn't cut off the light. the teachers, they would call us the energy patrol. so they would be like, here they come, turn off your lights! those three young ladies were teaching the whole school about energy efficiency. we actually saved $50,000. and that's just one school, two semesters, three girls. together, we're building a better california.

amazon launched the fire tv cube with echo voice activated speaker that acts as a streaming box and remote joining us here at post nine sandy gupta. this product is different. it's trying to talk to everything in your entertainment cabinet even for those who haven't cut the cord, your cable box. imagine that why? what was the genesis of this idea >> one thing that's happened

over the last years is that there's more and more ways to watch content. we wanted to create a device to simplify that. how do i get to netflix and manage all of that decr create a product that you bring home, plug it in and straight away it manages all that for you, with voice, hands free from anywhere you are. >> a lot of people want to know, what other data are you keeping? if i'm switching channels to watch sports to watching a romantic comedy or the crown or whatever, is amazon going to use that >> the focus of the product is making a great customer experience that's not really what it's about. it's how do you simplify the process? how do you watch cnbc with my

cable remote, what channel is it on i've got to go to my guide again. great thing about this, you don't do any of that you say watch cnbc and you're done. >> you're still not including the native app goog sle and amazon haven't word out their differences but youtube is a big platform for teens. is this a missed experience for amazon >> we have our are browsers, firefox. you that will continue to get better as well. >> any negotiations in progress to launch that youtube app >> we're always having conversations with google and always try to make the product better. >> if you have an echo or get this, do you no longer need an echo >> echo you can use anywhere in the house, itchen, bedroom, in

the family room. this is focused around entertainment and making that hands free it's designed to sit next to your tv. it's linear, not circular. it gives you all that functionality. >> you envision households having both? >> absolutely. >> philosophically, are there places where you guys at amazon and product development are thinking we don't want voice interaction? we don't want people saying these sorts ofthings, communicating these certain things with us, data we don't want or a bad user experience or we have an ethical problem interacting with artificial intelligence are there any lines you draw >> using voice and natural language is how we function as human beings to translate that into entertainment has meant i have to figure out how to do something with a remote.

do we think of channels as numbers? no we think of them as channels using your voice is a more natural interaction model. turn on the tv i don't have to figure out which remote turns on my tv. >> people are more concerned about privacy and their data and whether that's data on their phone, facebook or whether it's a conversation that's listened to in their house. so the first question that jon asked you didn't really answer how will this either improve my shopping on amazon.com or be another piece of data that i need to know that you're saving onme >> we don't save a lot of that data, right? check your alexa app it's all in there for you to check it out our goal is to continue to improve the experience for the customer we take privacy very seriously

that's not really our focus. >> what are the problems you're trying to solve with fire tv you're pulling in what some in the industry see the dinosaurs, the cable box. what about music and other media types, game consoles are now very much part of the entertainment experience how much will voice interact with those >> we see voice as a natural progression, controlling everything in your home, all about your entertainment experience.first iteration of the product. as soon as you take the product home it keeps improving. as for music, we have a great music experience on our fire tv products amazon music, spot if i, pan dora you get a great music

experience. >> you must do a lot of research on what customers want. >> we find it's empowering to people to be able to do things and not have to think too hard about it to figure it out. it's freed people from the complexity that they deal with every day. >> this about the death of the remote control as we know it, hand-held remote, when do we see a decent percentage of households without a remote? >> good question i'll probably know in about a year. >> in a year >> yeah. we're learning how people use these products and we want to get into the home and see how they use it. do they still -- it does come with a remote. how comfortable are they doing that voice all the time? some people want to use the remote and not talk. for us, being able to use voice naturally, to control complexity, is a great way to start. >> you have the fire tv stick. now you have the cube.

sandeep, thanks. >> thank you very much great to be here. 324 coming oe ining after t rise and best crack at that 50 day since february or so rick santelli, what are you watching >> wasn't there a beatles song "eight days a week"? over the next eight days, foreign policy, trade policy, monetary policy. will it all work out like a happy beatles song or will it be more like a led zeppelin we'll talk about that after the break. hi, i'm joan lunden with a place for mom, the nation's largest senior-living referral service. for the past five years, i've spoken with hundreds of families and visited senior-care communities around the country.

and i've got to tell you, today's senior-living communities are better than ever. these days, there are amazing amenities, like movie theaters, exercise rooms and swimming pools, public cafes, bars, and bistros, even pet-care services. and nobody understands your options like the advisers at a place for mom. these are local, expert advisers that will partner with you to find the perfect place and determine the right level of care, whether that's just a helping hand or full-time memory care. best of all, it's a free service. there is never any cost to you. senior living has never been better, and there's never been an easier way to get great advice. call today. a place for mom -- you know your family, we know senior living. together we'll make the right choice.

