benioff not perfect.'t see a hort of activists trying to tear elon musk apart he established a language on a preponderance on college applications ask how they are dog after bringing in salesforce, i did it twice 55% lifts on average feel free to make fun of pitch man matthew mccancelcconaughey s a hack, what are we? make jokes how benioff can't keep a co-ceo as the last one retired. can't blame the guy for retiring after me eshe established himse one of the toughest executives off all time by beating elon musk i wish there were more benioffs not just because he's funny and kind but bankable as all getout. remember, we are about making money here, not friends. and historically, it's been a real bad idea to bet against mark benoff as he is, yes, indeed, someone i am broad to call a friend. >>> i like to say there is always a bull market somewhere and i promise to find it here for you on "mad money. i'm jim cramer see you tomorrow investment will face these sharks. if they hear a great idea, they'll invest

ceo marc benioff is under fire from five different activist firms.o far, this one's going to get ugly he's built an amazing company. i think three of the activist firms have worked pretty -- they've worked closely with pr marc, pretty constructive so far. he agreed with starboard to mutt a mutually agreed upon candidate on the board don't know the intentions. the one that may cause the storm would be elliott management, a hard-nosed outfit that i'm sure is unhappy with not only just the one exec. -- i think they're unhappy with the entire board of directors, frankly and the lack of cost discipline at the company still they think there's still way too many people there. they may even want benioff's head seeking a more hands-on success ovr sooner rather than later as we got tonight from paypal with the resignation of dan schulman later this year initially spiked the company's stock, elliott management. of course salesforce has seen its stock move up dramatically ever since marc outlined a $10 billion buyback, 10 -- i'm in favor of anything that increas

maybe this increases benioffs pulling an iger and -- right unless they can agree, why are they all in? >> first and foremost, this is a test of some of the star power i've talked about marc benioff having deirdre laughed at it, i talked about him having a big orbit just the ability to bring attention to himself and bring attention to the company his ability to work with some of these different activist investors is going to be a key part of this they settled very quickly with valueact a former microsoft board member, former adobe board member, now on the board how do other activist investors feel about that? i spoke to analysts in pe, a lot believe mason is a value add in this situation it remains to be seen, though. >> we're looking at a chart of crm up 30% year to date. is it possible some activists bowed out, made money in the trade and gone away? to jon's point, activists like to dictate terms and build up positions so they can make their aims known that seems really, really tough with so many in the room, plus benioff, as you say. >> that's a big question we won't really know unt

benioff.n this one, you know, interesting show, to have pena peltz call in like that and break that on our news. >> i love opening the story. when you first broke in, your editor said you have to own the story. dave you own 110% of the story. >> you know, in cable tv, they say you got to create moments, today was a moment. >> oh, my. it's the most important company in the world in terms of what people think about them. >> why couldn't he have done it while bob was still in the chair? couldn't you have arranged that? we could have gotten the immediate reaction. >> as you were - >> i did my best >> we were working on this while you were talking we're putting it together in real time, david, as you know. >> i know. i know come on. it's two minutes he walked away two minutes ago i said - >> we didn't - >> i was like oh. >> well. what a shot. >> still the empty chair. >> i guess in real time we break stories you broke stories and we got -- remember he did not say, can i get that guy back? i want to

can benioff do that as well? directors that perhaps elliott is not on board with it's going to play out i think it will play out a longer period of time than peltz versus disney. it is amazing to see this environment. i keep going back to this, how many companies are right for activists action, private takeovers, go privates it's an interesting dynamic playing out right now. >> yep continues to right here on cnbc, minute by minute. >>> still to come this hour, affirm and robinhood headed in opposite directions after reporting results. plus, paypal earnings coming tonight. we've got the trade on all three names after this >>> welcome back to "techcheck." we are two hours into trading. let's get a check on the markets. stocks moving higher as consumer discretionary and tech lead. as you can see, the dow industrials up about 82 points nasdaq comp up about a quarter of 1%. google is waiting for another day. here are some other movers at this hour. mattel shares sinking on guidance below street estimate casinos are ge

