but it wasn't necessarily the strategic outline investors were expect things from ibm. she was not on the call this go around after she was on the call and stopped the roadmap. >> year end results, especially when the results are going to be so crummy, you think the ceo might want to be there and offer some guidance. >> that is the typical ibm shtick -- the ceo is not on the call. but with her coming on last quarter wanting to reassure investors, we expected her to be on. she will be expected to address investors when they have their investor day here in the city, but that is where we are looking to see the next steps from this company. shares were off about three point 5% and investors are maybe not as happy with what is going on and with the lack of visibility here in terms of what is next for ibm. >> investors aside, i think the role of ibm and the role of technology couldn't be more important historically. one of the things these results start to point to his other companies standing up and being important on the software side. on the hardware side, the computing po

alex covers ibm from new york as well.te the story, pointing this out that a big focus for the company's patents. >> they have been a big focus for the company, 22 years of leading this recipient winners list here. for them, traditionally, patents are thought to signal where future renovation my comment. new ideas, new things, staking their claim and using their big research force to figure out what is next. the question for ibm is can they use these patents to write these constantly falling sales they have had? the report next week and potentially a third-year patents. in terms of whether or not they are actually making products that their customers want with these patents -- it's a big question for them at ibm. >> chris, let me ask you -- i want to say and mention good r&d good, we just do the technology show. but it does beg the question of what are the real values of these patents from ibm? >> it is largely a numbers game. when you talk about 7500 patents, that's a lot of patents in one year. keep in mind, the u.s. pat

that is mounting in ibm. up to $48 billion in current and long-term debt reported at the end of the month. that is significantly up because the company is borrowing money to pay dividends and buyback stocks because it's free cash flow is falling. the three cash flow is getting worse and worse as revenues are filing. -- three--free cash flow is getting worse and worse as revenues are falling earnings . per share are going up but the free cash flow, the rate of free cash flow shrinkage, if you will, also not good. that's all kinds of that news. joining us to talk about that is our bloomberg reporter from new york. before the bloomberg west show it was alex is not as worried as corey is. what is your take away. >> my big take away was what investors were looking for was not necessarily what they got. we were looking to get some kind of guidance moving forward and into 2015 and we got an etf range and a free cash flow number. but it wasn't necessarily the strategic outline investors were expecting from ibm. she w

ibm has topped the patent charts again with a record 7534 patents granted in 2014 for ibm.is the 22nd year that ibm has been granted more patents. than any other company. 22 years, but it has been the worst performance on the dow two years in a row. it certainly begs the question does intellectual property and r&d really help the bottom line? i started by asking what benefit ibm really gets from all these patent applications. >> it has been a very big focus of the company, 22 years. for the company, for them, traditionally patents are thought to signal where future innovation might come. new things where they are staking their claim and using their big research to figure out what is next. the big question, like you said, for ibm, can they use these patents to raise these constantly falling sales for the past three years? the report next week and potentially a third-your patent. in terms of whether or not they are actually making products that their customers want with these patents, it is a big question at ibm. >> i want to say, invention good, technology good, but this doe

ibm shares dropped hard this year. in fact ibm was the worst performer in the dow. one knot on big blue is the company initially missed just how disruptive cloud technology would be to its traditional businesses. >> you have the small cloud players that don't have and don't need a lot of infrastructure and can offer a solution that can cost a whole lot less and come in more quickly. i think ibm not to say was blind sided but really caught off guard. >> reporter: now changing course at ibm but drawing the cloud business organically as well as by making acquisitions. ibm expects to generate at least $7 billion in cloud revenue by 2015. ibm bowls points to other reason for optimistism as well. they say the stock isn't investive and a 20 year low, a possible contrarian indicator. ibm is an iconic global brand that has reinvented itself in the past. the question now is whether they can execute another transformation of big blue. if not, she risks another disappointing year for her shareholders. for "nightly business re josh lipton in silicon valley. >> every year this ti

you have to be very nuanced here at these ibm calls. they are very bullish on their future perspectives. it did seem like the cfo came out and said look we are going to take a profit hit this year. that was a bit of what investors were looking to hear. i don't to get was enough. shares are down as much as 4% earlier today, the most since last quarter. investors were looking to see what happens in 2015 and schroeder did not give that. they given eps guidance for the year the range about right at the below and. investors want to hear more. now, they are stuck waiting for this investor conference in february. ibm is kicking the can down the road. >> i was struck by some comments in the third quarter when they said the software sales some execution issues, but next quarter, they should close. software sales were week. what were the biggest weaknesses? >> we saw a revenue decline across all major businesses and all geographies. it seems like where they need to bring things forward is this software division. what they are really struggling th

