for "nightly business report," i'm morgan brennan in los angel angeles. >>> comcast has mentioned ingan's story is the parent company of cnbc, and they produce this program. >>> another big telecom has a lot to brag about, t-mobile adding a record number of customers in the first quarter thanks to aggressive marketing and discounting. they added 4 million new subscrib subscribers, more than its top three rivals combined. even though the company lost $151 million last quarter because of the discounts, shares of t-mobile surged 8% today. >>> and putting the industry on track, that is way ahead of last year's pace. after all that brutal winter weather dealers saw strong sales of jeeps and pickups last month. for detroit's big three, the big winner was chrysler which had its best winter ever. sales in the general division up a stunning 2%, sales at general motors still rose 7%, but sales at ford were down a fraction on wall street, stocks mirroring the figures with shares at gm a bit higher and ford just a bit lower. >>> and despite that slight selloff, ford motors made big headlines tod

morgan brennan has more on which companies may be if play for future americaners. >> we've known it was coming, but the weekend, at&t and directtv officially struck a deem. parking the latest big ticket purchase in the communications space. the deal which still has to get past regulators, will create a combined company with access to over 26 million u.s. paid tv subscribers. putting it up against another come cast. at&t and directtv's deal excels a mergeing trend in media, consolidation. analysts say the entire industry is undergoing a fundamental shift as customers go online for their immediate consumption. >> this is all about broad band. we live in a brond band world. for the one is talking about how many video households they have, how much better video service they can offer. it all about what is the potential of broad band in this country and what can that beggar company do if terms of getting into a wifi foot print to provide wireless access to that broad band. >> at&t will be able to build out the services and that raidss questions about dish in this case, which doesn't have if

morgan brennan has more on what is behind the move with the media giant. >> today was the last day youcould buy time warner stock and expect share news this company, as well. time warner will have 23 magazines including people, fortune and its namesake, time. experts say it will allow time inc. to focus on a sweeping re-design. >> for time inc., this frees them now to pursue what is best for them in terms of corporate strategy, capital strategy, and you have a built-in shareholder base because you're spinning this off obviously out of the time warner holders. >> the emerging company is already making big changes, announcing it will change its offices for lower manhattan in the world trade center and it is experimenting with unprecedented ads, running them on the front of time magazine and sports illustrated. this marks the seven-year restructuring. the parent company can focus exclusively on tv and movie content. namely warner brother studios, tv network like hbo, cnn and tbs. time warner is following in the foot steps of other giants. like viacom and cbs and news corp and 21st century

for "nightly business report," i'm morgan brennan in santa monica, california. >>> and scott kessler sees plenty of harmony between apple and beats. scott, you know, this subject all day was getting debate on both sides. either you love the deal or hate the deal and you just heard jean munster saying it was a bad deal, so why do you love the deal? >> yeah, i don't know if i love the prospects of the deal, susie, but i do see a lot of positives. most notably, apple is already in the business that beats is focused on, or at least beats electronics is focused on as well as beats music. so first of all you have the accessory business generating about $1.3 billion in revenue for the march quarter. and obviously that beats bread and butter. they make headphones and speakers and apple felt a lot of those. so obviously we're moving the kind of middle man from that process, makes those products more profitable for and -- apple. but more importantly on the product side is beats streaming service that you referenced. it is newly launched but something that apple is looking at closely. they're v

for "nightly business report," i'm morgan brennan in los angeles. >>> and to read more on the fcc's vote on spectrum and how it could impact consumers go to our website at nbr.com. >>> and shares sent lower, tonight we begin our focus, earnings and revenue beat estimates as cost cuts helped the company offset lower sales of its tractors and other gear, but deere lowered the forecast with expected income declines, sales of agriculture and turf equipment will fall for the full year and the stock fell 2% to $91.70. >>> sony shares plunged after the giant said they had a quarterly loss of $1.3 billion hit by costs of selling its pc business. the company predicts it will post its fifth annual loss in six years. the ceos and others are returning their bonuses to make up for the rough quarter. the stock fell to $16.50. >>> yahoo! buying the mobile messaging app blink for an undisclosed amount. the application lets users send messages that will supposedly self-destruct after it is used by the sender. shares of yahoo! are down a fraction, $34.17 was the close. >>> kate spade, the accessory and ap

