joining me now nbc contributor steve schmidt. here's my feeling about watching this happen. the party has been locked at this impasse since all the way back in 2006/2007. when your old boss mccain tried to get it passed. the whole thing blew up. i've been hearing from six or seven or eight years from republican insiders the establishment wants to get past this impasse. they want some sort of comprehensive bill. i look at where the base is, and nothing seems to have moved. >> here's part of the fundamental problem, chris, that republicans have, as you start to think about 2016. if you look at just the states that democrats have won, six out of the last six elections, they have 242 electoral votes. doesn't count virginia, doesn't count north carolina. doesn't count ohio. the fact is the electorate will be 2% less white in 2016 than it was in 2012. 2% less white, of course, than it was in 2008. mitt romney gets 59% of the white vote and gets 191 electoral votes and a generation ago, george bush hit that number and got 26 electoral votes, i believe. so the country has fundamenta

steve schmidt, an msnbc political analyst and former bush-cheney strategist in 2004. and john holm, msnbc political analyst and national affairs editor of "new york" magazine. steve schmidt, we go to you. do the republicans have a new billionaire front-runner as of tonight? >> well, look, i don't think it's any secret that the donor class of the republican party, particularly the amount of money that you can raise in the tri-state area here, that there's deep skepticism, deep worry about governor christie, whether he can possibly come back from this. so in a field where rand paul is ascendant, in a feel field that appears to be as unstructured as it's ever been, with no clear front-runner, people are looking at one of the most formidable political leaders in the republican party, one of the most scuffle governors and someone who could compete very well with the latino vote and that of course is jeb bush. and should he get in the race, of course i think it deflates any chance of a christie comeback and also knocks marco rubio out of the running as well. >> david axelro

i'm running. >> steve schmidt, we have seen it the past month. bush and he is calling republicans all over the country. keep your powder dry, i may be running and i'm trying to figure this out. for chris christie, he does see this slipping away from him. even though it's april 1st, 2014 and we got a long time until the first primary, chris christie knows the clock is ticking. >> a couple of months ago after the november election, chris christie like hillary clinton was managing the clock and in control and now at the mercy of events and lost control both the narrative and the timing of the race. and so jeb bush gets into this race, i think, it really collapses a lot of what would be the financial infrastructure. what a case for jerry brown to get into this. >> julie pace, we hear a lot about national donors, particularly new york area donors interested in christie. how much interest here in washington about people thinking christie is not so damage that he might run that he might be the savior for the party? >> well, chris christie always had a l

steve schmidt. if mike huckabee is warming up for a run.here could be a crowded field to the right. of jeb bush. wouldn't that be helpful for jeb bush, having others on the side of the party splitting that side of the vote? >> no doubt. if you look at the comments. jeb bush made on illegal immigration. seems to beep testing look if i have positions that will disqualify myself from winning the presidency rather find out early as opposed to going through the process. losing a general election. dave and i have talked about it before. look at the states. democrats have won six of six elections. at 242 electoral votes. doesn't count florida, ohio, north carolina, virginia, nevada, new mexico. you look at mike huckaby's message. he may compete against rick santorum. not going to put one of the states out of the democratic column with the message. not where the country is. >> david axel rod. looking at potential republican field. with some candidates. jeb bush, haven't seen them perform as presidential candidates. as rick perry showed us that can

by steve schmidt large contingents of its own forces go the suppression of political rights. who does have not done anything to improve the social infrastructure over the remote region. aye aye aye. this week one of the top of the body most of the beloved binky and forty one to beat a lot of more to it without having to get rid of it to be on the legacy of the bill. gidley way you look coupled with the attention of someone for you. i had taken in color for autumn me a good thing it isn't a handle to book a city level. i will resume today in oaxaca has been one of them have won the support needed for the ages of or can we who was was guilty of oz for comedy but the army gives them a column will lots of the dtp know what job subject of eco whedon who love god love them well and with the study of animals out of the best new work the meal though. but the beach ahead with donald o'connor said. besides main spy agency the isi has established a large number of terror training camps in the region the bbc. he's thirty six such scams aimed at fomenting trouble in the big media. the d i

one e-mail sent to steve jobs, google's eric schmidt said he filed a recruiter who was trying to poachthe firing news came through. that is a lot of hostility from steve jobs. >> i do not think it is any surprise that steve jobs got excited and was a bully sometimes. do you really believe that 64,000 people were affected by some sort of collusion. the government has an unlimited check both. well, there are often other fact there's. >> you do not think that there was collusion on a mass scale. >> we do not know. we have not read all of the documents. there were some very selective e-mail cases. nothing going on behind the scenes. stuart: let's bring in the attorney. it seems to me that the technology companies, the workers, they got them called. i do not care whether they were selective or not. why did they settle for a lousy 324 million -- >> they brought this case to state court. the defendants have that option. it is under a state antitrust action. stuart: why did they settle for a lousy $324 million? >> the case is not quite as strong as you would think. there were two claims. we co

