let's talk a little about cisco. they've done a deal apparently $5 billion to buy a video software company called nbs. there's been a conference call. what can you tell us about that? and what do they intend to do with nbs? >> tyler, ahead of that conference call i got on the phone with a couple cisco executives and asked a few pointed questions about what exactly this acquisition is about. they're buying it for $5 billion, has about 5300 employees mostly based in london. gross margin about 82%. that's good for cisco, but growth under 10% year over year. so questions about the multiple. what they tell me is they expect they're going to be able to grow nbs's share of wallet because had been focused on a few customers mostly satellite providers. they think they can expand that way. and cisco believes they can sell more of their equipment into those people who already rely on nds technology. two opportunities for growth there. that's what they believe will justify the multiple. >> jon, thank you very much. >> so jpmorga

. >>> cisco bets on video. they plunk down $5 billion. is the acquisition too expensive to make sense. >>> china hard landing. sit already a reality? >> da >>> daring to short apple. >>> and blankfein versus dimon. who is winning? >>> welcome to fast money halftime report. treasuries look like they're breaking down. china is on the skids. questions linger about how europe will lay out. a perfect day to welcome john taylor. he has more than 40 years of experience in the foreign exchange markets. let's get thoughts from you, broadly. welcome to the show. great to have you. on the environment we're currently in. what we have seen lately on the dollar and coming on the heels of the agreement in greece. >> an awful lot has gone on. and in many way, nothing has chan changed. we're still in kind of the same spot we're in. europe is looking weak. the united states is looking stronger. we're worried about china. >> let me get your take on the short dollar. it's been a painful month. where do you see this playing out? how long will be on this trend

>> almost $40 billion. $40 billion. >> cisco has $40 billion trapped over there somewhere?yes. >> the total amount of money u.s. companies have trapped overseas is $1.2 trillion. chambers is advocating for a one-time tax break to allow them to bring that money home at a rate of, say, 5%. he says that would stimulate the economy and create jobs. >> what is your downside for money that isn't gonna come back anyhow? i'd say your downside is zero. >> but the obama administration has opposed this in the past. when it was tried in 2005, the treasury did rake in billions of dollars, though very few jobs were created. but what if tomorrow congress passed a quickie law, and the tax rate was 20%? would that solve everything? >> i think it is the most important ingredient that we have to think about being competitive. >> you lower the rate from 35% to 20%. you lose something like $2 trillion in taxes. >> okay. >> we have a horrible deficit crisis, debt crisis. that's almost too much money to lose. what's your answer to that? >> my answer's very simply every other developed country in

shares of news corp rose 15 cents to close at 20.43, while cisco lost 29 cents. it's the biggest deal for cisco in two years, and a reflection of its focus on video. in other big deals, general electric is taking a 30% stake in howard energy partners. howard is a natural gas pipeline operator in the booming eagle ford shale fields of south texas. the price tag was not disclosed, but the deal is expected to close next month. other investors include crosstex energy and quanta services. each saw modest gains, while g.e. rose nearly 2%. turning now to the busy i.p.o. market, cloud-computer company demandware got off to a celestial start. demandware, ticker symbol d-w-r-e, surged nearly 50% today. it offered more than five million shares at a starting price of $16 apiece. demandware is the fifth cloud- based software firm to go public in the last few months. ma-com technology solutions, ticker symbol m-t-s-i, also went public today. the company makes semiconductors used in automotive navigation systems. the shares gained a more modest 8% from the i.p.o. price of $19.

your name, cisco not a buyer of cisco here. >>> let's go to crystal in mississippi.ple call from everywhere. crystal. >> caller: booyah, jim, from mississippi. >> ole miss. speak to me. >> caller: the ibm stock. >> oh, ibm, a great faulkner novel. buy, buy, buy. charitable trust owns it, inexpensive, and i think it's a -- two solid buys here. and that, ladies and gentlemen, is the conclusion of the lightning round. >> jimmy, how you doing? >> i've been taking a lot of items here. go ahead. >> actual on air eating of items. i have the same salad every day for seven years. and i have never, ever, ever, going to deviate from that again. there's a monster in any belly. i had over 60 items today. i need pepto business mali bism. >> if it was a pot roast it would be done. >> no better time to look at men's warehouse, then i got to hang out with "mad men," an actor people are constantly confusing me with. now, that guy is a tremendous dresser. the 5:00 shadow thing at 9:30 a.m., hard to fathom. i'm a little speechless. don't look like don draper? the best markets are like a