what are the real value of these patents from ibm? is largely a numbers game when you're talking about 7500 patents. that is a heck of a lot of patents in one year. the u.s. patent office granted a record amount also. some degree of in-line with the growth your sing at the patent office. the growth in the patent said they are securing, it does serve their three main business models with respect to outgoing licensing, reducing litigation costs, and dividing design freedom. all three of those are served right having a large amount of patents. they are light-years ahead of the second-place finisher. there is value that is serving that. i do understand the point about the dips with respect to revenue in the last two years but largely they are bidding across a lot of different technologies. a lot of growth opportunities with respect to cloud computing and cognitive computing. that will play dividends in the next two to five years. >> i remember once a long time ago reporting on hewlett-packard. they told me there was tremendous pressure fr

ibm, what's the big deal? the fact they continue to miss on the revenue side off of what has been probably really compressed expectations lead me to believe that although the stock might rally to that 165 level, every rally in the stock for the last 24 months has been a sale and again i think that trend continues. you know what else continues tonight on "fast money"? we're going to have a tag team street fight. first time ever kelly. you better tune in man. this is going to be nuts. >> you're getting ahead of yourself. we have to go back to dan ives because before we let you go just cure flus toious to gai's point, every rally has been a point. what does it take in terms of numbers and guidance to turn it around? >> i think it's about giving investors comfort in the cloud transition, in that road map. you compare it with what that dell has done and microsoft, he's done all the right thing. i think it's about giving the playbook. it's not just talking the talk but walking the walk. >> dan, thank you for joining

that's ibm. the latest now on its conference call. >> the conference call is still ongoing right now. the ibm cfo martin schroeder speaking about what's happening overall with the company. they did talk a little bit about what they are devoting resources to, how 2014 was a transitional year, if you will, under the ceo so martin schroeder talking a little bit and take a listen to what he's saying about where they are devoting some of their resources in this coming year? >> we're continuing to invest and both offerings and operational capabilities. that includes targeted investments in mobility, security and cloud which complement our client's systems of record as well as operational improvements such as the savings yield from the rebalancing action we took earlier this year and more broadly deployed automation in the delivery centers. >> now, ibm also highlights this idea that those growth strategic imperatives, things like cloud, business analytics, mobile, cyber security, now represent about 27%

ibm has topped the patent charts again.e 7500 patents granted to the company for the second -- the 22nd straight year. they have been granted more patents than any other company. ibm has been the worst-performing stock on the dow for two years in a row. patents good, company bad? our guest joining us right now. he is a patent attorney. from new york. alex, let me start with you. patents are a big focus for the company. what benefit do they get? >> they have been a big focus for 22 years. traditionally, patents are thought to signal where future innovation might come. new ideas, new things where they're staking a claim and using their big research forced to figure out what is next. the big question like you said, is can they use these patents to write these constantly falling sales they have had for the past three years? the report next week. whether they are making products their customers want, it is a big question. >> chris, let me ask you. i want to say invention, good r&d, good, technology, good. what are the real value

earnings, but weaker guidance from ibm, that led that average down. can see firming oil helping as well as headlines about what the ecb might do in a crucial meeting that happens tomorrow morning. reports saying that ecb could be set to approve a program of roughly $700 billion in bond purchases each year. shares of united health in the green after fourth-quarter profit and revenue topping expectations with the company saying it benefitted from an increase in profit margins and a surge in premium revenue. that stock up nearly 3% today. but on the downside of the dow, shares of ibm slipping after revenue in 2015 forecasts came in below analyst estimates. jon fortt will have a lot more on what you need to know about ibm a little later on this hour. that is the biggest contributor to any downside pressure on the dow. down by about 3%. carl? >> as it was all of last year. when we come back, a great interview coming for you later this hour, jpmorgan chairman and ceo jamie dimon will join us live from davos coming in a few moments. the president coming out