i'm scott wapner today if the economy is really as strong as jamie dimon and warren buff ett said today what does it mean for the market? plus debate over short termism, is getting rid of guidance the answer or will it be harder for you to make money? and our call of the day comes with fries and a shake see you at noon. carl, we're about ten minutes away. >> watching some of that action today. rick santelli and the santelli exchange good morning, rick. >> good morning, carl. over the next eight days, there are so many major policy meetings going on in so many different areas and all roads lead to potential market moving outcomes consider this friday and saturday up in the great north

in canada, we'll have g7 parades for the president's team as they go to canada we know all the issues going on there. then, of course, we transition into the 12th. singapore, north korea, huge potential implications how could that have a transition into the market? remember when things weren't going as well on north korea, how all the talk was supposedly being a downward force in the markets? one would only think that should it go in a better direction, having a meeting at all at least gets you aiming in that direction that that could possibly be a positive, potentially a bigger positive, depending on the outcome and, finally, oh, my gosh, wednesday, thursday, friday. so wednesday we have the second day of our meeting, and a presser and a rate decision, potentially. ecb, presser thursday, the day after. bank of japan, a presser friday. the bank of japan, one would say they're not as important they're just not ready

it's not soup yet unfortunately. that soup might have boiled over many quarters ago. but it does matter the pressure mounting based on the pure activity, the promise the promises of mario draghi the actual movement of balance sheets in the u.s. it's going to put mr. kuroda in the box. it will. while all of this is going on, let's look at data points, shall we first of all, when you look at the markets it they look half fool or you would say none of these are really the reason. i think i would question that. i think it's difficult to ascertain differences of how foreign trade, monetary policy and foreign trade policy are playing in one sure on the latter, everything changed in the markets about 50 or 60 hours ago with mario draghi telling us this is going to be a hot meeting on quantitative easing a

week from today. finally, eurozone, they're growth number us i understand when you lump all of the countries together i'm not sure if the information is better or worse. as with the european union growth as evidenced by gdp is up 0.4 for the final read on the quarter, wafd on first quarter versus fourth quarter. that's the slowest month since 2015 the reason i bring that up, it shouldn't be shocking but with the euro going up and rates going up, it shows you what's more important right now data or monetary policy. we can see the answer. julia, back to you >> rick, thanks so much. still to come, we go live to the deals conference and a closer look at cooperate governments. "squawk alley" is back in a moment time you saw a dinosaur?

never thought i'd see one in real life. [ dinosaur screeches ] the park is in the past. run! we're not on an island anymore. there is a town five miles from here. am i dead? not yet, kid.

change was inevitable and it's happening now. welcome to jurassic world. rated pg-13.

the deal's third annual conference is under way, our leslie picker is live. leslie >> that's right, guys, our deals corporate conference leaders here we just heard from nelson peltz and as well as paul singer of elliott management i'm sure as you know now, nelson peltz was able to move stocks in which his firm has obtained board seats in recent years. most notably, ge hinting that they're at potential for more serious breakup of the underlying assets when our own jim cramer asked

him whether a breakup was on the table, whether everything was on the table with regard to a serious breakup, he deferred to management and said investors should take them at their word and he also spoke about the plan with p & g with a matrix structure, saying if a matrix structure were an animal it would be hanging above his fireplace but he does say that the board is considering his own restructuring and simplified plan both peltz and singer spoke about the op-ed today from jamie dime and warren buffett that both appeared in support of their plan that quarterly guidance doesn't do much for business except for move stocks one way or another as far as singer's comments, he spoke about what he called the defense bar of advisers on the legal side

and the banking side that are made to help companies defend gent activists guys >> thank you, leslie picker. when we come back, warren buffett speaks out about a possible investment in uber. "squawk alley" is right back two of everything thing. ting those fur babies preparing you for real babies thing. that one for me, one for you, us together for the rest of everything. buy one iphone 8 and get one iphone 8 on us. more for your thing. that's our thing. visit att dot com.

it's highly unlikely, but i don't say zero to anything and it is true that we did have a conversation a few months back and certainly, as i said earlier, i'm impressed with darin. but we just didn't come to terms. but that's not an unique thing at berkshire >> talking about the talks earlier in the year of uber. >> he said he's a buffett fan. based on that, what do you think the chance of happening? >> tipping over at 50% we'll see. >> it's just interesting how the sentiment on uber seemed to look

possible just a year ago >> and how the additional sports rights bolsters the case of at&t and push to prior time warner that they're going to get the giants now the media consolation might be more legitimate in light of everything going on with the tech giants. let's get to the "half." welcome to "the halftime report." i'm scott wapner we begin this hour with the bullish outlook with two of the biggest names in business and investing, warren buff felt and jamie dimon speaking exclusively on cnbc, their message, the economy is the strongest it's been in years. >> consumers are in very good shape. balance sheet, wages are going up, debt levels are low. all of the credit since the great recession, pristine, other than student lending done by the