this takes out all of the real estate of sandford cisco, so supervisor wiener -- of san francisco, so supervisor winner has been in discussion, and we are working with the state legislative committee and state lobbyists to try to affect some change, because this would have a tremendous impact on the program and we have worked so hard to create, and it is a model designed for our rural and suburban environment, so right now in our permanent program, no food trucks are allowed in the 1500's were a foot radius -- 1500 square foot radius of the public high school monday through friday, and that has been too restrictive, so supervisor winner has introduced legislation to scale down a dark and one city block -- supervisor wiener has introduced legislation to scale the track in one block, so i will keep you apprised as we make sure we know the direction. it is either the san francisco is exempt or that there are municipalities but have a robust program are exempt, but the preference is the and we have san francisco exempt from this state legislation because we are a unique urban environment

. >>> also busy on wall street trading underway with apple and cisco in the spotlight.ge straight ahead. right now the dow is down 12 points. >>> a strange send off the bizarre final public act of a politician who is now headed for prison >> what will it take to get you to stop? the new shock tactic meant to convince you to stop smoking.úúú >>> welcome back. california forecast look at all the valley rain and mountain snow from 80 north mainly where going to stay today. 74 and sun fresno 83 palm springs mid 60s l.a. and san diego. gettinging to the sierra easy this morning no chains required -- tonight through saturday morning several feet of snow down to 5,000 feet. >>> new fallout this morning. taliban says it is suspending talks with the u.s. because the u.s. is changing the terms of negotiations. a taliban spokesman says they want to discuss prisoner transfers and a political party not the afghan government. defense secretary panetta held talks with president karzai, lawmakers are angry the u.s. has flown an american soldier accused of killing 16 civilians to kuwait

i always loved sanford cisco in college, and i just wanted to try it out. i started working in economic development policy. i was a community organizer for six years. i worked with young people, parents, and families around issues that concern our neighborhoods, whether it was improving muni lines, affordable housing, public schools, or just planning issues in neighborhoods. we just had a hearing last week, and we are trying to do some work around bedbug enforcement, which is a major issue in the tenderloin and of hill and 63. a hearing will actually be on thursday, april 7, 10:30. we're doing our first hearing on pedestrian safety. i think public safety is a huge concern. it ranges from both low-level crimes to pedestrian safety, and so that is a really important issue to me. we are probably more than double what every other district has. and that are preventable. and we can do better. district 6 is one -- home to one of the most diverse constituencies. we have the poorest residents in san francisco. we have lgbt. we have immigrants, people of color, youth

cisco has always been aggressive on m & a, but never with the huge deals.ut $5 bill chron in this market, for one where we have seen so little is very significant. >> it helps them with the service provider business, something that juniper was hoping to take away from them. >> juniper remains the redheaded stepchild. >> how relevant do you think cisco is to tech? >> i was looking at the amount of cash they have, you know, you're talking about cisco having $40 billion some in cash. this business that they're servicing the service providers, i think people underestimate how difficult it is. you know, when you're trying to provide verizon with material and at&t, they beat the heck out of you, because they are oil gop lists, but i believe very strongly that's a tough business to make money in. >> does this fuel enthusiasm for you? >> if you're selling into china and india, maybe that's a good growth market. i don't know how many people in western china, how many people even have tv yet. obviously -- that's a joke, they don't have 248 trillion. that's the amount

my head is spinning around like reagan and there's green vomit spewing around cisco. paul in new york. >> caller: booyah to you. >> did you know booyah is from a czech cookbook? >> caller: we'll have to try that, as long as there's tasty cakes in there. >> tasty cakes and pies. send me some crimpets. >> caller: and we'll do it during a philadelphia phillies ball game. jim, i'm noticing the march madness going on and i'm looking at my picks for the elite eight and it looks like every one of those teams will be wearing nike uniforms and nike shoes. so the question is this -- about eight months ago you said nike might be turning into a cyclical stock. i just wanted to know did you change your position on that or are you holding firm? >> i think there's a lot of secular growth in nike and also cyclical. we have the olympics. you do get a cyclical up swing. let's just put it this way. they're in both worlds and both worlds are good, the cyclical and the secular. that's why nike is going higher. it's the best growth stock on my radar screen other than starbucks, whole foods