ibm made a forecast. ibm is down. ibm is a dow stock. the dow would be at 100 points.ook at goals, please. we've crossed $1300 an ounce. loyola, have we hit a bottom? we have been around 47 for a long time. national average for a gallon of gas keeps on falling. i like this one. twenty-six states in the $1 club. what is that little square. >> i am glad that somebody can identified. >> it is a great state. >> taking a lot of time here. the cheapest gas in the lands. where is it? >> san antinomy of, texas. >> i call it san antonio. i am from florida. what do i know? stuart: check out this video. $1.63 a gallon for regular. not quite the lowest in the land. chris is with us. all right wrists. >> i want to disassociate myself with any remarks about south dakota. stuart: cheap gas. we think it is the best stimulus that we've got. >> the politician will take credit for the sun coming up in the morning, if you give them the chance. that is their job. they have always been the same. they are unchanging. when the economy was very fat, he said his policies were necessary to revis

i did this meeting somebody from ibm, and he said to me, what can i do for the schools? he said here is what we do. i would like to create a program for kids who at the end of it they can become technicians certified by ibm to work -- we now have a six -- >> these are not kids that would go on to college. >> two years of college. >> they go into the workforce. >> what ibm wanted, they wanted a associate's degree, two years like a community college. so we put together something that's hard to do, we took a four year traditional high school, we went to our city university in new york, took a two year program, merged them together with ibm, at the end of this, you guilty et your associate's degree, you've got to pass a rigorous exam by ibm to show that you're a good technician, then you go to the top of their list to get hired at a job when we did this started at about 55,000 plus benefits. >> better salary when you start than some kids get going to four year college. >> no question. and what we found is we put it in a community that was predominately minority, lots of mino

ibm laying off to me shows they are disorganized. charles: they are.kpwrerber iercame into ibms dying, immediately announced 9 9 million in reorganization, cut 35,000 jobs, sole assets, and 35,000 jobs, he did what he had to do, this is what angers people on main street, a lot of people who don't want to invest in market, what is good for wall street, ibm made a amazing come back is not often goodo main street. >> but, it makes sense we're dealing with balance sheets, i am not saying it is fair for main street, it not for for those outlooking for jobs, that is really terrible. when you look at a company that needs to be making profits for shareholders they have do this, that is the bottom line. >> and looking long-term. it paid off well, ibm last year hired 45,000 people, and that have 15,000 openings right now, they are shifting workforce. that is say good move. i don't think we're in the same situation, 50,000 could lose their job, ibm is a bit of prub toltrouble to me. charles: i think that ceo is being shao* to she is being too. go on a spending sp

it is good news for ibm.e are looking to see if they resolve issues they have had with software which makes three quarters of the revenue growth for the entire company. the fourth quarter, that will be the first question investors have. how did things do? second, what is the allocation strategy? are they looking to take money that they have historically spent on buybacks and dividends and regular -- relegate some of that to rmb? they spend about 6% of sales on r&d. is it time to boost that number to go after competitors? third on the docket for them for sure is going to be what is the company going to do in 2015? they throughout the roadmap. rometty needs to come in and lay out a very step-by-step plan to ease the concerns of investors. we saw the shares dropped and a lot of that was after the third-quarter earnings when they throughout the roadmap. that is what we will really be paying attention to in terms of what they have to say after the market close. >> there is a precedent for ibm throwing out not just

ibm left for dead, that's a plum waiting to be picked up. let me be the last shareholder standing of ibm. >> all right. let's bring him in. jim joins us now on the phone. all right. jim, you tell me. what are you going to do now? sitting on the stock. you obviously said what you did. we replayed it in case you didn't hear it. >> i heard it. >> what do you do? >> i'm sticking with it. let me point out that i do have the option in this competition of selling it but i'm not going to. i see a 5 to 30% rise in the share price from here and i'll go through how i get that. >> do it. because you may be one of the only people out there who actually sees that. >> yep. i hear you. >> maybe buffet does too. who knows. >> well, we'll come also to what would make me sell this. it's not today's news. i wanted and got them -- not that i got them to do this, but they put out guidance for the year. rometty, which i've pronounced the right way. >> congratulations. >> unwise to do anything but low ball the number. she has a range of 1575 to 1650. i was looking

