if that happens, a dell levered up is not dell now. >> a dell levered up is a higher price earnings ratio and substantially higher price earnings growth to the average investors looking say being with look what we did, we were able to grow, using financial leverage maybe. an enormous amount of growth. >> good time for know have my dell juke box. >> right. i think michael dell is probably you know, obviously invested in the company both financially but also emotionally. and -- >> you're right. he is a good salesman. >> david, very quickly, i think you're still there. >> yes. >> a buy rating already. but do you recommend client sit on the said side lines with this deadline with dell. >> i would wait for more clarification out there. this is a typical reaction out of the market. we have been seeing dell an h h hewlett-packard on the upside. huge deal, one bloomberg reporter. all speculation right now. doesn't feel like a there is a tre mend oo tremendous amount of teeth on it. i will probably be on the side lines. >> what i should also say that hp, already higher today on upgrade and support

dan, what's your take on this dell story?, i think it's something that's been talked about for awhile. you can go back to actually 2010 in june and michael was at a conference and somebody asked him do you ever think about taking your company private? and the answer was yes. there's been this talk for a long time. was one of the ten worst performing stocks in the s&p last year. it was one of the top ten cheapest though. if you're looking at it from that perspective, the timing seems to make sense. >> so let me ask you, shaw, what you think. how would shareholders work out in this deal? >> well, you know, i agree with dan that this rumor's been going around for awhile. but i think the biggest problem is that the size of dell. you look at the stock today. it's -- the market cap's now $21 billion. so in the takeout, it would have to be a premium to that. possibly $30 billion. that's a lot of capital to raise. a lot of debt financing. so we think because of the size of this deal the likelihood of it happening is not likely. >> so

is dell being boughtout? john? >> a report today said several banks have been contacted on the possibility of taking dell private. that accepted the stock up more than 11% with a market cap just shy of $20 billion. this would be an enormous deal. the underlying issue here, the pc ecosystem. dell was the poster child for the pc in the '90s. pc sales down in q3. and down again about 5% in q4. dell pcs were half of revenue last quarter. both laptops and desktops are shrinking. here's the difficulty. servers, networking, and services are the growth areas for dell along with dell's business selling its own storage technology. the company is trying to swing from being a low cost seller of commodity hardware into being a little bit more like ibm today. meanwhile the decline in public sector spending has already hit the company at the same time. mike o'dell had considered taking the company private. he never closed the door on that. but dell itself is saying no comment on this report today. i'm hearing from their side of t

i have to ask you a little bit about dell because you also look at dell.nk about the move? will it become a private company again and will it thrive as a private company if that happens? >> speculation comes on and off all the time. every few months a couple of times a year we hear dell is considering going private. then they say no, we're not doing it. i don't know know where things are currently. clearly there is a lot of news and speculation in the media. but, one thing to keep in mind, mathematically if either transaction can work, they can make it work based on strong cash flows, strong free cash flows and cheap financing options. but strategically it will make transition even harder. right now they can buy a couple billion dollars, spend a couple billion dollars of on a software acquisition. if the company is fully levered they will not have cash flow needed to make the strategic acquisitions to drum up the business. strategically they lose out on that. we think a this is less likely but there is enough to move the smoke. >> enough to move it 13%. th

another company, that is dell. and you have a hold on dell.ut the news crossed the report, they're looking to go private. could be a good thing for the company, but what does this mean for shareholders? >> it means a higher price. the guess would be somewhere around $15 for private equity would need to bid to take this private. it is big news if true. probably some truth to it but getting a deal done in the fine print is very difficult. ask best buy and the former founder. pulling together a deal can be very challenging. cheryl: can dell make headwinds against hewlett-packard? the biggest problem has been hewlett-packard. where does that stand in your opinion? speak out if i were dell, with almost 60 pc businesses, with focus on the server-side, services side and i would say look, have the strongest s&p business in the world, i will monetize that and look for the cash flow there. i would dismiss the pc side of dell. cheryl: great to have you on the show especially on a day like today with so much news coming out of your particular sector. than

>> want to look at dell. dell is now halted.uit breakers, moving up 10%, soaring on the report they may be in talks with some private firms in order to make, move this to a buyout. we'll see what happens here with dell. it is currently halted. this is being reported on the bloomberg wires as well. it is up about 10% right there at the close, at the halt time. so will be halted. i'm sure we'll hear either news pending they will sort of sort out the orders and get it reopened. dell's primary market is not here at the new york stock exchange but, of course the traders are the first ones to actually tip me off on this because they have internal ways of speaking amongst themselves, among the big houses. obviously it had heavy trading, hit the circuit breakers and now halted taking a break here as news develops on the possibility of maybe going private. back to you. tracy: thanks, first quarter coal. keep us updated on all that. >>> all right switching gears a little bit, how would you like to take this for a spin? chevy unveiling the

