abbott labs in a $7 billion deal. bertha coombs joining us with more on the new m and a lan scape. >> it's interesting. the theme behind both of these. perhaps about the landscape is biding your time. the ceo of abbott decided to take over the cholesterol treatment development partner. the move valued at nearly 7 billion u.s. dollars. xerox ceo calls the company's $6.4 billion awy sicquisition transformational. >> in the last couple of weeks in the world of m and a, as you can imagine, and if the world is going paperless, i think m and a would be out of business. >> yeah. well, you got to wonder about the m and a business. xerox shares getting hit today on the news. s&p's rich peterson says we've had about $60 billion in deals announced in the past five weeks. but 2009 is on track for the third straight year of declining m and a volume. year to date we've seen nearly half a trillion. $500 billion in deals according to thompson roiter. but that's down nearly 40% from this time last year. just ahead of the financial sto

abbott labs buying the drug making unit of the belgium solvay. it's not a beer company, for $6.6 billion in cash. good morning, matt. >> good morning. i'm in for mark haines. of course, xerox says this deal is going to transform itself from being just a printer company. earlier on "squawk box," ceo spoke first to the gang about the deal. >> we actually are clearly focused on core document management processes in the office. front office and back office. acs is focused on business process outsourcing. the connection of these two companies is called for by our clients. they've been telling us overtime, as we engage with them more and more, either acs with xerox, we need to bring these two infrastructures together and help them become significantly more significant in their business processes. that's what we're doing with the combination of these two companies. >> it was a 36% premium. meanwhile, abbott labs, they're trying to boost their prescription drug business. what they are getting is a key cholesterol drug which will reduce their reliance on

we've got abbott labs, xerox both announcing multimillion dollar deals.when you see ceos buying it leads to investors having a little more confidence and doing buys themselves. nasdaq up 2%. here we are with our discussion. we want to talk about going wireless. apple hits another milestone, announcing its app store has seen more than 2 billion downloads. the stock is trading higher. a gain of almost 2%. $3.47 a share. what does it mean for these wireless wars and where should you be investing now? senior analyst at broad point and principal analyst at emerly group. great to see you guys. >> good to be here. >> apple clearly the leader in this space. it's also clear that we have very much hit a new technological age with people really downloading movies, downloading music, downloading everything on to their iphones. my question is, is there room for anyone else at this point in this space? how do you compete with apple at this point? >> if you look at the market share numbers, both nokia and research in motion are actually larger. apple gets all the mind s

. >> let's talk about one of the stocks that made an acquisition, abbott labs. most of their major drugs come off patents. in comparison, pfizer comes off in the next year and a half. abbott, they make a greet deal for them. the street loves it. they buy a company and the stock actually goes higher. my problem is it's been resistant a number of times. came off today. big volume today. but to me abbott with a nice dividends is still a stock you want to be involved in. >> i added to my position today. i love this deal. it will add 3 billion in revenue annually. it takes pressure off humera sales. they're getting exposure to russia and india. the pipeline extends furtherer out to 2016. i think abbott labs is a name you have to add in your portfolio. i see the stock going north of 50. >> look at the way it played out today. one week ago, we had big mergers again. last week, the markets reacted just the opposite. joe would have been here and was here probably pounding the table for the commodities, pulling the market down. the s&p and nasdaq and dow jones were to the

that's certainly true of abbott labs. its $4.5 billion euro class deal is valued at nearly $7 billion u.s. it comes on the heels of a handful of smaller acquisitions recently. and that $1.4 billion purchase of advanced medical back in february. xerox ceo ursula barnes said the acquisition of computer services transformational, giving xerox the outsourcing and data processing capabilities that clients are ke manding. processing paper, she says, is still key. >> i've been steeped in the last couple of weeks in the world of m & a, as you can imagine. if the world is going paperless, i think m & a would be out of business. >> xerox shares got hit today, over 14-piece on the news. $63 a share price marks 33% premium on its closing price on friday. acs, on the other hand, was up just about the same amount, nearly 14%. but if ursula burns is expecting burning of documents is to be a revenue stream, she might have to wait a while. we've seen nearly $5 billion in deals according to thompson reuters. that's down nearly 40% from thi

xerox, abbott labs, joson & johnson,nd others announced trsactions worth $13 billion. the most talked about one toy: xerox. it's paying almost $6.5 billn in cash and stock for "affiliated mputer services," a provider of comper services for bunesses. thacquistion is xerox' biggest in its 103-year hiory, and a bold move by the compa's new c.e.o, ursula burns. when i talked to h a short while ago, she explainedhy the merger is a "ge changer" for rox. >> a.c.s. is the world' largest diversified buness products firm in the world. xerox captain largest documt firmn the world. these two sets of capabilities put tother makes us a powerful match for anybody out there wit a ading company for document and business-process manement in the world. ms. burns, a you look out five, 10 years,ill xerox be more of services company and ss of a copie company? w will xerox look? >> it's a beautiful question. i love it. it's grea xerox's strategy all along -- before we bght a.c. -- was to become -- no even 10 years out, even closer than that more of a servic cpany. we are growing -- a documen

