. >> but the ceo of aetna, the big insurer, just called the government its biggest customer and went on to say this. >> they're paying us a lot of money, and they have a right to give us some insight into how they think we should run our business. >> wow. the government deserves to tell aetna how to run its business and, john you say that's proof the government is already taking over health care. >> this is so bad and also so predictable. all we have to do is go back to 2013. morgan stanley, the investment bank freely admitted that its number one client was government and that is the problem when you take money from government in the first place. you are no longer in the business of profit. you are certainly political masters who don't care about profit. now that health care companies have gotten so in bed with government this is the inevitable result and it's going to wreck traditional forms of health care simply because they're no longer doing it for profit. they're serving, again, political masters who don't have a clue about how to deliver an important product. >> bruce, we have

aetna close to buying it rival humana which also received an offer from cigna. a deal between aetna and humana could be signed as early as this weekend according to bloomberg. meanwhile anthem offered to acquire its smaller rival cigna for $47 billion. these are no small deals we're talking about. cigna rejected the proposal saying it was not in the best interest of shareholders. aetna shares jumped to records in yesterday's trading session on word that a deal could be close. cigna shares touching a record high before paring some of the gains. so after the ruling we saw hospital stocks surge. we saw health care stocks surge. and deal-making is now front and center for these big insurers. sandra: all right. we could end up with a couple really big health care companies in the united states eventually. nicole, thank you very much. time's running out for greece after the country failed yet again to clinch a deal with international creditors on a bailout plan. the two sides will now meet tomorrow in a last-ditch effort to avoid a default on a loan payment due early

certainly aetna lacks that.hey do not have -- they are much more dependent on private companies and private text -- private insurers. i think at some point -- they wanted to see what the formal care act would mean and how that would play out. i think they're happy to move ahead and try to get that here light of what we heard today in the spring court, do you think this had any impact at all on this? ed+++ not it was blow straight through. i think it has impacted inasmuch as it confirmed why humana is a target. it may have given pause for thought but the logic there is we would have seen a deal done either way. mark: aetna is said to be closing in on acquisition of humana. thank you so much. we appreciate it. betty: greece has five days to secure a deal to avoid a default. different tones from euro area leaders are causing confusion and a lot of frustration. >> the last hours have been critical. we have not made necessary progress. points, -- to some >> agreement negotiations. start -- currently still have to ver

. >> consolidation waves from cigna to anthem and united health and aetna. is merger maenaa catching on in the health care industry? all that and more on "nightly busi re and we bid you good evening, everybody. i'm bill griffith in for tyler mathisen. >> great to have you with us. i'm sue herrera. it's a new week, of course but a familiar worry. greece debt cross-ice ace pears to be deepening and that rattled investors around the world. european union officials say no new concessions needed to secure funding. e ens says it won't give in to demands for more pension and wage cuts. that stalemate pressured stocks at the openal thoet major indices paired some of the losses. by the close, e dow jones fell 107 points 17,791. well off the fly of 200 points earlier in the day. the nasdaq dropped 21 and the s&p 500 was off nine points. stocks in europe got hit even harder. we have more from london. >> reporter: another day of selling for european stocks as last ditch talks with greece over the weekend failed to result in a deal. all major european indices closing in

bloomberg headlines saying aetna is possibly close to a deal to buy humana.e "wall street journal report"ed back on the 20th that the two signs were talking. we also have some more headlines as well coming out of this whole situation here that possibly cigna had made an offer to take over the company as well at some point but the board thought that the deal from aetna made more sense so again, we're watching a number of these headlines come through. nonetheless, shares of humana halted right now for a volatility trading curve, sara. this is not news yet but this again, on a bloomberg report that we might have a deal possibly close between aetna and humana. again this was previously reported by the "journal" last week. we'll bring you more news when the stock reopens and when we have more details, sara. >> deal speculation swirling around these insurance companies. thank you, dom. >>> it is not just insurance companies. hospital stocks soaring on that supreme court ruling in favor of obamacare subsidies. health care the best performing sector already this year

