telecom shareholders have said, yes, portugal telecom is allowed to be sold by oi to alticve.ice is getting its hands on portuguese assets today. that means there's more money to be spent in brazil. that's why telecom italia is moving higher. oi manages to get rid of its portuguese assets and has cashed a splash in the brazilian market. what can it buy? [indiscernible] i apologize for my pronunciation. it is a key player in brazil and it is owned by telecom italia. a lot of wheeling and dealing. brazilian m&a in telecom is helping telefonica. altice getting a boost as it gets its hands on some portuguese assets and telefonica cashing in on the u.k. back to you. >> ok, from telecom stocks to our top stories at bloomberg. saudi arabia's king abdullah has died. he was 90 and had been suffering from pneumonia. his half-brother salman will succeed him on the throne of the world's biggest oil exporter. oil prices jumped after the announcement of abdullah's death. china's manufacturing gauge recovered from january suggesting that stimulus measures have helped stabilize the economy. t

. >> let's talk about the telecom sector in the u.k. consolidation trend continues with the news that li kashing of hutchison went: -- whampoa is in talks to buy o2. caroline, good morning. >> second time, lucky. it was known that o2 was trying to sell itself to bt earlier. these telecom deals keep on rolling in and this time, it looks as though hutchison whampoa is going to potentially be the lucky buyer of o2 which is owned by telefonica in spain. a huge deal for a huge company. it will be the biggest mobile player in the united kingdom. 31 million subscribers. hutchison whampoa and o2 teaming together. 10.20 5 billion pounds is what -- 10.25 billion pounds is what the deal could be. we heard from the finance director of hutchison whampoa. perhaps all of that cash would not be stopped up by hutchison whampoa. for telefonica, it is about reducing their debt. they piled up the debt and went on spending sprees. they spent more than 17 billion pounds. they need to lower that equity. >> tying up with each other. >> deals and the speculatio

. >> the big telecom issue -- 2015fcc chairman champ wheeler said he wanted rules on the books by the end of the year. that's not going to happen. so now it's an issue 20615. i'm expecting the fcc will come out with final rules on net neutrality. president obama came out in support of reclassifying broadband service under title 2 of the communications act, which would essentially make it treated like a utility. the broadband industry groups are fiercely opposed to this. so there's a lot of pressure on chairman wheeler to go that route. we raul see what happens there. and then even once the rules are on the books, the fight is not necessarily over. then there's going to be lawsuits almost certainly from the industry groups like verizon and comcast, especially if chairman wheeler does what the president wants and uses title 2. then the republicans in congress will have a response. will they try to repeal it put forward their own proposal? a fight that goes on for a long time, i think. >> mr. fung. >> i think all that is absolutely right and there's going to be a lot more to come when it

it seems like telecom is very hot in congress right now. they have briefings specifically about the com act update, which is the moniker they have been using for it. there's been a lot of groundwork. we haven't seen any drafting yet, any language put out there but they have had a lot of time to talk about it. >> how much of a change will be with frank pallone as the member of the group? >> i think we know where senator thune's stance on these issues because he has been the ranking member -- he made it clear where he stands on things. the communication update act is very important to him. he's also taking a look at tv regulations and how broadcasters deal with cable companies. i think frank is more of a tossup. he hasn't been as involved in issues as an issue, who he beat for the position. it is unclear how much say she will have versus pallone. at the end of the day, i think it is up to congressman upton and walden to decide these issues in the house. >> it could be really interesting to see how pallone is rights with the majority. with a s

>> european telecoms suffers.ithin the last five years, you had three to five percent declines in revenue. if you look at the forecast, now the contraction is more moderate at 1%. an thd there is growth coming from the high-speed networks. so we are taking it more 4g. the regulatory impacts of certain cuts to roaming rates is more moderate. there is a hope that -- it will be on the way for european telecoms. >> it was defined by the hunger to buy content. bp doing it with sport. blink box. >> we will see telecom operators moving into pay tv. this is because they want to have all the services available to customers from landline telephone and broadband and mobile to pay tv. in order to have a competitive position, we expect to see more investment in conentent. >> he talked about the charges for roaming. in the uk they spent a huge amount of money building out a 4g network. when i'm on my smart phone, i connect to wi-fi. i do not use 4g. it is expensive. how do these guys get around this problem? >> if you look at t