, can have much more to say about what dell is doing and what dell would be building. also, they would have an interest in making sure dell is successful that goes beyond the partnership arrangement they have today. so, the partnership would strengthen at a time when a lot of companies are looking at exiting the pc business or going vertical, dell would be mostly a short-term, main partner of microsoft, and a stronger one at that. > who gets hurt by this? does it start to bite into apple's sales at all? > > potentially. i think the bigger risk is with microsoft's other partners. clearly, there are going to have to be assured that microsoft will firewall dell from the core microsoft, so that dell isn't mammothly advantaged. you know, lenovo, hewlett-packard, acer, those companies are going to want to be assured that this partnership won't put them at a disadvantage. but yeah, apple, which is another vertically integrated company, clearly would face a stronger partnership, the stronger microsoft-dell partnership, as a result of a successful engagement like this. what abo

dell was the poster child for the pc in the '90s.ng apart, thanks to smartphones, tablets and just a general decline there. general sales were down 8% in q3. gardener estimates they were down again nearly 5% in q4. at dell, pcs are half of revenue as of last quarter. both laptops and desktops are shrinking quickly. laptops down 26% last quarter. desktop revenue down 8%. the consumer business actually lost money. what's the road map to turning things around? networkering, serves and storage are doing pretty well for dell. although it's not clear how taking thinks private would grow those faster. it's worth noting that dell is not alone in its current buyout. hp stock has done worse. amd, the chipmaker is suffering. lots of companies that grew in the pc era have to reinvent themselves anyhow. >> jon fortt, thank you. it really isn't market conditions, it's not the business cycle, it's just the business model. nobody wants a company with declining cash flows or questions about its future. but we are in a period where, despite the fact o

as for dell, analysts say the cash infusion could help its founder michael dell take the computer maker private and help shift the firm's focus. >> dell knows that personal computing is heading toward the tablet form. microsoft knows this as well. so this could be a very natural pairing for them. >> reporter: but a pairing could ruffle more feathers between microsoft and its other computer maker partners. still, analysts say even if microsoft decides against investing in dell, the software giant, which is now sitting on more than $68 billion in cash will have to spend some of that money soon. ruben ramirez, "n.b.r.," new york. >> susie: our market monitor tonight is bullish on the stock market and says there are many choices for investors to pick up cheap stocks. he's john rogers, founder and chief investment officer of ariel investments and its flagship ariel mutual fund has tripled in value since march 2009. john, this is the first time you are our market monitor, so welcome to "nightly business report." let me begin by asking you, here we've got the stock market at these new levels.

as for dell, analysts say the cash infusion could help its founder michael dell take the computer maker private and help shift the firm's focus. >> dell knows that personal computing is heading toward the tablet form. microsoft knows this as well. so this could be a very natural pairing for them. >> reporter: but a pairing could ruffle more feathers between microsoft and its other computer maker partners. still, analysts say even if microsoft decides against investing in dell, the software giant, which is now sitting on more than $68 billion in cash will have to spend some of that money soon. ruben ramirez, "n.b.r.," new york. >> susie: our market monitor tonight is bullish on the stock market and says there are many choices for investors to pick up cheap stocks. he's john rogers, founder and chief investment officer of ariel investments and its flagship ariel mutual fund has tripled in value since march 2009. john, this is the first time you are our market monitor, so welcome to "nightly business report." let me begin by asking you here we've got the stock market at these new levels. w

rumor has it dell is in talks to go private. what that could mean for the stock is right after the break. matt shapiro, president of mws capital, joins us, and as you know, the market went wild over this report that dell may be considering going private. what do you think about this? > > it's big news, and it tells you a lot about the state of the pc and semiconductor market, which is that it is tough to unlock that value. the fact that a company like dell would go private shows you that it is tough to make money, so it is something you need to consider when taking a look, for instance, at intel, or even more advanced micro devices. > reports say this is the second time dell has considered going private. what do you anticipate is likely to happen with the stock? we have already seen a big move that happened yesterday. > > i think it has potential to get to about $15. it's a sign of health in the market in a lot of ways that private equity can come in and do an acquisition like this. but realize, what they're going to do is load