talking about is essentially an unwritten agreement, kind of a quiet understanding between steve jobs and eric schmidt when he was ceo of google and the ceo of intel and some of the others, engineers are essentially the key people in a lot of these things. and, you know, job competition is very fierce. and so there was some, especially colorful e-mails that have emerged as evidence in the trial. and i think the companies didn't want to seehose e-mails exposed. they've been exposed but there would have been a lot more, i think, information, a lot more disclosure that would have been just as colorful. >> is that why this is settl >> i think so. i think this is being described as kind of a bargain. the plaintiffs were seeking $3 billion. had they prevailed, it would have allowed damages, $9 billion. money they can afford. they collectively have more than $200 billion of cash on their balance sheets but you don't to have to pay that kind of money. but i was surprised by the amount. it actually worked out to just a few thousand dollars per employee. the employees will take a cut of about $9 million for the

case, a lot of it's going to be based on actual e-mails from these top executives, like steve jobs and eric schmidt you know, the intel executives, all their e-mails going back and forth, with the smiley faces and everything. >> really intrigue there. >> yeah. >> at the very high levels of silicon valley. >> all to keep salaries depressed. tech workers are say 'wait a minute, mm-mmm, we're owed more. and it kind of underscores how tough it is to find top talent for these companies and how competitive they are. >> any sense they might settle before going to full trial? >> good question. we'll see what happens. >> all right. that is all for us this morning. great to have you with us. "new day" starts right now. >>> happening now, part of the search for miss flight 370 has been suspended as the temp under water mission has been under way with the clock ticking and still no sign of the missing plane. are they close to calling off the search? >>> breaking over night. new signs, north korea is testing its nuclear capability. is the reclusive regime planning to launch a nuclear test? all of this happening

begin in late may that could have exposed tactics that apple's late co-founder steve jobs and former google ceo eric schmidt used to keep lower paid employees working on their products and services. the suit had been seeking $3 billion in damages. >>> meantime, teachers are planning to lower start after stocks treaded water for much of thursday's session. news of the latest tensions between russia and ukraine weighed on the markets and likely will be a theme as we continue to hear really tough rhetoric there. we'll get some data this morning on consumer sentiment and earnings from ford which have come in looking pretty good. the dow had a rare day ending unchanged yesterday at 16,501. the last time it happened was on christmas eve in december, 2001 and it hasn't happened very much in the 118-year history of the industrial average. meantime, the nasdaq had a strong day, up 21 points on the back of apple's strong earnings results. >>> and this morning the usda will release monthly price forecast. signaled the drought in california poses the risk of bigger price increases in many food categories, including bee

schmidt. >> you have to deliver. like steve jobs -- >> i heard you. >> jobs is a poser and didn't even write code. >> i think steve jobs is amazing. wozniak was the engineer that created apple, right? >> you can totally imagine having that discussion. >> it was much better than a bravo show. >> everything is for sale. >> $600,000 for 10% of the company. >> can you imagine zuckerberg saying 18 or 19? >> the arbitrary nature is dead on. no matter what the offers are, they are based on nothing. the urgency, it you to acquirer or the thunder. nobody is interested until someone else's. >> we were sitting with barack obama and saying we are making the world a better place. constructing an elegant hierarchy for sensibility. >> changing the world by making enterprise software. they make that claim. >> at first, i was thinking, is this an exaggeration? it's not. >> what company does it remind you of? >> every major dot com. yahoo!, google, facebook. >> bit soup. like alphabet soup but 1's and 0's. >> it makes you cringe. which is someth

it involved well-known executives -- steve jobs, eric schmidt. then though a deal has been reached, though no terms of the deal disclosed as of right now. >> we' will see if they start playing musical chairs in silicon valley as a result. >>> 19 minutes left in the trading session. we're up five points on the dow jones industrial average. >>> after the closing bell, new microsoft ceo will be overseeing his first earnings call since taking the top job in january. it is a big deal. we'll preview what to expect from microsoft as well as starbucks, amazon and visa earnings. >>> then, did you hear what warren buffett said yesterday on the show? here it is. >> did you ever vote for something on a board that you disagreed with? >> sure. >> he said with conviction. really? i mean if warren buffett does that on a corporate board, what hope is there? we'll tackle that question later on "the closing bell." ♪ [ male announcer ] when fixed income experts... ♪ ...work with equity experts... ♪ ...who work with regional experts... ♪ ...who work with portfolio ma

