so david gave $100 million to the hospital. and that was interpreted as coke the hospital for the purposes of firing the nurses nurses union. the so there was a big rally and all showedf important people up. the nurses said, the coke brothers have a plantation mentality, and antiunion to the core, harry belafonte called them white supremacists. then, let's see, letitia james, who was head of the wing antiunionht prove iteers like david coke be medaling with health care in new york city. all have to stand together brothers coming to new york city. >> but so far these aren't than the other $100 million -- >> the rally and what people said are facts. >> but you wanted to talk about the contribution that rich think is an which i interesting line of discussion. >> so let's just start with simple arithmetic. successfulou're a author and your income is tax at if you liver 50%, in california. death, will be another roughly 50% tax. so out of the dollar you originally made, you kept 25%. twenty-five cents. you gave 75% of your lifetime's work in the form of taxes. incl

fact democrats have as much as they would like to talk about the coke brothers, about charles and david cokemy goodness. they have a little coke envy. >> koch. >> of their own. somebody would make a foolish choice like mr. stier who by the way makes his money and rely -- >> he's a big democratic donor that will be there and he has $100 million to give them. >> he will give them $100 million if they do what he wants them to do. what he wants them to do is block the keystone pipeline that takes oil from the pipeline to the refineries. global w his cause celeb but his cause celeb apparently also is having his business interest served by, i'm sure he believes that his business interests are good for the planet, too, but those two interests seem too collide for him. so what the democrats are trying to do here is say, we've got our kochs too and we'll spend a lot of money and not lose the senate. >> harry reid was calling the koch brothers unamerican trying to buy the country and they will get together with the left version of the koch brothers and have a big wine party featuring selections from w

trials and david coke are not concerned with the long-term unemployed families, and republicans in the house of representatives are intent to do nothing for the long-term unemployed. people descended on the capitol to protest the widening gap between the rich and poor. under the ban all -- banner battle for the capitol, they called for a rise in the minimum wage. a new study confirms most of the job growth since the economic recession has been in low-wage jobs. the national law project reports there are nearly 2 million fewer jobs in mid-and higher wage industries in nearly 2 million more jobs in lower wage industries than before the recession. republican congressmember michael grimm has surrendered to federal authorities after being indicted for fraud. he is accused of concealing more than a million dollars in taxes and wages at his restaurant in new york city. the charges part of a wider probe into his campaign finances. he was caught on camera turning to throw a reporter off a balcony for questioning him about the investigation. city, a boat that activists intended to use to challen

me tell you why it is so important what is going on today with regard to campaign finance. 1980, david coke using this as am an important example, one of the brothers ran for vice president of the united states under the libertarian party. out of his own pocket, he ended up financing much of the campaign. you down aake road. you to understand this. i want you to understand what was in the 1980 libertarian platform that koch ran on in which he got one percent of the 1980, the views that he ran on were considered extremist, kooky, way out of the mainstream. today, the lyrical tragedy of the times is that those extremist ideas are now mainstream and the republican party. i want to give you some of them. from theve you quotes libertarian platform of the 1980 party that koch ran on. federalthe repeal of campaign-finance laws and the immediate abolition of the despotic federal election commission. do you understand what that means? do you understand that two weeks ago clarence thomas, in a that.on, said exactly that is where the republican is moving. in 2014 they want to and all restrictions on c

like political donors david and charles coke. most people are familiar with the brothers. spending millions of dollars to rig iraqi a system, and who does he help them and by every indication, our republican colleagues are falling all over themselveses to help advance their self-described radical process. >> divisions were also evidence in the supreme court justices written opinions. while delivering his dissent, from the bench, liberal leaning justice stephen brier said that the decision eviscerated our nation's campaign finance laws and where money calls the tune, the voices of the people will not be heard. wrung of is majority just as clarence thomas wrote, political speech is the primary object of first amendment protection and the life blood. a self-governing people. contributions to political campaigns no less than direct expenditures generate essential political speech by fosters discussion of public issues and candidate qualifications. the first ruling to lift expansions. since then there's been a rise in outside groups called super political committees or super pa