>> buy dell or not to buy dell. that's the question. dell is almost precisely even.almost 15. they broke the news this afternoon that they would like to do a deal at 14 or 15. good luck. there is only so much cash flow to go around to continue to innovate if the deal was done. michael dell will not do a deal that could hurt the long-term fortunes of his company. because there isn't enough earnings for them to keep it up here. even though it is dell that has been the company. those fortunes have been spent to design systems that are loved by governments and nonprofits. and that is terrible clients right now. plus we know that the entire price that has been ruled by the cloud. it is funny when the stock was only at 11 i thought what an opportunity. but as it got closer to 13, if you owned it you need to sell it if it goes closer to 14 tomorrow. let's strategize about if the stock goes back to 10. at that price remember half of dell's business is global. it isn't including the possibility that we develop a tax regimen in this country that encourages repatriation of prof

cheryl: dell. have to get at least a reaction because i talk to people they say the older book is absolutely superb. what would be happening if they took it and went private? continuing the paths not been publicly traded anymore. >> dell over the years has been a great partner in two ways. they bring up innovative products. the enterprise focus of the market, they have some really great devices. secondly they have been one of the most efficient supply line management companies in the history. i think again, the new investors assuming this happens will be interested in those same characteristics. being a really efficient producer, something that would continue. cheryl: let's hope. stacy smith, we appreciate you being here in a fox business exclusive. we will be right back. [ woman ] if you have the audacity to believe your financial advisor should focus on your long-term goals, not their short-term agenda. [ male announcer ] join the nearly 7 million investors who think like you do. face time and th

you're buying into dell.e asked to do a bet on the personal computer market. >> dan, the second piece of this, as i think about it, though, is this idea that you're actually going back to the club deal, right? you're having two firms club up, and now with something that was, almost, i thought it was now a relic of the 2007, '06, '05 and people were no longer going to do that, at best, they were going to partner potentially with their own limited partners like the pension funds but not necessarily together to fund themselves. >> yeah, and it's particularly interesting that tpg is involved in this. one of the biggest private equity firms in the world but they might have some troubles fund-raising next time out. their performance hasn't been good the last two funds. one of the things they've been telling their own investors getting ready for a fund raise later this year is we haven't been doing club deals. out of their current fund they haven't done a single club deal. i know they're talked about with best buy.

michael dell created the dell in his dorm room at 19 years old in austin. it was huge. it is huge. biggest pc maker and lost that title in 2006 to hewlett-packard. what it does is builds these to-order customized pcs. the problem is dell fell behind. it didn't evolve into the new world of smartphones and gadgets. when's the last time you bought a p.c.? >> what's a p.c.? >> and you said -- you were thinking about buying one. >> only for my son because he's headed to high school and you asked me which one. it's a mack. >> that's the problem. dell hasn't evolved. what's it going to do? why not go private at this point. even the world is saying dell is in talks with at least two private equity firms. this whole thing could fall apart. these are just reports. some analysts are saying, good luck with this deal because it's going to be really expensive for anybody to buy a dell, really hard to pull off. but if it does, the private equity firms would go in and given a preemous for the stock price, 50% to 100% premium. for shareholders, it would be a win. for michael dell it would be a win

i think dell -- what dell needs to do is it needs to execute well and continue with the current strategy and ultimately hope that earnings improve and they will be rewarded in the marketplace. >> toni, thanks for the knowledge. this is a good conversation. thanks for being on the show. >> my pleasure. >>> virtual dr. j, what's going to happen? >> keep in mind that hewlett-packard paid $11 billion for aton what was autonomy? this is not an overly large lbo. i disagree completely. if you can round up $11 billion in cash over to huewlett. >> coming up on "halftime," less than an hour away from facebook's big announcement. the stock rallies high at 63% in three months. if you think stocks are in the best to gain, you may want to think about. that guy right there, greg peters of morgan stanley, is going to tell you what you should be betting on instead of the u.s. when "halftime comes right back. ♪ [ male announcer ] how do you turn an entrepreneur's dream... ♪ into a scooter that talks to the cloud? ♪ or turn 30-million artifacts... ♪ into a high-tech masterpiece? ♪ whatever your business ch