morgan brennan looks at what tinsel town is hanging its hat on this summer. >> reporter: monsters and apocalypses. that's what you can expect to watch at the box office this summer, starting with "godzilla." $160 million remake distributed by warner brothers debued earlier this month. >> like most that end with a number in the title are going to be the ones that do the best. it's a summer dominated by sequels, comic book movies, prequels, that's what the core movie fans want to see. >> reporter: ticket sales are up 5% to $3.5 billion. that bodes well going into the busy summer season. may through august typically accounts for almost half of almost all of u.s. box revenue each year. last summer broke records, thanks to hits like "despicable me" sequel and "iron man 3" for disney. expect even more marvel characters on movie theater marquises, starting with the new "x men" on memorial day 21st century fox has "x men" and sony's "spider man" sequel. that hasn't hindered disney. it's kept the sequel broke the box office records and it has marvel's guardian of the galaxy. later this month,

confidence in apps that we are developing, i guess. >> reporter: for "nightly business report," i'm morgan brennanin san francisco. >>> and finally tonight, some of the challenges and some eye-opening technology at twitter. shares of the micro-blogging site fell to the lowest price since it wrapped up the first day of trading that is after disappointing investors late tuesday with lower than forecast user growth and a weaker outlook. despite revenue doubling last quarter, still, the ceo offered a positive spin on the earnings report and talked about what twitter needs to focus on right now. >> focused on three things, growth, operating efficiency and operating leverage. that second and third are absolutely in service to steadily improving margins, steadily improving margins. so as a high-growth company i want to make sure we're not starving the growth engine while constantly focusing internally on getting better and better at operating efficiency and operating better in service to margins. >> now, we all know that news travels faster these days, and twitter can now see how fast giving us a look at

morgan brennan reports. >> defend, attack, score!a potential new agreement could shake up the video game industry disrupting the way video games are purchased and played. the unlikely culprit, comcast corporation. the cable giant is in talks with gamemaker electronic arts to bring popular titles like madden nfl and fifa soccer to comcast x-1 cable box system. after two years of testing a deal is to be struck in the coming months. they're able to download a selection to ea's games in much the same way you'd order a pay-per-view movie. more casual, family-friendly fare will be offered including fifa, madden, monopoly and plants versus zombies. this would create a new distribution model allowing a company to not only compete in space dominated by tech companies like sony, microsoft, apple and amazon.com, but bypass their devices altogether. it's also a big step for electronic arts. >> if ea can get an extra couple hundred,000 people to spend money, their average revenue per user is probably around ten bucks a month for the people who sp

morgan brennan explains. >> reporter: facebook -- it brings the social media giant one step closer toroad roll-out of premium video ads. ads that could boost facebook's revenue as much as $1 billion annually by some estimates and potentially change the way marketers target users on-line. >> facebook feels that they're bringing scale to the table, they're bringing measurement, and they're bringing an edge in format in terms of whether the news feed ad or the ability to experiment around video. >> publicists and its client which includes verizon and coca-cola will work closely with facebook to develop content. the high quality videos will run at 15 seconds a piece and appear automatically in the top of user's news feeds. facebook has already been quietly releasing test videos in recent weeks working with small advertisers like nbc and macy's. it's launched -- >> we have a say in the content displayed in those ads and then running them without sound, unless a user directly clicks on the video. analysts say it's important that facebook gets this right. >> what facebook has to be careful o

morgan brennan with what investors need to know ahead of those numbers today. , morgan. >> reporter: hi, sue. don't expect disney's number to be, amillennium, frozen. >>> the larger media networks including both cable and broadcast expected to pull in 5.2 billion. espn by far the biggest single money maker for the company, so keep an eye on ad revenue and how much the winter olympics pressured that number. for parks and resorts division, 3.5 billion and how attendance compares to pricing. remember, orlando's disney world raised admission prices in february. for the studios, we're expecting 1.5 billion. that's largely thanks to "frozen" which topped the billion dollar market at the end of march to be the top grossing animated film of all time. that's going to lift studio retch, but also the consumer division, because disney can't keep those "frozen" toys on the shelves, and update on the shanghai disney expanse, all things marvel, and of course "star wars." back to you, sue. >> that's what everybody is waiting to see, morgan. >>> talk to me about twitter at this