benioff has done a great job building this company. he has and now he's hitting a block and the sharks are smelling blood in the water. what will be interesting how are all these activists going to play well together do you think mr. loeb and mr. singer will do well together if i were marc benioff i would sit back and let the sharks feed on themselves. >> what do you want to see happen here? they've done a lot of acquisitions a reason the stock was down a lot. let's not act like everything was cozy and rosy and the activists showed up. >> here is the point i would make on this we talked about cisco yesterday and cisco has been saying that enterprise spending is doing great. so what the heck is going on with sales force here that has not been showing the same signs? i think the activists may be putting those two companies next to each other, not publicly but saying what's going on at salesforce why can't you grow at the rate you were growing the product that sales force delivers is fantastic. i think the slowdown we've seen the past cou

they want to hear mark zuckerberg's words come out of marc benioff's mouth they want marc to talk abouty i don't know, david, if he's going to give them efficiency. >> well, that's interesting. why? what do you think benioff is going to give them there is a playbook to be followed here in terms of getting your stock price up, and we know mr. benioff is under pressure from -- you don't even have enough time to list all the activists, but elliott being the main one right now why won't he go that route >> well, because i think he's going to say, i've done it before i've announced the big head count cuts i've announced the buyback i've done the zuckerberg playbook, but i don't think it's enough safe for elliott. i think that an activist like elliott wants to see a new board. i think that they think that it can't be business as usual and it's not done, david, and i know you're hearing from people -- >> well, i reported that the other day. >> the activists are not happy yet. >> i mean, i did that -- that was the faber report two or three days ago when we were here i think you're right >> well

give ceo benioff a little doubt for the wealth and let him work his magic.e away is there are plenty of people that want to make fortunes in individual stocks or have already done so even though people tell them that they can. so many financial experts will tell you it's impossible to make money in individual stocks they want your money and funds and don't feel compelled to tell you what you're doing wrong. these investors despise that attitude they bride off the notion they can't manage their own money when they're been doing it successfully for years that's not eye opening that is core to what we do at the club however, it's always nice to have hundreds of people tell you to keep doing it because it's working for them and that's exactly what i'm going to continue to do i like to say there is always a bull market somewhere and i promise to find it here on "mad money. i'm jim cramer see ya tomorrow. most successful consumer products joins the tank. robert knows technology to build stuff. i know how to build brands. together, it's a dynamic duo. always be clo

to be optimistic about the world, lots of smart people bought it because it was a cheap and marc benioffn enduring founder and created on of the best businesses in the world. however, sometimes founders can, you know, have one unique skill set that is their strength to build these companies, but often that strength can be a weakness at times as a manager. >> you any the presence of the activists is a plus for you in your -- >> i think for all investors, whether it's the activists who are there, the reality, i think positive rate of change is going to occur at salesforce, and the market gets that and forget who gets credit or how or why it happens, you know, i said you're only going to make 20% on the stock if it's free cash flow growth at 20% a year there are very few companies that have that salesforce with so much self-help has the ability to do that, and they can take a business that can grow revenue at 10% or 15% a year and turn it into five years with an amazing business the market gave you a one-off opportunity, and my bet owning the stock is i think marc benioff is aligned with me

strive capital management sending a letter to marc benioff.der reportedly writing we seek to deliver a simple message, stop using your business as a platform for social change and focus on serving your customers alone this is strive it's a pile on it's not going after salesforce's actual margins and everything else. benioff likes to use business as a platform for positive change this is just a cheap shot. >> we'll see what we can tomorrow to wapner and "the half. >>> carl, thank you very much. welcome to "the halftime report." i'm scott wapner the final day of a down month for stocks and now big questions about what march might bring we'll debate and discuss with the investment committee joining me for the hour today josh brown, stephanie link, jim lebenthal, kerry firestone the final day of what has been a down month and we're mixed now the dow down 170 there's the s&p down a couple

