out to jon fortt if cupertino. jon?> reporter: sue, a little bit more detail on the new ipad air 2s. turns out they do have touch i.d., the fingerprint reader. the display has improved with reflectance, down 56%. it's an a8x chip. apple pay built in but it looks like that's for online use only. right now apple partner is demoing an image editing app. take a listen to some of the event. >> this is the new ipad air 2. it's unbelievably gorgeous, and look how thin it is. can you even see it? >> reporter: and more to come. it being looks like they're focusing on productivity with an improved camera including a facetime hd camera, sue. >> all right, jon, thank you. >>> the market starting to lose some steam. we're back in two. sheila! you see this ball control? you see this right? it's 80% confidence and 64% knee brace. that's more... shh... i know that's more than 100%. but that's what winners give. now bicycle kick your old 401(k) into an ira. i know, i know. listen, just get td ameritrade's rollover consultants on the hor

i don't know why bother with this. >> jon fortt? >> ridiculous but way early. i was on a panel with a couple of twitter revenue side execs a couple case ago talking about the buy button, they see possibilities with that for flash sales and the like. still still early days. this is a company that's -- a bank that's not even working that closely with twitter. they're trying to use les the platform so it might be interesting, lots of problems but it's early days. what you see square doing with -- >> jon you agree with, right, no one is going to use it? you agree with me, right? >> no one's going to use it? yeah, probably nobody's going to use it. >> thank you. >> still worried about the security aspect. if all you have to do, explain this to me, is simply tweet from ones user to the other. >> yes. >> and that means all you have to do to compromise it is log into somebody's twitter account well, leave these logged in all the time. >> that's what i said. >> that's an issue with everything. most have fraud protection on them like if you use your credit card. the easi

kayla tausche and jon fortt joining us on a very busy day. take a look at shares of ibm, definitely the story of the morning. huge earnings miss this morning. shares down about 7%. our own david faber is at ibm headquarter where he wrapped up that interview with ibm ceo ginni rometty. hi, david. >> hey, carl. disappointing day, the words ginni rometty used a number of times in our interview and on the conference call, a rare appearance for an ibm ceo on a conference call, pointing to the importance she felt in terms of at least communicating with investors about what is a significant well day for the company in many ways. not a good one in the sense of missing earnings, abandoned that road map set in place by her predecessor sam pomsono but as she has done in our previous interviews pointing to the transformation that is under way at ibm, moving into what she calls the higher valued businesses with higher margins and higher growth. although admitting that it was a disappointment. >> third quarter earnings were disappointing. they weren't what

jon fortt, research, maps, google plus, ad products and commerce.hat's a lot for one person. >> this is one of the most stunning asubsequent -- ascentsn valley. he was in charge of chrome, then android, which he took over from andy ruben and this whole portfolio of products arguably everything important at google except for youtube. what this looks like is a chief operating officer position without calling it that. he's got this kind of calm, this ability to get things done, to advance technologies, that end up taking share. >> the fact that youtube is left out of this reorganization do you think that signals how strategic or iron clad a unit that is at google or do you think there's something else? >> i think it does. it establishes it as a separate business with its own kind of brand monetization as opposed to search monetization, google's core product. there's two possible things that larry page could do with his time. the first he could nap now that he's handed off a lot of his day-to-day responsibilities and relax or invent new big lines of rev

jon fortt, what will the ipad 62 cost us? >> reporter: brooian, buckle in. i've got updates on the ipad and the overall narrative. first the imac. we have an imac with a retina display. they're calling it a 5k display. the 27-inch display will have 5,210 pixels by 2880 pixels. that's 14.7 million pixels for the people doing the multiplication at home. bill shuler calling it the highest display on the market that you can buy on a pc. looking back to the ipad now, we've got some pricing details. apple is keeping the original ipad mini around at $249. from a step up from there, you can get the retina display of the mini 2 at $299. and then up from there, the mini 3 at $399. it starts with 16 gigs of storage. goes up to 64. and then 128, much as the iphone 6 has. now, clearly what apple is doing here is making a play for premium. what we're seeing develop over the holiday season is competitors like amazon offering lower-range tablets with lower spe specs for as cheap as $99. that's what they're trying to present for a reason for people to pay more. we'll see if