we have jackie deangelis on gas, jane wells on food, and morgan brennan on the movies.it off. >> well, mandy this goes costing me a fortune today to do these live shots. we're burning through the cash. that is much higher than the overall rate of inflation, but beef prices are particularly high. this is the time of year when both consumers and restaurants compete for lower supplies, a lot lower, the usda says froch beef supplies are down 21% from a year ago. we're clearing out the freezer. we have less beef. ranchers started winding down when beef prices hit records two years ago. now prices are back down into normal range, so ranchers will start to ramp up. >> it's going to take two years to alleviate this shortage if the farmers come in and the ranchers go back into the cattle business, but this is the biggest shortage i have ever seen. i've been in the business -- i hate to say, but 60 years. >> cattle futures have started to pull back market catch prices, processing plants prepare to close. rhodes says it's so crazy, his last shipment of beef was the same as before,

. >>> let's get down to business with cnbc's morgan brennan. good morning, morgan. >> hi, richard.apple is getting into the smarthome business. reports say apple will unveil plans next week to let your iphone or ipad control all of your home devices. users would be able to do things like automatically turn on lights or set their alarms. meanwhile, visa and mastercard are renewing a push to replace magnetic strips on debit and credit cards. they say this would cut down on fraud. chips are widely used in canada m mexico and europe but haven't been adopted here because of the costs. >>> and for the fifth straight year, the honda accord ranks as the most stolen car. lojack says most of the cars on its top ten list are top sellers, but there are a few surprises. the acura integra hasn't been available since the 2001 model year. richard, back to you. >> maybe that's why folks like it. thanks, appreciate that. >>> if a long weekend was not enough for you, orbitz is offering 15% off hotel stays with the promo code get happy. and hotels.com is offering $50 off, a coupon there for expenditur

. >>> and it is time to get down to business with cnbc's morgan brennan. od morning, morgan. >> dara, it is official. apple is buying beats electronics for $3 billion. to boost the music business streaming services like spotify are denting itunes and its digital downloads. apple not only gets beats streaming service and tie in headphones, but also high profile talent as well. co-founders jimmy ivene and rap star dr. dre join the company. meanwhile, a judge in chicago will consider a motion today to consolidate lawsuits over gm's ignition switch recall into a single class action. plaintiffs lawyers want the current and not the prebankruptcy gm to be held liable for the recall. and at&t gets a new ride. it struck a deal with uber. loading it to on droandroid pho. back to you. >>> starbucks gold members get a free drink for every dozen purchased. a blogger named andrew of the consumerist took full advantage ordering a 60 espresso shot milk shake that retailed for $54.75. andrew said it was delicious after drinking only a third of the beverage. >>> and just ahe

>>> let's get down to business with cnbc morgan brennan. good morning, morgan. >> good morning, frances. look no hands. goog is building a driverless car with no steering wheel and brakes. currently has a top speed of 25 miles per hop. sergey brin intends to put the car on the street sometime this world. >>> many expect to work longer and transition to retirement by shifting from full to part-time jobs and half believe the next generation will be worse off than they are. >>> but it is good to be a ceo a study finds the average pay for chief executives topped $10 million last year. it's the fourth straight year their pay has risen. ceos now make 257 times the average worker salary. frances, back to you. >> morgan thank you very much. >>> some other parties, texas tea party, the oldest member to ever serve in the house of representatives lost his primary runoff. 91-year-old republican ralph hall, a world war ii veteran who boasts the story of bonnie and clyde lost his term. >>> firearms and booze. the city of oklahoma city has approved a gun r

morgan brennan is live today.he street just hates this stock. >> yeah, the puns are endless right now, sue. the wwe hosted a last-minute call this morning. it was meant to in the story of the ceo clear up programs a degree of misunderstanding. that misunderstanding saw shares fall. stripping mcmanual of his billionaire title as he personally lost some $350 million in net worth. why is the stock getting smacked down? it's the new wwe network, that the company launched last quarter, so news of the o telepho tt service -- early numbers was not as good as the street had hoped. that started the sell-off. flash forward to friday. wwe announced an increase in tv rights views. estimated at about 50%, so decent, but not even close to the triple-digit increase expectation from the street. on the call today, mcmanual frankly acknowledgic that the launch of the wwe lightly hinder tv negotiations. >> i think it definitely had a negative impact. how much of it i don't know. the other amerit is if we didn't come out with a netwo

