report" with tyler mathisen and susie gharib. brought to you in part by -- thestreet.com. featuring stephanie link who shares her investment strategies, stock picks and market insights with action alerts plus, the multimillion dollar portfolio she manages with jim cramer. you can learn more at thestreet.com/nbr. citi sinks as the federal reserve rejects the bank's capital plans and shares slide after the closing bell. short-term gain, long-term pain. black rock ceo larry fink tells every ceo in the s&p 500 to think twice before buying back stock and issuing dividends. why and is he right? odd couple? facebook shares tumble after a supplies acquisition of virtual reality headset maker oculus. now many investors are asking is

it the right fit? we have all that and more tonight on "nightly business report" for this wednesday, march 26th. good evening, everyone, and welcome. it is a big evening for banking news. the federal reserve coming down hard on a number of financial institutions. barring them from increasing their dividends or buying back their own stocks until they have enough cash on hand to withstand another big financial shock. citi group is the biggest bank that got its capital return plans rejected by the feds, sending shares lower initially in late trading today. the decision is a blow to the bank and marks the second time in three years that citi group has failed to win the fed's approval for its plan to return money to shareholders. kalya touchey joins us now. kayla, i would think an awful lot of citi group shareholders not to mention shareholders in other banks are disappointed tonight that the capital return plans that they might have been expecting on five years after the crisis are now up in the

air. >> they're saying fool me once, shame on you. fool me twice, shame on me. a lot of these investors believed former ceo in 2012 when the fed rejected that plan, and he said this won't happen again. we don't understand what happened. they had to keep the dividend at one cent per share. the dividend is still there and it's 2014. investors are saying, we should be far past this by now. >> citi's ceo mike corbett, right? >> >> reporter: yes. >> gets a lot of high marks for all the good things he's done post. but you're right, it seems like citi keeps getting targeted by the feds. is citi doing the right thing? >> reporter: it's unclear. the reason why the fed octobbje to the plan at this stage they said on a qualitative crisis citi wouldn't be ready for another crisis. so it has a big exposure in emerging markets. what if asia say drops 20%? what if mexico drops 50%? modelling for certain scenarios

like that just wasn't up to snuff for the fed at citi group. even though corbett has gotten high marks, that was priority number one when he took the helm. you have to think investors are going to be questioning where his priorities stand right now. >> other banks affected, too, many of them the u.s. subsidiaries of foreign banks. but back to citi now, they had wanted to increase their dividend to what, a nickel a share per quarter? and raise the buy back? is that now up in the air? that's not going to happen? >> reporter: that will not happen. they have 90 days to resubmit to the fed. for now it's status quo. $1.2 billion in share buy backs. they wanted $6.4 billion. high expectations, they overprom used. underdelivering. >> kayla, thanks very much. now to bank of america which will pay $9.5 billion to settle all litigation with the comp federal regulator over mortgage securities that were sold to fannie mae and freddie mac between 2005 and 2007. but the settlements don't end there. ken lewis, the one-time chief executive at bank of america,

will pay $10 million to settle claims by new york state's attorney general that he misled shareholders and the government in order to complete his bank's acquisition of struggling investment firm per imerrill li inform 2009. as we reported yesterday, facebook announced its first ever acquisition of a hardware company, paying $2 billion for the privately held oculus vr, which makes virtual reality goggles. the trouble is, oculus has no real revenue just yet and its technology is largely untested. and it comes a month after facebook paid an astonishing $19 billion for the mobile messaging app whats app. investors will ask questions later. today they sent shares of facebook tumbling 7%. that's their worst day in four months. josh lipton has more on facebook's takeover of oculus and the company's plans to move a virtual world. >> reporter: the social networks

are going to be -- the computing platform of today is mobile. the computing platform of tomorrow could be virtual reality. that's the big bet facebook's mark zuckerberg just made with his $2 billion acquisition of oculus, which develops virtual reality technology. users put on a headset and feel like they're inside and part of a video game. it's a totally immersive gaming experience which facebook sees as the next big opportunity. >> it seems like they've done a pretty good job of securing market share and opportunities when it comes to mobile. and they're thinking about what's next. and to them, seemingly virtual reality is one of those areas where you could see some new paradigm. >> reporter: zuckerberg says virtual reality has all kinds of applications. imagine feeling like you're courtside at a game, talking one-on-one with your doctor, or studying in a classroom halfway