moffat about the telecoms here.n elephant in the room. >> what is the fastest growing asset at u.s. banks? excess reserves. it is earning 25 basis points. bank deposits spiked in 2000 nine after feds offered a return on them. a 15% year on year increase. is this the best they can do? >> in the demand. you need people to move the reserves to the market. and they have access cash. they do not have to go to the banks and borrow money. the consumer has been deleveraging, particularly in the credit card side. you have not had the demand. if you are paying people and you are making 25 basis points, you make the spread without risk. >> why wouldn't the fed take this away? >> they mentioned they were going to do this a few years ago in the banks had a freak out. >> the banks were wary of doing things that would get regulators and a half. there tends to be gun shyness coming out of the banks as well. >> they have gone negative on the overnight rate because banks are desperate to stash their cash. they goes to show the limits

the same breath as the electric industry, these are the two utilities in the united states and the telecom gets deregulated and broken up and now it is hot and sexy and basically in the i.t. industry we are working our way out of the primordial lose so i don't have a specific target and i would say i am not even hostile to fossil fuel, one of the key technologies has come along that has to work if you will do something about climate change is called post-combustion carbon capture technology, clearly the name was not thought of my marketing person. >> same person who came up with the word fracking. >> that's right, the f word. basically, there are fossil fuels and then there is coal. usually coal is more than 50% of electricity production and now because of lower natural gas prices it is more like 40% that it is twice as carbon intensive as natural gas, the average age of a coal plant in the united states is 40 years old which means the coal plants were built in 1970's and of the 1970's they built them to last 40 years because they thought and 40 years time nuclear power would be so cheap t

the telecom gets broken up, and now it's hot and sexy. we are still working her way out of the primordial ooze. and so, i don't have a specific target. i would sam not hostile to fossil fuel. one of the key technologies that has to work for climate change, and this is classic is post-combustion carbon capture technology. clearly it was not designed by marketing person. [laughter] >> the same person who came up with the word fracking. >> df word. the f word. it is twice as carbon intensive as natural gas. the average age of a coal plant is 40 years. that means the coal plants were built in the 1970's. they thought nuclear power would be so cheap that you would not need coal plants. we see how well good people predict the future. the average age of a coal plant in china's less than 10 years old and will certainly be operating in 2050. globally we will be using coal. we will be using natural gas pit we need to get the carbon out of it. that is one of the areas where you have doe support in taxes. >> going back to that goal. the obama adminis

the telecom gets reelected, gets broken up, and now it is basically in the i.t. industry. so, i don't have a specific target. and i would say i'm not even hostile to fossil fuels. one of the key technologies that has come along that has to work if you're going to do something about climate change __ and this is classic __ it is called post_combustion carbon technology. clearly, the name is not thought of as a marketing pperson __ by a marketing person. but, basically, there are fossil fuels and then there is coal. now, because of low natural gas prices, it is more like 40%. but it is twice as carbon intensive as national gas. the average age of a coal plant in the united states is 40 years old. in the 1970's, they built plans to last 30 or 40 years because of the 1970's, they found that in 40 years time, nuclear power would be so cheap. we see how good people predict the future. but the average age of a coal plant in china is less than 10 years old. globally, if you want to do something about climate change, we will be using coal, natural gas. we need to get the carbon out

shares at a portugal telecom have -- the deal is valued at 7.4 billion euros. they suspended trading of the shares on friday, asking for more clarification on how these sale would affect investors there is are questions as to whether it would affect a proposed merger between portugal telecom and a brazilian carrier. a company will by its american rival for $5.2 billion. they specialize in drugs for rare medical conditions. this is after shire abandoned a $55 billion merger deal with the u.s. firm last year. and a committee in france began examining a controversial proposal. it would allow stores to open up on sundays. and to open up to more competition. in national assembly is set to debate the bill at the end of the month. changing gears -- the golden globes took place in hollywood on sunday. series posted by online streaming services with the hit of the night. amazon's's.'s "transparent" -- amazon's series "transparent" won top honors along with netflix's "house of cards." more and more people are turning online to watch those kinds of shows rather than more

british telecom it was known.ad band and television and the new era is mobile and they are releasing numbers about how they see the broad pwapbld going. broadband technology 500 megabits per second. that is how fast they will be able to deliver to most of the u.k. in a decade. >> thank you, caroline. a lot to still play for here if you will excuse the pun. premier football league rights shortly and that is something everybody is talking about. let's welcome our panel, our media analyst and the director for multi-play and media c.c.s. insights. good morning. 2015 looks like it will be an incredible year. i remember away saw that as a sector and 2015 could be the year we realize it as a possibility. how much change are we expecting? b.t. kicked it off. what happens next? >> if you look at sort of you are absolutely right, things are moving very rapidly in the space. if you look at what is driving it there is a realization of the money out there for consumers is limited so if you maximize the share you have to offer