morgan brennan live at cnbc headquarters with what the detroit automaker is asking for. good morning, morgan. >> federal judge is holding a hearing today to consider a motion on whether to consolidate all those switches into a single class action. many gm owners say the value of their cars have dropped. the scrutiny of models in the recall. lawyers also believe the current and not prebankruptcy gm should be held libel. the judge is not expected to issue a ruling today, however. meanwhile, futures are higher after stocks snatched their four-day win streak and investors are feeling a bit skiddish as levels not seen since last summer and we're getting data today on unemployment and pending home sales and a report of first quarter gdp. that may show the economy actually contracted this winter. although many people do chalk that up to the weather and growth should rebound this spring. the dow falling 42 points and nasdaq losing 12 to 24, 25. google releasing stats on the makeup of its work and the numbers aren't good. about 70% of employees are male and 61% are white. silicon

morgan brennan is there for us. morgan, what is the big focus of the meeting? >> reporter: brian, this is the first time ever that shareholders from outside of the company are getting to put up proposals for a vote. so we have seven on the agenda today. two from the company, five from those shareholders. two of the most interesting, i think, is a call for more detailed disclosures of political contributions and a proposed recapitalization plan that would give one vote per share for all outstanding stock. that is not likely to pass, but it certainly makes a statement with facebook. >> morgan brennan, thanks a lot for that. watching facebook shares in today's session. >>> we came across two conflicted headlines. "the wall street journal" out with an article saying there are signs of a suburban comeback. at the same time, over in "usa today," it put out a headline reading "cities continue to grow." so what gives here? let's get to diana olick who will settle the score for us. diana, which headline better reflects what is really happening in housing right now? >> r

. >>> and time to get down to business with cnbc's morgan brennan. good morning, morgan. >> thanks, dara. ford is recalling nearly 1.4 million vehicles, most for possible loss of power steering. the recall affects the ford explorer and escape and the mercury mariner. it received reports of 15 accidents. meanwhile, former microsoft ceo steve balmer strikes a deal to buy the l.a. clippers for $2 billion. if the sale is approved, it would be the most ever paid for an nba team. earlier this month, the milwaukee bucks were sold for $550 million. the l.a. dodgers sold for $2.1 billion in 2012. and mark zuckerberg and his wife are donating $120 million to the san francisco area school system. the gift will be spread out over five years and it is the biggest allocation from the $1.1 billion in facebook stock that the couple has pledged to charity. back to you. >> thanks, morgan. >>> how about a smart watch that can predict a heart attack? samsung is developing one that will monitor how you're eating, sleeping and exercising while providing real time data to y

morgan brennan has details. >> facebook and publicis announcing a advertising deal that focuses on mainlyremium video afltds. facebook could generate $1 billion in additional annual revenue. facebook also announced today it is launching the service in seven other countries. it's already been quietly already rolling out more video ads in recent weeks like this one for unilever's dove soap. here is the first ad for "diver "divergent." 5-second video spots placed at the top of news feeds but no soun unless directly clicked. facebook is adamant about maintaining user experience. but ads on instagram, what facebook calls image based story telling like this taco bell campaign. we've seen similar offerings from competitors like twitter which inked their own deal with publicis last year. this is perhaps in response to criticism that digital advertising is largely ineffective, facebook's also giving publicis unprecedented access to its data analystics. this deal is really -- not to mention the news about it rolling out in other countries is really a big step in the direction toward that broad vide

for that and the rest of the news before the bell, morgan brennan. good morning. >> good morning, scott. futures are higher, that's after stocks snapped their four-day win streak. investors feeling skiddish as levels not seen since last summer. today data on unemployment and a report on first quarter gdp. that may show the economy constracted this winter and many people chalk that up to the weather and growth should rebound this spring. the nasdaq losing 4225. if it's official, apple is buying beats electronics for $3 billion. that's to boost its music business as streaming services are denting itunes and its digital downloads. not only beats streaming service and high-end headphones but also high-profile talent as co-founders jimmy idean and rap star dr. dre now join the company. at&t gets a new ride. struck a deal with uber the popular car service app on to android phones that will be sold exclusively through its stores. also use at&t's network. the new phones will be available this summer, scott. back to you. >> morgan, thank you much. apple paid