around the world. >> that is clear? >> reporter: this isn't just sci-fi fantasy. sony last week let me try out its virtual reality headset. i was virtually transported underwater in a cage surrounded by sharks. it was so real that after a few minutes i was ready to throw off the headset. so what's the business model zuckerberg imagines? he says facebook isn't looking to make money off the hardware, instead he sees virtual reality as a new social network and new way of communicating where users can come together and also buy goods and services. analysts say the the acquisition is also about perception, making sure face book is thought of as a dynamic company pursuing cutting-edge technology. >> there's clearly a kind of land grab that seems to be going on in silicon valley when it comes to not only acquiring technologies and talent but also perceived innovation. >> reporter: it's impossible to

know whether zuckerberg is right and virtual reality will become the next mass communications platform. but $2 billion doesn't seem crazy for a company of facebook size. josh lipton, "nightly business report," menlo park, california. managing director at analyst at topeka capital markets, victor is this a crazy move or does this make sense in terms of a big grand plan that mark zuckerberg has in mind? >> i'm a strong believer in facebook's core platform. i've been a bull since day one. i get the logic behind his acquisition that virtual reality could be the next generation platform. and with facebook's ownership of virtual reality plus social, they're able to leverage the platform outside of gaming into new communications and social and enterprise use cases. i get that. however, i am somewhat cautious. i'm taking a wait and see approach on his acquisition for two reasons. number one, they talked about lots of opportunities last night

on the call. however, they weren't exactly clear what those are. so the financial payout for this particular acquisition is unknown as well as the timing of this future payout is unknown. number two, there's an element of risk in facebook's business model that did not exist months ago in which they're currently digesting two acquisitions. any sort of hiccups through the integration process, i fear that could distract the management team from the core platform which is performing extraordinarily well today based on my checks. >> victor, not too many software companies have done all that weapon -- notably apple a different one but it began as a hardware company. not too much software companies have done well when they've gone into hard waware. what's the history tell you? >> listen, i think what facebook is trying to do is trying to expand outside of the core platform and attract a new base of users and create an address maybe a new platform that exists in the future.

i get what they're doing. they're not looking to be a hardware company, they're just really looking to use the software and expand the software. >> victor, if you had to describe facebook two to three years from now, give us a short description of what the company's going to be known for. >> well, i think it's still going to be known as a social platform where everyone essentially around the globe really just coalesces and gets together and communicates. so it becomes i think what is a communications platform. it becomes a search platform as well. and i think it becomes a platform, a knowledge-based platform essentially to find whatever you're looking for. >> dow a b you have a buy ratin? >> $75 price tack on the stock. >> do you feel good about that as you did on monday? >> like i said, my buy rating is predicated on the core platform which i think is performing extraordinarily well. i do think there's some sort of risk now in the business model that didn't exist two months ago because of the two acquisitions.

so i'm taking a wait and see approach. i'm somewhat cautious but i'm still at a buy i think the core platform which is what my estimates are based on is still performing extraordinarily well. >> victor, thanks for coming by and talking with us. victor anthony. not the initial public stock offering debut king digital had hoped for. the gamemaker best known for candy crush saw its shares gets crushed on their first day of trading, sliding more than 15%. but king digital ceo ricardo zaconi doesn't sound crushed about the inauspicious debut for the stock or about prospects for new video games and players. >> what we want to see is not to find another candy crush. that's not what we are here for. what we're here for is to build a portfolio of games. we want to build a network of players, of loyal players who play our portfolio games. you can see that we have now three games in the top ten grossing on multiplatforms. >> with today's ipo king digital

is now valued at about $6 billion. candy crush counts 97 million players. the slide in facebook and other tech stocks dragged down the major averages today. also weighing on the markets, renewed concerns about russia on reports it has 30,000 military troops stationed along its eastern border with ukraine. speaking of brussels, president obama urged european allies and nato members to condemn russia's annexation of crimea. >> that's why russia's violation of international law, it's assault on ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity, must be met with condemnation. >> on wall street, stocks sold off sharply despite one upbeat economic report. orders for long-lasting durable goods in february were more than twice as high as forecasted. the dow fell nearly 99 points, the tech-heavy nasdaq lost 60, the s&p was down 13 points. well, even those markets are

still near historic highs and home prices are higher, the outlook on the economy for many americans is still not close to where it was before the financial crisis. steve liesman takes a look at a new survey that shows how many of us are feeling about the economy right now. >> reporter: america's views on the economy little changed in this quarter despite stronger growth in jobs numbers to end the year. the cnbc survey finds that 81% of the public still view the economy as just fair or poor. only 7% think the economy is good or excellent. that has barely changed from the december numbers, although it is an improvement from the depths of the recession. still economic views remain depressed compared with how america's felt before the financial crisis. so economic expectations were a touch better with a third of the public seeing the economy improving in the next year. but an equal share says it will likely get worse. behind this muted economic outlook, americans see their wages and housing prices growing

