we had two bids for the deal with carl icahn. one at a higher price that was cash. i told carl i i had confidence he could extract the value in a company. it was worth more than twice the price it was trading for so carl paid $80 a share in cash. we could have sold the position for $90 to someone else, $85, i don't remember the exact number. but with carl i got $80 plus what he called schmuck insurance. who figured out that terminology? it was 50% of his profit if he sold in three years and the risk was that carl got the company. carl bid for the company and got nothing. if someone with a lower cost of capital got it carl would have to pay us if it happened in three years. i thought he might wait or hold the thing up so we department get paid. that was the risk to us. i was concerned about dealing with carl icahn because he doesn't have a good reputation for being a handshake guy. if you notice the agreement written i insisted we keep it under ten pages. there is sampl example in -- a simple example in the agreement. lawyers -- they said, i want to make sure there is

carl icahn. we will go to break and pouchblg will pick up the ball. [ male announcer ] it's simple physics... a body at rest tends to stay at rest... while a body in motion tends to stay in motion. staying active can actually ease arthritis symptoms. but if you have arthritis, staying active can be difficult. prescription celebrex can help relieve arthritis pain so your body can stay in motion. because just one 200mg celebrex a day can provide 24 hour relief for many with arthritis pain and inflammation. plus, in clinical studies, celebrex is proven to improve daily physical function so moving is easier. celebrex can be taken with or without food. and it's not a narcotic. you and your doctor should balance the benefits with the risks. all prescription nsaids, like celebrex, ibuprofen, naproxen and meloxicam have the same cardiovascular warning. they all may increase the chance of heart attack or stroke, which can lead to death. this chance increases if you have heart disease or risk factors such

now schmuk insurance, who comes comes up with that terminology, carl icahn. o us is that carl got the company. carl bid for the company and got it, we got nothing. if someone else with a lower cost of capital and carl ended up with the company then carl would have to pay us as long as the deal happened in three years. i thought he might wait three years before making a bid or hold the thing up so we didn't get paid. that is the risk to us. i was concern with dealing with carl icahn because unfortunately carl icahn does not have a good reputation for being hard shake guy. >> this is where it heats up. they are discussing current battle which is herbalife. this is a longer clip here. we do want you to get the full picture of back and forth basil, let's have a listen. >> let's start with what i want to say. ackman is a liar, okay? to begin with, i live mid life from 1960s and '70s by handshake. i almost lost my firm a few times by hand shakes. ackman has -- he's got one of the worst reputations on wall street. and i'm going to tell you this herbalife is a classic

a huge argument between two ult ra rich hedge fund guys, bill ackman and carl icahn. >> i simply said look, carl, you are no friend of mine and that was it. and every time he said -- he goes on tv, i'm going to defend myself. >> i never said i want to be friends with you, bill. i wouldn't be friends with you. >> okay, carl. >> you said you'd like to be friends so we can invest together. >> you think i want to invest with you? let's move on. >> new jersey senator bob menendez dragged into ugly allegations. now the fbi is reportedly investigating him and his alleged -- alleged involvement with underage prostitutes. in the next half hour, "the kudlow report" is loaded with allegations and accusations. stay with us because we're going to be fair and balanced on this. trust me. hey! did you know that honey nut cheerios has oats that can help lower cholesterol? and it tastes good? sure does! wow. it's the honey, it makes it taste so... well, would you look at the time... what's the rush? be happy. be healthy. barrow island has got rare kangaroos. ♪ chevron has been developing energy here fo

that was carl icahn's point.long in the stock, all they have to do is take that stock, take it off the market, not borrow it and it shrinks the shares outstanding. >> ackman knows his game. he knows what he's doing. at the end of the day to me, i think for the retail investor out there, it is a treacherous setup to try to follow either one of these guys. that's why i think the options world is a pretty interesting place to talk about it. >> what's the volatility like in hlf? >> it's interesting, the near data 45 strike calls, those quintupled as icahn was talking. obviously -- if someone is going to make speculative bets at the upside, that's probably the only way they can do it and count on throwing some of the premium away. >> volatility was up 15%. the max myers that was made famous in that piece is our own max myers, our producer. thankfully he said we could come on today and say anything we want. >> dan, walk us through your trade. you have a trade even though you are cautioning investors to be very careful.