that this isn't completely discretionary but it creates service and to find some, it defines the telecom service and order information services. when broadband first emerged in maust village to see it come on the scene when i was at the commission, there was an open question as to whether the nature of the internet integrated service was telecommunications service or an information service under our precedent. it was a judgment that the factual characteristics the way that it was used, it was much more faithful to the definition than the one it's set out for other services. it went all the way to the supreme court agreed with the commission judgment. the commission now is reinterpreting the facts and applying it to the other definition. but the facts are fundamentally the same as they were in 2002 and that will be a serious source of litigation risk for the committee when it changes its mind about the underlying service. >> time has expired and we will now go to mr. welch. >> thank you mr. chairman. i thank you in the and the ranking member because this is an excellent hearing. we are wa

tie-ups between telecoms and tech and the other between designer shoes and handbag.'s get out to landon dowdy standing by at cnbc hq. >> aol and verizon aren't commenting on a record that verizon hasn't approached them about a deal. verizon hasn't reportedly made a formal offer. version rison is looking to expand its online content and mobile offerings. in november it was dischosed it bought stakes in both alo and yahoo! in the third quarter. aol rose 12% in after hours. today it's frankfurt, it's up about 9%. verizon is down nearly 1%. >>> coach could be looking at akwierting stuart weitzman. coach, which is known for its leather handbags, has struggled to keep up with fast growing rivals such as kate spade and michael kors. coach is down 35% in the past year. wilfred, back to you. >> lannon thank you very much 37. >>> before we go to break, these are your headlines at this hour. global markets follow wall street sharply lower. a mixed debut for premarket trade. crude, now below $50 a barrel with brent slipping nearly 3%. >>> deal or no deal? aol and verizon won't c

a buyout could be in telecom italia shares. we keep an eye on that particular stock.ull steam ahead for the bank of japan. the nation's central-bank continues its fight against disappoin -- disappointing inflation. that is down from an earlier projection of 1.7%. it is part of a global theme we are seeing. central bankers fight for inflation. irony is never lost on us. micah franklin is with us. all deflation apparently not bad deflation. when you see the bank of japan they are cutting back on their target. the ecb more likely going for full steam ahead qe tomorrow. you have this disparity. where are we in the great rate debate for equity markets? is it low rates, no hikes for the rest of this year and keep on trucking on the equity markets? >> on this point with the u.k. in the u.s., if the economy recovers more quickly than interest rates will come in sooner. that is the basic law of the markets at the moment. my instinct is that they will come in later and they will come in second half 2015 four 2016. >> i was going to the notes you sent across. one of the setup pi

we have no doubt congress will seek to advance legislation to rewrite the telecom law. but now the decision is made for congress rather than by congress in the name of the net neutrality with potentially far-reaching unintended consequences. the regulators shouldn't have the final word on the serious questions. the institution that represents 320 million americans should decide them. by changing the status quo to the governing affairs committee commission would affect a major and a dramatic shift in the broadband policy. with sweeping domestic and international consequences that countries like russia china and iran have consistently sought the subject of internet access to telephone regulation and give the state greater authority over infrastructure. they will cheer on the news of the leadership and the moral authority of the a bulwark against the government control of the internet. the legal and practical problems of the title counsel for the congressional interaction for one. it is is an unjust and unreasonable practices. under the decades they've been able to charge

we have no doubt congress will seek to advance legislation to rewrite the telecom law. but now the decision is made for congress rather than by congress in the name of the net neutrality with potentially far-reaching unintended consequences. regulators shouldn't have the final word on the serious questions. the institution that represents 320 million americans should decide them. by changing the status quo to the governing affairs committee commission would affect a major and a dramatic shift in the broadband policy. with sweeping domestic and international consequences that countries like russia, china and iran have consistently sought the subject of internet access to telephone regulation and give the state greater authority over infrastructure. they will cheer on the news of the leadership and the moral authority of the bulwark against the government control of the internet. the legal and practical problems of the title counsel for the congressional interaction for one. it bans unjust and unreasonable practices. under the decades they've been able to charge for provi

