sam: that was before marriott but starwood. we had a big position and starwood.our seasons. i don't know that was ever realistic. david: have you been in business with the prince before? sam: no, i've been to riyadh and in his office. david: you met with him? sam: i met with him and he's very, very bright, a very confident guy. i think his orientation is very non-saudi and that is what made him as accessible as he is meant. david: does that mean that you would be more likely to consider doing business with him? sam: that's a question i can't answer. alix: also taking place, mohammad bin salman is in the u.s. and he is also looking to buy stuff as well. you met with him. what was your take? sam: i've not met with him yet, but i know a lot about him. i've been a student of what's been going on over there. doing isay what he's extraordinarily brave. i think it represents the right decision if they were is going to be a future to saudi arabia. i think if somebody did not do this, i think we would see saudi arabia disappear. david: to draw a possible parallel, saudi a

you're leveraging a great management team that has digested and will continue to ajest the starwood acquisitionrtnerships -- savings. partnerships with alley babba. >> thank you so much, appreciate it. >> still ahead we're going to be talking about a chief strategist talking about the stocks leading the way. from new york, this is bloomberg. ♪ >> i'm mark crumpton with first word news. nato secretary general says the aligns will expel seven staff from the russian mission. the action follows this mono's never agent penniening of a former russian spy and his daughter in the u.k. he says russia has underestimated the unity of nato. >> the way we have responded, the unity we have shown, both when it comes to implementing the biggest response since the cold war, but also with higher -- of forces and with the fact that throughout the years, we're reducing defense investments, not de-- increasing them. i don't think russia expected that. >> on monday, more than countries announced they were expelling a total of more than 130 russian diplomats, including 670 kicked out by the united states. the u.s. am

board seats but deferred not knowing who it was necessarily going to come forward, in the form of starwoodr the entire board and martin franklin, who had sold his company on the board, stepped off dramatically, icon is in there. reports this morning indicate that that's the case and it has been the case. look, he's coming up i didn't even know what do you know, scott wapner to talk a bit about this but he was trying to figure out whether or not he was going to be the activist in new ell and step back but owns a good amount of shares and that's sending the stock higher this morning. >> do we know kind of going in line with more or less. >> following that effort >> yeah. >> he's aligned more with those who would say the performance poor and the performance the under lying biszs not actually the businesses they bought at newell have not been what they want this is going to be a big fight. they haven't set a meeting date yet and not like newell will set there and there's the board, take over. we'll have a lot more as this goes on. >> i'm sure he'll dment on ackman closing a chapter on herbalif

starwood target.ew -- should >> still trying to struggle on the big rocks retail side with how to compete online. targets, margins off a little bit. overall sales, there's just not a lot of growth. where is it going to come from, what are they going to do. how are they going to improve the customer experience? they've got a workout now. nordstrom's has a nice niche, but the number is sort of off the table. does your family want to buy them out or not? you've got to think what the rejected $50 off for they will come back with a higher price. ashley: we will see. thank you for joining us this morning. hopefully you are right in the markets will move higher. thank you very much. appreciate it. fox news reporting the fbi agent peter strzok was told a possible breach into hillary clinton's server but didn't follow a tear this is why we had the judge with us. from what i understand, it was reached by then by fbi director comey. >> with fbi or comey issues a statement on july 5, 2016, exonerating, he said th