megainvestors bill ackman and carl icahn going at it.lms were sweating for you, scotty. >> it was fantastic. great viewing. scott wapner you did a brilliant job. and of course for those who do not know the background, why do these two have issues? >> well, mandy, their feud goes back a decade when bill ackman was a young hedge fund manager who did a deal with carl icahn who was then already an investing legend. most recently, the war of words has turned to herbalife which ackman has taken a very public short position in. icahn has blasted him for that and today the whole thing ille live tv. >> in herbalife we simply provided to the public full transparency on this investment, 330 slides in detail, not scaring people, but going through the facts about the company. okay? we did exhaustive research over a year and a half. we'll either be proven right or wrong. okay. we shorted the stock. we have not covered our shares. we believe in what we -- we have more to come by the way. >> right. >> we have some questions the company has given us the

we had quite a show on friday between bill akman and carl icahn. >> the quintessential example on wall street if you want a friend, get a dog. >> brings us to this morning squa "squawk on the street," after that showdown, what do they do for an encore. >> revival of the original play, "the sunshine boys." loved the i can-akman dispute. better than reality shows. it cannot be topped. find two cnbc guys each week and start cnbc fight club. >> caterpillar up almost two bucks despite problems in accounting in china and inventory in declining production rates, cat is one of the leaders on the dow today. back to "fast money" halftime at hq. >>> carl, thanks so much. welcome to the "halftime report," four hours to go. dow at 1500. here's what we're following at halftime. war and remembrance. >> i appreciate, bill, you called me a great investor. i thank you for that. unfortunately i can't say the same for you. this is not an honest guy that keeps his word and takes advantage of little people? >> what does the icahn/akman battle say about your money and should you follow their lead? at the cor

unfortunately i can't say the same for you. >> i was concern ld about dealing with carl icahn. or being a hand shake guy. carl, i have no interest -- you think i want to invest with you? >> i wouldn't invest with you if you were the last man on earth. >> unbelievable. my question is why would these two guys go on television and fight with one another like that? kudos to you to get them on. i was watching it in davos thinking what is going on. why have this public fight? it's bizarre. >> what's amazing -- it was amazing to be here and do it and have the floor and all of the traders on the floor in the background. what's most incredible i think b is this festering animosity between these two guys over the last decade. back from when ackman was just a young hedge fund guy was simmering for so long. it's this most recent fight over herbalife that brings it to the surface. then it explodes on live tv. >> they had had a fight before. icahn owed him money, right? >> they had a fight from a decade ago over ackman's former firm and a deal that they did and it went to court several times.

you can go higher with or without carl icahn. dan in florida, please, dan? >> caller: hello. >> go ahead, dan. you're up. >> caller: dr. jim, dan, how are ya? >> i'm fine. >> caller: hey, i have a question. i'm concerned about this ppg takeover or split, whatever's going on. >> no, that's just arbitrage pressure. the arbs had to buy a certain amount of georgia gulf. this is just another opportunity to buy ppg on the cheap and i think you should take advantage of it. it might be tempting to stop worrying about all the things that could go wrong for a moment. you'll miss what's going right. don't just read the stories and decide retail's back, therefore it's got to go down, think bigger, think immigration, think shale boom, think cantor, think congress no longer something we talk about on cnbc. "mad money" will be right back. >>> coming up -- clinical cash. the prognosis has been positive for medical technology company optco health, already up over 30% this year. iss the perfect drug for a profitable 2013, or should these shares be quarantined? discover the an

