i guess but i will start with you both agree that steve ballmer gravitas to go?ould go in his place? >> there are all types of tech heavyweights their art executive search firms to interview the top 10 people. maybe sanjay get used to be at motorola. there are plenty around. steve ballmer is wonderful but execution has been less than stellar with a six-point to billion dollar writeoff thank goodness they did not do the yahoo deal and accolades to jerry gain for resisting that. >>. cheryl: ron johnson is available what do you say? >> to have an executive with experience in technology to see a little bit around corners not anybody right in the wing to make a great internal candidate but there should be a lot out there are. cheryl: let's talk about what you disagree about. one of the problems is the decline of pcs sales attributable to the tavern sales that are picking up. do you think those will be another issue with earnings from microsoft? >> gradually it will be an emerging issue but it speaks to the need for microsoft ago when a to present into a mobile platfor

but with steve ballmer at the head, that's not an option.mentally we all know secular pcs decline looks awful. technically the stocks look horrible. so if i'm buying a position, why would i want to be in that space at all? >> why would i want a piece of a company that has this monday on thatbly. steve ballmer is probably bill yapt, but he's not run the company brilliantly. the folks at intel had a head hunter out there looking at nvidia's head as one of the possible acquisitions to run intel going forward. at least those were the rumors. i believe those same sort of things could be transformational just as microsoft and that's why you own it. >> i'm glad you're talking about steve ballmer because herb greenberg is fired up. eased had steve ballmer on his worst ceo list for 2012. let's bring herb in. i know you've listened into the conversation here. the downgrades today and there were two of them, goldman sachs and nomura talking about how microsoft can can unlock value. i don't know what your thoughts are. >> well, i had ballmer on the list

both the what they think about steve ballmer. think about splitting up the company. stuart: believe me, nicole, we will be following microsoft. i have to talk more about this housing number. i will call it negative news from housing. 4.92 million existing homes being sold in america at the current pace. that is down from the month before. down .6%. this seems to be a reversal of the previous of trend in housing and it is kind of bad news for the world market. >> you are right, stuart. stuart: a booming market would over six again sales. >> exactly. stuart: anything to add, charles? charles: the price went up significantly. also, the amount of time a house is on the market. that is improving. the big red flag continues to be only 30% of buyers were first-time buyers. stuart: they cannot get a loan. they cannot qualify for a loan. charles: in the top one half metropolitan areas, it is cheaper to own and to rent. >> that is the best we have seen in seven years. that is pretty great. [ laughter ] stuart: here is the question. whether

he was the closest research analyst to bill gates and steve ballmer, yet these analysts simultaneouslyowngraded microsoft back on april 11th, right before the company reported based on what they thought would be weakness across the board because of how bad the pc market is. then there was a third downgrade before the quarter. this was probably the most painful of all. the downgrade begins, quote, after maintaining a buy since september, 2008, we are downgrading microsoft to neutral and trimming our price objective to $33. bank of america actually came close to the numbers. the estimates weren't that far off, but they got the thesis about the direction of the stock wrong. bank of america never got to canaan. it belonged to the microsoft bulls, not to the bears. i feel bad. when you see downgrades, it seems like the bearish analysts didn't think of microsoft as a play on personal computers. that's where they went wrong. because when microsoft reported, what mattered was not the pcs but al these other divisions, the cloud business, entertainment devices, which exceeded the forecast. plus

. >> how safe is steve ballmer? >> there's some talk maybe he could be replaced. i don't see that happening. >> so he stays? >> i think he stays. >> good to see you. colin gillis. >> you like microsoft, grasso? >> no, not my favorite. i would go with google, but looking for reentry. i sold it above 800. now i'm looking for re-entry and waiting for the market to sell off a little bit to give me one. >> josh, what are you watching at headquarters? >> falling in the after-hours. here's the news. young now saying that march same-store sales fell an estimated 13% in china including an estimated decline of 16% for kfc. young saying that publicity associated with the bird flu in china has had a significant negative impact on kfc sales down about 2% right now. >> all right, josh, thanks for that. young brands moving lower if the after-hours session. first we had that chick antibiotic scare in china. now the evian flu. >> you got to give brian kelly who's not with us, he won the street fight there and with the stock performance in the after-hours. i know he's watching. wel