aetna is closing in on an acquisition of humana.t seems like everyone in this industry has been mentioned as a possible acquirer in recent days. we will see you actually ends up teaming up. saw the hospital spike on the supreme court decision, we saw aetna -- humana spike once we got these headlines out. at aetnae a look shares. they are trading at a record today. cigna also. anthem up the most since last month. it is a pretty incredible day. is the gainsng have been so sustained given the speculation has now been brewing for several weeks. alix: and it is at a record high and that is supposed to be the acquirer and that is a rarity and we have seen that continue, especially in health care. thank you so much. betty: now look at the top stories crossing our terminal. the house of representatives passed a formative $50 million worker assistance measure, sending it to the president for his signature as part of a package for trade legislation. the trade adjustment assistance legislation continues, a program that helps u.s. workers who l

aetna perhaps looking to buy humana.nthem going after significant nachlt unitedhealth going after aetna. it's one large brouhaha in a battle for supremacy in a world of medicare-related dollars and how much they can get paid in government reimbursements. >> thank you very much. stick around next hour of "closing bell." larry kudlow and barney frank will be here. >> the second half of the year is just around the corner with lots of wild cards in play. the greece the fed, how should investors be preparing themselves? joining us is michael fredericks managing director and head of u.s. asset allocation for blackrock portfolio strategies group. welcome to the program. >> thanks. >> let's begin with what you see as the biggest opportunity for investors here. >> the reality is when you look at the second half we have to measure our expectations a little bit. we think most asset classes are somewhere between somewhat expensive and expensive. i think you have to couch your expectations. we do think things like high yield bonds ar

aetna is close to buying humana.e could reach a deal this weekend according to people with knowledge of the matter. and it is the second-largest u.s. health insurer. discussions between the companies have intensified after it emerged that anthem and cigna had talks of their own. aetna made a formal bid in cash and stocks. the offer details were not available. any proposal would likely be above humana's market k. those are your top stories. we are awaiting liking earnings -- nike earnings. we want to get to julie hyman for more on a potential merger between the wettest and -- zoe test and valiant. wait ai want to second. those nike numbers are coming out. earnings-per-share of 98 cents, about anticipated. analyst not missed estimates in terms of earnings-per-share number since the fourth quarter of 2012. it has been a consistent performer here. the only question this earnings report is how much it will be affected by currencies. the company says its futures orders were up by 2%. below analysts anticipated. orders, as

. >>> aetna is interested in hue mann aetna recently made an offer to humana. they didn't say how much they offered. shares of aetna rose 3% humana slumped 6%. >>> and natural gas pipeline company williams rejected an unsolici $48 million bidequity an oil and gas pipeline company. williams board said the offer was too low and is pursuing other alternatives. soared 26% hit ago high with the takeover offer. >>> in washington the supreme co sided with a california raisin farmer. the justices ruled it was unconstitu for the government to claim control of a portion of the raisin crop striking a price support program. we reported in april, the was challenge a 66-year-ol supply and increase market prices. >>> when yo think of farming, you probably don't think of newark new jersey but that's exactly where green, leafy vegetabl are being grown, not just but other cities across the country using new technology to create what could be the next big thing in food production morgan brennan is in newark with more. >> rep this is the research lab of aero farms, 10-year-old sta

as we reported humana and aetna shares moved higher following t supreme cou decision. shares of humana jumped even further midafternoon on a bloomberg repor that aetna is close to buying it according to that report, a deal could be signed as early as this weekend. humana has received an offer from cigna, but the board prefers the aetna offer. >> c.c. conley joins us now toe about today's supreme t decision and what it will mean overall for the industry. c.c. welcome, good to see you. >> nice to see you. >> if investors interest in health care stocks were any gauge, this was a good ruling for hospital companies and insurers. you agree? >> yes, absolutely. certain the is so critically impo to businesses. but even more so we did some calc if those subsidies had been overturned by the court today next year alone, health insuranc companies would have lost $36 billion in premium revenue. hospitals would have lost about $9 billion in consumer health ca spending. there were real financial implicatio to this. >> what about for employers. employers now have more sure footing on