jon fortt as well. amazon getting hammered after earnings came in well below estimates. also a disappointing forecast for the holiday season. sales down 30% and tracking for the worst year since 2008. we all know what 2008 was like. >> cramer's point this morning was the analysts if you look at the conference call are truly beginning to question the willingness to spend. >> it happens a lot with him. retail is a tight margin business and he spends like crazy on things that are experimental and sometimes that are super competitive because he's interested in these spaces such as the phone area. where they had a big goose egg obviously with that phone. which is a very good phone but it is a very tough market. >> i wonder if they are more upset about the spend torg opacity of the metrics. >> i think it has to be both. after last quarter and this quarter it is fair to question the thesis on amazon. the thesis might be broken. you look at cloud. they are spending a lot to expand into germany. microsoft already has better geographic coverage. they have an interesting enterprise

let's bring in our earnings squad, jon fortt and jon that jarrian. the two jons.efore we get to you guys, let's recap with our earnings scorecard here, brian. >> so far, 331 s&p 500 companies or about 66% have reported their numbers. of those that have, 76% have come in above estimates. 6% have met estimates. and 18% have unfortunately come in below estimates. >> okay. well, our thanks also to everybody for joining us today. what have you got on your card there? what are you looking at? >> we're going to start with me? >> yeah, why not. oh, jon fortt. >> these are the guests. don't short-change them. >> i was going to go clockwise. jon, why don't you start? >> well, linkedin is after the bell. this is one of those high-valuation tech stocks. so we're looking for eps. 47 cents. revenue at 558 million. that's well above where linkedin guided. but you know what? traditionally, they beat on a top line by at least 7 or so percent. they'll probably do that. but guidance is the issue. remember facebook? they beat on a top and bottom line. but the guidance came in light.

jon fortt live from cnbc headquarters. what was the reaction to this announcement today? >> well, joy, as you might imagine, there are all kinds of reactions, twitter, of course, lighting up. we should note that within apple, within tech, lots of people knew already that tim cook was gay and "out" magazine back in 2011 when he first became ceo of apple taking over from the late steve jobs, "out" magazine named him the most powerful gay man in business in the country. in that community also he was known to be gay. but here, he is personally speaking out for the first time and giving a reason for why he's saying this now. let me quote from the essay he wrote in bloomberg business week. he said at one point, being gay has given me a deeper understanding of what it means to be in the minority and provide a window into the challenges that people in other minority groups deal with every day. it's made me more empathetic, which has led to a richer life. tim cook has been a private person, doesn't talk a lot at all about his personal life. and he went on to talk about why he's do

. >> jon fortt has an interview with satya nadella on monday. >> and that's where they have the margins and growth and i'm still excited about the stock. >> so yahoo!. that's you, grasso. >> that was supposed to be an dramatic pause. >> wake up. >> every wants to see what they're going to do with the cash. $40 is the line in the sand for this one. i'm still long in the name. >> i think this is a stock during the turmoil of the last couple weeks you you got the opportunities where people after ali baba, new valuation, maybe ali baba takes them out. this is all relatively good news for the stock. i think at this valuation, it's never been more interesting when we know where ali baba is. >> pete, you're watching ford. >> yeah, the just up side october 14 1/2 calls expiring october extend the tile. only 21 cents the price they're paying. look for up side. reporting earnings the 24th. if it they're right, these should perform. >>> coming up next, the netflix debate. should you side with mark cuban? we take a deeper dive right after this. sometimes, healthy's not on the menu. luckily, always

. >> be sure to tune in for jon fortt's interview with in a dell wh in satya nadella. >>> even icons make mistakes. we'll explain why. stay tuned. [ male announcer ] eligible for medicare? that's a good thing, but it doesn't cover everything. only about 80% of your part b medical expenses. the rest is up to you. so consider an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company. like all standardized medicare supplement insurance plans, they could save you in out-of-pocket medical costs. call today to request a free decision guide. with these types of plans, you'll be able to visit any doctor or hospital that accepts medicare patients. plus, there are no networks, and virtually no referrals needed. join the millions who have already enrolled in the only medicare supplement insurance plans endorsed by aarp... and provided by unitedhealthcare insurance company, which has over 30 years of experience behind it. with all the good years ahead, look for the experience and commitment to go the distance with you. call now to request your free decision guide.