buellish last week, late last week, ahead of a quarter, not that much -- certainly not 30%. >> carl icahnt a move. won't have to worry about potential activism in the company at this point. mr. icahn, who is brilliant, i can tell you probably, hey, i don't know, >> they like to watch tv. >> can you call in tonight? >> going to be good. i like it. >> those are thinking i'm going to star -- >> have to live with good wife, right? 'cause that was -- that was a performance. >> on the stand. amazing. >> thank you. >> but i'm not in u.s. development saying sell, sell, sell. >> how are those ries sid wall checks? >> $37. i was an ironman. i got a hat. >> can you imagine "ironman," i thought it would be a dud, i got a. what everyone else got like $100,000. i got a hat h why bob iger sent me that statuette. bad for me. >> story of your life. >> exactly right. >> a few moments to the opening bell. cramer is going to make sure you are ahead of the curve. hear what he has to say in the mad dash. >>> from calf voerks glenn hutchings, co-founder of silver lake partners in the middle of a potential buyou

carl icahn the "wall street journal" just breaking the story has taken a long stake in herbalife. this intraday picture. the hedge fund manager is a guy who has said you know what, i will short this stock. getting hammered the past couple of days. today it started off that way until the news just broke that carl icahn is jumping in and saying herbalife, i am in. the stock is well off of the lows of the session now down two-thirds of a percent. had been down 1.8% earlier today. just about 13 minutes ago at about nine minutes to the hour. wwe're watching herbalife right now. turbulence at boeing. a top analyst out in front. we also have ol goldman stellar quarter. and stocks are mixed. weakness in the dow jones industrial. so much of that has to do with boeing. so what is the story? boeing is the biggest drag on the dow jones industrial pulling it down by more than 20 points. getting clipped by about three and change%. another dreamliner safety issue in response japan airlines grounding their entire fleet of 787 today. particularly noteworthy because these two airlines own the large

carl icahn is in it.ave never retreated from distinguishing your company from these others including an excellent white paper where you say that herbalife is a network marketing company, and you along with others are a direct seller. can you define what direct selling is and why are you distancing yourself from some of the other companies that claim to be in your industry? >> i'm not going to take issue with network marketing, multi level marketers but they are chalk and cheese from traditional sellers. what you had from prior to 1950, direct selling companies, avon, fuller brush, even tupperware where people went out and sold to a retail customer. you had the emergence of these network marketing companies that recruited people not so much to sell, but to consume their products, and you saw it in cosmetics and supplements and a lot of them came and went because their episodic kind of businesses. they are not direct sellers. they are wholesale buying clubs and based on sign up to save money and consume the

>> there have been a couple of people who have speculated about what carl icahn's position may or maye in herbalife, but as of now, he's been on the record saying that he won't admit to owning herbalife. >> all right. thank you. >> rebecca jarvis, thanks. >>> u.s. anti-doping agency is giving lance armstrong one more chance to answer under oath. if he doesn't do so, it will be considered irreversible. >> he suggested that cycling in those years was a level playing field because everyone did it. he wasn't doing anything special. >> it's just simply not true. the access they had to inside information, to how the tests work, what tests went in place at what time, special access to the laboratory. he was the one on in entirely different playing field than all the other athletes even if you assume they had some access to other doping products. >> armstrong admitted in the interview to doping throughout his seven tour de france victories. he tried to make a comeback in 2009. he admitted the first seven, but those last two races in '09 and 2010, he did not dope, he was racing clean. >> just

carl icahn has taken a stake in herbalife, and so company the state of play. a fickle, potential ally in some entity of the government not nearly as motivated as he is to take action against herbalife. and loeb has carl icahn. someone with plenty of capital to buy more herbalife if it suits him. that's all well and good. a battle royale between rich people over herbalife. here are the fundamentals, that's where i come in, right? herbalife is making a ton of money making supplements, particularly overseas, and the ceo has done an amazing job of making distributions arm in south america and mexico. where it's like selling weight watchers, nutritious, good tasting, helps you lose weight. that's a terrific pitch. the numbers say it's resonating. you can argue that tactics that the company uses, uses a nonretail format that rewards people selling it to other people, including those who sell the product to others may not be your cup of tea. you could also argue that the company admitted today that ackman's attack is costing it money. costing it expenses. they could