shares of aetna rallied 4% on word of the author. kiraly nearly 12%.ey reported they said rejected the offer. david chordata once to run the combined company. and they are considering buying humana. the group overall considering consolidation. stocks are doing well this year. hospital consolidation wants to get better prices and see how it affects the regular folks. you may have a lower premium, pay a higher deductible and also higher co-pays. if you don't get sick. transfer premiums are up 5% 5% and next year they will rise even more. sandra: we are almost at 5:30 a.m. eastern time looking at asia. want to point out the hang seng index because it's down more than a full% right now. the big thing this week is the greek debt talks fell through. a lot of uncertainty what will happen there. european markets the weakness as well. the german stock market down 1%. here at home a trend is to weakness. we continued to fall further into negative toward kerry. dow futures and 87 points down across the board as you can see the nasdaq futures there. also watching

mark: aetna is closing in on a deal with humana. what the combined company would look like. ♪ mark: from bloomberg world headquarters in new york, this is market great -- market day p or die mark crumpton with betty liu. heading toward the closing bell, you can see stocks are mixed right now and we are dominated by health care shares. a rally immediately after the decision came down from e

reported to have made an approach to aetna. the anti-trust questions become even more substantial one would imagine given cigna and anthem would only be a bit larger in terms of customers than u and h already is but you have to wonder whether they think they have an opportunity to play it. >> the funniest thing is you wake up saturday and you're going what you're doing and you get the e-mail it's happening. and you say sure saturday. why not? >> it is odd for a bear hug on a saturday. >> wasn't that odd? >> you get it and it's like okay, i'll break up my weekend. >> all the bankers and investors complaining to me about having to work on father's day. >> whoa is me. twitter waited for monday. the board of directors have shired hired spencer stuart. the search committee will only consider candidates for recommendation for the full board who are in a position to make a full time commitment to twitter. >> thank you for saying that jack dorsey is not able to do this deal. >> unless he gives up square. >> which is coming public in a

you bounce cigna against aetna and aetna against anthem but you know what?e the government would bless everything. >> i can't either. >> this is how you get denied your drugs. you get these powers, these are the guys who block your drugs? >> given that, how do you play this? >> well frankly, it doesn't matter. these guys are all going to buy each other and i think next is humana. humana should be up. i'm surprised it's only up the a few. to me it's aetna for humana and humana should be higher. i thigh these companies will somehow get this done. i don't know how they're going to get the this it done but i didn't understand the confidence of the airlines and they got their deals done. it seems to only be telecommunications that has really upset this justice department. >> don't you think post the airlines, it was the airlines that might have been an inflection point and in fact, when looking at cable, that deal was prevented. they might now look at this in a different way than they did before. >> why are all the lawyers blessing it? >> lawyers have blessed oth

we have heard something about aetna and humana.re is a possibility that humana could go in play. but signet now looks at somebody -- do they look at aetna, talk to humana? everybody is in play. this is good news for the bankers and the banking industry. a lot of folks will make a lot of money on these deals. characteristics that tell you that one will be a takeover candidate versus the other? drew: these are regional businesses. most of the time they may be in a dozen or two dozen states. you are not buying for synergy or anything like that. as much as you are buying to be in different markets -- pimm: you want scale. drew: with the obamacare subsidies protected by the court yesterday, millions of new customers are going to continue to come in and buy coverage with financial help from the government. you want to be in the markets where they are out shopping and capture customers. pimm: who has the best profile in terms of medicare payments drew: humana has a lot of medicare advantage business. you have more americans who are turnin

united health might be considering a bid for cigna or aetna. aetna might be looking at humana.th care might be considering a bid for cigna or aetna. the bottom line is they're all in play at this point in some way or another and they're all moving in different directions. humana had a pop up when there was talk about their involvement in this. procter & gamble has had a horrible year it's up a little bit here. there's a report in the new york post that coty may want to buy prorkter and gamble's beauty products. this is not confirmed. coty is up about 14%. finally the fitbit ipo which i've been excited about just got a lot more exciting overnight. they increased the share size. so fitbit is scheduled to price wednesday night. trading here thursday at the new york stock exchange. we had until yesterday 29.9 million shares at 14 to 16. suddenly it's been up. 34.5 million shares at $17 to $19. that's a big jump. the demand is strong because this company is growing fast and it's profitable. 2011, this is one example. they had $15 million in revenue. now in the trailing 12 months the