. >> be sure to tune in for jon fortt's interview with satya nadella. monday morning at 6:00 a.m.n squawk box. you won't want to miss it. >>> even icons make mistakes. we'll explain why. stay tuned. a single ember that escapes from a wildfire can travel more than a mile. that single ember can ignite and destroy your home or even your community you can't control where that ember will land only what happens when it does get fire adapted now at fireadapted.org >>> great to be a billionaire unless you were carl icahn this week. uncle carl seeing serious losses. in netflix, ebay and apple. so dan, do you think he will unwind some of this? >> it wasn't just that. it was herbalile too. he's been an amazing investor for so long and some things you can't bully around. in the instances with apple and ebay, he pushed for change. he got what he thought he wanted. but the stocks are going lower. so to me, it's a function of the market we're in. >> netflix is a real story that i think is in big trouble, although my expectation is we'll learn that's he paired his positions. herbalife, i don't se

kayla tausche and jon fortt joining us on a very busy day.shares of ibm, definitely the story of the morning. huge earnings miss this morning. shares down about 7%. our own david faber is at ibm headquarter where he wrapped up that interview with ibm ceo ginni rometty. hi, david. >> hey, carl. disappointing day, the words ginni rometty used a number of times in our interview and on the conference call, a rare appearance for an ibm ceo on a conference call, pointing to the importance she felt in terms of at least communicating with investors about what is a significant well day for the company in many ways. not a good one in the sense of missing earnings, abandoned that road map set in place by her predecessor sam pomsono but as she has done in our previous interviews pointing to the transformation that is under way at ibm, moving into what she calls the higher valued businesses with

aim here be jon fortt. back from apple's event in cuperti cupertino.t. >> it was good. no big surprises but solid. >> live at the goldman sachs builders and innovators summit, is carl. and we'll get to you in a moment but we want to talk about the markets because it's been a whip saw week here on wall street. but we've been looking at green arrows since the open. the dow up about 1 and a half%. and despite the gains on the dow it is still on track to finish that week on the red. that would be the fourth down week for the dow in at least a couple years. so we want to stay with the markets and talk a little more about what is moving behind the markets and get to the goldman sachs builders and innovators summit in santa barbara. carl over to you. >> and kayla, thank you so much. we are here at the builders and innovators summit with david solomon. david what a treat to have you. >> nice to be with you. >> we'll get to the markets in a minute but walk us through this summit, what it is and why goldman does it. >> we really believe that the work that entrep

jon fortt and kayla. what is turning out to be a remarkable market day.itical technical levels. s&p about 1% from going positive for october. we know it's been a rough month so far so we are in full on rally mode. all major indices higher by about 1%. shares of apple opened at a new all time high. 104.15. up about 30% this year. and on the flipside shares of yelp getting slammed. the worst day ever for that name in fact. even though revenue guidance up 50 percent year on year not exactly what analysts have looked for. whether a weird bifurcation to responses to some various names. >> in the case of yelp it's interesting given the trouble that angie's list is going through also. the local market. john steinberg who we have here often is talking about how hard that is to crack. then on apple in my first full day of messing around with the ipad air 2 challenge. and the i must say the addition of the touch id and the functionality, namely

we begin here with some news from our jon fortt and twitter. jon? >> kelly, i have been able to learn that twitter vice president of engineering jeremy gordon is leaving the company. this is a big deal for a few reasons. one, he i believe was in charge of around 400 people at twitter. and is very well respected inside the organization. also, adam kinny who's a four-year veteran in the engineering organization over some analytics projects is leaving, director level. at time the company trying to tweak the products in order to grow users. something they talked about extensively on the call on monday. also i'm hearing within twitter and the engineering organization, there's dissension of the direction, lack of clarity and getting products out. exactly what the direction is. dick costolo was telling our own julia boorstin on monday in that exclusive earnings interview that they're all on board and proud of it and confident in it. not exactly what i'm hearing and some people connected to twitter are saying that these departures which do continue are indi