what will these two, carl icahn and david hine horn -- einhorn.t is moving this stock around 4%. david: we do have the numbers out from ebay. sandy smith is going you there the numbers. paypal is big focus on attention. people are looking at, see above bid, above the closing price for it right now. people are focusing on whether the mobile activity has increase ad lot of business on the ebay side. sandy smith is looking at numbers. what do you see, sandy. >> beat on both the top and bottom lines. small beat at that. stock is rising after-hours. earnings per share adjusted coming in 70 cents for ebay. street for looking at 69 cents. revenues coming in slightly above estimates at 4 billion. street is looking for 3.98 billion. pretty much in line with the revenue estimates. at first sight same-store sales for ebay for the quarter up 19%. so a huge double-digit increase there. liz: okay. we also want to mention right now, looks like in 2013, ebay is giving guidance on paypal to exceed 20 billion in mobile payment volume, which brings us to shibani jos

attack, carl icahn's doubled his money in less than four month, and the stock is continuing to go. he's added the disney content deal which doesn't kick in until 2016 but is validation of the netflix concept, and he's clearly the market leader, and as julia pointed out, netflix is really going wild overseas. they are the market leader in the uk and they are doing exceptionally well in the rest of europe. >> none of this has been lost on the market. i mean, this stock has been very, very strong, not just today, not just this moment as a result of these numbers. i'm wondering if you'd still buy it at these levels here. >> well, the likelihood of a continued rise despite all of the good things that reed hastings is doing is probably being driven by a short squeeze because as of the end of last year over a quarter of the outstanding shares were short and those short sellers are really now caught in a real bind, and i expect the some will continue to go up as they bail out. >> short the stock looking at this. >> does feel like it right now. >> does feel it like right. >> thanks for join

bill ackman versus carl icahn. >> this is not an honest guy. this is not a guy who keeps his word.ho takes advantage of little people. >> the quintessential example that on wall street if you want a friend get a dog. >> we got more reaction to that clash and what is behind it coming up. plus let us know whether you're on team icahn or team ackman. who won the battle of the titans? tweet us at closing bell. don't forget you can see the whole battle right now on cnbc.com. >> and then later on, folks, maria's interview with bill gates. where you will hear a very interesting revelation about the kind of smart phone his daughters use. stick around. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 when i'm trading, i'm totally focused. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 and the streetsmart edge trading platform from charles schwab... tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 gives me tools that help me find opportunities more easily. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 i can even access it from the cloud and trade on any computer. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 and with schwab mobile, tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 i can focus on trading anyplace, anytime. tdd#:

careful investments in companies that you think are doing the right thing and you never know when a carl icahn is going to show up and upset the apple cart and cause a corporation to get that one time share price bump up. but in the long run, it is hard to make your long-term returns. if you have an questions about whether that is happening, i have a new piece of macro economic evidence for you. number one, our public corporations are disappearing. the number of public companies listed on the u.s. exchanges has declined by more than 40% in the last 15 years. if it were a species, we would call it in danger. number two, the life span of a fortune 500 company was about 75 years in the 1920's. it is down to 15 years today. so if you have any doubt that short-termism is harming our corporations, that should be some evidence you think about. you might wonder if there is more going on than you have realized. what are we to do? the good news is, i do see this problem is very fixable, or at least improveable. in 1960, the holding period for a share of stocks was eight years. today is down to around fo

we had a showdown friday between bill akman and carl icahn.e a great investor. i thank you for that. unfortunately, i can't say the same for you. >> you should here fave vr indicate that line. >> what do due for a come back? boxing match? "dancing with the stars," spend quality time with oprah and a couch, jumping optional. people will be talking about it a very long time. what's coming up tonight? >> yahoo!. we will be reporting the comments. and is the trading weakening and we have the governor saying weakening hurting us and the great bond rotation. big show. >> see you then. if you're just tuning in this morning, here's what you missed ea earlier on. >> welcome to hour three of "squawk on the street." here's what's happening so far. >> we're thinking, you know, it could be a pretty good year. we have that same political question in this country that will drive a lot of uncertainty if they start screaming at each other again. we chose a pretty wide range top and bottom. >> our companies are so lean, tone so much firing, i believe in the mov