the wall street journal says it's unclear how aetna responded.llying on reports that anthem is interested in buying the firm for about 45 billion dollars. now on the buyout speculation keep an eye on cigna. it did close higher by around 12% in yesterday's trade. >> nice sea of green behind you there. m&a just continues at pace. >> true. >> let's move on. gap once claimed the title as the world's largest spes y'allcial retailer. the company is announcing a major overhaul but hopefully not closing all of their stores. let's get out to landon with all the details from cnbchq. >> hey, good morning to you. gap plans to close about a quarter of its name sake stores. the second round of major cuts in the past four years. they'll shed 175 locations in north america although it's unclear how many job cuts will result from that move. gap is eliminating 250 jobs from its corporate office. about 140 stores will be closed this year leaving gap with 500 stores in north america and will also continue to operate 300 outlet stores and there will be additional sto

, would aetna be able to get a shareholder vote.anthem decided to come with their bear hug for cigna. they said hey, it could be to try to sign up a humana deal. let's get out there now. they're huking to humana and activity discussing this and the governance. whether they can give him two years and guarantee but that conversation between anthem and cigna shareholders all the while, things have been quite on the aetna humana front. i have not been getting calls returned. i'm curious if they're in exclusive conversations. there's also an expectations that humana may have at least underpriced the market a bit and may miss on numbers slightly. that's been going around too. >> look we know that before this happened there were a lot of shorts in humana. because people felt that they are the most proned to missing the numbers. that's why it was such a head slam when this happened. that's why you saw that huge gap up. because the shorts at had all been playing it off the quarter. it was supposed to be the weakest versus cigna where we hear

if you look at humana, aetna, those are all new customers that those two companies alone will get in the next several years that it will generate tons of revenue for these companies whether they stay separate or actually merge together. melissa: all right. thank you so much. appreciate your time. david? david: meanwhile the broader markets ending the day lower. section lows. second day in a row we ended session lows. greece continues to weigh in with still no compromise reached. negotiators preparing for weekend talks ahead of next monday's deadline. they're trying to encourage the government, not to cave to creditors demands. melissa: protesters against uber turning violent. french taxi drivers shuts down paris as demonstrators turned over cars, they burned tires, blocked roads to the airport. look at this video. uber responding to the protest saying, uber firmly condemns recent acts of violence against uber partners and their cars. whatever the anger violence is never acceptable. nearly 3,000 cabbies took part in the strike. really amazing stuff. david: they take their protests ser

aetna has threatened to leave if they keep raising taxes.e risk of general electric moving out and aetna moving out, making upper income wage earners pay their fair share is great. i think the difference between a weekend on the yacht and regular trip on the grocery store, they can take a weekend off the yacht. if you have any questions as to why connecticut is collapsing and why it has collapsed for the last 20 years economically despite the fact it has some of the best schools in america, and has long been one of the greatest economic engines for the united states of america on the east coast, look no further than the words of a guy that is elected house majority leader playing this this sort of third grade stupid populist. >> and you can see it in the city's airports. you go to the hartford airport, it's empty. there are no business traveler there is. cao he to the airport in austin, texas or anywhere in florida, and those airports are bursting with business travelers. you can tell where a city and a state have run out the businesses. >>

aetna, 30% hike. wellmark 43% increase in south dakota. . experts say it's a big problem. >> all of the insurance companies that bid these rate increases were doing it wrok. blind when the biggest companies with the most data are asking for the big increases that's a bad omen. by potentially 40 million people. it's going to cost something. and yet the promise was it won't cost the government a dime which, of course isn't true. it's going to cost hundreds and billions. it's costing right now hundreds and billions in subsidies and you will get a cut. it's simply inconceivable that you will get a cut. i mean i'm not arguing against insuring the uninsured. i'm arguing doing it as a matter of perception. it is perhaps something that the government ought to do but you should be open and honest about it and insure the uninsured, it will cost you and the government. >> this is huge. 43%. >> it's huge. we don't know what the national numbers are going to be. it is big. it comes at a time when we're waiting for the supreme court to decide if there are