i just think when i look at dell, michael dell is a very motivated individual. when you talk with him, he is clearly, like listen, my company is worth a lot more now. he obviously missed mobile, all right? he believed in the desktop. but at the same time, if europe turns, if asia turns, 50% of the business overseas -- >> they still need to do deals, they still need to invest in a competitive industry. and they're constrained somewhat by the capital of the company. it's cheaper, i suppose. they could return a lot of capital by levering up. >> obviously up again today, as we begin the first full day of discussing that story. >>> lululemon up last year, but the street not impressed with the latest guidance. is blue lu lemon more of a lemon today. >>> bill simon on everything from the state of retail and job creation to what new gun control regulations could mean to the sale of firearms. >>> shares of lululemon falling pre-market trade. it includes the holiday shopping season, but the forecast is still below street expectations. lululemon seems fourth-quarter same-s

dealing for dell, new details about the company's plan the go private. and now microsoft's in the mix. what does it mean for the stock? a big debate is coming up. but first, our top story, tech's big moment. over the next 30 hours, some of the biggest names in the industry will report their earnings and for a sector that's dramatically underperformed the market so far this year, anticipation could not be higher. google, ibm, texas instruments all in the halftime playbook and we're trading the big movers with josh brown and mike murphy and doc, i'm going to you first. >> because you called me joe. >> it's the options market. where you can often see what the market is betting on ahead of earnings like this. what do you do expect or see? >> well, just to give the viewers a little insight here from what the trading perspective and the options floors has judged, ibm ahead of earnings tonight is a $6 straddle at the 195 strike. that's implying a 3% move up or down. volatility is right around 40. so you'd expect that since apple is implying a 7% move it's impli

dell and its possible plans to go private. that's another story that we continue to track in the tech space. that stock seeing heavy volume in today's trade as more reports circulate and speculation rises. retail, a pocket strength with express. that's the teen retailer leasing the pack after upping its guidance and better than expected retail sales for december. that also helped gap among others move higher and another bright spot to take "new york post." biotext, specifically the biotech players that specialize in the anti-obesity drugs. positive commentary from last week's jpmorgan health care conference seems to be helping the stocks move higher and lastly aside from that, the financial stocks providing leadership as well ahead of tomorrow's big day of earnings. jpmorgan, goldman sachs on tap and speaking of earnings, maria, ebay also set to report on wednesday. the street looking for an eps of 69 cents on revenue of $3.9 billion. >> back to you, seem a. thank you. >> new troubling information meanwhile about what american

let me give you my feeling on dell. michael dell is a man with integrity who is fed up with the stock. they have moved dramatically away from pc. 50% of the business is overseas and they do a lot of enterprise work. i think michael dell is a motivated person who may actually do something to bring out value. even though typically i would not recommend the stock on a takeover basis, dell is very cheap and i think if it sells off, don't worry about it. dell may actually be right here. just for you, right here on "mad money," i'm jim cramer and i will see you tomorrow! >>> good evening, everyone. i'm larry kudlow. this is "the kudlow report." it's getting nasty again. today, president obama promises not to compromise on the debt ceiling. as usual he demonizing -- demonizes republicans for hurting our elderly and the troops. meanwhile the white house won't deliver its own budget in time and still wants to raise more taxes. we're about to hear a response from a republican house member. >>> that's not all. fed chief ben bernan

j.b., take dell. >> dell is interesting because valuation talk for this deal could be 13 bucks, 14 bucks. >> that's what faber's reporting. >> i don't know i would dive into the stock. there might be some letdown if it doesn't happen. what makes it interesting is, it allows you to look at some of these other tech names that have kind of been rallying for the last few months because maybe some of them are just written off too much, too hated on the street. obviously rim is an obvious example of that. i think it's worth looking at some old tech names. maybe ebay -- maybe emc doesn't get enough attention. there are a lot of them out there. >> it's interesting a big value guy like nygren has been in dell for a while. he's liked it for a while and thinks it's worth more than what they're even talking about it could be worth now in a bid to take it private. pete? >> you talk about value. he's one of the guys out there right in front of everybody talking about bank of america. i think the other read through is he's very strong in the industrial space. he's talking about emerging market growth a

very weak. >> upgrade of auto desk. >> when dell -- when goldman went from sell to buy, dell, that wass going on. they go from sell to conviction. i have to find out what's going on. >> mccormack? >> it turns out the spices people didn't buy, this was starting this one. that's supposed to be the last thing you cut back on. talk about vanilla. >> barclays. >> i think people are feeling the stock has had a run. i don't think so. i think it goes higher. >> just saying what is proprietary. absolutely nothing. >> we've got coats. what's kors going to say? >> goldman says kors is good. i think that's a good call. >> let's talk about the broader market. earlier on you were saying, if you were negative on the stock, now that you're back to your high water mark, maybe you want to get out. >> netflix, i like netflix. i like the product. but the stock, if you bought it two weeks ago, you know, at 90, you have to take a little off the table. there's nothing wrong with ringing the register and letting the rest run. i do like the idea of looking at caterpillar, kcaterpillar repors on monday of next