just getting some numbers through a telecom group., talking about the recovery plan. the plan has been agreed. that for a number of years was a concern. the adjusted pretax profit 814 million pounds. looks to be broadly in line -- earnings before interest tax frustration. one point sides -- 1.57 billion pounds. the outlook unchanged. numbers broadly in line. a lot of the focus on a business that 18 months ago launched sports broadcasting ambitions. they have been turning themselves into a 169-year-old business specializing in land lines. now increasingly in talks to buy the business. we are looking for any indication of the final price tag. 12.5 billion pounds is where they started the conversations. interesting to see if we get an update on that. they will be the number one fixed and mobile provider. they could lose the crown -- fast-moving developments in that part of the business. for now, we are just getting an announcement from bg. -- bt. >> we are getting a look at qatar airways. they are going to buy a stake in iag. the holding

the gap between the telecoms and the media is really starting to close. there is nothing to separate. it has become a big media player. it continues in 2015. >> telecom operators are spending more money to have good competitive position and having a good tv product. we are seeing the box and integrating. it will continue to 2015. >> thank you for the nice look we can expect and mobile. we have had huge currency moves. >> so much time where they held the key flow. we have seen it effectively capitulate and a huge move as a result. we are down and by 15. so, the floor has gone. it has gone and we are trading at 01. an aggressive move. back in 2011, we got down to it getting really interesting to see if the levels get pushed for. >> you go through the comments that the national bank has been making and the cap was no longer justified >> or viable. >> they are trying to do what they can. it has not worked. what is your biggest concern? you can tweet us. we would love to know what you think. we have a report later on in the show. >> welcome back. the news of t

they also don't want the cable and telecom industry passing off high-speed internet access as somethingt is subpar. the fcc is ostensibly trying to look out for the consumer. here is where it starts to become an issue for comcast, and this makes me think of the famous bill clinton interview. this depends on what your definition of broadband is. by changing the definition and saying this is broadband, it is not these faster speeds, that suddenly has a dramatic impact on the size of the market. so you went from a situation where comcast has an important size. 35% to this new definition. then they have a whopping percentage of the market. once they combine with time warner they will have something to the effect of 63 or 64% of that market. if you are worried about concentration, worried about competition, going from 35 to more than double that, that means the regulators are going to look differently at that merger. >> i want to paraphrase this. in other words there are some super fast internet connections that are not considered high-speed by the old rule of the fcc and the fcc said these

they are concerned about consumers, and they don't want the cable or telecom industries passing off somethingpar for high-speed internet access. the fcc, ostensibly, is trying to look out for the consumer. here is where it starts to become an issue for comcast. it makes me think of the famous bill clinton interview. it depends on what your definition of is is. it depends on your definition of broadband. this definition says it is the faster speeds. that has a dramatic impact on the size of the market for this new high-speed internet access. you went from a situation where comcast went from 35% to this new definition, then they have a whopping percentage of the market. i their definition, once they combine with time warner, they will have 63%-60 4% of that market. if you are worried about concentration or competition, going from having 35 to almost double that that means that the regulators are going to look very differently at that merger. >> in other words, there are some super fast internet connections out there that were not considered high-speed by the old rule definitions of the fcc, and

joining us is our senior telecom analyst, john butler. these are big moves by at&t.ere be one wireless service for everyone on both sides of the border? think so. this is a big big move for at&t. it's the first time when you think about it a u.s. carrier has stepped outside u.s. borders to grow. what at&t has talked about for a while but didn't do until it moved down to mexico as they talked about looking at other markets in getting into markets where they saw the kind of head room where they could grow their 4g service, grow the data side of the business. i think mexico represent all of that and more. >> boosting average revenue per user seems like it will do just the opposite. >> it is quite low right now. the mexican market is mostly prepaid. it's going to take time but once at&t gets into that market and begin to sell additional services they can probably get the average revenue per unit up. particularly if they do a good job penetrating the enterprise side of the business, really selling mobile into companies. honestly, that's where the money and the margin as w

are you attracted to telecom stocks after the back of that story? >> it is quite interesting. what we are seeing are people trying to reinforce their space in the marketplace, through telecom. in particular, to provide more content. not so much about networking now, and that work is important but what you can provide interactive content. >> we have to leave it there. a picture of the markets. the ftse 100 this morning, it is higher. the big story is tesco, stock up by as much as 6% this morning but will talk politics and out to paris. stay with us. ♪ >> welcome back to "on the move ." i am jonathan ferro. exit date coming up. friends is looking at -- friends hat -- free -- france with a national day of mourning after the terrorist attack yesterday. give us the latest? >> the speed of which the tragedy is turning into a political conversation very quickly. the leader of the far right movement has tweeted out she wants to call for a national referendum to reinstate the death penalty. here is the latest on the ground with what is happening in terms of the manhunt. the 2 suspects,