only around 2% next year. both are down for the december survey. attitudes on stock investing were also largely unchanged. 39% say it's a good time to invest in the market. the public's views on the stock market have really yet to recover their pre-crisis levels, even though most major stock indexes have recovered and are actually higher than those levels. and in a sign of changing times, 56% of americans said it would be acceptable business selling marijuana in their city or town but under half when asked if it's accept tobl have a business in their neighborhood. only a third of americans would invest in a business that grew or sold pot, and a little more than a quarter would work at such an establishment. for "nightly business report," i'm steve liesman. and read more about americans' views on the economy and the stock market, head to our web site, nbr.com. still ahead on "nightly business report," black rock ceo sounds the alarm, warning corporate america to think twice when it comes to stock buy backs

and dividends. is that a risk to long-term growth? that's coming up. the battle heating up between barington capital group. isn't calling for a restructure, of the company but now also for a new ceo. garden says it's doing what's in the best interests of shareholders. >> what is in the best interests of shareholders? that question was the hot topic of debate today thanks to a strong warning from larry fink, the ceo of black rock. that's the giant investment firm. he sent a letter to all the ceos of the s&p 500, warning that the recent trend of issuing dividends and stock buy backs under pressure from activist

investors jeopardizes a company's long-term growth. here's what he wrote. "many commentators lament the short-term demands of the capital markets. we share those concerns and believe it is part of our collective role as actors in the global capital markets to challenge that trend." fink did not mention any specific activist hedge fund but pointed out big companies have become vulnerable to short-term thinking. so does focusing on short-term gains jeopardize long-term growth? don steinberg is managing director at agecroft partners, a hedge fund consulting firm, and bill george is the former ceo of medtronic and professor of management practice at harvard business school. he's been on most including many of the most prestigious boards in the country. bill, with that in mind, let me begin with you. mr. icahn among other activists is very critical of corporate boards, says they misuse shareholder capital and that the

managements in the boards aren't acting in the best interests of shareholders. i assume you would say that has not been your experience at all. >> not at all. in fact, carl icahn is going after e-bay right now. e-bay's had a 465% return to shareholders in the last five years, tyler. and he's attacking some of america's best companies. yes, corporations need to make sound capital decisions. they need to decide how much for growth, how much for acquisitions, how much are they going to return to shareholders and dividends. these are capital structure questions. i think they're sound we got too far that way in 2008 and that led to the financial crisis. banks didn't have enough capital to keep them going. so i think the carl icahns of the world are just looking for a short-term hit. he's not concerned about the long term growth of e-bay. i'll tell you with the moves that google and facebook are

making, unless e-bay continues under john donahoe, continues to invest and build their platform with pay pal and other aspects, they're not going to be as competitive in the global market. that's what we in america need. great global companies going after the global markets, like pepsico is doing, like coca-cola is doing. i think that's really critical that we're investing in a long-term future growth. and yes, we want to give fair dividends back to our shareholders. if we have excess cash, exxon generates a lot of cash and have good shareholder return policies. unless you have a lot of excess cash i don't think you should be giving it all back to shareholders but investing for the growth of the company. >> let's get don into this conversation. i know you're on the other side of this debate. make a case why people like carl icahn or dan loeb are working on behalf of shareholders and for the best interests of the company. >> well, first of all, i do disagree. i think in general corporate management are more focused on doing what's good for the

corporation as a whole than shareholders as a whole. and i think activists are checks and balances on corporate management. if they return money to stockholders, who's benefitting? it's benefitting the economy because that money is then redeployed into private equity, venture capital, new businesses and so forth. if a company isn't efficiently utilizing their assets, someone else should more efficiently invest those. without activists, if there's no checks and balances on corporate management to do that. >> so don, do you think -- the real criticism here is the activists act for short-term purposes, i.e. to return capital in some cases to their own pockets in the form of stock buy backs or dividends, and that it might not be in the best long-term interest of the shareholders. and that's what larry fink was driving at. address that specifically if you would. >> well, larry fink is -- a lot

of his assets are in an s&p 500 index fund. he's looking at it very long-term oriented from an individual company. what he's not thinking about is from an investor's standpoint. an investor wants to allocate his money into securities that are going to generate the highest return possible. our economy benefits from that. you want money coming out of less efficient companies and going into more efficient companies. so the overall economy benefits when money leaves inefficient companies and goes into more efficient companies. larry's opinion was, i'm an s&p 500 investor. i have to hold this company long term. long term maybe this doesn't benefit the company. >> okay. bill, half a minute. >> may i comment on that, tyler? i think that if they are inefficient and they're not managing capital well, i think the point is very well taken. i think they should be challenged. but when you go after america's best companies that are looking for long-term growth and ask them to play the short-term game that doesn't help anyone.

i like warren buffett's statement. he says i think management and this board ought to run the company an the shareholders are going to stay and those that are going to leave. it takes into account the best long-term interests of the -- >> we lost the satellite. don steinberg thank you very much at aimcroft partners. bill is with harvard business school. shares of direct tv and dish surgeon reports of the two companies could merge. that's where we begin tonight's market focus. dish network chairman charlie ergen reportedly contacted direct tv ceo to discuss a merger of the two largest satellite tv operators in the country. shares of both companies jumped about 6% today. direct tv closing at 77.34. dish ending the day at 62.09. toyota will buy back shares worth about $3.5 billion. this is the automaker's biggest buy back in more than a decade. the stock rose nearly 2% on the news to $110.53.