over to jon fortt with a look at what's next on "squawk alley." orning jon. >> a really fun show coming up. bill gurley talking about risk, maybe a little about yahoo from a venture capitalist perspective. also walt mossberg with the details behind the ipad air 2 and twitter singing the old jackson five song. they want you back. that's coming up how do you beat the number one seed? you just have to win 70% of your points at net. and keep unforced errors under 10%. on the ibm cloud, the us open analyzes 41 million data points from 8 years of competition to uncover key insights. data can help show you how to win, no matter what business you're in. today there's a new way to work. and it's made with ibm. big day? ah, the usual. moved some new cars. hauled a bunch of steel. kept the supermarket shelves stocked. made sure everyone got their latest gadgets. what's up for the next shift? ah, nothing much. just keeping the lights on. (laugh) nice. doing the big things that move an economy. see you tomorrow, mac. see you tomorrow, sam. just another day at n

kayla tow shi, jon fortt as always. dow up 95. shares in rally mode. many firms hiking price targets on apple today. goldman, morgan stanley, just a few of the names upping prices this morning. and walter, i know you don't like to be turned to on apple all the time. but we're at an interesting stage for this company. >> and apple should be proud. it's just staggering the numbers as tim cook said. and i haven't yet had a chance to get my new iphone. but clearly these are things we all want and they are really cracking real quell. >> in the book you write it is not just a product. it is the team. >> and i asked steve at one point, what product are you most proud of? i thought he would say the iphone or maybe the ipad. he said making a the product is hard but making a team, a company that will continue to make products is the big thing. i'm most proud of having made apple. so this why you watch apple today. >> i wonder if we're now seeing the results of that team. >> it is always a team. i've written this new book and it is about that. that's something i

joining me is ross gerber, nicholas carlton and jon fortt and guy adami. welcome. >> hello!ewers paying close attention may have noticed we have a group who can talk all things apple when the report hits at 4:30. several other interesting things in the market today, guy. notely, the tone and tenor is much different story of last week. what changed? >> people feel better about things. kelly, well, the technicals have held up and in 1970 was the level. 1904 is the level that everybody talked about that second wave down. that was support. support becomes resistance. i think that's exactly what's happening now. i'm inclined to sell the market. i think i'm wrong on a close above 1925 and feels eerily similar as to back around october 10th or so. i don't think anything's changed and the market might be technically broken and in for a retrace of the level of last week on the downside. >> ross, you agree? >> no. i don't agree. i was looking to get above 1900 today. it was actually really positive sign. it was a lot of negativity in the market the last few weeks and, you know, we saw

with us as always jon fortt, kayka kay kayla. the company's well positioned for 2015. here is mayer on the call last night. >> we've built a truly excellent team up to the task that. team our board and i will will continue to be careful -- we've achieved many more man than people realize. delivered significant shareholder value. >> yahoo seeing a lot of upgrades today. some price targets with the five as people look for yahoo to build tax efficient ways to unload assets. bill we have a lot to talk with you about. i wonder if you wouldn't mind obliging us on yahoo and walking us through huh you see the state your name around. >> a lot of people in silicon valley are huge fans of marissa and rooting for her. now that alibaba has passed i think expectations were fairly low. and to the extent she can get momentum and get better products it there, i think there is more upside than downside. >> if you are talking to your entrepreneurs and they are looking at possibilities of companies that might want to take them out, given what marissa said last night about their mobile gro

our jon fortt has the story that created a buzz pretty much everywhere today, jon. >> within siliconley circles, technology circles, the gay community, been nope for years tim cook is game "out" magazine named him in 2011 as the most powerful gay man in america but for him to state so in his up voice, in his up words, in business -- bloomberg business week magazine today had a different impact. just a couple of quotes from his essay there. he says, "being gay has give many deeper understanding of what it means to be in the minority and provided a window into the challenges that people in other minority groups deal we have day. it's made me more everybody threatic, which has led to a richer life." as for why he's saying this now, here's what he had to say, "i don't consider myself an activist, but i realize how much i have benefit frond the sacrifice of others." hearing that the ceo of apple is gay can help someone struggling to come to terms with who he or she is or bring comfort to anyone who feels alone or inspire people to insist on their equate, then it's worth the tradeoff with