it defines what a telecom service is and defines what what an information service is. first emerged and i was privileged to see it come onto the scene when i was at the commission there was an open question as to whether the nature of that new integrated internet service would either a telecommunication service or an information service under our precedence. it was our judgment that the factual characteristics the nature of the service the way it was used was much more faithful to the definition congress set out for information services than the one they set out for telephone services. that went all the way to the united states supreme court, who agree with the commission's judgment. the commission now is proposing to try to reinterpret the facts and apply it to the other definition. certainly it's their prerogative to try but the facts are fundamentally the same as they were in 2002. that will be a very serious source of litigation risk for the commission when it fundamentally changes its mind about the factual nature of the service. >> gentleman's time has expired. w

>> telecom south of the border is right for the picking.re behind the yet -- behind the u.s. in terms of smart phone penetration, data services, average rates, all of that. there is a lot of headroom for growth if you can get a foothold . i think at&t has made the right move by taking that step outside the u.s. into mexico. >> john butler, senior analyst of bloomberg intelligence. mark crumpton joins us with a sneak peek. mark, what if you got? >> on this day after the blizzard that wasn't we are seeing a sharp selloff on wall street. what has the equity market sounding the retreat? i will be joined by tony dwyer. purchases of new homes jumped to the highest level in more than six years. will that momentum continue in 2015? annika can't look at the numbers for us. --anika khan. charles ettinger will join me from washington. i will see you at the top of the hour. lori, back to you in san francisco where it is not snowing. -- corey, act you in san francisco, where it is not snowing. >> that trend is going strong, what you need and when you wa

location to san francisco and the typical things we deal with are puc recommended and network relate an telecom i like my role it varies day to day it is a unique challenge from providing in that user conclusions i solutions on their computer or a the president on a task they're trying to complete the training is very important there are many things to stay up to date my manager has helped me making sure any skills are up to date with the skilled in my field it is about right time of day and about you know the percentage of resagsz for water and power are posh to the citizens of san francisco and keeping those systems up and running for this is one of the challenge to progress within the organization and commit count i commit to the local government is where i want . >> good afternoon, everyone, welcome to the city and county of san francisco neighborhood and safety committee. my name is david camp camp, i am chair of the committee, we are joined today by committee member supervisor norman yee, eric mar will be excused. clerk of the committee is derrick evans and we want to thank mark bunch, mr

we are talking about media and telecoms.onsolidation was driven by the bundling of wireless products. thank you for joining us. what is the outlook for the companies you cover what is going to drive growth? >> for the last 34 years these companies suffered from various factors, let it be regulation and fierce competition. what we see is little signs of a recovery in the way. in 2015, the market expects this to materialize. by spending more on 4g, people will be helping the company's growth. we will say less impact of roaming cuts as well as termination rate cuts. the economy recovery is still underway. we expect that to help telecom companies. >> if you think about the big names in players that are of the news flow of a 14, it was john malone or vodafone, or sky where will they go? where is the consolidation going to come, will be content or carriers or will they be handsets what is your feeling? >> mobile consolidation is still an important part of the story. we saw consolidation taking place in norway, the tents -- and den

want to move back to telecom. of different things going on including earnings this morning from verizon. if you missed it the numbers, let's call it okay. ads were not bad, 2 million, ahead of consensus. some concern about ebitda margins which came in at 42%, lot of analysts looking for 43.543.8%. they did take cap x up at verizon. you can see stock's down over 1%. actually let's call it about 1.7% right now. the call is going on as we speak. the revenue number not bad. and again, it was addition of new subscribers better but a little concern around ebitda margins. those, though, who say, listen you know at this point, they're trending in the right way, cap x seen as a good sign you have this overhang of the spectrum auction and that's kind of the case for a lot of different telecommunications companies right now, investors are trying to ascertain what may have happened in that huge auction we've been talking about, that will end now, let's call it any day within the next week or so. they're at $45 billion, roughl