. >> my target companies are abbott labs, zebra technologies, u-line. >> reporter: leunig says networking has gotten him some good job leads. still, the seminar's organizer cautions landing a job could take several more months. >> i would say our average length of time that someone is out in this group, in this category, is about 13 months. >> reporter: leunig knows his job search could take awhile, but he's optimistic he'll find a position soon. >> cup of coconut? >> cup of coconut, please. >> reporter: so, for now, he's making the best of a bad situation. >> i love to bake. with jennifer, it's a pleasure. we do it as a daddy/daughter thing. i'm a fan of chocolate chips. to some extent, i think she's going to look back on this summer and say, "this was the best summer i ever had because daddy had a break." >> reporter: diane eastabrook, "nightly business report," gurnee, illinois. >> susie: tomorrow, diane introduces us to a former technology professional who, at 54, is out of a job for the first time in her career. >> paul: employment is also a tough issue for young workers. according t

>> i like abbott labs.heir ear drops and they work well and i love stocks that pay a high dividend. i think everything adam knows the market knows. >> that is for darn sure. neil: that was a mean thing to say. ben, what do you like? >> i like e.e.m. everything about it is in the market price, too, but asia continues to surprise with its growth. south america has been more resilient than we thought. africa more resilient than we thought. i can that the developing economies still have a long way to go. their balance sheets as nations are much better than ours. >> i like it but if you want to be specific and ben brought it up i would rather be in china, india and

abbott labs agreed to buy the pharmaceutical unit of a brussels based company. analysts say it will give abbott full control of a cholesterol drug and clougher its dependence on the arthritis drug. johnson & johnson agreed to purchase an 18% stake in a dutch drug maker. they plan to jointly make a flu vaccine and treatments for other diseases. but joj son & -- johnson & johnson, a lower court decision that their patent doesn't adequately define how to use the drug. treatment forrals salz big business. researchers at johns hopkins university say the number of alzheimer's patients will quadruple to almost 63 million by 2050. stocks closing lower on the session. we did extend the market's biggest weekly drop since july. and right now stock futures very quiet, looking at a steady start to things today. ahead of reports this week and there are a lot of them, economists' survey says employers probably cut fewer jobs this month than last. manufacturer, they believe, may have expanded for a second month. and another report show household purchases jumping last month than

and we've seen a renewed interest in merger and acquisition activity this week, xerox involved, abbott labsnvolved, the cusp of earnings season beginning over the next three weeks and the federal reserve beginning to take its foot of the gas a little bit. what is not to like. >> what we saw yesterday was chalk it up to one very thin volume with the jewish holiday. also as you mentioned the m&a activity this market hasn't seen with names like that in a while so it is very positive, responding to that information. but if you look across-the-board, you've got unemployment still peaking out which will continue to go higher. gas and crude, as well. so as long as we're seeing some numbers reflecting how the economy is doing on trading on the lower side, again, crude oil coming off that $70 a barrel level and possibly going to test $60, we will see things pull back and ton take a breather, one step back and two steps forward. i'm always a big fan of that and right now we're one step back. we finally hit a stopping price we've been experiencing in the s&ps here, the stopping price at 1070 as we men

and drugmaker abbott labs, bought a pharmaceutical company r nearly $7 billion.those are boosting stocks in asia this morning after lifting wall street. tokyo's nikkei average jumped nearly 1%. hong kong's hang seng is higher. in london, the ftse opened slightly lower. wall street starts the day, they got back on the winning track monday, snapping a streak of three-straight down days. they jumped 124 points. its biggest gain in more than a month. the nasdaq rose nearly 40 points to close at 2130. >>> gas prices have fallen for seventh week in a row. the nationwide average dropped 5 cents in the past week, to $2.50. the prices at the pump are 31% lower than one year ago, thanks to growing supplies and slumping demand. >>> starting today, you can get starbucks coffee in an instant. the upscale coffee chain is rolling out its invant coffee nationwide today. via, will be available in two flavors. and it costs just under $1 a cup. it will be available at starbuck stores, as well as other retailers. and via will be in supermarkets next year. >> $1 a cup, is something w