today, of course, jon fortt, robert frank. jon?first stock on the friday, old national bank corp. with an upgrade. a midwest bellweather. >> that's right. analysts upgrading to buy. yesterday's announced share repurchase cham is a reason and improving economy in south central michigan and indiana. target remains at 15 bucks. currently at 12.88. >> downgrade of abercrombie & fitch. the pace of recovery and revenue slower than expected. target cut. >> yeah. also worth noting that goldman sachs cut them to sell from neutral today, as well. the stock is really significantly lower. down by about 6%. over the past year down by 13%. >> all right. >> hot models, though. >> really hot models. standing out there rain, hail. >> hate those guys. hate those guys. >> storming and snowy an they're standing there looking all buff. >> not working for them all the time. pandora, a downgrade earlier today and the stock not taking it so well. >> pretty heavy volume to the downside here. cut to neutral of positive. the firm is noting user growth concer

jon fortt is at the stock exchange with the talk of the wall street today. >> widely known in many circles. but there is a special significance to him penning this essay where he not only talks about that but also talks about the importance in business of diversity and of being one's authentic self. just a couple of peaces from the essay. "being gay has given me a deeper understanding what it means to be in the minority and provided a window into challenges that people in other minority groups deal with every day. making me empathetic and leading o a richer life. he goes on to talk about how he expects this to have an impact. he says i don't consider myself an activist but i realize how much i've benefitted from the sacrifice of others. so if hearing that the ceo of apple is gay can help someone struggling to come to terms with who he or she is or bring comfort to anyone who feels a i lo alone or inspire people to insist on their equality then it's worth the tradeoff of my own privacy. he still wants his own privacy but he's penned this essay today. >> well said. jon thanks. our next guest

. >> thanks to andrew, jon fortt. as we hit noon time scott, over to you and the gang. >> thanks so much. welcome to the halftime show. let's meet today's starting lineups, stephen weiss, pete najarian co-founder of option munster, josh brown ceo of rid holtz wealth management and mike murphy, also with us today, is tony dwyer chief strategist at cancord genuity. stocks off their worst week in more than two years and the market making investors more jittery they've been in an awfully long time. our question today, are things about to get a whole lot sfwhors the drop in oil, cyclicals, small caps would seem to suggest they might. so would a spike in volatility. what's the best way to navigate all this. josh, i think the most important chart to watch today is the one we're going to put up and that's the russell that has concerned me the most for the longest period of times because the russell since july has been rolling over. >> yeah. >> small caps today in the face of uncertainty all over the place in the market, are.

jon fortt is here, as well. i checked with jon fortt first thing. this is the movie, the me work, facebook going on the internet, put your pictures on there? that's what we're talking about here, isn't it, ron? >> that's exactly right. that's the business that's going to do about $12 billion in revenue this year and is massively profitable and has lots of opportunity ahead of itself. >> i'm told they're on instagram, as well. my kids are on instagram. i know about it because i need to check exactly what they're up to on instagram. so i've seen knit that respect. no, but seriously, is this an amazon situation? they let amazon spend money for five years before it came home to roost. but the stock has had a heck of a run. >> the stock has had a heck of a run, that's exactly right. the bottom line is, in our opinion, yes, they're going to degree this eir expenses by 70%. we added an additional $1.2 billion to our expenses. but when we think about it, this is still a company that is generating 50% ebitda margins, growing very fast with, changing the worl

mike so soft sitting down with jon fortt to talk about business on the cloud. joins us this morning with more of that interview. >> yeah. it's an important conversation especially now given ibm's results. microsoft has done pretty well in the cloud. the ceo was in charge of cloud efforts before he got that big promotion. i talked to him about what microsoft is doing in the cloud. where it views strategic advantages at being. who he thinks are on microsoft's level in the cloud. >> i think if you're not already spending a lat of capital many the order of $4 billion, $5 billion each year to just grow your cloud, probably it's too late to enter the market. i mean, that's the entry barriers. and there are a few of us on that megascale of cloud. >> that's the cost of entry. if you're not willing to spend $5 billion a year, forget it. >> if you have to be in that business and if you're a megascale cloud provider you're already committing a lot of capital. there are at least two other players like that. amazon and google in particular. we are with unof the three in tha