ibm does not have to lose for apple or salesforce to win. >> what about a company like microsoft? >> i think there are product buts that could be harmed, as a whole company they don't necessarily have to lose. >> so companies like microsoft, google, amazon are dropping the price of cloud storage. how does that affect box? >> we love that. it is cheaper on the supply side . the cheaper the data gets, the more we can store. >> you recently took on $150 million in funding. seen, we may have filed to go public in march of this year. about a week after we filed, there was a bit of a market correction in tech stocks, so you saw quite a bit of volatility in high-growth technology companies. we decided that it wasn't the best time to bring a new company to market. from somezing support private market, late stage investors that were interested in supporting the company as a private company. so we took that money on to be able to continue to invest in growth and the business model without going public. >> how much did you wonder, did we make a mistake, did we filed too soon? >> it was obvio

got to get to ibm as well.ter than expected fourth quarter operating earnings of 581, consensus -- it misses by the way as big blue fails to generate year-over-year sales for an 11th consecutive quarter. full year guidance below street forecast. earlier, the ibm cfo expressed optimism about the growth prospects. >> as we shift to value and our strategy's very much around the shift of value, as we shift to value in the clouds and analytic we see very good margin opportunities and growth prospects. >> obviously very tough services revenue down seven. >> cash flow flat according to what we heard. >> no outlook for increased revenue in 2015. >> they are the most optimistically pessimist people. isn't it terrific to rebuilding here. >> it's a reset. >> reset. >> yes. i don't know what you do other than what they're trying to do. the question is when they're going to be able to successfully execute over time. your points are well taken, why would i want to own the stock during transition? if i'm on the board of direc

the dogiest dog of all is ibm down 14.5% for 2014. think ibm is going to -- let's say i think it will be in mud again in 2015. i don't really know what can happen here that can help this very broken company and very broken stock. transformative acquisition can beef up the consulting side might help. i think that is way too bold for this timid sweet outfit. i feel bad for this guy. nice boy. you have like a bone for this guy? i question every assumption about ibm's earnings power. the move to the cloud cuts margins. only 43% of sales are domestic. it doesn't have a real product cycle. meanwhile, ibm will keep buying back stock at what looks to be inflated levels similar to 2014 strategy. you have to ask yourself. how long will big share holder warren buffett stay the course? if he leaves i think the stock could see 125. that is truly eye catching if not eye gouging performance. it's a peanut butter cookie. when it comes to the dogs of the dow some of the names can turn things around but the oils are headed lower. ibm, a house of pain.

ibm, i like ibm. it's ibm. sponsor the masters along with at&t and exxon. if it goes theway of kodak or digital equipment it would be a tragedy. we'll see. amd. warning it's current quarter revenue will fall short. it's about a $2 million cap company now. weak sales of graphic cards. netflix, shares soaring in early trade. adding 4.3 million subscribers in the last quarter. the big driver overseas groethd offsetting a slow down in the united states. >> let's get a check on the markets this morning. we have been watching what the futures have been up to. if you take a look you'll see at least in this hour the futures are relatively flat. you're looking at the s&p barely budging. dow futures down by 7 points. also if you take a look at the early trade in europe this morning, at this point you'll see that the european markets are relatively flat as well although the ftse has a gain of three quarters of a%. in asia the bank of japan with it's stimulus. encourage banks to boost lending and you see in asia overnight the shanghai was up by 4.7%. this is coming aft

ibm is a sell. new leadership gets a bounce out of the name. >> we will tell you which stock traders are betting against ahead of an earnings report next week. more "fast money"straight ahead. just take a closer look. it works how you want to work. with a fidelity investment professional... or managing your investments on your own. helping you find new ways to plan for retirement. and save on taxes where you can. so you can invest in the life that you want today. tap into the full power of your fidelity greenline. call or come in today for a free one-on-one review. so this is a great opportunity for an upgrade. sound good? great. because you're not you, you're a whole airline... and it's not a ticket you're upgrading, it's your entire operations, from domestic to international... which means you need help from a whole team of advisors. from workforce strategies to tech solutions and a thousand other things. so you call pwc. the right people to get the extraordinary done. ♪ attention investors! vecto