charles and david coke. ah, the koch brothers. they will hear you at the other side of town. they're entertaining some of their friends over at the other side of town i understand. i'm going to al qaeda a about them later but i want to mention to give you an idea. now, the koch brothers they're struggling. they want to be the wealth -- they want to be the wealthiest family. they haven't made it yet. but they are doing ok. under that terrible obama administration which is destroying all initiative and all wealth and which they hate with a passion their wealth went up from 68 to $80 billion. 12 billion increase in wealth in one year. she ther good friends, woulden ailed son who owns the largest casinos in the world mostly off the coast of china he is the eighth weltiest in the world. he is a poor cousin only worth 38 billion. but his wealth just last year went up by 11.5 billion. now, talk a little bit about wealth. what about income? income is what you made last year. in terms of income the last information we have covers the year 2009 to 2012. and during those years 95% of l

buffett had been hammered by a shareholder called david winters to oppose cokes plan to reward employeesith stock options. winters says it is too diluted, it was a raw deal for shareholders, and something buffet, as i mentioned, he has written about this. he called on buffet to speak out ahead of the vote today at the shareholders meeting, and he said he was surprised that the billionaire stayed quiet until now. earlier today at a charity luncheon in new york, buffett said he did in fact opposed this compensation plan and that he abstained from voting for it. >> i abstained, which is a vote of sorts. it is certainly the first time i have abstained at coca-cola i can remember. i voted enthusiastically for the director. i don't think you can have a better ceo. i thought the plan was excessive in that it talked about 500 million shares and using them up over four years. in my view, its excesses. i abstained. i could never vote against coca-cola. >> winters criticized buffett. buffett is a long time and biggest shareholder in coke. he was on the board for decades before his son howard joined

now activist shareholder david winters calling coca-cola ceos -- >> well, coke is finding itself in aual public fight with investor david winters over executive compensation. winters has sent a few letters to coke's board of directors, fellow shareholders, top investor warren buffett, urging them to vote against the 2014 equity plan saying it dilutes shareholders at the expense of excessive management pay. even though he says he likes the company, he's in it for the long haul, he owns 2.5 million shares. coke has fired back in a big way saying winters is misinformed, the math is all wrong. that nothing is different about this plan than previous plans, that it's based on the prmpbs and that it actually goes to more than 6,000 employees, not just upper management. now, yesterday winters questioned the joint role of ceo muhtar kent being joint chairman of the board as well because of conflict of interest when it comes to compensation. that's an idea the company rejects as well. the annual meeting is april 23rd. both sides ahead of that are dig digging in their heels. >> they certainly ar

back to you. >> the summer sizzle, thank you very much. >>> coca-cola is fighting back, coke investors davidery public campaign protesting coke's compensation plan. the equity plan is up for a vote at coke's annual meeting in less than three week. joining us for coke's first response gloria bowden the associate general counsel and corporate secretary for coca-cola, the head of corporate governance, thanks for joining us. >> thank you so much for having me here today. i appreciate it. >> david winters says that coke's plan is one of the most outrageous grabs of shareholder money in the history of commerce. why do you say he's wrong? >> well, i think there's been a lot of misconceptions out there about this plan and a lot of the numbers out there are really just plain wrong. and i think it's important to real listly step back and thinkt the reasons we have this plan. we've been granting equity awards to you our employees for years at the coca-cola company and this plan does nothing to change the equity practices that we've had in the past. you know, a plan is just a vehicle. it's just a way to