. >> abbott labs looks to be breaking out. >> all right. i'm melissa lee. thanks so much for watching. annouto get out of asks,those tubs? time man: when we want. man: when we're in the mood. woman: it's our choice. announcer: today, guys with erectile dysfunction can be ready with another dosing option from cialis. cialis for daily use is a clinically proven low-dose tablet you take every day, so you can be ready anytime the moment is right. so relax and take your time. man: tell your doctor about your medical condition and all medications and ask if you're healthy enough for sexual activity. don't take cialis if you take nitrates for chest pain, as this may cause an unsafe drop in blood pressure. don't drink alcohol in excess with cialis. side effects may include headache, upset stomach, delayed backache or muscle ache. to avoid long term injury seek immediate medical help for an erection lasting more than 4 hours. man: if you have any sudden decrease or loss in hearing or vision stop taking cialis and call your doctor right away. announcer: today you hav

and drug maker abbott labs will spend 6.6 million to buy a pharmecutical company.investors see it as a sign that businesses are confidence about a recovery. and the housing recovery at the center of a plan being considered by the obama administration. it would use the tax payer dollars to help agencies continue to provide in orders to low number families. it could announce a plan later this week. the price at the pump is tumbeling. that's down a nickel and down from a month ago. >>> social security will be paying out more in benefits than it collects in taxes. that has not happened since the 1980s. applications for social security are up 23%. many people laid off decided to retire early. the pool still has a surplus. for more information go to money watch.com. >>> a spectacle in grand rapids as planes come down from buildings. people packed the street to witness the competition. it was organized by college students who has worked the past year to invigorate the creative side including pillow fights and a record-setting zombie walk. >>> will a movie director answer

abbott labs bought a belgian pharmaceutical company.ce for gasoline has dipped to $2.50 a gallon. the nationwide average dropped 5 cents. prices at the pump are now 31% lower compared to a year ago. the wait for starbucks coffee get shorter. they begin rolling out its instant coffee nationwide. via will be available in two flavors. it will be sold at starbucks stores and various retailers. some restaurant chains are looking to boost slumping sales by offering cheaper alcoholic drinks. they're hoping to lure stomers back with extended happy hours. some chains are using cheaper alcohol to protect profits. easy holiday savings strategy, things you can do now to afford your guest later. and that is your "money scope" report. i'm jeremy hubbard. >>> 6:20 is your time. >> still to come, the chief leader in chief. the international olympic committee is about to get hit by a wave of american star power. >> a woman who takes thousands of pills a year and shares them up with her son. tracks -- drugs are dragging this family apart. >>> some of the

and while we're looking for that bull market among defenseives, i like to look at abbott labs, another charitable trust name. yesterday the "financial times" broke the story that abbott made a 6 to 7 billion-dollar bid for a big european company called solvais pharmaceutical business. that's something i would like to see as early as monday. we need to see abbott buy that business. okay? to t. would be really positive. solvay has nine drugs in predevelopment. it would bulk up the company's pipeline. also numyra, a big rheumatoid arthritis drug. we need merger mondays, we need to see this deal, we need it to continue even on yom kippur mondays. we're also watching for a sign that first-time home buyer's tax credit gets extended. very important because a lot of investors are worried about a double dip in housing. not me, but others are worried once the tax credit goes away. goldman sachs came out yesterday and said there's a greater than 50% chance we keep that $8,000 first-time home buyer credit. if the government decides to extend the credit that would make us more bullish. right now yo

jude on one hand and abbott labs. who owns it for actionsalertsplus.com?cted friday they would have a merger? was it kyle my stage director? it was me. ruth in pennsylvania. ruth. >> caller: jim, new york mets boo-yah. >> i'll give you a boo-yah. they can't hurt me because they are not in my conference. that said, i must tell you that rex ryan is a great dad and a great member of the community. i don't want to reveal where he goes on friday. then everyone will follow him. that guy is for real, man. he's for real. so is qadry. >> caller: i'm excited about them this year. my symbol is dry ship. >> you come to me with the jets then you suddenly hit me with the kansas city chiefs of dry ships? what about the oakland raiders of the shipping group? nordic american put out a great release today, and you come to me with the kansas city chiefs and -- you know what? even the bengals are better than your team. i want you to sell, sell, sell! i am not kidding. the dolphins even with pennington, without pennington better than your pick. cat in texas. >> caller: boo-yah