that's why dell is jumping.el dell talked about going private back in 2010 so it's become on the table again, and that's what is causing dow to soar. i want to take a look though at hp. that is a dow component, and, obviously, a big competitor of the dell. here it is today. right now, down 2.5% for this dow component. coming under pressure while in the meantime we're watching dell soar. back to you. liz: thank you very much. disney interactive counting on monsters and pirates for a big push in the very long struggle to really win in the video game business. dennis kneale has a big anowdgesment today. dennis? >> yes, $3.5 billion, how much they spent on losses and acquisitions in the last decade to be a power player in video games. $75, that's a high price for the starter pack that lets you plunge into a new disney world online. the mouse house unvailed disney infinity, a new game platform that will, for the first time, let players mash together characters and create new worlds to hang out together. now, the firs

we do know since that time that dell has gone out and hired evercorp.ers to, basically, converse other potential bids to prove to shareholders that there's no other bids out there, so maybe you should take this thing even at the small premium that it remits or relatively small premium. so there's a lot going on here, but if you look at the price action on the bonds, we're talking about these are the five and seven-eighths of 2019, you know, the prices have definitely gone down dramatically, and that, to me, my friends, means that bond investors who are generally smarter than stock investors, okay? they trade less off the headlines -- now, maybe this is the microsoft. there's news that microsoft may be wanting to throw some money in here, we'll see. i don't think that should matter that much. you know, and maybe they're trading off of that. but i'll tell you, bond investors are basically much more long term. so here's the thing. i don't tell you what to do. if you want to put your money on a short-term play on the air, i can just tell you my sources are

dell shares sharply higher today.er broke the news that microsoft is now in talks to help finance that buyout of dell. david joins us now with more details. they are getting a party together, aren't they? >> yes, they may very well indeed do that. there are still talks, bill. it's not a done deal, that is, until the terms of the lbl itself or microsoft's investor. we reported microsoft is cont contemplating between a $1 billion and $3 billion investment. not in exyou but considered a mezzanine financing similar between debt and equity having the name of a preferred, unclear whether it's ever convertible into a equity stake, but people might understand why microsoft would at least have interest. of course, it has $66 billion worth of cash. much of that is overseas and there might be a possibility using the overseas cash without paying significant penalties on the use of it. of course, it has an interest in one of its biggest customers continuing to do well. all of this, of course, would add to the overall financing for

michael dell is going to be potentially taking money from outside dell.side of dell he's going to be using some of them. so the equity check from what i'm hearing, not a big issue any long longer. silver lake and others will step up behind that. microsoft wanted to get paid for the privilege of being a significant investor, but adding its credibility to this deal. so we'll see whether the deal still happens. you know, you always get a lot of movement, especially before the end. but at least based on what i have been hearing at this point, the outlook is fairly positive they'll reach a deal. perhaps as soon as the end of the week. >> if the point of going private is to reinvent dell, interesting this a player would be microsoft which has an interest in seeing the pc live on a little bit longer, right? >> it does. but of course it would have a seat at the table and be involved in that reinvention wherever it might go. unclear how microsoft shareholders will feel about it, although between 1 and 3, if it's $2 billion right in the middle. not an enormous amou

dell's rally on talks offset a slump in apple.omberg silicon valley index closed low yes, apple, google and ebay were some of the drags there. a source tells bloomberg west twitter is in no rush to go public but is staying on top of the market. the source tells us that twitter has plenty of cash and that an ipo would depend on market conditions and other factors, so far no, bankers have been hired. the news as twitter board gets ready to meet in a couple weeks. at bloomberg studios in san francisco, i'm emily chang. larry, carolyn, back to you. >> thank you. >> general motors proving everything is old is new again, rolling out it's new chevy or corvette sting ray. the name has in the been used on a new vet since 1976. gm says this is the most powerful and fuel efficient corvette ever made. can go from zero to 60 in under four seconds, gm claims it's the most fuel efficient exceed yeeding 26 miles per gallon. the new sting ray goes on sale later this year. >> looks fun. >> it does. >> nice looking car is what i'm thinking. >> spenc