now we'll bring in jon fortt, i have to ask you, many investors called for h.p.up the company, why are we hearing about this now? >> well, to answer that question is probably that the pc business has been going through an unexpected uptick. a number of reasons for that. tablets growth has sort of stalled and people realize they need productivity machines. and that business for hp is really a cash-flow machine. so hp has explored selling that business a little more than a year ago. couldn't really find a taker at the price they wanted. it turned out to be more valuable and investors are seeing more value in it than a potential inquirer would have a year ago. this is really the failure we're seeing now of the vision of more than a decade ago of hp as a hardware superstore. we thought they could serve consumers and enterprise pcs and a huge amount of goods that are walmart style to everybody, pressure suppliers providing smaller prices. at the transition to mobile and cloud, that model didn't pan out the way hp intended. now this company that was kind of a piece tog

jon fortt as well. amazon getting hammered after earnings came in well below estimates.ointing forecast for the holiday season. sales down 30% and tracking for the worst year since 2008. we all know what 2008 was like. >> cramer's point this morning was the analysts if you look at the conference call are

jon fortt tweeted out this is not when you see the wild stock swings.the conference call and outlook issues to move the stock more. gilead, also in terms of earnings per share, unclear if that's comparable to estimates. revenues coming in slightly better. the hepatitis c treatment, sales lighter than expectations. so those shares you can watch for that one there. electronic arts, 73 cents a share beats estimates in terms of 53-cent estimate. also sales coming in slightly better, as well. shares up by about 3.5% and then invensense reporting five cents a share versus estimates of 16 cents a share. sales in line at $90 million and said that gross margins declined from the same time last year due to a one-time inventory related charge and a secular shift to certain lower margin type items and the revenue mix a question there. express scripts, earnings matching of $1.29 a share. sales better, as well. for the average analyst estimate. >> dominic? dominic? dominic, i have to ask you this. i know you know all things about the stock market. at this point, at t

. >> let's send it over to jon fortt with me on bitcoin. what's coming up some. >> i am, sara. up. we're going to talk hp, revisit the great interview that david faber did with meg whitman about the upcoming split. kara swisher will join us to weigh in and we've got technology investor roger mcnamee who's never short of insight on topics like these coming up. there's a difference when you trade with fidelity. one you won't find anywhere else. one-second trade execution. guaranteed. did you see it? in one second, he made a trade, we looked for the best price, and the trade went through. do the other guys guarantee that? didn't think so. open an account and find more of the expertise you need to be a better investor. your customers, our financing. your aspirations, our analytics. your goals, our technology. introducing synchrony financial, bringing new meaning to the word partnership. banking. loyalty. analytics. synchrony financial. enagage with us. revolutionary by every standard. and that became our passion. to always build something better, airplanes that fly cleaner and fart

jon fortt, you found rather interesting things in there, right? >> reading the last quarterly filing, the company, of course, is public as you pointed out, and this is the company that is supplying some sapphire glass to apple. apple usinging sapphire glass on the touch i.d. button and the apple watch coming next year. so a lot of people had bought this stock and bid it up assuming, hey, this company is associated with apple and what could go wrong? it turns out gt advance had an agreement and apple essentially to give them just over $500 million worth of loans in four installments and provide sapphire glass that meets apple standards in a certain period of time and from this last filing we see that gt advance is having some trouble doing that. just to read some pieces for it, during the first half of this year, the company says it incured significant cost of inventory losses and production inefficiencies as a result of the qualification of sapphire growth and fabrication equipment and growing it and making it ready. apple apparently saying the --

. >> over to jon fortt with a look at what's coming up next on "squawk alley" lee. g show coming up. blackberry ceo john chen. we're going to cover why the blackberry classic won't be another fire phone. and finally the google wallet creator and the future of payments. ng. ng. getting in a groove. growth is gratifying. goal is to grow. gotta get greater growth. i just talked to ups. they got expert advise, special discounts, new technologies. like smart pick ups. they'll only show up when you print a label and it's automatic. we save time and money. time? money? time and money. awesome. awesome! awesome! awesome! awesome! (all) awesome! i love logistics. can you start tomorrow? yes sir. alright. let's share the news tomorrow. today we failrly busy. tomorrow we're booked solid. we close on the house tomorrow. i want one of these opened up. because tomorow we go live... it's a day full of promise. and often, that day arrives by train. big day today? even bigger one tomorrow. when csx trains move forward, so does the rest of the economy. csx. how tomorrow moves. there's