cisco. and waiting in line. don't have to leave my desk and get up and go to the post office anymore. [ male announcer ] with stamps.com, you can print real u.s. postage for all your letters and packages. it gives you the exact amount of postage you need the instant you need it. can you print only stamps? no. first class. priority mail. certified. international. and the mailman picks it up. i don't leave the shop anymore. [ male announcer ] get a 4-week trial plus $100 in extras including postage and a digital scale. go to stamps.com/tv and never go to the post office again. >>> we're laerp -- learning more about the soldier accused of shooting citizens in afghanistan. an official says robert bales snuck off his remote outpost twice during the alleged rampage in two villages. his attorney is suggesting post traumatic stress disorder may be a factor. but he won't go for the insanity defense. i wanted to talk to someone not only a four star general, but dedicated his life to better understanding the stresses of fi

another tech stock under pressure, that's cisco. the company announcing plans to buy nds group in a $5 billion deal. cisco continues to make a strong push into the world of video services. more on today's movers in just a moment. >> meantime, we had conflicting reports out today of a release from the strategic petroleum reserve. that sent oil into a frenzy, especially brent north sea crude. the news suggested attempts are being made right now to put a lid on the high fuel prices that we've been seeing lately. we'll deal with that in today's "closing bell" exchange and get to the bottom of it and what it means for the stocks and the economy. bob pisani is at the big board, and sharon epperson at the nymex. clear this up, sharon. it seemed to me it was a matter of semantics whether there was an actual agreement or just sort of a wink and a nod about whether or not there would be a coordinated effort to release new oil to the markets. >> all you needed was to hear that there might be a release of emergency oil reserves and more supply

. >> caller: cisco, is that a buy or hold or sell? what do you think is going on there? >> i'm confused myself. i said, look, i got to tell you, i need some focus. then i was talking to deborah borger, doing a video at thestreet.com and i said i don't know what they're doing, cisco. they're just spending money. my head is spinning around like reagan and there's green vomit spewing around cisco. >> caller: booyah to you. >> did you know booyah is from a czech cookbook? >> caller: we'll have to try that, as long as there's tasty cakes in there. >> tasty cakes cakes and pies. send me some crimpets. >> caller: and we'll do it during a new york-philadelphia ball game. jim, i'm noticing the march madness going on and i'm looking at my picks for the elite eight and it looks like every one of those team will be wearing nike uniforms and nike shoes. so the question is this: about eight months ago you said nike might be turning into a cyclical stock. i just wanted to know did you change your position on that or are you holding firm? >> i think there's a lot of secular growth in ni

let's talk about cisco with the $5 billion purchase and the video software. with shareholders. senior technology analyst with stern, forgive me, but let's tie up the apple conversation. >> let's talk to someone who really know what is they are talking about. bernstein raises the price target and piper is at 7:18. the high conviction list at deutsch bank. stock hits 600. at what point do you become less bullish? given the continual increase in the shares. >> the stock his a huge move and it's vertical. i think the thing to look at after product cycles, what was mentioned earlier. you have to keep on coming up with products. it's obviously ipad and the new ipad or ipad 3. we think in the fall time frame, there will be a new iphone. this stock as much as it's run, we will likely continue to work. >> at what does it have to reach where you take it and say it's getting expensive for my taste? >> i think -- >> what's the number. >> it's hard to say. the reason why it's hard is the numbers keep on moving higher. the street can under estimate the earnings potential o

we applaud approximately 35 employees in san but cisco. i never was in front of this commission, and the reason i'm here is to support mario west. i have known him for many years, and from a business perspective, i know that he is a very knowledgeable person. san francisco small business is a complex matter. to do business in san francisco, a person should know legal and taxation peril aspects and operational aspects, and i want to assure that mario is the one who knows the business in san francisco better than anybody else. i mastered in business administration. i met mario, and he explained to me many things. before this, we were talking about pro bono, the lawyers should spend time. mario has done hundreds of hours doing pro bono work. i would say that tomorrow would be a member, this would be the right choice, and we are all lucky that he would decide to spend his time choosing this commission. supervisor kim: i just wanted to recognize the supervisor christina olague has joined us. >> good afternoon, supervisors. good afternoon, chris