now dell might actually go private ♪ hallelujah and it would make sense because half of dell's moneyomes from overseas. exposures to europe is doing terrific clee. both have been kept back by worries. both ceos have said over and over, it's an issue. how about ford and general motors? have you seen these two? ford made the best chart in a book. it's screaming. company doubled its dividend and getting european losses under control while china and latin america turned the corner. the darn stock has never looked back. shares in the open market to work its way out of the position, both ford and gm have been kept out of the international headwinds and now there is tail winds. the most obvious between 2012 and 2013 is the banks. huge increase in the finances and no exposure to europe. now it's the huge spanish bank, of all places. it's been on a roll. get this. jpmorgan just this morning put royal bank of scott labd on its buy list. i thought those guys were turning by now. oh, and let's -- oh, and let's just make it clear that while apple, big international player is certainly beneficiary

we happen to be involved with dell. it'll be interesting to see if they can take it private at the price talk they're talking of $14 or $15. i, frankly, think that's too cheap. we valued it in the high teens, and i think other people get to a higher number yet. it'll be interesting to see if michael dell with his 15% and mason hawkins at southern asset with his 7 vote to approve at this low a price. i certainly hope not. but, you know, i think the people need to remember that prices can go up and down, and we try to look for asymmetrical opportunities where we can't lose any money from here. i think dell, frankly, is an arbitrage of that kind of opportunity. i don't think there's much price can decline from this point, and i think there are others like that. american greetings' another one we've been involved in where management through the a different -- [inaudible] we think they may need some extra equity to get the deal done at 17.50. but if you look at those shares today, if you can collect the dividend between now

microsoft one of the several investors in dell.funds reported to be interested in dell and the price is the key whether or not microsoft make that investment in dell. existing shareholders have concerns about the price, momentum is something we continue to follow, is it slowing. charlie gasparino reported some of these headlines as we continue to follow on the fox business network but no doubt we have followed since the beginning, potential interested parties and the stock itself has been soaring up almost 30% this month. back to you. dennis: president obama laying out a liberal vision in his inaugural address including a push for alternative energy. president obama: we cannot concede to other nations the technology to empower new jobs and new industry, we must claim its promise. dennis: our next guest says there's no way republican house will go along with any of that. chief political strategist research group sees more gridlock ahead. greg valliere, thanks for being with us. i just read a good line you wrote. let's start there. >

of course, such a big portion of dell corporation. 2010, he had considered may be making this thing private. liz: guess what i found on ebay. gina -- jean nate. 30-ounce fragrance. very retro fragrance. i used to think it was so neat. top dividend payers. here's a look at the but dashboard. we have a guest coming up and a you names and a fox business exclusive. we will find out why he is saying oh, canada. liz: a market check right now. the battle of the heads. the hedge fund battle. the stock is done now. it has been pretty volatile since the news broke that tenants before 3:00 p.m. eastern. charlie gasparino like you guys on this last week. he was all over saying that icon is entering into the fray. they reported that about an hour ago. adding another layer to the hedge fund morning. taking a position, carl icahn, he says that his state is about a billion calling herbalife if your mid-scheme. taking the other side of that trade, he went long. were you one of those people that got ranted at the end of the year due to the fiscal cliff

. >> up next, which dudes may be buying dell as his rivals contemplate taking dell private. about private equity giant kkr of what he thinks of these reports over a deal. you won't see this interview anywhere else. keep it right here. plus, will rising commodity costs melt down wendy's bottom line? sure hit chipotle stock. wendy's ceo speaks with me exclusively on the other side of this break. also, jane wells will do anything for a good story. she's been working out on a treadmill. jane. >> reporter: maria, let me put down my big gulp. as you know the camera adds ten pounds and this is a rough business to be heavy n.well, maybe every business is a rough business to be heavy in, especially if you're in channel. we'll talk about that in a minute. ♪ [ male announcer ] how do you turn an entrepreneur's dream... ♪ into a scooter that talks to the cloud? ♪ or turn 30-million artifacts... ♪ into a high-tech masterpiece? ♪ whatever your business challenge, dell has the technology and services to help you solve it. and his new boss told him two things -- cook what you love, and save

the real stock of the day was dell. it is higher today on reports that it is in talks over a possible buyout by private equity firms. take a look. the stock rallied almost 13%. that will do it for us. thank you for being with us. hope you'll follow me on twitter and google plus. stay with cnbc, because "fast money" begins right now. >>> live from the nasdaq market site in new york city's times square. i'm melissa lee. sour apples. shares of the iphone maker slide. is apple turning into forbidden fruit? the mystery event. what facebook could be unveiling in less than 24 hours. we're in countdown mode with one of its biggest investors. and the great rotation into stocks heating up. we get the likely impact. first, our top story. apple shares dipping below $500. it comes following reporters of weaker iphone demand and component order cuts, pete. >> right. and i think when you're looking at apple, there has been the story. everybody wants to put a tab on what exactly is pushing apple to the down side. seems like a broken ch