lee part is a scientist with whale safe, which is funded by billionaire salesforce cofounder mark benioff uses data from its buoys, satellites, and entries on a whale watching after predict the presence of whales and shipping lanes, warning companies in real-time so they can voluntarily slow down to 10 knots, a speed set by a federal agency shown to significant reduce the risk of fatal collisions. >> there was a study done a few years ago which estimated that 80 endangered bluefin and humpback whales are killed every year. by ships. >> there was outrage last year when beloved 49 foot whale washed up on shore south of san francisco. spotted hundreds of times during her life, scientist even gave her a name. fran. >> having such a well-known and beloved whale die from something it's tragic. >> reporter: jaclyn moore represented the west coast shipping industry. she argues that most vessel carriers do slowdown. >> if you know that the well is in the area, what would be the reason that the whale would slow down? >> efficiency, safety, and schedule. schedule is paramount here. any delays based

i know we're going to get to union pacific, but marc benioff built that company, and for these peopleo come in and say, he's underperformed when you look at it since it was $8, and you say to yourself, well, is it really a what have you done late for me story at salesforce can't you just move on to something else but they're all gunning for him. >> we're going to dive into unp after the break. >> yes. >>> we want to get to buffett, though long weekend of reflection on the results, his calls for patience, his cash load. is the buyback the biggest story out of the quarter the comments about buybacks? >> i think it is, because it's so incendiary. there's some great quotes from munger, things that you could learn from him when you look at his holdings, he's been known to do this on "mad money," spends a lot of time talking about how american express and coca-cola are winners because they buy back stock, because of the dividends, but the actual portfolio, occident occidental petroleum, spends a lot of time talking about, don't look at my operating look at what i've done with these companie

quilter also are donated to children at ucsf, benioff children's hospital and to foster children in the bay area. coming up in sports. the warriors return to the court against high flying lebron james and the lakers. jason appelbaum will tell us if the dubs an ♪ ♪ before the xfinity 10g network we didn't have internet that let us play all at once. every device? in every room? why are you up here? with speeds like this, i can't even dream of what he'll be able to do. get xfinity internet for just $25 a month with no annual contract during our limited time launch celebration. you have no idea how good you've got it. huh? what a time to be alive. introducing the next- generation 10g network. only from xfinity. the warriors. they returned to action tonight in los angeles against the lakers, and they look rusty and they were shorthanded. steph is still out least another week, andrew wiggins, also out indefinitely. he's dealing with a family matter, but lebron james at age 38 is still doing stuff like this. he had 13 points, but he did have nine rebounds and eight assists. the lakers jumped o

. >> i want to go back i think mark is -- marc benioff is going to stay, and i think there's going totill more board activists. i don't think -- i think that activists have realized if you push marc too much and make it so his life is miserable, then you have a company that's not going to make as much money when things get better. i think that people -- david, you may disagree -- marc benioff's record is extraordinary in terms of growth and profits and it has a bump in the road i think marc is here for ten years. >> really? >> yeah. >> okay. >> sure hope so. >> stock down, we'll see. >> that sends the stock down >> what about the earnings tomorrow >> he fired a -- the companies that have fired a lot of people and done buybacks have tended to do well, but if you even guide down by 1%, al la workday you have a stock that under performance because the market is -- i'm sorry, because workday shouldn't -- 19 to 18 is a desell i think salesforce is good because marc stays good. >> meanwhile cvx tonight. >> chevron and micron will tell a great story. enbridge is bringing out a lot of oil fro

i think benioff is a lover, not a fighter. >> that was jim's point a few weeks ago. >> right it has beeng of minds with crm. >> we'll see but i certainly am hearing it enough that i thought it was worth sharing at this point, and we'll stay tuned next week it's been an unusual situation, to say the least, with this many activists. obviously, remember, they've already got one coming on the board inmason. starboard has been there for some time. jeff oven at lucid capital has been there he was there earlier than value act, his old firm, and elliott and then dan loeb also i mean, rare that you see these kinds of names by the way, an activism overall, guys, the names that are out there, we know, but i'm hearing there's a lot of activity that has yet to come to the surface, but it does seem as though there are advisors on the defensive side that are preparing for the possibility of activists does seem as though, while m&a has been relatively quiet, activism is pretty active. >> good one. >> i didn't want to say it >> can't beat you guys when it comes to play on words >> pretty good >> let's do