as a raw material. >> no, but ibm has real issues and ibm will be cutting costs and ibm will be firing of people. if you tell me how that's good for wage growth and consumer demand i'm all ears. >> let's look at the job picture right now. u.s. economy is averaging over . . . . the stock in the u.s. is going to represent that. we're going higher, not lower. >> well, the blizzard of 2015 was not as bad as expected for the new york area. it is rippling air travel all across the country. c northbound's phil lebeau is live at the united airlines flight operations center in chicago. hey, phil. >> cancellations now total 5,000. it's for all airlines here in the united states. here's a look at the current flight route map, if you will, in terms of number of flights that are out there. you see the storm there hovering over the new england as well as parts of new york and that is still certainly restricting flights in that area. hartford, boston, those guys are closed for today and likely tomorrow as well. here at united, clearly they have a hub at newark, and the focus of the operations today a

big takeaway that ibm getting smaller. the company went from over a billion shares at the end of 2013 and as of december 31st they had 991 million shares. people said as their year over year revenues declined for seven straight quarters over the watch right now, the thing that's helped them on the bottom line is the share buyback and share reduction. some people call it financial engineering but top defense raters with the share cap now so low, below a billion for a company this size it could very well make them vulnerable perhaps to shareholders with a big stake and try to call the shots. >> something to keep an eye on from bertha coombs in times square at the nasdaq. thank you. >>> after the bell tonight, netflix with blowout earnings last quarter after adding 4.3 million more subscribers. that was far more than expected after adjusting for certain items, the streaming video service took in 72 cents per share, easily topping estimates of just 45 cents. despite cost cuts and all those new subscribers though revenues were

. >> ibm even more so. ibm's worked out. >> yes.mean i agreed with your guest before. i mean we're long apple, for example. because you're getting apple at a lower multiple than hewlett-packard or some of the others and yet it's growing, innovating, throwing off tons of cash. >> they sold everything. >> services company. >> services. i wouldn't put ibm -- we have been short ipm but wouldn't put it in the pc. >> what do you think about intel? >> we're short intel. >> wait a second. you're short intel? is this a new effort? >> i don't tell you all my short positions all the time becky. sorry. we've been short intel probably better part of this year. six months. >> what was the catalyst for that? >> same idea. i think joe mentioned earlier this morning the stock has been between 15 and 25 forever. and it's got the same challenges. i'm going to be curious to hear what the ceo says about the balance sheet and some other issues we saw on the balance sheet last night. >> one thing that intel has done is kind of decimate the competition. am

into things that ibm can sell? that -- >> he did that for him staring in the mirror. myself and my team has taken things out of the fundamental physics lab and put it in your devices and pockets. when i started at ibm it was semiconductors. reinvented a technology that extends the life of silicone. it is in every device in the world, almost. we made it happen, got it in the field, and it was a huge difference. >> what are you doing to differentiate yourself? >> and you look at big data, it is an empty set of words. there is a great example with a children's hospital in trenton to give you an example of why it matters. a baby is born prematurely with minimal defenses against infection. these children become septic highly infected, and you do not know until their bodies collapse and they die rapidly. it is called baby crashing. it is a war to see a baby that looked great one minute and is dead the next. we collected every imaginable piece of data on this child's body and we looked at any baby that went through that t

hp splitting up, ibms struggling.it comes to incumbents versus startups, how does it play out? >> every couple decades you have this changing of the guard, as it were. startups that are really optimizing disruption have the opportunity to take advantage of that and potentially build the next era of ibm and hp and microsoft. at the same time, you have incumbents that have a lot of cash, led by smart and astute leaders who understand the change. the changes are because they know they are being disrupted. >> peter thiel said that hp is a bet against innovation. >> it is certainly a provocative statement. in terms of relevance, you have leaders of these companies that are recognizing that their previous strategy would have led to irrelevance, and they have to change that. we have the view that everything is zero-sum. ibm doesn't have to lose for apple to win or for salesforce to win. >> what about microsoft, a company you grew up with? >> there are specific product areas that could potentially be harmed by this transition

ibm struggling. when it comes to incumbents versus startups, how does it play out?so every couple of decades, you have this sort of changing of the guard as it were. startups that are really optimized for that disruption have an opportunity to take advantage of that and potentially build the next era of ibm and hp and microsoft. at the same time, you do have incumbents that have a lot of cash. they are led by incredibly smart and astute leaders that understand this change. the changes you are seeing are driven specifically because they know they are being disrupted. clips peter teel said to me for example hp is not a technology , company anymore. it is a bet against innovation. >> that is a provocative statement. but i think in terms of relevance, you have leaders of these companies that are recognizing that their previous strategy would have lead to irrelevance and they have to change that. we have this view that everything is zero sum. ibm does not have to lose for apple to win. or for salesforce to win. >> what about microsoft? a company that you grew up with. >>