microsoft founder bill gates, steve ballmer and ceo brad smith and john parker have joined the projectat is today's speed reed. buzz wuz. liz: those are big names. being picked doesn't usually come just with bragging rights but it comes with a huge paycheck. jonathanning --ing has advise. >> you got to plan for future. >> amen, good advice. how do sport players plan? not very well when you look at stats. you're talking to one of the top sports advisors in the country and top sports agent about mistakes. that we all not just nfl players should avoid. ♪ thank you orville and wilbur... ...amelia... neil and buzz: for teaching us that you can't create the future... by clinging to the past. and with that: you're htory instead of looking behind... delta is looking beyond. 80 thousand of us investing billions... in everything from thelow... to the finest comforts above. we're not simp saluting history... we're making it. >> we draw a line in the sand that we're about america! we're about american jobs! i'm sick and tired, can can you imagine paying these damn crazy countries that we get our o

company that suffers from not being social enough, not being mobile enough, and certainly under ceo steve ballmere of mine and a friend, not being cool enough, microsoft in one fell swoop would change all that by spending $13 billion to buy netflix. not only that, they'd be able to integrate netflix instantly, refinancing a bloated balance sheet at parking lot levels. they could play hardball. the reason? while microsoft might be desperately seeking cool, it can still outlast the studios without worrying. the studios need netflix more than ever. i'm calling it the "walking dead" factor. television stations have been making fortunes with serial stories. you need to start with episode one. netflix is the way you crack into a new series. everyone in hollywood knows it. prospective viewers binge watch on netflix and then get right into the new episodes. without netflix, these networks wouldn't have the numbers they're getting. that could take you to a home page that would load with microsoft games and skype. sit and skype while others are watching "walking dead." sticking with that gruesome metaphor,

one night, he passed by gates' office and overheard him talking with steve ballmer, who'd been hiredpany. what were they saying? >> they were basically talking about how they were planning to dilute my share down to almost nothing. and it was a really shocking and disheartening moment for me. >> and you were sick. >> i think i was still probably in the middle of radiation therapy. >> he burst in and interrupted them. he says they were trying to cut him out and rip him off. >> and of course, steve came over to my house later that night to apologize. >> he did? >> he did. >> but bill didn't come. >> no, he sent steve. >> he sent steve. it wasn't steve. he sent steve. >> well... steve's the one who came. >> shortly after, allen left, but he got to hold on to all his shares. it's hard to feel sorry for him. he was 30, cured of cancer, and owned nearly a third of microsoft. so you built this building? >> yeah. >> after the company went public, allen became one of the richest men on earth, at one point worth an estimated $40 billion. gates would spend another two decades running microsoft,

that's gates and microsoft president steve ballmer in a film produced for a shareholders' meeting. >> way. >> ♪ what is love ♪ baby don't hurt me >> gates is best known not for a sense of humor but for being intensely driven. here he is at full throttle about five years ago. >> no, no, no, no, no. somebody's confused. somebody's just not thinking. i mean, there's no way. no, you don't understand. you didn't--you guys never understood. you never understood the first thing about this. >> until recently, business was his obsession. he says now, thanks to his wife melinda, he has finally started to mellow. >> and i'm more lucky in terms of having melinda than anything else in my life. >> than anything in your life. >> oh, yes. >> ♪ when i fall in love >> melinda french was an executive at microsoft when they met. they were married on new year's day 1994. the biggest misconception about you, just--that just you read it, and you say, "they're dead wrong." >> there was one that really bothered me, where a guy wrote a story saying that i had a prenuptial agreement with melinda, and he just fi

steve ballmer feeling some heat. jon fortt is in san jose breaking it all down for us., we'll get to that in a moment. but first, you've got some breaking news on blackberry. >> that's right. an analyst out over the past couple of days with a report that blackberry return rates on the z10 were unusually high. just got a statement from verizon on this. it says, quote, after the first 14 days, quality performance of the z10 has been in line with similar devices we've lunched, unquote. so not, you know, a ringing endorsement, but certainly knocks down the idea that the returns are unusually high among smartphones. now, on microsoft, i don't know if ballmer's feeling the heat, but his critics are certainly trying to crank it up for a number of reasons. first, overall pc sales down nearly 14% year over year, the worst ever. two, windows 8, windows phone, and surface hardware all struggling, to put it mildly. microsoft was downgraded this week in the midst of all of that. but the only who can really make ballmer feel heat, probably bill gates. a lot of credibility with invest

why should this monster stay independent with its 27 million subscribers and steve ballmer desperatelegacy? especially since those numbers are growing so quickly after it appeared the company flubbed the client relationship. can anyone even remember what they did wrong? yeah, that's long since passed. netflix is a natural to keep powering higher. i genuinely believe this is a much loved brand that can go higher. the next three standout performers in the s&p 500, best buy, hewlett-packard, and h&r block. i'm saying these all three could run out of gas. hey, look, best buy was left for dead coming into the year and suffered mightily at the hands of amazon. however, new management has come in, underperforming stores are being trimmed, and the company is showing a serious revival. that's it. i think the vast majority of the rally comes from a simple theme. best buy's not going under. the cash flow and the balance sheet are stronger than people think, certainly stronger than when its erstwhile competitor circuit city succumbed to the dark force that was amazon. i want you to call best buy