benioff likes to use business as a platform for positive change this is just a cheap shot. >> we'll see what we can tomorrow to wapner and "the half. >>> carl, thank you very much. welcome to "the halftime report." i'm scott wapner the final day of a down month for stocks and now big questions about what march might bring we'll debate and discuss with the investment committee joining me for the hour today josh brown, stephanie link, jim lebenthal, kerry firestone the final day of what has been a down month and we're mixed now the dow down 170 there's the s&p down a couple points and the nasdaq has been all around today, good for about 16 1/3 josh, we're in this month, i feel we have big questions now as we enter march, whether it be march madness for stocks or not. how do you see things after quite an interesting couple of months to start this year? >> i think the story with february is just a repudiation of january, and january was a repudiation of december. so we're kind inform this situation where when the inflation data shocks to the upside, the dollar rips. stocks go down even gold

this will sound surprising but i know my partner david favor and i have been talking about it marc benioff will get back to business and they can stop bothering him? i'm not sure how salesforce business is doing to determine how the stock does that day. the stock trades like a nightmare, though. we have a small position in the charitable trust i wish we owned more he can deliver that doesn't mean that the stock is going to rally when we see the number all right. let's not bury the lead. we should have started with it right here wednesday belongs to elon musk when tesla holds an investor meeting. most of these affairs are quite dry. you think this one will be it will be wild. you can't gain real surprise, not talking about a faux self-generated surprises but genuine shockers i think musk can take aim at his competitors who simply isn't been able to challenge him yet the latest being lucid that reported hideous numbers one look at the stocks tells us these small electric vehicle plays can't keep up and i hope ford fixing the battery in the f-150 lightning before the time tesla speaks or musk

i i'm not sure going toe to doto with benioff, that seems like a distraction to me. >> do you have a take like in. >> yeah, salesforce has a thousand middle managers swiping credit cards it's not a lean mean machine they're not looking for salesforce to radically remake itself, they just want to see discipline which is what has worked for other large software and technology companies to turn themselves around. it ain't complicated it will probably happen. i don't think how long it will take for the market to catch up and start to give them credit, but we're in the early stages. we don't really know what's really going to go on. >> but you use the product, i think, right >> great product. >> but you don't like the stock, even with the activists involved. >> it's an irreplaceable product. i think i can get the stock if i want later i don't see the urgency here it's one of the best -- it's one of the best pieces of technology that we use at our firm. it's indispensable for us. we're locked in forever, can't get out. >> we love the product too. >> so it's got a lot -- there's a lot posit

it's worth going back a few days ago, benioff's piece with "the times" saying i wish i offered lifetime the reality is when you have a big company, there will be times when you have to make a head count adjustment. >>> coming up, roku and snap, conflicting commentary on the state of the ad market as people take snap investor day into discussion. >>> check out shares of amat, lowering guidance for q2, cite ongoing supply chain challenges. we're back in a moment ah, these bills are crazy. she has no idea she's sitting on a goldmine. well she doesn't know that if she owns a life insurance policy of $100,000 or more she can sell all or part of it to coventry for cash. even a term policy. even a term policy? even a term policy! find out if you're sitting on a goldmine. call coventry direct today at the number on your screen, or visit coventrydirect.com. it's hard to run a business on your own. make it easier on yourself. with shopify, you can have everything you need to streamline your shipping, returns, and product storage, so you can focus on growing your business. because when we work tog

