klaus kleinfeld is stepping down as the ceo of ar connick.hey have been involved in the proxy fight with large shareholder elliott management. i think it's expected to take place may 16th. elliott had been waging a significant war against mr. kleinfeld. i'm looking through the press release here. what i can tell you is mr. kleinfeld they say stepped down as chair and ceo by mutual agreement after the board learned that without consultation with or authorization by the board, he had sent a letter directly to a senior officer at elliott management that the board determined showed poor judgment. they say this decision was not made. that is effectively to ask for his resignation it would appear. in response to the proxy fight the criticisms of the strategy, leadership and performance and not in many any way related to the financials or records of the company. clearly, requiring a bit more reporting it would seem to look into this. given that the board had remained steadfastly it would appear behind the leadership of mr. kleinfeld, which of course

arconic last night, that was klaus kleinfeld who was the ceo until he was unceremoniously ousted becausee letter and they reported a good quarter. this is klaus's quarter. the interim did a good job, but by the way, alcoa which is the other part that he's split up had a monster quarter. but klaus kleinfeld did not get to cross jordan to the way to milk and honey. >> unfortunate series of events for him. >> yes. look, what can i tell you? the letter was a bizarre letter. the change in the way he's split the company was brilliant. he didn't get much credit. you know, there's not a plaque, nothing. >> there's a lot of fighting going on between elliott and arconic. they're not agreeing to any sort of settlement and elliott wants four board seats. >> auto and aerospace was terrific. they did fix the problem with united technologies, on the big gear turbo fan which is really positive. they spent a lot move knee doing it. the company is set up for a great few years. charitable trust owns arconic. >> what do you have tonight? >> well, some of the companies that have been fabulous are selling off

emy elliott imagineagement releasing the letter of klaus kleinfeld.nger a letter that they thought was threatening, some form of extorti extortion. the letter suggested, i real cey learned from berlin what a soccer enthusiast you are. how you celebrated your soccer enthusiasm unforgettable without a doubt. if i native to find an american indian's feather head dress i will send this additional part of your memories and by the way, "singing in the rain" is a wonderful classic, even though i never tried to sing it in a fountain. clearly there was some kind of revelry in a fountain with an indian head dress and i'm going to tell people you were partying at this soccer match. >> that's just weird. >> as a token of my appreciation to learn about this other side of you, i allow myself to bring back some vivid or imagined debauchery. >> i've been around him only a couple of times. >> klaus? >> no, paul singer. you wouldn't think being around here that he's a big partier necessarily. you have your ear to the ground all the time. was there prior to this a reput

klaus kleinfeld the c.e.o. will be stepping down. he was c.e.o.s the products. elliot management has a 13% stake in arconic and in january urged the board and klaus fine felled to resign saying he under performed against every relevant benchmark during his tenure. he fought back and did not resign but now he has. the stock continues to move higher. drug makers front and center today, down hard by a combo of about 16%. the joint drug they wanted to bring to market for rheumatoid arthritis did not get approval by the fda and now will be another eponingsly. the fda wants more information on dosage as well as safety. that hurt the growth rate of 5.1% over at eli lilly. the competition relatively flat, a little bit of support though because their rheumatoid argue right is drugs have less -- arthritis drugs have less competition. julian emanuel the biggest bear on the street. here's how he stacks up. these are the median s&p estimates for 2017. the high is actually now 2700. boost it a little higher thanks to morgan stanley. mike wilson over at that sho

i have known klaus kleinfeld for a long time. it's not about friends but about money.was a shock, a true shock. and i'm scratching my head because, you know, when you have a win, you don't turn it into the loss. >> but elliott is still coming. they're still coming for four seats. >> if they get it, they'll make it so they can really change the company dramatically. but on a short term basis get the stock higher short term. >> any information about what specifically that letter said? >> that's today's business. that's today's business for me and it was -- >> all we know is what elliott said in their other statement, some sort of a threat. not like elliott doesn't write threatening letters all the time, but they don't like getting them. only like sending them. >> i don't know. really, i mean, i woke up and there it was. i have to make some calls but my daughter is -- i'm going to take a break from the ridiculous life where i'm trying to figure out what his letter said. at least i had enough perspective not -- sorry, i didn't want to be existential. but klaus's letter ver

and i have known klaus kleinfeld a long time. >> i was going to ask you, does it reflect the kleinfeldou know? >> absolutely not. absolutely not. >> taken a different way? could it have been meant in jest, not that it matters at this point. >> you know what, one can only hope for those who have known him for a long time. that that's the way it is. i certainly reached out to get his side. >> wow. we'll watch the trading on arconic and a bunch of other names. csx is going to have the best day of the year, even of the decade. we'll get cramer's "mad dash" and count down to the opening bell when "squawk" comes back. nf the customer app will be live monday. can we at least analyze customer traffic? can we push the offer online? brian, i just had a quick question. brian? brian... legacy technology can handcuff any company. but "yes" is here. you're saying the new app will go live monday?! yeah. with help from hpe, we can finally work the way we want to. with the right mix of hybrid it, everything computes. so what else is new? humm..she's doing good. she needs more care though. she wants to

fedex networks are massive, far-reaching and, yes... a little magical. fedex.com slash dream >>> klaus kleinfeldd, quote, poor judgment in contacting elliott management which is iconic's biggest director. today proved a small victory for that hedge fund. headed up by paul singer, and targeted companies all over the world, including places like south korea where they're deeply entrenched. joining us is jeff graham. welcome to you. >> thanks for having me. >> how do you describe elliott and the scope of it today? >> it's among the oldest hedge funds in the business. it's been around for 40 years. they've been doing distressed investing for 30 years. it's an extension from stress investing. the same liquidity profile. a lot of restructuring company boards and restek turg of companies. so they've been doing that for 15 years or so. and they've been very successful at it. >> what are some of its high profile examples here? iconic is just one. but that they would take on a company like samsung is extraordinary and they're not afraid to go out and ruffle feathers. >> they don't have like the marquee na

. >>> this was a week ago, of course klaus kleinfeld was sum marley dismissed from his -- summarily dismissedarconic. he's stepped down from the boards of morgan stanley and hewlett-packard enterprises. people were saying isn't that going to be next and it has been. his role in any sort of public companies is now gone. that's -- man, that's got to be quite a fall from grace. >> i think that -- you know, it's not about friends, it's about money. i know klaus. this is -- he's had a very public posture even maybe you -- maybe our viewers don't know, but badgette, which is a very important event for journalists, he was our host for -- he has been strident about protecting journalism. i think his public role was far bigger than people realized in terms of his posture about trying to be with the president, trying to really make a -- you know, an industrial case for america and that's -- i have to ask you, david. these were all voluntarily on klaus's part? >> i believe so, although it is interesting because patricia russo is also at hqe and she's the chair over at arconic. >> yeah. >> that immediate