microsoft is going to help dell make a deal.aber reporting this afternoon that microsoft is in talks with silver lake to invest between $1 and $3 billion as part of dell's buyout. talks are jog gone and a deal could be reached at the end of the week. so, we asked, fact or fiction. karen, what do you say? >> i do believe it. microsoft has tremendously deep pockets and faber's done a great job here. this is what he's hearing, they're in some sort of a preferred position, that's a better return they can get, so, i'm going to go with fact. >> the other thing at work here is that obviously microsoft like so many tech companies has a lot of its cash domiciled overseas. and according to tax experts, microsoft could use foreign cash to finance this deal as long as it doesn't take a stake more than 25% for dell. mike khouw, i'm curious in the options markets because david faber is reporting $13.50 to $14. where do the options pan out? >> it's interesting, the most active options were the february 14 calls though the 13s followed closely.

because dell at that point was too big. options i mentioned on the show prior to contract merger. what we did think about was spinning the pc business off and consolidating with other pc makers. eventually this industry is going to consolidate, it has to. the question is how and when and maybe going private makes that easy. >> thank you for this. what are you doing in new york? >> yes. i'm the chair of "good 360." i talked about that organization when i was here. the national retail federation is in town for their big annual convention, 26,000 retailers. i'm giving a keynote speech there and talking about online product donation, makes sense to take excess stuff and give it to people who need it. >> you buying apple today on weakness? >> i'm not. i don't know directly. >> how do you feel about apple? buying apple today on weakness. that's the question. >> i think apple has in its dna two things that are unbelievably valuable, innovation. they do it, it's in their dna. secondly, they are completely centered around an extraor

tyler, back to you. >> when we come back, we will talk about dell.t back. [ male announcer ] alka-seltzer plus presents the cold truth. i have a cold, and i took nyquil, but i'm still "stubbed" up. [ male announcer ] truth is, nyquil doesn't unstuff your nose. what? [ male announcer ] it doesn't have a decongestant. no way. [ male announcer ] sorry. alka-seltzer plus fights your worst cold symptoms plus has a fast acting decongestant to relieve your stuffy nose. [ sighs ] thanks! [ male announcer ] you're welcome. that's the cold truth! [ male announcer ] alka-seltzer plus. ♪ oh what a relief it is! ♪ [ male announcer ] to learn more about the cold truth and save $1 visit alka-seltzer on facebook. nothing. are you stealing our daughter's school supplies and taking them to work? no, i was just looking for my stapler and my... this thing. i save money by using fedex ground and buy my own supplies. that's a great idea. i'm going to go... we got clients in today. [ male announcer ] save on ground shipping at fedex office.

. >> david faber confirming that dell is in talks for a leverage buyout, that would value dell shares between $13 and $14 a share. sources telling david that the equity investments from potential investors would be roughly $2 billion. debt financing seen as oversubscribed. the deal would contemplate repatriation of some of its cash from overseas. michael dell would also have some skin in the game. he could be seen investing some fresh money in the deal. he has a 4.5 billion take in terms of shares in the company. the dell deal, he says, could be final iltzed within a couple of weeks. dell, he says, has been talking about an lbo since this past summer. melissa? >> all right, thank you, bertha. we want to go to mike in the options desk. mike, what's striking about this number is that it is significantly lower compared to what the street was anticipating. jeffries, $15 to $17. where were the options traders playing? >> i think they were probably more in line with david's numbers, actually. we saw a lot of calls trading today. some of the 12 1/2 and 13 1/2 strike calls and the 15s. but wh