and the more telecom cases that came before us the less i was enthused about it because it seems everycase that came before us was about a new technology that required less regulation and nonetheless was happy to carry out several cases and i think that we did one of the earliest. we did the case very contentious cable company seeking the facilities i lack and i don't know that any of them are unanimous. i'm proud to say that i was on the prevailing side in all of them were held up in court, federal and state court. that said, i don't feel as smart as i used to today for some reason. but i have to say that i was amused by the admonition of the catholic confession with mr. shimkus but i noticed he said he came kicking and screaming which is far short i will tell you. i appreciate your reference to the omission because this is a common omission by several regulatory agencies in recent years and it was one that hadn't come to my attention yet but you're right a lot of issues could be solved much better to the liking of the investment opportunity. i'm also interested in the issue of the sp

i don't fully understand what the telecom -- u.s. telecom companies being open to going into cuba what that really means. no one has seen a list of the political folks that are being released from jail. there's a lot to know. you'll see us having hearings before decisions are made as to what to do relative to this action. >> all right. let's turn to another subject. that is iran. do you have a vetoproof majority in the senate to pass a new bill in the next few weeks or months that would -- if iran walks away from the current talks, or if it violates the interim agreement, would impose new sanctions on them? >> there's no question if this deal falls apart there will be additional sanctions. so the banking committee actually deals with sanctions s that's their jurisdiction. i actually serve on that. the foreign relations committee may take up this bill that calls on congress to weigh in on any deal that happens. this is one of the biggest issues we'll be dealing with. for congress not to have a role is totally enappropriate. the bankin

the search giant plans to begin its own wireless phone service, potentially disrupting the entire telecom industry. josh lipton has more on how it could look. >> reporter: google could be the next player in wireless service. internet giant cut deals with sprint and t mobile to offer mobile phone plans directly to consumers according to published reports. the established carriers would still own the networks but lease a piece under a google branded name. some small wireless carriers already function as these so-called mobile virtual network operators. google would set its own prices and deal directly with customers but wouldn't have to take on the expensive time consuming task of building and maintaining a network. piper jaffray's munster said that's ideal because he doesn't see this as a long-term play for google. >> we believe the big goal for google is to motivate existing wireless providers like verizon, at&t to lower the price of data. if data prices go down google wins because people consume more data like youtube and do more google search and the way that this initiative can influen

there will also be improved business and telecom communications contact, and for people who fit into of 12 categories, journalistic humanitarian, and others they will not have to ask the u.s. government for permission to visit cuba as long as they are following other rules. what this means is that the u.s. is very much committed now to the process of normalizing relations with cuba which has not been in effect for more than 50 years. the obama administration believes there is a joint benefit to improving and expanding economic educational, and business ties with the island country, because it it -- says that the cuban people deserve a better quality of life, and the u.s. population has been missing out on a relationship with a neighboring nation just over 100 kill only meters away. >>> let's bring you breaking news out of the french capitol where john kerry is in paris to pay his respects to the victims of last week's attacks. his visit comes as funerals have been held for five of the victims. jonah hull reports. >> reporter: in the week following the paris attacks, france continues

the sale unmarks the unwinding of portugal telecom and oi. to talk more about the future of the industry julia is live in davos with a special guest. it seems like further consolidation is in the cards. >> absolutely. let's pick up on that exact issue. thank you for speaking to us this morning. seema mentioned the consolidation in the ministry. you call it an inflection point. talk to me about it. >> what we see right now is that the whole broadband is expanding into different industries and the potential of growth is just emerging and then of course you do take strategic choices and consolation can be won. we decide to drop mobile phones. we have to take choices because this is so huge and the inflection point is actually happening right now. >> it's quite costly in the short-term but there's a longer term benefit as far as your business is concerned. >> it depends on what you want to do. but sudden they can offer services like health care services, it's choices again that you did to do. assets are multiplying. >> you seem to be busy here bu

plus, watch how verizon, at&t, and google is looking to shake up the telecom industry. we'll tell you how to trade it. and china's show mailooking to apple. female announcer: get beautyrest, posturepedic, even tempur-pedic mattress sets at low clearance prices. save even more on floor samples, demonstrators, and closeout inventory. the year end clearance sale ends sunday at sleep train. ♪ your ticket to a better night's sleep ♪ >>> welcome back to "fast money." we want to bring you some more details on apple. that same regulatory filing that we just told you about tim cook's compensation also showed that current apple board member mickey drexler shows his intention to retire from the apple board. mickey drexler is, remember, the current ceo and chairman of retailer and apparel maker j. crew. he has been a part of the apple board since 1999, viewed by many, including our own jon fortt, as the retail confidant for apple's board and its ceo. so mickey drexler, again, stepping down, or plans to retire from apple's board. more details as we comb through more of these filings