that is public, carl icahn, people suggested he has taken some position, unclear if he has. big investors in the fund clearly worried about something that takes the stock a lot higher. as you know, he said point blank he has a lot of money riding on this. i can tell you the investors get antsy and they may redeem shares. how do you know? they're not call me back. i followed his career, one of the stocks in the financial crisis was mbia. they are a bond insurer, the toxic debt held by the banks. two years before the rubber met the road and made a lot of money. this is a guy that takes the long-term bet proven right on some stuff, but also the flip side is if you look at retail, jcpenney does not do very well read it is a retailer of protein shakes or something. it is very controversial. a pyramid scheme, they don't really sell the products, what they do is get distributors to sell the products, and in the long-term is not. liz: this is one heck of a long pyramid scheme to see if that is what it is. charlie: they were in business for long time before they went under. interview

carl icahn coming out in the two billionaires have been head to head over this particular company. has been extremely volatile today as well. talk to attorney general office in lexington, kentucky, was going to be talking about a company that may have had a ponzi scheme, a pyramid scheme, an alleged pyramid scheme and there was speculation, something that could two and two together. that didn't mean that was the case. stocks sold off 8% off of the lows and year-to-date actually a winner. cheryl: let's go over to the cme, sandra, you ar you're lookt the big selloff. what are you seeing? sandra: talking on the trade floor in chicago, natural gas a huge story. remember, most of the east coast uses natural gas to heat their homes. there are mild forecast heading into the month of february. that is leading to the big selloff, so natural gas at a two-week low in today's trading session, bank of america coming up with a forecast $3 natural gas. they are calling for an even bigger selloff than what we're talking about today. crude at $96.44 per barrel tod today, up another half of a percen

carl icahn has taken a 3% stake in transocean. the offshore oil driller.ught 1.6% of his outstanding shares, the rest coming through options. oil futures at a four-month high. helping fuel crude skin settling six tenths of a percentage. natural gas futures rallied for their third straight session, forecasters say a stretch of colder temperatures will hit the midwest and east coast. lowering the outlook for natural gas demand. coming up on "money," coca-cola pops the top on its obesity silence. a new ad campaign deflect criticism, or will it fizzle with consumers? and just because you are in the big house does not mean you cannot sue, obviously. frivolous lawsuits over water that is too hot. what can be done to stop the money from going up in smoke? can you ever have too much "money"? no way. melissa: a clever campaign the key to increasing productivity and the greater good seems to be popular which could explain why coca-cola is launching new habits in that helping to stop obesity. look at part of this commercial. >> all calories counts no matter where the

i understand bill ackman himself and carl icahn are not here.ew york but they doesn't mean they don't have representatives here. so a lot of back and forth between herbalife and pershing square as looet in terms of responding to what being a man said in his december 20th presentation. they feel he has miscast their price competitiveness, that the unit of measurement he was using was 200 calories rather than per unit per serving and they say by the latter measure which will is who are of the industry standard, their pricing is far more competitive. that's just one of a number of things that they tried to dispute. but the bigger point that i've come away with so far is the fact that they're really touting their products, touting the quality, the science behind them, the popularity of them, even among former distribute tors who no longer sell the things to outside customers. and it's interesting. almost like a retail appeal to an institutional audience. there's not been so far a whole lot of time on accounting, business model, these accusations of