the case was largely based on e-mails between apple's late co-founder steve jobs and former google ceo eric schmidtnd other rivals who allegedly crafted plans to 30e s to poach sought engineers. jobs meantime forwarded the note to a high-level apple hr executive with a smiley face. >>> i trust experts say the companies had an incentive to settle because the executive e-mails would make them look unsympathetic to a jury. spokespeople for apple, google and intel decline comment. checking shears of the companies involved, trading in europe this morning, all of them are moving to the downside, adobe much more so, off more than 2.5%. it's one of those things, karen. when they are so competitive, they don't want to be driving up prices. but it's a market where good engineers are really highly sought after. >> right. so much for those monster salaries that the wall streeters are chasing in silicon valley. great story. >>> we do have fresh comments from president obama, just to recap on this, obama will be talking to key european leaders this evening on ukraine. they may be ready to impose sectorial sancti

it turns out it's all about e-mails, specifically e-mails between the late steve jobs at apple and eric schmidt at google. it turns out google had fired a recruiter who tried to poach an apple staff member away. he was fired. and when that firing came through, steve jobs sent an e-mail with a big smiley face. that's the kind of evidence you don't want to put in front of a jury. that's the kind of evidence that makes you look very bad, so they caved. they settled. and they just settled as of this morning. >> it's really surprising. i mean, every other industry, to a certain extent, that's fair game. people have the freedom to move from one company to another if somebody offers them a better job. how much is this going to end up costing these companies, and i would think they've got enough to afford, to pay people more, probably. >> here's where it gets very interesting. according to the wall street journal, a source close to the case, apparently, the payment is going to be just $325 million. now, that sounds like a lot of money, but these 64,000 tech workers, they were suing. they wanted $3 bill

and sergei brynn, plus, the ceo who pulled it altogether, eric schmidt, and alan greenspan, ben bernanke, and topping the list, apple's stevebs. >>> pioneer, innovator, genius. steve jobs transformed the way we think about technology and the apple. walter isaacson is job's biography. >> steve jobs is the creator at large, he started a company in his parent's garage with the kid from down the street and turned it into the most valuable company in the history of the world. >> growing up in silicon valley, jobs became the oddest fusion of california's engineering and hippy cultures. he was not a programmer, so much as a marketer and dreamer whose big idea was to sell his friend, steve wozniak's creation. >> he was smart enough to know he needed other's engineering. but what he was able to do is bring everything together into a package and then figure out how to build a business around it. >> and what a business he built, more than anyone, jobs put the personal into personal computers, creating elegant machines that sometimes looked like a toy and often as not were as easy to use as one. >> technology was barrelling along in th

settlement comes a week before a trial that could have exposed tactics that steve jobs and former google ceo eric schmidt used to keep lower-paid employees working on their products and services. the suit had been seeking $3 billion in damages. >>> at 5:53. in just a few moments the usda will release monthly food forecast. these numbers are crucial here in california as we struggle with the ongoing drought. the agency had signaled that it could drive up food costs. california is the top farming state, prices for fresh produce could go up in just a matter of months. >>> 5:53. a tough night for two of our bay area teams. >> the sharks on the losing end with the l.a. kings and now come home and fry to close out the series here. tickts for game five are on sale through ticketmaster and the sharks and the kings play saturday night at 7:00. >>> in the meantime, warriors looking to rebound after a tough loss in front of the home crowd. the team was not able to rally late in last night's game against the clippers. lost 98-96. now trailing the clippers 2-1 in that series. game four at oracle on sunday afternoon.

schmidt. >> if you want to live year, you've got to deliver, like steve. >> jobs or wozniak? >> which one?. >> jobs was a poser. he didn't even write code. isi think steve jobs amazing. wozniak is the engineer who created the apple. >> i love the steve jobs thing. >> you can totally imagine a couple of engineers having that discussion. >> it was a lot better than that rob o show. >> that's a fallacy. two hundred thousand dollars. 600,000 for 10% of your company. >> can you imagine zuckerberg saying i will give you eight ilia dollars question are >> the arbitrary nature of the whole thing is totally dead on. -- it's justrs are based on nothing. >> urgency creates either an acquirer or funder. no one is interested until someone else's. >> we were sitting down with barack obama and i said we are making the world a better place. >> changing the world by making enterprise software. >> it's ridiculous. >> i think there are authentic countries right now that make that claim and i think all of us feel a little awkward when that happens. >> at first i was thinking is this an exaggeration, but it's

if we were to say eric schmidt of google gets $100 million in steve schwarzman gets $100 million, ised in a different way? beginning, ithe should be treated the same. it's the initial investment in that company, same thing with all the investors in the fund. the argument much better than we do, but as i understand it -- i would disagree. it's not that there's nobody who says the tax treatment on carried interest shouldn't be different between real estate and private equity. there are lots of people who say the tax treatment in the real estate industry or boiling gas industry should be different from venture capital or private equity. they say because the tax provisions around carried interest were developed or at least instituted in order to create a stimulus for risk capital. the argument made is private -- thererried interest are people who say it should be treated differently. >> i was speaking of the generally accepted precept in washington and the industry. i don't think there's any justification for treating mineral extraction and oil and gas differently from private equity. th