quilts are also donated to the ucsf benioff children's hospital and two faster organizations across thene of those games that has you yelling at the tv when you're watching from home. binary baby. can we switch jerry to decaf? please coming up. he's had an espresso and he's about to join us on set. we are talking live with pictionary host jerry o'connell about the wild success of the show before we put our own drawing skills to the test. meet a future mom, a first-time mom and a seasoned pro. this mom's one step closer to their new mini-van! yeah, you'll get used to it. this mom's depositing money with tools on-hand. cha ching. and this mom, well, she's setting an appointment here, so her son can get set up there and start his own financial journey. that's because these moms all have chase. smart bankers. convenient tools. one bank with the power of both. chase. make more of what's yours. with reliable covid-19 results in just 15 minutes, everyone is making room for binaxnow in their medicine cabinet. do we still need these pregnancy tests? (kids yell and giggle, a dog barks and a vase

lamonica peters ktvu, fox two news now to oakland, where ucsf benioff children's hospital has increasedurity because of the threat of violence. hospital says it received a non specific, unsubstantiated threat of violence from an anonymous caller yesterday morning, the hospital has increased its police presence and visitors, employees have to show identification to get into the hospital spokesperson for children says the increased security has not affected its operations. jose based ebay announced it is cutting 500 jobs are about 4% of its workforce. the ceo says the company decided to lay off do layoffs rather, after examining the business landscape. he says he's cuts which strengthens ebay's ability to deliver better experiences to customers and shift resources towards high potential areas such as new technologies and customer innovations. or california homeowners are now eligible for mortgage relief program. the california mortgage relief program has expanded, who is eligible to participate in it and now includes some people who took second mortgages and home owners who already receiv

. >> reporter: kelly lee part is a scientist with whalesafe, which is funded by marc benioff. data from its buoys, satellites, and entries on a whale watching app to predict the presence of whales in shipping lanes, warning the companies in near real time so they can voluntarily slow down to 10 knots, a speed set by a federal agency shown to significantly reduce the risk of fatal collisions. >> there was a study done a few years ago that estimated that 80 endangered blue fin and humpback whales are killed on the u.s. west coast every year. >> by ships? >> by ships. >> reporter: recent years have seen record west coast whale deaths with a notable exception of 2020, when the pandemic all but stopped international shipping. scientists say most ship strike deaths go undetected because the whales sink to the bottom of the ocean. there was outrage last year when a beloved 49-foot whale washed up onshore south of san francisco. spotted hundreds of times during her life, scientists even gave her a name -- fran. she was found with extensive bruising and a broken neck, injuries consiste

if marc benioff paid for "time" magazine, it is hard to argue it is still worth that.will get through washington. >> separately your colleague ben, ben, who is also the co-founder of the place, semafor that is, made an argument he thinks the whole billionaire class of jeff bezoses, and the benioffs and everybody in media land doesn't -- they want to get out of media land. do you think that's true >> i think -- that piece was very important, you have to look at -- i think bezos has been probably pretty happy with his experience at "the post. a little internally rocky, but clearly his ownership is pretty good for that institution. yeah, i don't know i think there is less value, media landscape is itself fractured. if your whole goal is to come in, buy the institution of record, there are one of those in print, maybe two, one in every medium, but just doesn't get you the influence it used to. >> except for "squawk box." >> except for "squawk box." >> there you have it liz hoffman, thank you. >> thank you for having me. >> appreciate it have a good weekend. >>> when we com

now the quilts are also donated to the ucsf benioff children's hospital, as well as to foster organizations around the bay area. i love that well done. winter weather sweeping across the bay area and up in the sierra coming up. we're going to check in with the uc berkeley snow lab after their latest snowpack measurement and a very disturbing discovery in livermore, with park rangers found scattered children's playgrounds. meet a future mom, a first-time mom and a seasoned pro. this mom's one step closer to their new mini-van! yeah, you'll get used to it. this mom's depositing money with tools on-hand. cha ching. and this mom, well, she's setting an appointment here, so her son can get set up there and start his own financial journey. that's because these moms all have chase. smart bankers. convenient tools. one bank with the power of both. chase. make more of what's yours. year winter weather we will have the latest. we will also have an update on the two year old child hit by a falling tree in santa cruz county. coming up the toddler's mom and dad talked about their child's recovery. from