one coke shareholder, david winters of wintergreen has raised a very public campaign in the last feweeks in letters to shareholders, the board and warren buffett, to vote against this equity plan. winter said it's a raw deal for investors, dilutes the values of their shares. coke has been very vocal as well, disputing winters' math say it's more like 1% and completely in line with coke's history. so the managers only get paid if investors get rewarded. winters only owns about less than 1% of the stock. the question will be will the other big shareholders side with him and vote against this plan? warren buffett, of course, the biggest shareholders of coca-cola. no word from him leading up to this meeting on the coke equity plan. we'll expect the preliminary results around 2:00 p.m. in the hour of "street signs" and then talking to warren buffett. there's a lot more to come on cokehead lines, but to keep it all in perspective, the backdrop to consider here, look at coke shares versus the s&p in the last five years, muhtar was paid about down about 33% from 30 million in 2012. the stock

coke equity plan. we'll hear from warren buffett but first david winters says we're please with the result of the vote.clear that there's a substantial number of shareholders who did have concerns with the plan. >> a brave face. >> and he slams warren buffett and says we're surprise that had warren buffett had the opportunity to take a stand against successive management compensation and failed to seize it. >> i don't know if i would call that a slam on warren. i mean, he was saying he was surprised. >> look. he had written a number of letters. >> as you know, he's a rational guy. >> and a shareholder of berkshire hathaway besides coca-cola. made very personal appeals to warren buffett saying you like to take stands against excessive management comp and now he's saying -- >> the dow up 12% in the past 12 months. coca-cola down 4%. >> underperformance is a big theme. >> by the way, still waiting on that guy, warren buffett. >> that guy, warren buffett. >> still coming up here first on cnbc. don't go anywhere. expect him out of his lunch any moment now. stick around. e financial noise financial noise fin

coke. he travels all over the world to try and promote the brand. isn't that worth something, david? we think muttar kent is a personable guy, he's a great ambassador for coca-cola. there's a question of which, when you have 16.6% dilution, it's excessive. and ceos should be well paid. everybody who does a good job should be well paid. at some point when it comes out of shareholders' pockets it reduces the return, and the problem with the coke plan is then it has the potential to spread throughout america, and it will reduce returns for all investors. liz: speaking -- >> we're concerned about this. liz: speaking of concerns, wintergreen fund actually beats the emerging market benchmark over five years, over one year, you do manage to pick winners here, consistently. let's get people your two new picks today. you like galaxy entertainment and genting? >> it is based in kuala lumpur, run by a family very shareholder oriented, give or take 40% of net worth in the stock, and they've managed to grow from a small company to a large global company. liz: what do they do? >> tremendous respec

david winters, a long-time value investor, is criticizing coke's 2014 equity plan which outlines stocks and options awarded to employees over the next few years. he says it's overly generous at the expense of shareholders because it dilutes the value of their shares by 14 to 16%. >> when you look at it realistically, there's an awful lot of money being transferred from the shareholders' pockets to management of the company that's not growing very fast. it's just not right. we think it's wrong. >> reporter: winters who owns 2.5 million shares of coke's stock has sent letters to coke's board and to fellow investors including warren buffett, coke's top shareholder, urging them to vote against the plan. but coke is fighting back, saying winters is misinformed and his math simply does not add up. >> a lot of these awards are very dependent on stock price. and investors really like that. because management doesn't get paid unless the company performs. and unless our invests get an additional return on theirs. >> reporter: the ceo saw his total compensation drop more than 30% last year because

ahead of that activist shareholder, david winters has been reaching out to coke's largest shareholder, warren buffett. he sent him a second letter urging buffett and berkshire hathaway to oppose the equities plan. he says that this is a situation where he really wants warren buffett to stand up and take his side on this. >> no way. this is a guy like 100 shares. >> david winters is a long-term investor. >> he has no money in it. he has $90 million in it. >> he's been a long-time investor. >> it's like 100 shares compared to what buffett has. this is $90 million on a $160 billion company. 90 million. >> he raises fair points about what warren buffett has said in the past about executive pay. he quotes from some of his own annual shareholders. >> on wednesday, we'll be speaking, tomorrow, with warren buffett. he'll be joining us after he dines with the winner of the annual glide foundation auction, the lunch that was auctioned off. the winning bid was $1.1 million. it goes to provide services to the poor and homeless throughout san francisco through the glide foundation. we'll be talkin