allow billionaires carl icahn and bill ackman to explain to you at home why the other guy's a son of a gun who's not worthy of your respect. refereed by scott wapner occurred on a lot of levels. a lot of it was about a deal going awry a couple years ago that kind ltd the exchange. some thought it was a grudge match with ackman questioning the value of icahn's handshake, icahn implying that ackman was a total cry baby. but the ostensible fight, the reason it played out on air was that ackman wanted to explain again why herbalife, hlf, the company-s a pyramid scheme and while he was at it he blasted icahn, who reportedly owns the stock, as someone who is not a stand-up guy p icahn then called in to defend himself because he was incensed by ackman's description of him. he then called ackman a liar. now, while icahn didn't per se address the fundamentals of herbalife the company, which i wish he had, he did make it clear that ackman could be in trouble because herbalife the stock could be the mother of all short squeezes. >> you've got 20%, and if there's ever a short squeeze, which ther

most people on main street they might not recognize the names bill ackman or carl icahn, but on wallthey're legendary investor activists. the two titans of finance raised big questions surrounding weight loss supplement maker herbalife. as the founder of pershing square management, bill ackman controls $12 billion in assets and he has his sights set on herbalife. >> how is it that they sell more than abbott labs and gnc? >> the answer, herbalife is a pyramid scheme. he is so sure of it that he shorted them $1 billion and when the hedge fund manager went on cnbc, they dropped to the lowest point of the day. >> we believe this is the company causing enormous harm to millions of people and has done so over a very long period of time. >> but minutes later the price soared. when another activist investor carl icahn who won't say whether he owns herbalife stock called in and accused ackman of trying to manipulate the market. >> he's got a bunch of innocent investors, retirees that are going to lose their money. so ackman can show a good record at the opened of the year. >> at times the ins

. >> yeah, a carl icahn alert. an smackdown hedge fund on cnbc.y to declare $4 share dividend. mandy, what else is he going to say? it is overvalued? it is undervalued. bp agreed to pay $1.4 billion in fines but it is well, well, well, offity high of a couple years ago. >> we have a lot of energy space stories today. and hess is coming out next. >> a new jersey based company, getting out of the terminal business and investors like the news. 20 storage terminals. get out of the refining business. that trees up a billion dollars in capital they will use for other part of their oil and gas business. elliott international, which made news for nearly starting a war with argentina, true story, filing to buy more shares of hess valued at about $800 million. management frustrated. this was an $80 stock a year and half ago. >> falling on the other side of the trade. let's take a look. >> down 7% p goldman downgrading to sell. lower steel price. there is no sign of turn around. a electrical steel side of the business. >> down by 58%. this is a wow. going fr

david: carl icahn in october got 10% stake in the company. go ahead. >> it was a good move on his part. i want to stick to the details, have a problem justifying netflix multiple given the competition, but they are delivering on the subscriber base and i like to see how they achieved that revenue and those earnings but for now i think the market will retract a little bit. looking for is based upon the little i know. sandra: looking at the stock surging in after-hours trading, you are very bearish on the market environment right now. this is a very bullish sign for technology stocks, what do you say after this report? >> what we are seeing is this is the time to be cautious, in fact we don't follow individual companies per se, you can set the end of the recovery rally from the march '09 at bottoms, we're in the frenzy of the speculative issues and speculative moves. very few stocks move the market. that is the sign of a process at least for the short term. david: staying with you for a second, says there is no factual evidence for being bearis

ackerman's saying, but also said that carl icahn is in there as well. is that true?n't comment on individual investors. obviously, we're very happy that dan loeb has chosen, and we believe he's, obviously, chosen the right side. we're always welcome investors that are interested in the long term and understanding about herbalife. but we never comment about other individual investors until such time as they choose to make themselves known. >> okay. without commenting on whether he invested, has he contacted you guys? >> again, it's not something i'm prepared to comment on. >> you're not denying it? >> no comment. >> okay. that's a nondenial denial. you didn't deny it. anyway, we'll move on from there. you said today, or i believe mr. johnson said today, that the company would answer all questions posed about it in the coming days. mr. ackerman came out today and said he's going to pose some questions. do you plan to answer his questions? >> you know, it depends on the question. i mean, at this stage we believe that we have addressed in a very comprehensive and decisiv