the group from seattle includes steve ballmer, the microsoft ceo. the mayor of the city. the kings will be decided by the board of governors in a few weeks. dagen: the owners of the palms casino in las vegas. tv viewership. if you have a college degree, you probably are not watching much tv in the morning. according to a new study, household run by college graduates watch just the eight minutes of morning television versus an hour and 15 minutes. connell: what does it mean for us bush and mark. dagen: i do not know. an awful lot of hedge fund managers and workers that live in the new york area listen and watch imus. you start in front of the tv and then you listen in the car. connell: we will look at tells new hybrid device with our friend walt mossberg. he has some thoughts about this. unfortunately, while some negativity. dagen: making it easier to get a mortgage. the white house wants a warmer touch. isn't that what got us into trouble just a few years ago? losers and winners on the s&p today. ♪ dagen: a new strain of bird flu claiming three lives in china. make it eas

say cook was out and jack dorsey, steve ballmer, you name it. >> i think they would go social, mobileake a series of large and noisy acquisitions that would change the course of apple so that they don't need to go through cable to own the living room. they can go through dish. they can own the telephone with sprint. you're talking about a significant change in the business model to much more of a recurring revenue business as opposed to technology which -- they do 4 billion in quarter in services and itunes. it's not like that won't be recurring. >> two-thirds of profits are on the phone. that's the story. >> there was a guy who came from pepsico and destroyed apple. job his to leave, right? >> it's interesting. what this market wants is pepsico. widening gross margins and good yield, stable cash flow. i'm just comparing what the market wants. >> that incredible growth spurt that created this incredible company and this amazing market value, you don't usually get that from the recurring revenue business without new products and incredible growth. there are two companies. >> i'm -- my

steve ballmer has reinvented the company and people are thinking about the old ballmer and they're thinking>> they're also thinking about the fact this he's like a pine tree. nothing can grow under him meaning succession. no succession plan. everybody leaves. >> um, okay. that's a valid point. i hadn't thought of it like that. >> they need to have it. one of the reasons why i like mcdonald's so much is they have a tremendous bench. that's a valid point. i don't know what to say about it. people at home are right and listen to that because there is no answer and he needs to present that. >> let's go to bob and he's on the floor and he has more on what's moving today. >> disappointing gdp, the dow is up 12 points and we're six points from a historic high, and i bitterly complained about the top line numbers and i'm a glass half full guy and we saw the usual complaints about weakness in japan and you saw perkin elmer's report all over the board. they're down big and missed top bottom line and complained about weakness in japan and weakness in europe, but we know all about that. weakness in the

steve ballmer should have paid if microsoft had woken up. >> only 214. the day is early, my friend. doing what people do at home. amazon, no bounce. there you go. i say it there and they do it at home. >> one thing they don't have at home is their own bob pisani and he's on the floor today. >> happy monday, everybody. modest gains here and a little bit of risk on energy, tech, materials are leading here and you're wondering why we're up? >> i'll tell you two reasons and austerity is out and the federal reserve and the central banks of the world are very much in on the game. now, by the way, we have scientific proof austerity is bad for your health. oxford researchers have a book out where they definitively find 10,000 cases of suicide and 1 million cases of depression have resulted from the great recession in europe. so now all of the newly elected governments in iceland and italy have a clear reason for wanting to be in office. it's bad for the health of their constituents. so we've got two elected growth-oriented govern ams over in europe now. they'll be very happy. the government

ballmer and company are making they will become activist investors. is that maybe the reason they're making this rather than they believe what you do, steve, that therethis company? >> no. bill, it's a good point, but i guess as a shareholder that might be a heads you win and tails you win. if i'm wrong about the exciting innovation going on in microsoft, you probably are going to have an activist investor base for the first time again that will rectify that situation more quickly. but i would note, please, also, that microsoft is not just doing well the last couple of days. it's done very well as carter mentioned both outright and compared to other tech for months. >> yeah. i don't think -- it's too small a stake, less than 1%. also key is how microsoft acts as a defensive name in the event of a market selloff. a lot of defensive names are crowded. >> thanks, guys. good stuff. see you both later. >>> the final stretch of trading here. we've got about 15 minutes before the closing bell sounds for the day. the market is up 25 points. >> our next guest or at least one of them says investors should think twice before fol r lowing the old sell in may or