sanford cisco's policy goes beyond it. bill exempts any positions that require background checks, so it does not apply to public safety positions. it already has broad support, labor, interfaith, civil rights. to concerned citizens have all submitted letters of support. we have about 50 organizational letters of support right now, but san francisco support is going to be key, so we urge your support for the resolution. thank you. >> good afternoon. i am policy director of legal services for prisoners with children, which is up the street here. i am also here to talk about ab 1831, the bill that would ban the box on a local and county employment. we have been seeing, as you all know, an upsurge in unemployment and desperation from some many people really want to work, and this bill is a small attempt at trying to really create more of an even playing field for everyone, all californians who want to be working. oakland has already signed and passed a similar -- whatever it is you are doing resolution to support this bill, an

>> tom: from google to cisco to apple, big u.s. companies have billions in profits stashed overseas. would a tax holiday be a boon for the u.s. economy? history says probably not. >> companies used most of it to basically pay dividends and buy back stocks. >> susie: then, worries that china's red hot economy is cooling down set a sour tone for trading here in the u.s. it's "nightly business report" for tuesday, march 20. this is "nightly business report" with susie gharib and tom hudson. "nightly business report" is made possible by: captioning sponsored by wpbt >> tom: good evening and thanks for joining us. china was the talk of wall street today. investors sold stocks, worrying the world's second largest economy could be slowing down, susie. >> susie: tom, a slowdown in china has been an ongoing concern, but today, there were two fresh reasons for the jitters. china raised prices for gasoline and diesel fuel by as much as 7%, the second price hike in less than six weeks. also, the c.e.o. of bhp billiton, the world's largest mini

cisco making a huge by spending $5 billion alan and it is really technology company called and ds. that makes software that helps deliver media content to set top box businesses. cisco had been rumored to be selling its scientific atlanta set top box business that is clearly not the case the whole area is just right for advancement but intel is saying they're looking at getting into the set top box business as well. the market is pretty flat as we saw yesterday at the big gains earlier this week the dow was lower by 14 points and the nasdaq is up by two of the s&p down to a fraction and cisco shares down about 1 1/4% that is typical of the company writes a big check like that but see you. >>> is a stanford and an accounting and says he has been injured by his iphone. travis dickson says he was playing the game on the device the phones started to get hot and it blew up in his hand. he cleaned his hand is presented last summer the movement in his fingers. cupertino based apple says it is trying to figure out exactly what went wrong. find out what is happening later this morning. in w

i stand before you today just over a year in office, saying that 7 cisco's economic recovery is under way, and after years of deepening unemployment for families, we are turning deployment -- turning the corner. my message to our neighborhoods and our constituents is this -- the economic policies and strategies that we have been pursuing an working on have been putting us back on track, but we also must stay that course. and though our revenues have surged from our economic growth, we must not be tempted to go back to spending habits and spending sprees that delay the hard choices that we continue to want to make and that we have been accustomed -- and we have got to make the hard choices that we have been accustomed to making the past few years. i think my hardest job for the next few months is going to be making sure that we do not return to those spending habits, and that we make short-term choices that get us -- and that we do not make short-term choices that get us into more trouble than we have experienced in the past. we have, for example, in our economy a requirement now by la

in april 1961, the city of seven cisco formally and stated a committee under the office of the mayor to become the preeminent cultural and economic [inaudible] between san francisco and manila, developing a system that promote closer ties between the cities. this year, the san francisco manila sister city committee represents -- celebrates its 50 year, marking five decades of service to our people. the san francisco bay area filipino american community salutes this milestone, a legacy of goodwill and true filipino american pride. >> representing the san francisco manila sister city committee, are defective chairman -- our de facto chairman. [applause] >> if i may, i'd like to call up some very key members of the committee. i cannot call all 100-plus people up here, but some very key members. first filipino elected in san francisco, who has been with the sister city committee from day one, and partners in making sure that the cultural links have to do with education. nancy and dan harrington, please join us here. they have sent 13 million books to impoverished children over the years.

