that news also stopped biomet's plans to launch an initial public offering. separetly the 2 companies had nearly 8 billion dollars in sales last year. zimmer expects double digit earnings in the first year of the merger. accretive health's ceo is stepping down after less than two years on the job. stephen schuckenbrock's is set to leave on october 2, when his contract expires. schuckenbrock joined the struggling health care firm just over a year ago after leaving dell.accretive's stock was delisted in march after the company failed to meet a deadline for restating its financial results. general motors learned how costly auto recalls can be to the bottom line. in the first 3 months of this year gm called back for repairs 7 million vehicles. the cost to fix ignition switches and other repairs is so high, it nearly wiped out all profit for the quarter. eliminate the recall cost of 1.3 billion and gm is left with a measley 108 million dollars of profit. fortunately gm earnings were better than expected which gave lift to its share price. earnings week is wrapping

. >> biomet, $13.35 billion by zimmer. stock up strongly. we'll talk a little ge.ot a little story for you as well. >> qualcomm. >> verizon. we got so much. let's go to the break so we can get back and talk about it all. and the opening bell. >> i'm not there yet. what will finance look like in 25 years. credit card, shopping, banking. how will your money move in a female announcer: get three years interest-free financing on brand name mattress sets. plus, get free delivery, and sleep train's 100-day low price guarantee. sleep train's interest free for 3 event, is ending soon. ♪ your ticket to a better night's sleep ♪ what'swithout the thinking capitathat makes it real?? what's a vision without the expertise to execute it... and the financing to make it grow? whatever your goal, it can change more than your business. it can change the future. that's why, at barclays, our ambition is to always realize yours. became big business overnight? ♪ like, really big... then expanded? ♪ or their new product tanked? ♪ or not? what if they embrace new technology instead? ♪ imag

lam buys novell las, now zimmer roars in with biomet as a consumer i love competition but as an investor i hate competition. these are all winners now courtesy of reduced competition. not that long ago everyone loved the high-flying restaurant chains, right? the chipotles, they offered the hottest choices, were the definition of cool. people forgot good old nerdy mcdonald's. after the latest in a string of not so hot quarters, it's breaking out at a string of almost 100. and chipotle has dropped a hundred bucks. at a time when food prices are soaring mcdonald's has the clout and the sourcing to cost the costs under control. love mickey d's. want boring? hand trool, saws, drills. dumb as a bag of hammers. uncool. i'm talking about stantly black & decker. this company has found reasons to miss quarters as they have aisles in home depot! not this morning. they got every right with every division excelling including the underperforming european business. that was tour deforce performance from this ugly duckling turned swan. rallied three bucks. there could be anything more out of favor than

then zimmer holdings, the best performer in the s&p 500 as it acquires biomet for $13.4 billion creating a powerhouse orthopedic devicemaker currently trading up 11.5%. on the the flip side, united continental one of the few airlines posting a loss in the first quarter. carrier blamed brutal weather in the midwest and northeast. you can see those shares down to 9.5%. >>> aetna reporting better than expected first quarter profits helped by a surge in profits from its commercial business an by adding new customers. as a result it raised its forecast for the full year. aetna shares, session highs up 6.5%. back over to you. >>> we'll pick up right there on aetna. do these great earnings results mean that the giant health insurer is no longer concerned about the facts that obamacare will have on its bottom line? >> joining us in a first on cnbc interview, mark bertolini, the ceo, welcome back. >> hi. >> we always look at obamacare through your eyes. as your experience on sort of a front row seat. first, overall, quarter, how did you do? >> we had a great quarter. we were up 40% year over year

but, you know, buying biomet. zimmer.iness. $270 million of redundant costs. so that helps. put that on a net present value. it's more or less what they are paying for the premium. it kind of makes sense. so i think you're seeing sensible deal making. it has to be the response. we're bumping along. so there's nothing driving revenues apart from these extraordinary numbers like facebook or amazon. >> they have other things going on. that is tax implications of some of these deals too given our messed up corporate tax structure. long term it's hurting some of our competitiveness. people can come here because they have lower tax rates in their own countries. it makes sense for companies to sell here. >> right. and then you just move headquarters via canada to bermuda. it doesn't actually change the business at all. but it does change the financial profile so you have, yeah, you basically get a synergy is what it amounts to. long term, there will be a question whether that is going to remain. there's a whole -- a lot of effor