others like dan lobe as well as carl icahn are long and on the other side. >> i have herb greenberg zrrom the newsroom, we don't know. >> we don't know. >> when he drops something like that, you try to make an educated assumption based on his prior involvement with a phone call. >> absolutely. and although he doesn't really come back to this theme in the letter and the comment about the supplements didn't go down comes early in the letter, other things he mentions in that sentence he touches on as he goes on. but, you know, he's very hard on himself here. he says the disappointing fourth quarter result reduced our year from good to pedestrian. while it's hard to year from good to pedestrian. it nonetheless falls short of our goals. he talks about shorts that lost money, that made money in their long book. >> he is nothing if not cagey. the way he drops the iron supplement. could be any number of publicly traded companies. >> absolutely. >> we know his history with green mountain. that's easy to figure out. we know the apple deal. that's easy to figure out. now the market will spend sev

he's the second largest shareholder, my buddy carl icahn. >> he is, but i don't blienk he ee going tore how much the company is worth either. we don't know what their balance sheet items are. we know they've got them. we know that bhp had acquired assets that were continue us to where chesapeake's are and they've been riding them down continuall continually. i don't know if chesapeake has been taking them down to this point in time. there's way too much to go on here. the way you're holding at this point is because you're betting on a take that can monetize the assets which they couldn't do under mcclendon's watch. i don't think that's a good thing. >> good stuff. we'll talk to you again soon. steve weiss. anybody want to make i don't kn want it bet on the ceo leaving or staying and the all of the rest of that and 9 paperwork going on. that seems to be what this is about as much as anything. i look to so many other names, eog, going through the list of names in the space that i think you have a much better feel of the stock. >> wait a minute. this is a stock that's been loved by a lot

. >> poker you don't have to show your cards until -- >> why does carl icahn get into herbal life?an. he can make the trades on the stock. >> because of the 25% short interest. that was part of it and you knew one of the guys was, like i said, a blood sport -- >> playing the fabulous short squeeze which people have been doing is a moneymaker. >> herb, thanks, man. good to see you. >>> all right, coming up on "halftime," the biggest players in business and politics are in davos, switzerland. >>> should you be betting on a eurozone recovery? the answer and the play when "halftime" continues. >> fast money means trading. the entire trading day is the preparation for the show that night. >> it is idea generation, it is all about giving you a framework for how to look at the markets. the world has changed, our show has evolved. i am guy adami, i am fast money. >> i am pete najarian, i am fast money. >> are you fast money? go to the nbc universal store and order your fast money tee. run with the big dogs. see, i figured low testosterone would decrease my sex drive... but when i started l

and carl icahn's done a pretty good job doing this over the years and he's purchased several hundredand shares of federal mogul starting in the mid to high teens and continued buying as the stocks dropped. i've seen estimates that the sum of the parts is worth $20 to $30 a share, but i don't know what you think. i thought i stole some when i bought some around $10, it's now $8 selling below book value, has some debt, multi-year lows, just wanted to see what you thought. >> you know something, larry? i am going to go kick the tires on this one myself. why? because i remember the old fmo, the federal mobile from before the asbestos bankruptcy days of reorganization and i've got to take a hard look at federal-mogul, but you've piqued my interest. and we're going to come back and come back with an analysis. and thank you so much, our viewers are so darn smart. molly in florida. molly? >> caller: hi, jim. this is molly from melbourne. >> how are you? >> caller: hey, good to talk to you. >> i'm headed down there maybe in april. i've got a buddy near the sbi. what's up? >> caller: me too. t

in the early 2000s, irvin jacobs, probably been on the network from time to time and carl icahn, whogular on the network, butted heads where jacobs actually took out an article empl'e imploring people short sales. and it went from $4, rallied to $18. he wound up being right and then carl wound up winning in tend. >> happens a lot. >> always useful. >>> all right, coming up next, why america's shopping malls could be a dying breed. we go dead mall walking with one of the industry's most vocal skrit ickes. >>> first, surf's up. two areas you may want to bail out on. stay tuned. with the spark cash card from capital one, olaf gets great rewards for his small business! pizza! [ garth ] olaf's small business earns 2% cash back on every purchase, every day! helium delivery. put it on my spark card! [ pop! ] [ garth ] why settle for less? great businesses deserve great rewards! awesome!!! [ male announcer ] the spark business card from capital one. choose unlimited rewards with 2% cash back or double miles on every purchase, every day! what's in your wallet? what are you doing? nothing. are