. >> david, what is your prescription for coke and dr pepper and the undo?nasty, back in high school. >> it is a tough thing. i think whenever you are in the market were consumer behavior is changing, like it is in soft drinks, from a marketing perspective i know they are saying -- i think they have a media spend of about 4 billion today -- it might make a difference in the short term. >> do the ads on football games and still work versus the more creative stuff of social media? >> absolutely. i think certainly the digital media world is the fastest-growing media world out there today and will likely surpass network television. >> what is interesting is we are focusing very much on north america and this is also very much in emerging markets story. it only gets about one percent of its volume from north america -- 21% of its volume from north america. mexico in particular, a soda tax, which would implement a sugar cap, which could hurt. the broader picture, not just fighting obesity in the u.s.. >> here is my thing, david. how are you in an age where we all

. >> i'm hearing from david winters, value investor in coca cola that raised a very public campaign against coke'sapproved yesterday at the shareholder meeting. warren buffett saying he did not agree with it. he abstained from the vote. now david winters is saying coca cola's plan failed to attract support from a majority of shareholders including its largest shareholder berkshire hathaway. wintergreen believes no company should implement an equity plan without the support of a majority of its shareholders, least of all a great company like coca cola. he wants coca cola's board of directors to withdraw or scale back the current plan. remember, he said it was a raw deal for shareholders. it dilutes their value by as much as 14% to 16%. shareholders did overwhelmingly vote in favor of this plan. then we learned warren buffett whose berkshire hathaway owns 9% of the votes. he said 66% of outstanding shareholders actually approve the plan. >> this story has legs on it. thank you very much. we'll be hearing more from you. >>> let's hear from daum now with a market flash. >> a company that raises its di

of course there's also that battle, of course, between coke management and shareholder david winters d the fairness of coke's stock compensation plan and whether it dilutes the ownership of current shareholders. muhtar kent was on "squawk box" this morning and responded to the questions. >> the dilution is much closer to 1% levels than the 14, 15, 16% numbers that are floated out there. and our new equity program that we have proposed to our share owners in this coming month in april is completely in line with previous equity programs that we have actually implemented in the company. again, i wish he would have called me and i've known david and respect him as a share owner all along. >> now winters has sent another letter out to coca-cola's 25 biggest shareholders including warren buffet to ask them to review the stock compensation plan before voting at the company's annual shareholder meeting which by the way takes place on april 23rd. kayla, back over to you. >> shareholder season heating up. thank you for that. coke obviously one to watch there. still ahead, today the last day you

this story for a long time and it has been sort of dramatic, much more than usual, because coke shareholder davidnvestor raised a public loud debate on management compensation. he really started this call back in march urging shareholders through a number of letters, interviews here on cnbc, to vote against the equity plan saying it's dial dil looted for shareholders by 14 to 16%. he only owns about 2.5 million shares for coca-cola, less than 1%, we know that other small shareholders have sided with him but, of course, the biggies and big one is warren buffet, total swing factor here. coke's largest shareholder. winters has appealed to him directly saying we don't believe it would be consistent with berkshire's long engrained culture to support such a plan at any of your equity holdings. he wrote that in a letter to warren buffet filed it with the sec. buffet has been silent on the issue. his son howard is on the board. warren buffet himself used to be on the board. but coke itself has been very vocal, defending itself firing back saying winters is wrong, his math does not add up. the shareholder