for that and the rest of the news before the bell we turn to morgan brennan, good morning. >> good morning, scott. well, microsoft is the latest company looking to jump into the wearable device market. forbes reports microsoft is developing a sensor-loaded smart watch that syncs with android devices and windows phones. the battery will last to two days. microsoft could have the watch ready for sale this summer. meanwhile, futures are lower after stocks rebounded thursday with the s&p 500 index closing at a new record high. investors are shrugging off the report showing the economy contracted in the first quarter. many are expecting growth to pick up this spring. today we're getting data on personal income and spending and manufacturing and consumer sentiment. the dow rising 65 points to 16698 and nasdaq adding 22 to 2247. and, brace yourselves, another recall. ford is recalling nearly 1.4 million vehicles in north america. most for the possible loss of power steering. that recall affects the ford explorer and escape and the mercury mariner. now, ford says vehicles could crash at lower spee

morgan brennan is here with what's moving your money.t of money $3 billion for headphones. what's it all about? >> thanks, chris. it's a little more than just headphones. apple finally announcing the purchase of beats electronics and at $3 billion, it will be the biggest acquisition apple has ever made. beats has the flashy high-end headphones which did pull in over $1 billion in revenue last year, but this deal is more about the music itself. remember beats also launched a music streaming service in january. it only has 250 paying subscribers, but apple ceo tim cook is saying that he believes it's the first subscription service to, quote, get it right and there's something else apple gets, too, and that's the talent. both beats co-founders hip-hop star dr. dre and record executive jimmy levine will join apple as full-time employees and this makes dre the richest man in hip-hop. >> cnbc's morgan brennan, thank you so much. >>> coming up, what will hillary do? she's talking hard choices and we'll take the debate beyond her book straight a

as companies report earnings, morgan brennan takes a look at changes they're making to stay relevant and profitable. >> the media landscape is changing and fast as traditional giants report earnings, the comments executives are making call into focus key trends that are re-defining the companies' players. starting with over the top services, web-based streaming services that bypass cable tv. new media companies like netflix, amazon, and controversial aerio have fuelled this trend but now others are getting involved. >> we're starting to see services like the one that dish network has proposed with disney that will be a meaningfully cheaper price point and is really targeted at the corn cutter for the first time. you have not seen something like that before, so it is something everybody is watching carefully. >> in addition, at&t is partnering to invest in an ott service. and verizon recently acquired the intel product on q. >> if you start to see these types of models gain some traction, it almost forces the content providers to embrace them and start to provide their content. so it

. >>> let's get down to business with cnbc's morgan brennan. good morning to you. let's talk apple. >> well, it's official. apple is buying beats electronics for $3 billion to boost its music business, its streaming businesses like spotify and digital downloads. apple not only gets beats and its high-end headphones but also high-profile talent as well as co-founder jimmy and rap star dr. dre join the company. meanwhile, a judge in chicago will consider a motion to consolidate lawsuits over gm's ignition switch recall into a single class action. plaintiffs' lawyers want the current and not the prebankruptcy gm to be held liable for the recall. and at&t is getting a new ride. it struck a deal with uber, preloading a popular car service app onto android that will be sold exclusively through its stores. all uber drivers will also use at&t's network. back to you. >> because uber isn't already popular enough. >>> one of the most powerful voices in modern u.s. history has passed away. maya angelou was an acclaimed author, poet and civil rights activist who grew up in jim

morgan brennan filed this report. >> on tuesday more shares are eligible for share, over four times the the nyse. but twitter has beaeeen vocal t biggest shareholders have no plan to sell. mopping them, the ceo, and co-founders, benchmark capital, jpmorgan asset management. so we looked at 11 other social stocks big lockup expiration. on mpg a, prices finished up 2% the day before, down you just p der 2% the day of, and down again just under a percent the day after. take facebook's first big lockup expiration in august 2012. the stock jumped over 6% the day before, then fell 6% the day of. and another 4% the day after. and a similar pattern for linkedin in november 2011, which saw a number of insiders sell. but when many stay put, it can be a different story. on yelp for example fell over 4% on expiration, but then jumped over 22% the next day. so analysts telling the insiders staying put could help ease the pressure at least as far as the expiration is concerned. on monday shares closed down 0.7% back to you. >> joining us with his thoughts, founder of ipox. joseph, good to see you thi