aboutthere is something aetna and humana.na looks for someone else, do they look at aetna, do they talk to humana about combining in a merger of equals? everybody is in play. pimm: everyone is in play. this is gotta be good news for the investment banking industry. that means a lot of fees. drew: a lot of folks are probably going to make a lot of money on these deals. pimm: are there characteristics that tell you one is going to be a takeover candidate? drew: we look at these huge companies. they are really regional businesses. time they may only be in a dozen or two dozen states. you're not necessarily buying for synergy as much as to be in different markets. pimm: you want to get bigger, you want to scale. through: and with the obamacare subsidies protected by the court yesterday, these companies will .ontinue you want to be out where these companies are shopping and capture those customers. who is best positioned for medicare payments? let's start there. humana is very popular for that reason. it is a fast-growing program.

aetna, humana and cigna are not that large. if aetna and humana consummate a deal they'd just be bigger than united. nothing is set in stone yet but in some markets some of these combinations could possibly reduce competition quite a bit and that's going to get employers, consumers and other stakeholders raising concerns. this is not like the last back of mergers we saw after obamacare. this is a much bigger scale likely to raise some concerns. >>> dominic chu has a "market flash." >> two big new price targets here. netflix' price target being raised to $950 a share at btig the firmed recall citing continued subscriber growth meaningful upside momentum. facebook raised to $120 a share calling facebook's oculus a revenue growth insurance policy for the future. two big stocks and two big price target increases to keep an eye on. >>> wholesale soaring. diana olick breaks it down ahead. >>> taylor swift won a case against apple and why they caved. that's coming up. it's part adrenaline and part adventure. it's part geek and part ch

aetna, 30% hike. wellmark 43% increase in south dakota. . experts say it's a big problem. >> all of the insurance companies that bid these rate increases were doing it wrok. blind when the biggest companies with the most data are asking for the big increases that's a bad omen. by potentially 40 million people. it's going to cost something. and yet the promise was it won't cost the government a dime which, of course isn't true. it's going to cost hundreds and billions. it's costing right now hundreds and billions in subsidies and you will get a cut. it's simply inconceivable that you will get a cut. i mean i'm not arguing against insuring the uninsured. i'm arguing doing it as a matter of perception. it is perhaps something that the government ought to do but you should be open and honest about it and insure the uninsured, it will cost you and the government. >> this is huge. 43%. >> it's huge. we don't know what the national numbers are going to be. it is big. it comes at a time when we're waiting for the supreme court to decide if there are

aetna is close to buying humana. they are the second-largest u.s. health insurer by market value.essions.intensified made a formal bid in cash and stock. any proposal would likely be above humana's market cap. those are your top stories. we are awaiting nike earnings. you want to get to julie hyman. julie: we are waiting for nike earnings. i want to wait to get there. the numbers are coming out. earnings per share of $.98. has not missed analyst estimates in terms of earnings per share. it has been a consistent performer. the only question is how much it is going to be affected by currency. the worldwide futures orders were of what analysts had been anticipating. these orders are orders that have not been filled. it is a measure of forward-looking measure for demand for the company. they are up by 13%. that does look better than what analysts had been anticipating. the company try to manage expectations in terms of the currency effect. 2% included in the currency effect. that is above what analysts have been anticipating. they are coming out for revenue for the various segments. n

the stock shoreoaring on reports of aetna, guy, you have been on this for sometime. >> we had a moveaid we're talking to goldman sachs, there could be acquisition opportunities for us. gave it back when it seemed like humana would be the last man standing. we said yesterday, round turn back to 180, best in breed and you saw today, up 7.5% which is a monster move and sets it up to move back to 220. >> kudos to aetna, one of the most vocal proponents. this deal is created to them. the track record that they can pull this off and again, the i think the stock goes higher, the whole sector. >> let's go to the annual health company late in the afternoon and reopening after volatile moves on reports of potential takeover approach by valience. >> there is tons of consolidation. these players up for grabs. i get nervous here. we spend more and more time on this program every night talking about potential suitors, potential -- to me it seems like a frenzy and i think when you talk about some of the worries we hear carl icahn yesterday, he's in the business of special situations here, and he's