quotes are also donated to the ucsf benioff children's hospital and foster organizations all around thea. the images from your 70 national park may look beautiful , but conditions there are going to keep that part closed, and that's who march 1st. park managers say whether predictions say those conditions are likely going to get more dangerous with the winter storm. watch for you. 70 valley set to take effect today at four pm that will last through wednesday, and more snow . probably a coming up that way all throughout the sierra and maybe a little bit more. here. let's check in with rosemary on a bit of a wet start on this sunday. good morning. yes. good morning. to both of you and happy sunday. we do have another storm already beginning to drop in. we're seeing light, scattered showers out there this morning, followed by a steadier rain and breezy conditions. here is a look over. tough to see. is that the east bay? i can't even tell we've got some fog out there. in addition to the scattered showers of 45 degrees right now in santa rosa, widespread mid upper forties across the bay, and

benioff does like to avoid conflict to the extent that he can.son more fit on the board like that from value act again, just waiting to see here. if you get some sort of settlement with elliott, what would it include a new board member or two? is there some roadmap to higher margin target, roadmap to succession again, we'll see, but certainly one we remain focus on i haven't been able to come up with much. >> wales fargo is out this morning with a note of salesforce really looking at the margin expansion possibility and saying there is a path to like 500 basis points in fiscal '24 so the idea being there's plenty of room. the company has spoken about even incremental cost cutting beyond that point. just, if nothing else, it creates the sense that there's a little bit of urgency and impetus from the activists to do what can be done within the company and get the profitability up the market never -- for years never cared. so it's not as if they tried all along to maximize bottom line profits and failed it's just that they weren't run that way i thi

targets that are far higher than they are now are they going to get commitment on real succession from benioff at the fundamentals here are not expecting it to be a particularly good one. >> look, it's enterprise software there's a slowdown worldwide marc has a huge amount of business overseas. a lot of their work is done to try to drum up subscriptions, you know, to -- but a plot of it also is just the traditional bank of america trying to get more customers, home depot trying to get more customers, so, yes, i'm going to say it's probably not going to be a good quarter. it's a bad quarter >> yeah, jim, sales and marketing teams are getting cut, right? sales and marketing teams are getting cut. the people who hire salesforce may not be doing it as often that's at least the thesis >> that's the weakness of the economy. people are saying, listen, the consumer's -- that's why i thought january being better was good people aren't spending and it's concentrated this is where you cut your spending not that you and i would think this is the right thing to do. you cut your spending on marketing and ad

marc benioff talks to the "new york times" and says i wish i offered lifetime employment but when you 80,000 employees there are going to be times when you have to make a head count adjustment bofa did cut numbers on channel checks, lumpiness of the quarters and share shift going on in enterprise software. >> sure. i mean it's, obviously, true that crm has done a lot of acquisitions over the years and expansions and a growth, growth, growth story by the way, what the activists are saying right now is -- was like, the short thesis of like 12 years ago that didn't work because the stock kept growing and kept doing well. but now they're at a point where they feel like there has to be a recping on costs, what do we do with rolling up these companies and other agendas as well. >> yeah. you can look at the long term and what's happened but you can see there has been a move up baseline enthusiasm amongst investors that these activists will be able to force the company to focus more on profitability and perhaps on succession as well you know, i pointed out the deadline or i should say the nom

a number of them calling for marc benioff to tighten things up from an efficiency perspective and likelyhink right now they're about 71,000 people. that's down from 80,000 people however, prepandemic, i think the employment picture was closer to 50,000 people. so if in fact you were trying to get your employment picture to look like a prepandemic number, that would be a lot of people who would be losing their jobs >>> coming up, jim cramer's first take on the trading day ahead. take a look at futures right now, dow up 230 points nasdaq up 160 points s&p 500 up 33 points bob iger is going to be coming up on "squawk on the street" and a reminder that you can get the best of "squawk box" in our daily podcast. you can follow squawk pod on your favorite app and listen any time we're coming right back. ♪ looking for something like this? super heroes are everywhere. in our movies, communities, and running our small businesses. and they can grow online securely with mastercard tools, extending their reach far beyond the storefront. because when you see the super hero you can be, that's priceless