morgan brennan has the details. >>> it will vote on proposals that will affect wireless carriers.them, consumers. the topic, spectrum. >> the way to think about this from a bigger picture is spectrum is the life blood for a lot of the wireless carriers. it's the connection point from the consumer to the network. >> there are different bands of spectrum and the fcc has a screen prague ses to determine how much and what kind wireless carriers can use. up for debate is whether to expand the guidelines. the commission will take up another vote as well. whether to set aside frf the most sought after spectrum, low band that's expected to come to auction next year. such a propose posal would limi amount that some giants could purchase. >> if you can free up more pipes, the actual cost for the stuff that goes through the pipes could go down. it's a net benefit to consumers. the key question is how do they free it up in a manner that's supportive of a competitive environment. >>> low band spectrum can travel further distances and it's used primarily for data plans. as customers increasingl

we welcome back morgan brennan. good to have you with us.ple is on this coast reportedly working on a way to turn your phone into a security -- smart move? a easy way for hackers to break in in? >> it was only a matter of time. we know that they have home security systems. but this is apple's way of saying this is our next level of growth. >> ritz cool, morgan, don't i have to have places that. >> looking at 350% revenue increase projected. you'll see them jump into that. >> that's zappos on why it got rid of job postings, calling it a recruiting black hole where applicants go to die. >> it makes sense for zappos. >> employees are self-governing, so it kind of makes sense to start launching the only social site. employees get to of course on whether somebody joins or not? >> at least you get to vet who will come in. >> a. >> >> that's mott a whole-ocracy. >> their thinking is they want to get more interesting applicants. >> i do agree that it's a place where people go to die. >> it's a numbers game. but i love zappos. >>> talk about the dang

morgan brennan is live at an apples store for us. >>> so beats electronics was founded in 2008, essentially two businesses under one umbrella. the flashy high-end ear phones that actually retail in apple stores already, and actually already enjoy their own display table. the second is a music streaming platform, similar to pandora or spot i fill that just launched in january beats pulled in a reported 1.3 billion last year, but this deal may be mostly about the brand, the brand of the cofounders there's celebrity dr. dre, namesake of the -- who could become hip-hop's richest man, but also the cofounder. as part of this deal, he is reportedly in talk to joins apple's team in a creative role. they have a number of minority stakeholders. access industries. source telling me this deal is not finalized, but if it does go through we could be getting an official announcement as soon as next week. in the meantime i'm going to test drive these bright headphones. >> how nice of you to color coordinate it with your coat, my dear. wardrobe would be so happy. >> very stylish. >> jon fortt, why does appl

morgan brennan is live outside that meeting. morgan, good morning. >> reporter: good morning, guys.st a few hours, this hotel behind me is going to fill up with facebook executives, including ceo mark zuckerberg and the company's biggest shareholders. this will be, as you mentioned, facebook's second ever shareholder meeting as a public company. what makes this one different, it's the first time shareholders are actually getting to submit proposals. so we've got seven up for vote. two from the company, including re-election of eight directors, and five from outside shareholders, like northstar asset management's call for more detailed disclosures about political contributions. now, facebook's recommending shareholders vote for its own resolutions and against the others, and that's the likely outcome we'll get this afternoon, because keep in mind facebook has that dual-class share structure that gives zuckerberg over 60% of the voting rights. so it's still early here. the hotel is booked, and the lobby is starting to buzz. back to you guys. >> all right, thank you. >>> let's stay wit

first let ales begin with morgan brennan on the at&t/directv talks. >> hi, tyler, 92 to 94 a share. that's how much at&t could pay for directv if the reports are correct. that would put the price tag at just under $48 billion. the companies aren't commenting, but a deal could be reportedly reaped within the next several weeks. what would at&t actually get for that price? for starters, expanded reach in pay tv, combined it could offer a triple play package to almost 27 million subscribers right now the u-verse products only reaches about 5 million, and they already partner in certain markets. compare that to the 30 million subscribers that cnbc's apparently company comcast would have of its own merger with the time warner cable goes through, plus directv's programming, which exclusively includes the nfl sunday ticket. that contract ends after the upcoming season, but a renewal is reportedly in the works, and expected to come with streaming rights. that's what makes this deal important to directv. as more consumers seek bundled services to watch tv and use internet to stream video, th