>> michael dell, and suddenly, mr. skeptic -- >> overheated debt market, that's always a good sign for an economy. that's always a sign that things are getting a lot better. >> it's been getting overheated since 1979. >> big lbos. that worked out real well. no, i'm just -- there's housing, sales of pickups. sales of cars in europe for 2012, not so good. we'll talk about that. >> germany, the bmw sales, volkswagen sales. one of my cousins in mexico is near a bmw, new plant. the germans are down. they're buying like crazy. germany business, good. rest of the continent okay. ford cutting back very dramatically. >> boeing, more problems related to the dreamliner. japanese grounded their 787 for safety checks. the national transportation safety board, faa are going to japan to assess that incident. when the first problems arose last week, week before, we said, we'll notice a seriousing when there's a grounding. we got one, times two. >> yeah. >> by the way, goldman taking out conviction buy list. the likelihood there will b

could be taking dell private. >> dell is not relevant. going private. when we are private we can fire people and do things the public do not know about. amazon wants to sell operating systems on microsoft system. >> no more dude you are getting beat dell commercials. >> we will check back at raw with 9:15 a.m. with users and losers on wall street. >> everyone calls to assess dude now. >> 6 4:09 a.m. now taking a live look from the embarcadero. the water is calm. we do have a bit of rain on the rway depending on where you are. >> storm tracker for highlighting some light rain in the north bay. the majority of the bay area is clear we are dry. most of the moisture setting off shore and the rain falling over the ocean. santa rosa towards hills woborough light rain. >> light rain in sonoma county and portions of our east bay interior valleys. light rain around the altamonte pass interstate 580 approaching downtown livermore. drive with caution it could be a wet dry for those of you commuting have tracy. satellite and radar holds a wider view

and, in terms of dell, you did sort of a similar analysis for dell, another stock you cover, but youll say the breakup likelihood is higher in hp. >> absolutely. hp is a bigger conglomerate. they really have four large divisions, each of which could be, you know, an s&p 50 kind of company from a revenue perspective. dell is much simpler. it's a big pc business. it's about 70% of their rev newspapers and almost 70% of their profits and then a smaller enterprise business, which is servers, storage and services. and, so, splitting dell apart becomes more difficult because you'd really want to get rid of effectively the biggest part of the company, which is pcs. with hp, you could get rid of pcs and printing and still have a very viable $50 billion plus company that is the majority of the cheap's profits. >> toni, great to speak with you. now, this is a rare scenario, where either way you've got upside. meg whitman is going to do something or she's out and the company splits. >> there's peek out there that say, you know, breaking up hp would destroy value. deutsche bank had a note out sa

>>> oo we remember the dell lowerian turned into a time machine. now a handyman has given one a brand new make-over. it's a dell lowerian hovercraft spinning near the golden gate bridge. they used a dell lowerian body and registered as a legal boat in california. he always dreamed of having a flying dell lowerian like the one in back to the future. that's your 5@5:30. >> we finally hear it in his own words. lance armstrong's long-awaited admission he used performance enhancing drugs. >> the disgraced cyclist coming clean with a one-on one interview with oprah winfrey. yes or no. in all 7 of your tour defrance victories did you ever take banned substances or blood dope? >> yes. this issue of performance enhancers, again to me that was we are going to pump up our tires put water in our tires that, too, is going to happen. that was it. so it -- was it a big deal to you? did it feel wrong? >> at the time no. >> it did not even feel wrong? >> no. >> scary. >> did you feel bad about it? >> no. even scarier. >> did you feel in any way that you were cheati

hewlett and dell, because of their ongoing business model. stocks like hewlett beaten like they were, a lot of times you'll see them bounce hard and far off the bottom. so we saw a lot of call buy income hewlett this week. as a result of that, peek are speculating it's a leveraged upside bet. >> going to carter again just to get a view on where technology is. what do you see in the charts there? >> the issue with technology because it's burdened by its largest cap components. microsoft, intel. the roadblock problem with the sector, its biggest components act poorly, two, still the biggest waiting in the s&p. it's 18.5%, too much money in that area. >> carter makes a great point on apple, still remains beleaguered. you made a point with the rotation coming out of apple. when it was declining from its all-time high in september, people were saying -- it's 2013 now and it's still not back. >> step in and buy it at $180 discount to where it was. i think people were worried as far as products were concerned 37 make makes a great point about hp and

two of the outperformers in tech, facebook and dell. we know that david faber has been breaking news on dell. seeing upside. there facebook up more than 3%. can't say that every day. back to you. >> we'll talk more about big tech firms later on in the show. thank you. in the world of politics and the debt squabbles that go with it, the white house said president obama would sign a short-term debt extension if passed by congress but he would favor a longer extension, right, john howard? >> exactly right. we've been talking for the last 24 hours about the aggressiveness and assertiveness of the president's inaugural speech, some in your face lines going after republicans. jay carney in his briefing did indicate the white house is prepared to take yes for an answer on some issues, even if it can't get its entire way. debt ceiling as an example, they wanted a year or more on the debt limit, republicans are saying now through mid-may they will suspend the application of the debt ceiling. jay carney saying if that happens, the president will