settling they don't have to release the e-mail that was going back and forth between steve jobs at that point, eric schmidtei brenn. >> they ge out of it at least. that's a tough story. >> it is. you can see how when things are cozy and people get mad when you poach and steal each other's employees. you can see a conversation taking place. wait a second, as an employee that's not necessarily something i would like to see either. >> think about if that was done at contract time for us. >> yes. >> assuming there's anyone that would want us. we are niche -- >> we're happy here. >> we are. cable business news with a ticker. we're really in demand. the french government is concerned about the future of industrial conglomerate alstom, rumored to be in talks to be taken over by general electric. however, now i wonder what was really going on all along. you see this, b1 in "the wall street journal," just the energy assets. it's the energy operations of the company. the talks haven't been confirmed. france's economy minister says the government is working on alternatives to a sale. and france's economy minister, lo

schmidt. >> if you want to live here, you've got to deliver. like steve. jobs are wozniak? is a poser. he didn't even write code. >> i think steve jobs is amazing. wozniak was the engineer that created the apple, right? >> you can totally imagine a couple of engineers having that discussion. >> $100,000 for 10% of your company. >> can you imagine zuckerberg million dollars, ok, $19 million? exit the arbitrariness of it is dead on. >> we construct elegant hierarchies. >> changing the world by making enterprise software. i think all of us feel a little older when that happens. >> bit too. it's like alphabet soup but with ones and zeros. >> it makes you cringe. something that mike judge is brilliant at. >> i'm in. not just about the geeks, but the colorful billionaire characters. i know that you spoke with a lot of the men behind the show that why it is people have such a curiosity for these power players. >> we spoke with mike judge, the creator of the show who created beavis and butthead, king of the hill, and office space. starting out for a couple of years and got a lot of

schmidt. >> you want to live here, you have to deliver. like steve. >> dobbs or wozniak?jobs. >> jobs is a poser, he didn't even write code. >> wozniak was the engineer who created the apple, right? >> i love the steve jobs thing, too. >> i can imagine a couple of engineers having that conversation. never wear awould blue shirt. >> $200,000. 600,000 dollars for -- >> 10% of your company. >> the arbitrary nature of the whole thing is totally dead on. what the offers are. just based on nothing. >> urgency creates either an acquirer or a funder. no one is is interested in till someone else is. >> a few days ago when we were sitting with barack obama i said, we are making the world better place. constructing hierarchies. >> changing the world by making enterprise software companies. i think there are plenty of companies out there in the valley right now that make that claim. i think all of us feel a little awkward that happens. >> at first i was thinking, is this an exaggeration? but it's not. >> what company doesn't remind you of? >> of every major dot com, facebook, google

schmidt. >> if you want to live here, you have to deliver. >> i heard you. jobs is a poser. he didn't even write code. was the engineer who created the apple, right? >> i love this steveg, too. >> is a whole lot better than a bravo show. >> a programmer would never wear a blue shirt. $200,000. 10% of your company. >> can you imagine zuckerberg eight i would give you billion, ok 19. >> it is totally dead on for what the offers are. urgency creates either an acquirer or if under. no one is interested until someone else's. >> when we're sitting down with barack obama, i said we are the world a better place. hierarchies elegant for maximum code -- >> the thing is, i think there are plenty of companies right now that make that claim. i think all of it gets a little awkward when that happens. >> i was thinking is this an exaggeration, but it is not very it >> what company did remind you of? dotcom. ry major.co >> it makes you cringe. it is something that judd is brilliant at, the cringe. >> kudos to mike judge. he must've had an internship at google recently. >> the show held its big premiere in redwood city. our jon erlichman was there. he caught up with the show's creator

the top 5 is led by steve jobs, followed by bill gates, ben bernanke, alan greenspan, the google guys, written, page and schmidteff bezos. on "squawk on the street" we'll have interviews with two of the first 25, starbucks ceo and chairman howard schultz going to sit down with jim and david has hewlett-packard's ceo meg whitman later on in the show. it does sort of bring to mind where american business and the economy was in 1989 when we thought japan was going to basically own the world. now it's a much different picture because of the people we're celebrating today. >> i think that's true. when you go back to 1989, the tokyo market was really where the action was. you had to get up at 2:00, 3:00 in the morning to trade in the most important market in the world. during that period intel was not the largest because of japan, but i think that the u.s. reclaimed the leadership. however, the inferiority complex i hear from business people is rather extraordinary. it's almost as if china is the leader. the torch somehow got passed from tokyo to china, left out u.s. the list does not say that, though. the list verif