names included cigna and aetna. humana moved up here. the whole group is in a bit of a frenzy with takeover speculation. >>> let's head up town to the nasdaq. bertha coombs following the big movers there. >> some of the biggest losers today are sandisk and micron. morgan stanley is cutting ratings today from overweight to underweight. some of the others though are moving higher today so the chip stocks overall, they aren't quite as negative as they were at the open. avago moving higher one of those stocks that's involved in m and m&a. anthem moving higher. one of the things management talks about over the last couple weeks is that they do want to grow their presence in states like new york, presence in states like ohio as well and they do intend to do that inorganically. they have $2 billion in cash so they can afford to do an acquisition. some of the other fallout that we're watching today, the other big deal -- cvs taking over target's in-store pharmacies as well as a number of its clinics as well. analysts are saying catamaran could s

you have cigna and aetna, digging for humana, and you also have and some, who once cigna.king foring up cost cutting and how to grow their margins, looking at the affordable health care act, kind of rolling out. the enrollment numbers are not going to be sky high anymore, and that will have an effect on the market too. joe: bringing the market's down once again. you know, this is supposedly a crucial week for greece. it seems like they need to get a deal done, but this weekend was supposed to be a crucial weekend, and not only did they not get a deal done, they wrapped up their talks in about 45 minutes. the rhetoric is pitched alix:. we are still going nowhere. from -- thethe note rhetoric is pitched. we are still going nowhere. have been making this point for weeks, that it is all about the power. if there is no deal, there is no government can work out, and guess where he is going? russia. potentially, he will meet with vladimir putin. joe: one of my favorite things i read was actually a tweet from a former ubs economist, and the concept was that they put up a post talk

and with cigna, aetna, anthem at new highs, these deals are getting more expensive.er, but has the highest valuation trading at about 35 times earnings. guys? >> the big question is whether this will result in higher or lower premiums for all of us patients out there. especially when you narrow the big five with two left out. >> people say it will be three rather than two. probably easier to get a deal of three down. the issue comes down to specific markets. in some markets, it's going to limit competition. in some of those markets, some players will have to divest in order to get local regulatory approval most likely. this is going to come down market by market. other research has shown when insurers merged it hasn't necessarily resulted in higher prices. we haven't seen mergers this big. >> thanks very much. >> a lot of excitement. after three years since the health care deal passed. >> there's a lot of mergers and acquisitions because of the expectation of higher rates, but especially now in the health insurance section. ambarella known for its use in gopro taking

aetna shares hitting new highs reporting that united health is interested in a possible tie-up. the largest health insurer sent aetna a letter to inquire about a merger, this is according to "wall street journal" the deal would be worth over $40 billion. a mid-session spike for shares of twitter. our own charlie gasparino says they are open to talks with google or facebook. that helping lift the stock off a new low. david. david: meanwhile a lot of attention what is going on with greece. u.s. treasury secretary jack lew, picking up the phone to have greece's prime minister making a serious move to have compromise with creditors. lew warned greece that failure to make a deal would create hardships for the greek people but make the global economy suffer as well. greece has less than two weeks to strike a deal before it faces default. melissa: president obama's trade deal in limbo for the summer. the house gave itself until july 30th to vote on a key part of legislation that democrats defeated on friday. this bill would extend assistance to workers that lost their jobs when compani

in fact, the aetna ceo saying that the government is his biggest customer. here's a quote from him recently. this federal government paying us a lot of money to give some insight how we should run our businesses. i got to tell you neil, bff. the insurance industry, the hospital industry, and uncle sam. >> incredible stuff. great reporting. >> the president insists the healthcare law is saving money. my guest isn't sure about that. one way to measure is premiums, and the other is to look at regular satisfieses hospital services and that's where the president argues the rate of increase has slowed to very manageable levels. is he right on that, for leaving the premium stuff out? >> no. these are just semantics. you need to ask the patient and the doctor what is going on, on the front line. since this affordable care act pasted patients are coming in and not being able to afford the out of pocket costs. those have gone up and that's where the rubber meets the road. when you order a test and a person has to spend out of pocket to get it. have patients every day