some big acquisitions for corporations including xerox and abbott labs encouraged investors enough to dow closed 124 points higher. the nasdaq gained 39 points, and the s&p, it jumped 18 points. >>> debate over the government's plan for new national fuel economy standards is about to get a lot loer. a 60-day public comment period on the issue sunday way now, and kristen dahlgren has that story. >> reporter: they are two sides usually separated by a distinct line, but in the past week big industry and environmentalists have been sharing a lane, both applauding the president's proposal for new fuel economy standards. >> a new national standard aimed at both increasing gas mileage and decreasing greenhouse gas pollution for all cars and trucks sold in america. >> reporter: under the plan, automakers must increase average fuel economy ratings to 35.5 miles per gallon by 2016. that's four years sooner than under the current law and eight miles per gallon better than current fuel averages. >> the new standards are aggressive and achievable and ensure that consumers have a full range of vehi

when i say m & a, i meant abbott labs, kraft. that gives confidence to the markets that maybe we're on a little better footing than we originally thought. today, it will be more economic repo index coming out before the bell. the consumer confidence report after the bell. that will help drive us early on in the day here. >> let's talk about some of the banking situation that is going on. we've seep a number of smaller banks fail this year. is there concern that a major bank is on the brink of failure? >> there is some concern that it might happen. i don't think the fdic has one or two banks that they've targeted and they're very nervous about but i think that potential is there. the one thing you have is the fdic has the insurance fund that covers all deposits at banks up to $250,000. it is that risking with 95 banks. with 95 banks having closed their doors, their fear is that a big bank could jeopardize their funds and could make them almost insolve vent. no fear in terms of a run at the batchs because the fdic has a $500 billio

abbott labs, down 20% in a year. johnson & johnson is down 18%. you've got three world class drug company, yet all are faring far worse than the smrkt overall year to date. the specter of obama care has held down the entire health care sector. health stocks lag behind the s&p 500 for the year, doing only half as well. let's run the odds of a turnaround with our bolden bears. ben, long-term bull, short-term worrywart. what's your take on the stock? >> we think the worst is priced in. we're definitely buyers and we're overweighted positions. our favorite stock is tava, but we also like j&j and abbott as you mentioned earlier. we think the valuations have been compressed, similar to what happened in the clinton plan discussion and that discounting the worst case outcome, that's very improbable event. >> other people out there don't like drug stocks because they say pharma will lose with obama care. >> i think pharma will do quite well. he'll get a scaled down version of the public option. they won't have much teeth. they won't cut costs very much whi

and abbott labs get a boost from the news that it's acquiring a unit that will give access to a cholesterol drug. investors like the news as the stock is moving higher. the nasdaq is also stronger. let's get more details on that. and we go to brian schactman. >> thank you very much. we're up across the board. but volume is light. we peaked around 2:00 p.m. dipped slightly. we're still up 1.8%. the two top stories of the day, apple, basically 2 billion downloads in the app store. we don't know in terms of the actual profit. it can't be a negative in terms of pnl. cisco up. and barclays, it was at 4% to 28%. the analysts talking about the improved demand having an impact on other companies in the space. altera up #.3%. they're all getting a boost from that note. you want to know about the broad-based element of it? take a computer, the computermaker up 2.2%. what's inside the computer, intel, up 2%. what you drink on the computer, up 4%. that might be starbucks or a beverage of your choice. what you do on that computer, book a trip, expedia up 2.7%. research in motion, not taking part. it's j

dow gained more than 124 points on word of takeover deals of xerox and abbott labs. that's the latest. now back to "hardball." >>> welcome back to "hardball." as you have no doubt heard by now, filmmaker roman polanski has been arrested in switzerland 30 years after he fled the u.s. after pleading guilty to having sex with a 13-year-old girl. polanski directed some of the most acclaimed movies of the '60s and '70s, "rosemary's baby" which was his first american feature film. "china town" in '74 nominated. he had a brief appearance alongside jack nicholson. let's listen. >> very nosey fellow. huh? know what happens to nosey fellows, huh? no? want to guess? >> that's where he cuts his nose. he is presently in a swiss jail. joining me is prosecutor wendy murphy, and san francisco mayor and friend of polanski. wendy, for the prosecution, go ahead. >> this guy admitted to raping a child. we are not talking about sex. we're certainly not talking about statutory rape. the 17-year-old boy had sex with his 14-year-old girlfriend. he was in his mid 40s, gave her drugs, booze,