>> baxter is reportedly exploring a sale of its vaccine unit in an effort to focus on its key businesses separately there are also reports of a shortage of injectable nice rtr glycerin. general electric will build a $100 million jet engine plant in indiana later this year to meet demand for its new engines. the tur bins to be used by airbus and the boeing passenger jets across the world. shares fell slightly to 25.$25.. the "new york times" has an aggressive strategy to compete in this new digital world. but will it work?

another big auto recall to tell you about. nissan is recalling nearly 1 million cars in the u.s. to fix faulty air bags that may not deploy in a crash. the recall involves 2013 and 2014 altimas, pathfinders, sentras and all electric leaves and nissan's high end infinity models. another extension in the deadline to sign up for the new health care plan under the affordable care act. the obama administration now says that enrollees who have started to sign up for a new plan but have not yet completed their applications will now be able to finalize their coverages after the monday, march 31st deadline. this could impact millions of americans and it's not clear yet how long the extension will last. house and senate have finally found something they can agree on. house speaker john boehner says he and top senate democrat harry

reid reached a deal on legislation that would stop a looming 24% cut in medicare payments to doctors that is scheduled to go into effect on monday. the house will vote on the measure tomorrow, and that gave a boost to a number of hospital operators and other health care-related stocks. as you can see there, some of the biggest had some very sizeable gains today. the "new york times" is going mobile. the newspaper just unveiled a pair of digital apps for smart phones and tablets. s as it tries to attract readers willing to pay for news stories. will today's consumers so used to getting internet content for free really pay for these stories? morgan brennan reports. >> reporter: the "new york times" is launching a new app called nyt now. for $8 a month, users will get selective content from across the paper's web site that editors have deemed the most compelling. but the new app is coming with something else as well. what the company calls paid posts.

better known as native ads, it's a new kind of advertisement, and one that publishers like the times hope will turn around declining ad revenues. >> in many cases the primary form of advertising in digital and in mobile. and i think a lot of digital publishers are moving to that, are embracing native because of that. >> reporter: native ads have been a source of controversy. they're the web's version of magazine advertorials, for matting like an article and giving an advertiser for brand storytelling. while they typically show up in content streams labled as ads, it can sometimes be easy for readers to overlook those disclosures. still publishers like the "new york times" are adopting them because they command a premium over other kind of advertising. while one critic isn't too concerned about an established news source like the times, there are potential problems. >> the journalism world is full of start-ups, full of new

enterprises, full of people who are not steeped in the history. >> reporter: the times firl first rolled out native ads on its web site in january, joining a growing list of native ad adopters. still, analysts say the bigger hope for the times today is that its new apps will bring in more subscribers. that's because circulation has been driving revenues for the paper. it's also the reason that the company is launching a second offering. a new subscription called times premiere, at a cost of $45 a month, the times hopes to pull in additional revenue from its most affluent subscribers. for "nightly business report," i'm morgan brennan. finally tonight as the boys of summer gear up for the start of a new season, for the first time in 15 years the yankees no longer have the sports highest payroll. the bronx bombers are now number two at 203 million, and the team paying out the most in salaries, the l.a. dodgers, 235 million

bucks. lowest payroll the astros, $45 million. and let's play ball, right? that's "nightly business report" for tonight. i'm susie gharib. thanks so much for joining us. >> i'm tyler mathisen. thanks from pea me as well. have a great evening, everybody. we'll hope to see you back here tomorrow night. "nightly business report" has been brought to you in part by -- >> thestreet.com. founded by jim cramer, thestreet.com is an independent source for stock market analysis. cramer's action alerts plus is home to his multimillion dollar portfolio. you can learn more at thestreet.com/nbr.

tonight on "quest" -- in 1991, molecular biologist millie hughes-fulford was the first woman to travel into space as a working scientist. quest learns how the experiments she's sending into orbit now may one day help keep space travelers healthy. and -- they're big. they're clever. they're voracious. find out what california is doing to keep non-native wild pigs from destroying the state's flora and fauna. >> major funding for "quest" is provided by -- the national science foundation -- and the corporation for public