aetna also a winner. the group overall is doing very well.ll see how the consolidation could affect people using each one of these. 272 by the way is the dollars per month that the costs could go up. >> that's right. i want to be clear what the journal found. 3/4 of the medicare advantage customers in 180 counties in the midwest and the south would be in one insurer. that is a lot of people with one insurer. >> it would raise antitrust issues. we'll have to see what happens. sandra: what is the reading, jack, as we await the decision coming down from the supreme court? what is your reading on the market and what is its tolerance as we await the decision. >> i don't think you would see a bid before the decision at an 18% premium if the bidder thought those stocks were going to fall. i can't see any other scenario than the stocks having a temporary fall, if you said 29 states may no longer have these exchanges. therefore fewer customers. >> this also opens, we talk about 2010. this also opens up when if they will repeal most or part of this who

cigna, humana or aetna as the prime targets. >> that's where you see the tie-ups. who gets left out, anybody? >> that leaves unitedhealth care out. that company is positioned very well. it's the largest insurer in the u.s. and has the most diverse membership base. the management team executed very well over the last several years. i expect that to continue. when you look at the tie-ups in the industry and look at which companies need to become bigger more diversified, you are looking at humana aetna and cigna as being the prime targets. i wouldn't be surprised to see a merger between two out of three of them or one get bought by anthem or unitedhealth care down the line. >> this is so affected by what's happening with medicare affordable care act, by a number of factors that touch the lives of everyday americans. to what extent do you think the government we know has been a little bit hesitant when it comes to large industry tie-ups, especially in this space? could it step in and try to hold any of these mergers? >> you could see pushback here. maybe not necessaril

. >>> aetna has reportedly made a takeover offer for humana. street journal" says it's unclear how much the bid will be. humana has a rocket cap of $30 billion. united health reportedly made a bid recently for humana allowing them to be more efficient and respond to changes under obamacare. let's take a look at the shares of the three companies although they haven't been rallying under speculation that some deal at some point will come together. at this point, it's just not clear. >> interesting all of these deals. we'll talk about volumes later. but this is much more concerning, i think, just excessive levels of consolidation, deals being done. and it does strike somewhat desperation. somewhat let's make the most of low interest rates, whilst we've still got them. these are big price pres we're talking about dealing that either been muted or happening. >> what's particularly interesting if you take a look at health care on the whole it's really been the pharmaceutical or bio-tech where you've seen a flurry of m & assessment and activities losi

wall street journal reports humana is in talks to be acquired by aetna. neither company has confirmed the existence of the talks. but the"the wall street journal" reports that these talks are ongoing. ayman? >> let me ask you about tesla. the automaker has a particular demographic in mind for its next suv. can you tell us more about that? >> well it is women. we all know women -- they do like suvs. probably to shuttle around the kids to their soccer and basketball meets. tesla has understood women are a very fast-growing market and suvs is one of the best-performing in the united states as well. ceo of tesla said it's probably a little too centric. >> carolin roth live from london. thank you so much for that update. >>> taylor swift getting results. see how the pop star took on apple and won. >>> big sports stories you may have missed over the weekend. from the historyic u.s. open win to the no-hitter that fell just short of perfection. >>> plus 43 million people at risk of severe weather. bill karins joins us with the very latest on the forecast. "way to

aetna seems to be the company. multiple parties interested. one of the parties cigna.r really manage to get a shareholder vote for a deal given it would probably need one while it has anthem on its tail with aetna on its tail. aetna would not need a shareholder vote because it should issue less than 20% of its shares. we'll see whether we get something as soon as this weekend on this deal. >> are they going to send us that weekend e-mail again on saturday? i mean, i got it on saturday. i was gardening. i got the e-mail. so now i have to make calls. come on. think of us. >> it's going to rain all weekend. >> no it isn't. why do you do that? >> it's a big country. some places will not get rain. >> where we live. >> california could use some of our rain. >> speaking of the insurers a lot of them seeing upgrades today. >> look, the hospitals, i think we'll read about more consolidation in the hospitals. this has more paying patients. hca has been a remarkable story, perhaps the best private equity to public maybe even better than dollar general, and remember how dicey hca