i'll try and channel carl icahn. here's what i'd say.was the wrong stock to strap it on for a period of time. take your profits off. go away. all they've done is come out and confused share holders and consumers more. ron johnson has this picture up in every hedge fund office around the world because he delivered to them the most predictable investment case which was be short. do you think the other retailers will stand by while they go out and change the pricing? the company is done. go away. sorry, bill to bring up a bad day or fast money two days in a row. >> at some point those -- the 50% short interest has to be bought back. at some point they are going to see a rally. >> i agree. that's right. >> hopefully my kids aren't watching. >> it's been great knowing you and having you on the show. steve weis ladies and gentlemen. crude hitting a four-month high today. for more let's bring in mandy drury. >> hey there. you know, oil is currently breaking 97 bucks for the first time since september so how long before we hit 100 bucks a barrel

are moving up to -- well, they are moving up to break even right now as dow jones is reporting carl icahn is telling other investors he has taken a stake in herbalife. what is he making of this? >> don't put the "h" in herbal. >> what can i tell you, it's australian. >> another guy coming in to i believe bet against bill ackman rather than having done the fundamental analysis to see whether this is a company they want to earn over the long term. so much controversially. >> ackman could get his derriere handed to him here. >> and i think everyone may end up winning in this one. you watch. >> everyone wins. that's the new america. everyone's a winner. >> we're all special. >> thanks for watching "street signs," everybody. >> "closing bell" is next. >> hi, everybody. good afternoon. into the final stretch. welcome to the "closing bell." i'm maria bartiromo at the new york stock exchange. the dow's five-day winning streak looks to be in jeopardy, bill. >> watch that in the final hour. i'm bill griffith where you do pronounce the "h." dell dragging the dow lower and dreamliner grounding planes

carl icahn is acquiring a 1.56% stake in the operator of offshore rigs. ust over 5%. tax bite. >> tax bite all day on cnbc a special series that we're calling a tax bite. where did your money go? earlier this morning we talked to piper jaffray retail analyst about the impact of the higher payroll tax. >> what we get most concerned about would be at the lower income end of the spectrum where consumers live on more of a month-to-month budget. that's just less money for a lot of retailers that would cater to that income demographic. >> you're looking at retailers -- >> that would be the dollar stores. specifically like family dollar, dollar general, or dollar tree. >> joining us now howard levine, chairman and ceo of family dollar stores. you're sensitive to this type of stuff, howard. thanks for coming on today. in past periods like this, is there a pretty clear-cut cause and effect that we will see if people, if your customers get $15 less per week, that $15 cannot make its way into family dollar's coffers, can it? >> sure, joe. and good morning, everybody.

activist investor carl icahn increased stake in transocean, and a $4 per share dividend.y black rock, an 80 million dollar stake in twitter, val value. and amr are in final stages of negotiating a merger, here is a look at u.s. airways, stock at $15 bucks a share. wall street journal report for johnson & johnson looking to sell its feminine products business. that stock is dead flat. starbucks denied it it threatened to suspend in britain in control of tax affairs. no change for starbucks on that. disappointing outlook for joseph a bank perhaps because they give away so many suits, but the stock is down a whopping 14%. the dow holding on to a 6 point gain and holding at 13,900. key senators agree on a plan that would give 11 million illegal immigrants a path to citizenship, that is 11 million. can that plan legitimately be labeled a form of amnesty? and how will we pay for all of those extra people in medical care? the judge is next. (announcer) at scottrade, our clients trade and invest exactly how they want. with scottrade's online banking, i get one view of my bank and