. >> i'm going to go back to the three years -- we were talking with jon fortt earlier. argument they couldn't have done this earlier. they wouldn't have had to hold onto everything because the business wouldn't have the value. >> i agree. you know, 2010 the pc market started to decelerate. that got worse. 2014 we started to see stabilization. >> hang on. maybe that's an argument for not doing it then. for waiting the three years. >> well, i think the mistake they made in 2011. so let's go back. you know, we highlighted the summer of 2011. the ceo at the time came out and announced they were going to spin off the pc business. the issue was they never had a buyer at that time. so the business was going to get weaker and weaker and weaker. the buyer would stand back and they have a deal. >> meg whitman inherited that mess. did she do the right thing in waiting the three years? >> i think she did the right thing. she came in, got rid of the mess. but we always said she'll come back to the well. she has to. hp is nowhere in software. it's a $4 billion business. ibm, $30 bill

let me ask you, last week, nadella was interviewed by jon fortt here at cnbc. he said there are three big companies that are real players and cloud. he listed microsoft, amazon and google. he didn't mention companies like an hp or oracle or an ibm. is that a fair assessment, are they the three big players and is it going to be profitable? >> yes and yes. so servers and storage as a service -- >> amazon is giving it away though. >> i think you have to throw sales force.com in there. there are some smaller companies too. but hp is a slow mover. ibm was trying to straddle a number of worlds and keep some of their lucrative businesses. there's a couple of other things going on out there. there's open source software. satya nadella said they are run on linix. so this is a very different -- it's surprising that that mirrors the general share of workloads in the market overall. but google has the scale, amazon has the scale, and microsoft has the cloud scale. when you start to play a race to the bottom which is what amazon has done, it may be coming back to bite them

. >> joining us now on the line is jon fortt.rning. >> good morning, becky. >> this is something that's been talked about in circles in the past. it's been questioned. he himself has said he's never hidden it from people he's close to. but does this change the conversation? >> it absolutely does change the conversation. i mean, i think this is just a really big moment in corporate history. as you guys were discussing. very seldom if ever have we seen a ceo of any five company write a letter like this about his sexual orientation. and for it to come from apple, the most valuable company in the world, the most valuable brand in the world by many measures is really significant. at the same time, though, this is going to surprise pretty much exactly no one who knows tim cook or works with him. it would be wrong to even probably call it an open secret. it's just sort of known in technology circles and around silicon valley. but the impact of him talking about it openly, him talking about his thought process in pointing to the conditio

and a programming note, jon fortt sitting down for an exclusive interview with microsoft's the ceo nadellaat's on monday at 6:00 a.m. eastern time. >> i'll be watching. when change is in the air you see things in a whole new way. it's in this spirit that ing u.s. is becoming a new kind of company. one that helps you think differently about what's ahead, and what's possible when you get things organized. ing u.s. is now voya. changing the way you think of retirement. i'm spending too much time hiring and not enough time in my kitchen. [ female announcer ] need to hire fast? go to ziprecruiter.com and post your job to over 30 of the web's leading job boards with a single click; then simply select the best candidates from one easy to review list. you put up one post and the next day you have all these candidates. makes my job a lot easier. [ female announcer ] over 100,000 businesses have already used zip recruiter and now you can use zip recruiter for free at a special site for tv viewers; go to ziprecruiter.com/offer2. at a special site for tv viewers; a single ember that escapes from a wil

cnbc editor jon fortt. guys, i should tell you, i talked to her last night. >> you talked to her?she took my call and we spoke. >> was it a conference call and you were just lynching? >> no, no, no. this was a real phone call and we spoke for about a half an hour. >> way to bury the lead. >> i am a little -- i have been a little skeptical. >> i know about henry sleeping in your bed last night. >> henry, that's my son. >> just to explain -- >> i don't want to seem too skeptical, but we've talked about the value of alibaba and whether this thing can -- >> with henry? >> no. we've talked about the table about alibaba and whether you take alibaba out of the business whether the business is worth anything. and i have to say that i was impressed, not only by the numbers, and you can disagree with me, but by at least the prospect that the company was not -- when she started at that company, the whole thing was going to hell in a hand basket quite quickly. even if you decide the strategy isn't all baked and all that stuff -- >> you've been saying for a long time the strategy was not baked