just looking at coke shares, pretty much unchanged from the latest between david winters and coca cola. back to you guys. >>> that does it for us. >> that's right. "street signs" begins right now. >>> what is the value of a millisecond? it is the question that has lit up wall street and main street and it is the question that brian and i try to answer today. indeed, it is a day where the s&p is making new record highs. hello, everybody. welcome to "street signs." >> thanks very much. it's been about 24 hours now since that epic debate on cnbc but it is still resonating around the financial markets. cnbc.com, twitter, reddit, even pigeons are talking about it, all exploding over the debate and the conversation. both sides still swinging on their view of the practice. let's bring in bob pisani, who was part of that debate slash brawl yesterday. also jeff killburg, who says high frequency trading should be banned and keith ross from pdq enterprises, who argues that hft is good for the market. keith, first to you. make the case for hft because it is taking it on the chin in the last 24 hou

just looking at coke shares, pretty much unchanged from the latest between david winters and coca colack to you guys. >>> that does it for us. >> that's right. "street signs" begins right now. >>> what is the value of a millisecond? it is the question that has lit up wall street and main street and it is the question that brian and i try to answer today. indeed, it is a day where the s&p is making new record highs. hello, everybody. welcome to "street signs." >> thanks very much. it's been about 24 hours now since that epic

coke completely disputes his math, calls it misinformed, says it does not reflect the facts that he's overstating the delieu tiff impact of the plan. where this goes from here, davidn shares of coke. it's less than a percent. he says he's in it for the long haul but certainly not backing down from this fight on executive comp. in fact, escalating it here, kelly, ahead of the meeting. >> yes, he certainly is, sara. thanks very much. want to mention david winters will be here on "the closing bell" tomorrow at 3:00 p.m. we want to talk to him about all of this. can i get a quick thought from the panel? it's been a tough week for coca-cola for a number of reasons. there's this news about diet coke potentially having unwelcome health side effects. pepsi shares roughly flat. coca-cola is down 7%. what do you do with beverage companies? >> i go for the company that's outperformed. i wouldn't be in coke right now but i bet steph is probably in this group. i'm not in the group. but if were to play it, i wouldn't play it through coke. >> we're not involved in it but i think at 37, 38 and the fact that it's lagged for such a long period of time something has got to give. i t

. >> david, only natural crunchy peanut butter and grape jelly. i eat onant and a banana. >> jack and cokeanut butter and jelly with bacon purchase everything better with bacon. i think so so. we're back tomorrow, hope you are, too. gretchen carlson starts now on "the real story." >> thanks, guys. we start with fox news alert. fireworks on capitol hill as the man in charge of the cia at the time of the benghazi attack talks now, what really happened that night. hi, everyone. i'm gretchen carlson, welcome to "the real story" today. member of the house intelligence committee grilling former acting cia director mike morell about his role crafting talking points and allegations he caved to political pressure towed it them. bret baier is the host of special report and my guest. fatnating. co

on wednesday, coke said 83% of shareholders approved a plan. critics, including activist investor david winters said it would dilute current shareholders too much. buffett says he didn't want to vote against the plan because he didn't want to show that. >> i even muttered a yes on mergers i didn't think made any sense. it happens. >> berkshire hathaway is coke's largest shareholder with a 9% stake. buffett says he has no intention of selling any shares. as for the role of activist investors, buffett says they're getting stronger. >> the ceos are terrified of activists, i can tell you that. they're all talking to investment bankers and lawyers, saying what do we do about this. >> who is in the right or is it tough to paint all activist investors with one brush? >> they're companies where management has not done a good job. i'm not referring to anything specific here. certainly if people want to step up and buy stock in a company, it's hard to argue with their right to do that. >> asked if he agreed with david einhorn's of a possible secretary tech bubble, buffett said he doesn't always u