representatives from cisco, boeing, and a microsoft. over on c-span3, coverage of the education alliance. there will talk about ways to increase high school graduation rates and prepare young people for college in the work force. live coverage begins at 8:00 a.m. eastern. in march, 1979, c-span began televising the u.s. house of representatives nationwide. today, are content of its politics, public affairs, nonfiction books, and history is available on tv, radio, and online. >> we have headed by some we do not do what i do today and come in with a plain old white shirt and a summertime. heaven forbid. i did not know if my colleagues feel this would be better to corn for the senate. and i see the distinguished senator nodding, no. perhaps the people of all i will make a judgment on what they want to see the entire in the united states senate. mr. president, these are just a few of our concerns here in the senate. i am sure that none of us will do one thing differently in the senate of the united states now that we are on television. than

, ladies and gentlemen, please welcome our host, the 43rd mayor of the city and county of san been ciscohonorable edwin m. lee -- the 43rd mayor of the city and county of san francisco. [applause] mayor lee: wow, welcome to city hall. and thank you, beach blanket babylon. what a wonderful performance. let's give her another hand. that was just fantastic. when i started being mayor of the city, i turned to our protocol officer and said, "you know, charlotte, we are going to do a lot of work this year, but these years forthcoming, as we work hard, i want to also have fun. isn't this fun? all right. [applause] this is our 50th anniversary of the wonderful song, "i left my heart in san francisco." tony, it is wonderful for you to be here and grace us and honor us with your presence. your 17 grammys are just so unprecedented. you just won two more this past week, and what a wonderful career. congratulations, tony. i want to thank our school of the arts. i want to thank our boys and girls choruses. thank you. wonderful performances. it is a fitting tribute that our boys and girls choruses and

i thought i would focus my remarks not just on behalf of cisco, but the u.s. technology industry and talk about what we have been thinking about in the wto as the doha development agenda has foundered. we spent quite a bit of time talking about expanding the scope of our current agreement which has been very successful for our sector. you will hear my colleague talk in the next panel about services and cross border trade and flows and the trade facilitation, so i will save the best for them in that area but it's definitely a priority. seeinglso interested in other countries to join that wto like russia as well as joined other agreements like the government procurement agreement. enforcement of the existing commence, the industry just went through enforcement and we think there is value in the dispute settlement process these because there are existing commands that are good and we would like to see the government to keep their markets open and abide by them. it i thought i would spend the bulk of the time talking about i.t. a expansion says that is where the t

without any further ado, the mayor of san for cisco, -- san francisco, edwin lee. >> i had a chance to preview this as well. the one that touches me is, i am a san francisco police officer. i am there for you and i will help you. it will get better. those are the ones that stand out. masterfully placed in this video by some of those who just started appreciating and led by the chief and commander, having the officers really unveil their own personal stories. it is, for me, a moment of being proud of our department and everybody in it. it is hard for people to come out and say where they have been. but this police department, with this video, how it is put together, is now joining a worldwide campaign. a campaign that we have been forced to acknowledge. it has to be done because of the numbers of stories that we have heard across the country. in cities like ours. bullying, harassment, discrimination have caused young teenagers to consider the worst of life at their age. that isolation and loneliness that accompanies that, the have not been heard by adults and people and had not seen par

highway 12 due to flooding if you are head together sierra you will need chains on i-tate between cisco truckee and highway 50 from twin bridges to meyer. i-80 looking good now as you head through berkeley westbound to the bay bridge toll delay-free. no major problems on 280 in san jose, highway 17 out of santa cruz mountains. >>> 5:11. >>> smoothing out the bum many s in the road san jose takes action to repair hundreds of miles of road. there's just one hitch. >>> private groups step in to do what sacramento can't. how state parks will benefit. >>> the tide may be slowly turning in the battle against a wildfire in colorado. >> closed captioning brought to you by mancini sleepworld. >>> ben bernanke tells abc news the economy is doing better but he's still worried bun employment and housing market and says the recovery needs a few more years. congress approves start-up investment bill president obama is expected to sign it was backed by the high-tech industry and includes safeguards against online scams. annual cost of laughing index is climbing the cost of rubber chickens up 8%, sitco