also, the telecom issue is a big one. i would expect these things would take three to six months for us to seek any daylight in terms of actual change. cuba is one of the countries in the western hemisphere with the least amount of conductivity to the internet. around five or send a people have access to the world wide web in the way that we know it in the west. -- around 5% of people. they like that because it is easy to control the cuban people, but it is a test of the cuban government. will the cuban government start to take down its internal embargo as the external u.s. embargo is also weakened by obama? >> thanks very much indeed. time for a quick reminder of our headlines. there's a political crisis in yemen. the president has quit. he's been the last two days holed up in his presidential palace surrounded by shiite houthi militias, who are now claiming this as a victory. it has been the bloodiest day in months in the conflict in ukraine. dozens of people were killed today as fighting rages on in the east of the cou

i certainly had my own share of fights with telecom, big one with at&t over the legislation we did around the boxes and even though we had a fundamental disagreement with them we sent them the legislation. we invited them in. we took the feedback. we accepted a few ideas they had even though we continued have disagreements. in my view it's the best way to proceed because i think it's awkward for all of us when you have stakeholders come in at the end and say no one talked to us and asked us for feedback and then you have legislation like this which looks like it's good legislation and a lot of good things in here puts us have a awkward spot but i will be supporting the legislation. >> supervisor cohen. >> great. thank you very much. madam president i would like to address my comments to the legislation sponsor. this is good legislation supervisor avalos. thank you for bringing this. i really appreciate it. i have a question. you might of mentioned it in the remarks and i missed it. the fees that you're amending are you proposing they're increased? >> the fees will be increased for dpw. >>

telecom companies tend to fare poorly at the beginning of a year. centurylink tumbled on avrng 10% the last data and at&t and frontier usually fall 3% as well. keep in mind how stocks fare in january doesn't always serve as a good indicator for the rest of the year. contrary to the so-called january barometer theory. this year the s&p 500 slid lower in the first month. but it's ending 201412% higher. for "nightly business report," i'm morgan brennan wishing everyone a happy new year from the nasdaq in new york city. >>> there are big three themes investors need to keep in mind for the new year. dominic chu has that part of the story. >> reporter: stock market did rally in 2014 but not as much as it did the year before. investors are dealing with a host of uncertainties as we head into the new year. one of the biggest concerns comes by at the energy sector falling oil prices helped consumers save lots of money at the pump. but reduced spending by oil companies themselves is a big risk. >> it's not all positive. there's certainly going to be an earnin

wheeler it looks like is going to give us in a couple of weeks time new rules that are based on the old telecomules. in a way this would protect consumers and innovators and it would mean that this whole net neutrality issue calms down a little bit here. i guess a lot of consumers will be very happy with that because nobody wants to have to pay a whole lot more for internet access just to get faster download speeds. i know i don't. so hopefully tom wheeler can put this issue to bed. back to you. >> we'll see at the end of february. jeff, great to see you, sir. >>> still ahead, a new low for the knicks. why new yorkers have even more to complain about this morning when it comes to their basketball team. see if bill caron can shine some light on this. >>> plus, you're waking up to the coldest weather of the season. we'll have a check of the weather and maybe when we'll get some warmer temperatures? when "way too early" comes back. you're ready for that, jennifer. >>> gabrielle giffords has been shot. we do not know the circumstances and details of how she was shot. we were told however that accor

this is a company, the biggest telecom company in the u.s. and most people forget it because it's not in the glamorous family business. >> 57 on that stock, correct? >> almost a double. >> wow. all right. move on to exxon mobile. that plays to the energy play you mentioned a little bit earlier. what is your price target on this? it looks like it's ripe for the picking because it's been so beaten down. >> that's right. here we look for more than a double. this stock, we would not consider overvalued unless it was over $180. the product we sell, we have to use. no doubt about it. and the price in oil falls and most observers seem to believe it will continue falling, the seeds of eventual rise are being planted. you have market increasing and supplies falling. >> randall, your third choice is another company. i'm happy to say i know all three companies you're picking tonight. if either of the first two hurt me i can turn to the third one for ban aids. >> you wonder how we make money with these names. >> tell me about johnson and johnson and why