coke facing investor criticism on its executive compensation from david winters who is alleging shareholderss being diluted too much and he's calling for the chairman and ceo roles to be split. coke came on cnbc to defend itself -- >> the real dilution over the last three years has been less than 1% a year and we expect it to be in that range going forward. this plan actually is very much in line with the plans that we have put forward to share owners in the past and that have share owner approval. >> well, that didn't apiece mr. winters who also came on cnbc to respond. have a listen -- >> now, the buyback program has been hijacked by the company. it was originally put in place to benefit all shareholders. there's an awful lot of money being transferred from the shareholders' pockets to management of a company that's not growing very fast. it's just not right. we think it's wrong. >> as you can see both sides really digging in their heels. a war of words really playing out in the spotlight. both coming on cnbc to voice their opinions ahead of the april 23rd annual meetings where shareholder

in a few minutes, coke will begin its shareholders meeting, and it will be more dramatic than usual. davidters has raised a debate on compensation, urging shareholders to vote against equity plans, saying it will dilute share shoulders. winters has other small shareholders like ontarios teachers plan on his side. the big swing factor is warren buffett, coke's largest shareholder, and winters has appealed directly to him. so far, he's been silent on the issue. what does buffett have to say about all of this? cnbc's becky quick will be speaking with him after the meeting on "street signs." don't miss it. scott? >> we'll be looking forward to that for sure, seema. anthony, who knows how buffett -- i would assume he'll vote for management. >> what i do notice about coke, it goes through a two, three-year secular trend where it's not growing as fast as people expect. this is the issue with the diet soda cans and the shrinkage on the carbonated beverages. here's the prediction long term. they get things right. if you own the stock, stay in it. look for another dividend increase, which they've cl

coke use. >> in early 2009, another lead raised the kesses' hope. >> has information about the disappearance. >> davide a florida prison that he knew what had happened to jennifer. >> drew kesse himself went to that prison and asked to speak with david ross. drew sat down and said, what do you know about my daughter? and drew kesse knew within the first ten minutes of that meeting that this guy did not know anything. >> i can't imagine what that must be like for her parent, brother, her family, her friends to get those little peeks of hope and then to have that hope dashed again. >> the part where drew and joyce and logan vic victimized by people who see the story and see it as an opportunity to in their sick and perverted ways, you know, bring false hopes to the kesses or try to take advantage of them, those things just -- they're repulsive. >> i think that in this day and age, anything is possible. orlando is an extremely transient place. people come and go. human trafficking is a huge moneymaker and in our country. >> at the time of jennifer's diggs appearance the state of florida had one of the hi

david winters pointed it out? >> i -- i read the full details actually after -- after that. i just hadn't read the material yet, but in 2002 cokelan that involved 240 million shares. that lasted six years. they had a plan in 2008, six years later, that was 280 million shares, and that lasted six years, and then this plan when i read about it was for 500 million shares which they would equate to 340 million, but still 340 or 500 and they were going to use, it they said, in four years, and that really struck me as quite excessive, so i -- i didn't actually read that when winters wrote the letter, but i would have felt the same way. >> this is a situation now though that the company, again, had 83% of the votes that were cast voting in favor of it. what do you think they will do now? >> well, i -- i don't know the answer to that. they have the stock authorized. they said in the report that they expected it to last four years. i hope it lasts a lot longer than that because i think that that would be excessive to issue that number of shares or options or performance shares or eke lengt -- shares or equivalents. >> you'd be okay with

and david koch filled rows reached a new personal milestone according to the bloomberg billionaires index they now have a total. worth of over one hundred billion dollars that means that the cokes are counted as a single person they would be the single richest person in the entire world they're winning the game of monopoly it also means that they controlled two million times the amount of wealth that the average american takes home every year that of course raises the question just what exactly do the koch's do with all that money well for one they spend a lot of and try to help republicans win elections bag rupe americans for prosperity for example has already spent twenty two million dollars in television ads this election cycle outpacing all of their republican groups come by the fact that super rich tycoons like the cokes have such a huge role in our political system would have terrified our most famous founding father thomas jefferson he laid out his thoughts about the dangerous role of money in politics in an eight hundred sixteen letter to samuel kercheval noting that those seeking profits were they given total freedom would not be the ones to trust to keep government pu