medium-sized firms that don't have the megaphone, the pr muscle the lobbying muscle like a ge or an aetnahave to cut its own deal so that's why you can't be optimistic about growth for everybody. but good for ge for speaking up. this is kind of a nice libertarian streak maybe for a company that's been known for getting along with big government. they also don't want to be a too big to fail bank so a good trend. >> our friends on the left dan, would say you are criticizing illinois and maryland and connecticut which have had this public union dominated government but so is california and that's a rip-roaring success. raised taxes to 13.3%. >> from 10.3%. >> and, look we got job creation. the budget is overflowing with revenues. so how do you explain california? >> well i explain california with maybe two words. silicon valley. i mean tax collections were up 55% on income and capital gains. the tax rate was raised on people making over $1 million. >> their capital gains in california are taxed at regular income. >> that's exactly right. do you know what the poverty rate is in california? it

. -- aetna. erik: we talked this over with our bloomberg analysts. why now?health insurers have been dormant for the past couple of years. health insurance is actually going to rise this year. the impact of the affordable care act is waning on them in terms of cost. they have a lot of cash now. it may be a good time for them to say we have paid for a lot of and nowterms of taxes we have the ability to do some transformative deals. consolidation in the industry, we should not read that as a response to new regulation from obamacare but rather as a response to the fact that there probability has changed now that they have more cash. >> yes. i think they have more probability. united health has shown the impact of the affordable care act is less of this year than the prior two years. we have also seen that they do have more of a willingness to gain scale, which is partly due to the affordable care act. erik: among all of these insurers, and perhaps busier not mentioned, can you say who is in the best position to be a consolidator? jason cao they are in different

humana number one, aetna number two, cigna number 4, united health number 5.s and that's the way i'm keeping it. walgreen's and cvs are better run companies. i'm accepting that, i'm stipulate lagt stipulate stipulating it. financials financials. a look back at the week. you better stick with cramer. you wouldn't take medicine without checking the side effects. hey honey. huh. the good news is my hypertension is gone. so why would you invest without checking brokercheck? check your broker with brokercheck. for the millions of americans suffering from ringing in their ears, there's no such thing as quiet time. but you can quiet the ringing with lipo-flavonoid, the number-one doctor-recommended brand. relieve the ringing with lipo-flavonoid. >>> at a moment like this one where it feels like the fed could raise interest ones, werates, we need to search for a company with excellent growth. that's why i'm choosing health care stocks of various stripes because health care is one of the consistent groups out there. if the economy seems shaky, money managers will pay a

session in a, aetna, humana. could 5 go to 4? 4 go to 3?e current environment that becomes a key concern when you're talking 5 to 4 there is nothing imminent here in terms of a deal for humana there is an expectation that this company could get sold and does appear to have the eye of not just cigna, but aetna and as well perhaps anthem depends on who you talk to what would be the best fit. >>> kernel one more deal if not two, but, you see those that don't want to be ball. even though some are wonder whether the >>> we'll see how this develops certainly interesting to note that humana shares were open it depends on who you talk to about the benefits. one other movement we saw on friday that may not have been noticed was express scrips was down. humana owns a pbm, and anthem the old wellpoint -- i haven't seen a deal like this very often -- back in 2009 where they basically sold their pbm to sxre scrips for ten years, but they get it back in 2019. so the prospect if anthem were to make the move and do a deal with humana they'll get back in 20

joseph wants to know, aetna and cigna, they are potential takeover targets. know, they are going to be the one to take them over, right now all of them have been a part of this. and i had never like to buy a stock because it might be acquired, but there's no doubt that it might fetch another 20 to $30. >> i'm going to stick with that, rumors that they may be making an offer for it as well. so i think you that you could throw it there and pick any of them. >> as we are talking about buying a basket of it. >> from a business perspective we have talked about who is hiring. >> i went on their website today to look at this from a courier perspective. they are all hiring, nurses to technical positions, customer service, it's interesting to see what happens if they merge. but right now there are many job opportunities. >> this is an industry that even if you look at the demographics, it seems like a solid bat. >> if you look at the aging of the country and the demographics, it's up to them because the numbers are going their way. charles: patrick said does this indi