people must think there's magic to doing this. >> ibm needs the help right? we don't want to see it for the third year in a row become the worst performing stock in the dow. >> we're going to talk ibm with herb greenburg later on and mary thompson. but first straight over to bertha coombs with the nasdaq. how's it looking there? >> again, we saw the same situation there. we started off positive off the gate. the big caps are weak. apple of course which is partnering with ibm in the enterprise space these days that doesn't seem to be exciting anyone. certainly on apple's part. you had fred wilson the investor saying he doesn't think the iwatch is going to be that big a deal. i don't think so either. there's a lot of competition in wearables that will take awhile to sort itself out. it really is the russell 2000 and the small cap who is are the worst performers here in the day. they were the worst performers last year laggards. and they're laggards again today. even though we did see a move in recovery up in highs. what's bucking the trend today interestingly e

he really does not like ibm. he has a lot of animosity. ibm denied it.go of 35,000 people right off the bat. cut the dividend. whatever he had to do. >> the same reasoning to be in place. charles: somple be in storage. i know that there will be some big layoffs. >> three straight years. that is a lot. stuart: let's take a look ahead. a dot fundraiser that formally worked with around me presidential campaign. you are in a position to tell me which of the three front runners are pulling in the most money at this time. >> it is a timing answer, quite honestly. jeb bush is in the front right now. chris christie is entering the race. he is looking at competing in the presidential election. i do not know where mitt romney falls out. he is still out there talking to donors today. >> you use to raise money for the man. what is your judgment? >> i do not think romney could win, but i think he could run. stuart: bush? >> yes. stuart: what about the meeting that took place between jeb bush and mitt romney. we reported that the meeting was going to take place. >> we

take a look at this chart of ibm. there were rumors that ibm was getting ready to embark on a huge layoff. more than 100,000 workers. i've been in touch with ibm's side and they're shooting down this report. they said they were taking a charge of $600 million for restructuring. that would if you look at historical rates be a restructuring of less than 10,000 workers, if you take a look at how much these workers cost. somewhere around 70, 80,000 per worker. not clear exactly how this rumor got started. ibm's side of things shooting this down. moving on, shares of microsoft sliding lower this morning as investors await earnings coming this afternoon after the bell. the software giant's q2 earnings. also still digesting the big unveil last week which include the the microsoft surface hub and a brand new browser. these earnings are going to be interesting in particular because it's the holiday season, it's a big xbox quarter. also, we get to see a little bit more on the surface. not on the surface, but the actual computer

ibm does not have to lose for apple to win.r for salesforce to win. >> what about a company like microsoft? a company that you grew up with. >> i think there are specific product areas that could potentially lose or be harmed by some of this transition, but then there is an entire company at the macro level that does not necessarily have to lose. >> so companies like microsoft, google, amazon are dropping the price of cloud storage. how much of a threat is that to box? >> we love that. the same unit of storage is now a 40th the price as it was 10 years ago. on the supply side of our business. so the cheaper that storage gets, the more data that we can store for a customer, and the more we can deliver unique experiences around the content. >> you recently took on $150 million in funding from tpg and coatue. the company is now valued at $2.4 billion. why do you take that money? >> as you may have seen, we have filed to go public in march of this year. and then basically about a week after we filed to go public, there was a bit of

you know what the difference is here between, say, the ibm and nfl? ibm is going to lose right? and bad. at the bottom of the division. but they don't get a high draft choice because they failed to do well. there are no draft choices in this game and there's no medals for stocks down $4.80 in a single session. of course there was another positive. the key hmo you nighted health that was especially meaningful because last week they were downgraded. now, if you're a voracious short seller like a lot of the bozo hedge funds, this likes like a situation. we've also got two good bank quarters, this time from u.s. bane bank corp. they show you once again that the real problems are with the big and hard to understand and unwined banks. notice wells was almost back to when there was so much hammering about that quarter, that it was a bad one. it was a good one, people. and we had oil stabilized that matters too. it's not the direction but the velocity. oil has now stabltized in the mid-40s which allows oil companies to catch their breath. that's how chev ron neighbors in weatherford can