>> if you look at them, i like biotech here, i like abbott labs. a name that's interesting to me is gilead. guy talk about it all the time. the effect of tamiflu here as we enter the h1n1 season. what do you think gilead does right here? >> well, gilead invented tamiflu, if you will. and it kept a royalty from roche. so it sold it to roche, roche pays it a royalty on sales. definite up side there. >> we're going to leave it there. that's your biotech trade for the fourth quarter. final trade right after this. >>> time now for the "final trade." j.t. >> i like frontier oil. >> guy. >> you know, vertech made some interesting comments after the bell. vrtx. >> karen. >> stock of the day, i'll go with it. bank of america. long. >> teef. >> disney. my daughter emily loves miley cyrus. >> and again the news of the hour, ceo ken lewis of bank of america is stepping down at the end of the year. stay tuned to cnbc throughout the night and we'll bring you the latest developments. i'm melissa lee. thank you so much for watching. see you back here tomorrow 5:00

. >> abbott labs looks to be breaking out. >> all right. i'm melissa lee.h for watching. catch the instant replay of "fast" at 8:00 p.m. followed by "options action." have a great weekend. >> announcer: monday, the fastest team in town says relax. the negotiator's bringing buy and hold back with some picks for "slow money." and kick off earn wgz a hot sports stock. "fast money." 5:00 p.m. eastern. t. oh please. you got the presentation? oh yeah right here. let me stow that for you, sir. thank you. you know, just to be safe i used fedex office print online. oh you did? yeah -- they printed and bound 20 copies of the presentation, shipped it to portland, they're gonna be there waiting for us. that's a good idea. yeah. you have a nice flight. thank you. (announcer) print online...you upload your document -- we'll take care of the rest. >>> i'm jim cramer, and welcome to my world. >> you need to get in the game. >> firms are going to go out of business and he's nuts. they're nuts! they know nothing! >> i always like to say there's a bull market somewhere -- >>

. >>> in some corporate news this morning, abbott labs behind the drugs unit of belgium drugs maker solvay, $6.6 billion in cash. abbott hopes to boost the prescription drug business by adding a number of new medicines in the late stages of testing. abbott and solvay have been partners on two cholesterol treatments. did we figure out what solvay makes? which drugs? >> i'm going to look a little bit. it was a big acquisition, $7 billion. from what i can understand, carl, and this is something that maybe a lot of u.s. companies will do at this point. it's going to give them a bigger footprint in eastern europe and asia where solvay operates, which makes sense at this point. nobody knows the way the health care's stuff going to end up here, but you certainly would want to look internationally if you were in that business, right? look at glaxosmithkline with brazil for a vaccine aimed at preventing pneumonia and men t meningit meningitis. guaranteed at one price now and a lower price in future years, most drugs are sold over much shorter periods and more uncertain pricing structure. innovative

so did drugmaker abbott labs. and the news has stocked soaring.session highs but we're going to go home a winner looks like with 8:30 minutes in the trading day, the dow up over 100 points to 9770. >>> gas prices drop doing $250 a gallon. the aaa national average, that's 11 cents cheaper than last month. the lundberg survey says it's because of the recession and fewer people working. >>> an oil spill closed a three-mile stretch of the houston ship channel and the coast guard is working to clean up 10,000 gallons of spilled oil that poured from that ship. it collided with another vessel friday. the coast guard has removed about 4,000 gallons of oil so far. >>> christmas decorations are something you don't usually see in september but they're all over the place at one family's home and they've got a great reason to get a jump start on the holidays. we placed leah's sofa in this glass box... full of black cats... hey, wait... no! to demonstrate the cleaning power of our newest pledge product. i'm gonna clean my couch with this pledge? not that pledge

another example is university of illinois medical campus, abbott labs and the noble network charter school they have a health sciences school i get up opportunities to take a location in the uic's medicine and dentistry,ublic health, nursing, pharmacy, and applied health sciences. we also partnered with thank a salute, a management fir that works with the noble network to create its first elementary mol that is opening this fall in chicago. early results of the renaissance effort suggest that we are on track. we know that the schools that are performing better than the neighborhood counterpart. our students will get core instruction than the average district school. we have strong parent demand. and we know from the chart of background that students, the new schools opened five or more years are performing 17% better than the district average. what we've would suggest is that this panel and courage our deral government to support new school options, to put pressure on states and school districts to close schools that are not performing. that they will provide incentives to create public-pr