ibm had a rough year. an sec filing shows she filed a $3.6 million bonus in 2014. the company posted its second year of profit decline. the first salary increases taking the helm. spotify will be working with goldman sachs on a new round of private financing. seeking another half $1 billion. now to the lead. now apple has conquered the chinese smartphone market. next up, what? global domination? they nearly tied samson for global leadership in smart phone sales for the first time since 2011. both companies shipped 70.5 million smart phones in the fourth quarter. giving each company 19.6% of the market. apple applied several strategies to find success in the world'slargest market. from launching the cheaper iphone 5 model. opening more stores. holding the line on pricing. the iphone 6 and iphone 6 plus that put apple over the top. how would apple push past popular chinese makers like xiaomi and lenovo at a higher price? neill mawston joins me now via skype from milton kings, england. he is executive director. let's start in england. how would you do find these resul

ibm had a rough year. an sec filing shows she filed a $36 million bonus in 2014. the company posted its second year of profit decline. the first salary decreases taking the helm. spotify will be working with goldman sachs on a new round of private financing. seeking another half $1 billion. now apple has conquered the chinese smartphone market. next up what? global domination? they nearly tied samson for global leadership in smart phone sales. both comedy shift 70 -- 70.5 million smart phones in the fourth quarter. apple applied several strategies to find success in the largest market. the iphone 5 model. holding the line on pricing. the iphone 6 and iphone 6 plus put apple over the top. how would push past makers but xiaomi and lenovo at a higher price? i'm joined from milton kings, england. let's start in england. how would you do find these results and how surprising his this turnaround? >> the results are really good. they had a really strong quarter. they blew past pre-much everybody's expectations. it is well-known they're going through a tough period at the

let's get to our first company of the season and that would be ibm.ohn, what are we expecting here? >> we're looking for revenues of around 24.8 billion dollars, eps of $5.43. perhaps more importantly, we're looking for 2015 guidance, and that guidance is where sap and other enterprise company athat relies heavily on software had trouble this morning. it was on the transition to the cloud, which ibm likes to talk about. they've set $7 billion in revenue. cloud revenue for 2015. we want to see what more they have to say about that. also, they've been counting on growth in emerging markets, which they've had a hard time recently. we want to see how that impacts the total business. also, how they're looking now with just over $7 billion worth of businesses that were lower performing marginalized. the signing numbers important. we're looking for $17.5 billion. >> for a company like ibm, this is the performance. down 18% over the past year. it is the worse performing stock in the dow last year. 25% is from software revenues. according to what s.a.p. said,

. >> keep it here for netflix and ibm after the belle. we'll send it over to scott wapner and the "halftime report." >> welcome to the halftime show. meet our starting lineup, stephanie link, the co portfolio manager of jim cramer's charitable trust. josh brown, ceo of rid holtz wealth management, john najarian, option munster, and dan greenhouse with us today for the hour. our game plan looks like this. top gun, a hedge fund manager who returned nearly 60% in 2014 is with us exclusively. how his commodities focused fund keeps winning and where oil is going next. streaming success. can netflix deliver on its earnings tonight and what's the best trade ahead of those numbers. we do begin with the start of what we're calling the market's moment of truth. a big week of earnings, the busiest thus far. critical ecb meeting in which europe's central bank could announce its own qe program. throw in fresh concerns about china's growth, fallout from the swiss franc frack cuss, president's state of the union address and investors have plenty to cons

that makes them all tough. >> you have a bet on ibm, correct is this. >> i do. i'm on the opposite side of the fence from steve. it think it is still a premium to have ibm running your systems at the enterprise level. and i've already put my money and mouth behind. it so we'll see. >> what does rometty have to prove this year? >> 2014 was the throw in the kitchen sink. she removed guidance. sold a lot of crummy businesses. this has to be execution year. and if she doesn't execute in the first two quarters i think she has to worry about her job security. >> and dick costolo's name comes up the most in 2015 management issues. anyone want to buy twitter on the bet? >> if he leaves or however it hans, they separate, sure the stock will pop depending who they bring in. but the question is what is the plan going forward? you need a vision there. it is the only one who really hasn't enhanced meaningful their profile to get more there for longer periods of time. >>> and coming up will the apple watch be a game changer? and dog ordeal. and we've got two traders ready to