perfect incentive for vodafone to stop itself from being bought by at&t.3%. regi1. its stake in percentp almost three today, the highest in almost two years. >> thank you very much indeed. youp next on "the pulse," have heard about the elevator pitch, but have you ever done one? we can tell you what hotel is turning this networking tactic into a real-life scenario. >> as we had to break, in the 1990s, the backstreet boys climbed to the top of the charts with hits like "i want it that way." for their latest studio release, they are ditching the classic record company contracts and changing industry. ♪ . . . . >> half past the hour. welcome back you are watching the pulse these are the bloomberg top headlines. weather is bringing chaos to millions who are traveling home for the holidays. a major power outage in a terminal. have beences disrupted by strong winds and flooding. have sadlyree people been killed loss far. -- this far. 47 was conceived in 1941 while he was recovering from wounds. since then, they have been used in conflicts in hundreds of countrie

the $130 billion vodafone- verizon deal was the biggest. you look at the figures, we are flat on 2012. terms, relative to the boom years, we are way short of that. the recovery has not come yet. it may come in the new year should the m&a market follow equity markets, which are very healthy, and economic growth. but that has not happened yet. >> what is holding them back? will we see a rush to the doors in 2014? are couple of things holding us back. confidence is the thing that everyone talks about. when you are a ceo or a chairman, you look at the last two years of economic news and say, maybe this is not a time to be taking a big risk if i can avoid it. i will buy back shares, are the cash in the bank, do anything else. learned their lessons, 10 years of exuberance and now they're talking about giving money back. what is going to be the best and worst? >> i think technology and telecom will remain very active. a huge amount still to do in that sector. hearst is a good question, probably banking because regulators do not want to see big tan

we like vodafone. >> do you want to short them? >> yes. >> any specific?> no. >> herbalife is one name that he would talk about during this exclusive interview with stephanie ruhle. investors have taken the opposite sides of the company. bill ackman calls it a ponzi scheme. carl icahn has defended it. count kyle bass among their believers. >> when a particular short seller released a report, it had a kind of abnormally large negative effect. i think that this business is one that is fascinating. it generates significant cash flows with no debts. it is growing. when you have this large cohort of the unemployed, that may be unemployable forever -- there is this new normal in a natural unemployment rate. when you look at these countries with 50% or 60% youth unemployment, there is an interesting percentage of young people who are in these businesses. that may be where this growth is coming from. from a timing perspective, this all played into something that fits into a macro ideology as well. it is interesting. i think that we are catalyst driven investors. i

vodafone team is on a recruitment drive. yet beneath them. the looks were not extremists. when mika lazarus and has nothing to do with those people are just deliberately trying to tarnish this fall but have parties. but it gets a bullet that hit the party is now tied with far right groups in europe and while many of its support has made the motor it's by no means a lot of them. but sure enough the influx of immigrants court alien french culture as courageous use problems for frost. you love to be two mistakes he amassed from the band is a healthy organization for frost. skoda is the same kind of organization. that's a good peaceful one. i thought that the partition independence square. more liberal participants keen to distance themselves from school but that he might answer there are lots of radicals they don't represent all people this is a small number the sea being provoked said we think is a bad thing because it's damaging the image of the revelation and ninety nine and anonymity master list flags and slogans on the square testified to a marriage of convenience that c

banks so they chickened out of pursuing any of the billionaires and multinationals like google and vodafone and starbucks but they've gone hard after small and medium sized enterprises the ones that have already been by the way been destroyed by the government owned royal bank of scotland right this is part of the apartheid wall the interest rate or a monetary apartheid wall the u.k. tax authority if you will cheat those living on the right side of the apartheid wall with kid gloves they want to go after them and have them fulfill their legal obligations but if you live on the wrong side of the apartheid wall then of course the guy. will go after you because you're not the right not the right skin color in this case but you're not that you don't know the right people so some like mandela's apartheid in south africa this is george osborne's apartheid in the u.k. based not on the color of your skin but who you know well it's also part of that whole military industrial complex political owned the spy surveillance state we know for example under george w. bush they were allowing cia agents to w

banks so they chickened out of pursuing any of the billionaires and multinationals like google and vodafone and starbucks but they've gone hard after small and medium sized enterprises the ones that have already been by the way been destroyed by the government owned royal bank of scotland right this is part of the apartheid wall the interest rate or a monetary apartheid wall the u.k. tax authority if you will cheat those living on the right side of the apartheid wall with kid gloves they want to go after them and have them fulfill their legal obligations but if you live on the wrong side of the apartheid wall then of course the guy. it will go after you because you're not the right it's not the right skin color in this case but you're not that you don't know the right people so some like mandela's apartheid in south africa this is george osborne's apartheid in the u.k. based not on the color of your skin but who you know well it's also part of that whole military industrial complex political opponents the spy surveillance state we know for example under george w. bush they were allowing cia

you saw the vodafone-verizon deal. telefonica getting active.nk you will see that activity across a number of industries. that equityis markets have moved up. valuations are more demanding. economic growth is picking up. the fact is, the ceos are trying to drive topline growth. buying growth will be an important consideration. >> yesterday, we had liberty global again trying to buy the whole -- it is very u.s.-driven or carlos slim. it is basically because valuations are cheap in europe. overall, is m&a going to be other countries -- other companies trying to by european companies on valuation? >> some of the valuation arbitrage has disappeared. some of that gap has been closed. the fact is, europe continues to have great companies that are well governed and have ray technologies. i think you will see interest in the european marketplace coming out of asia. i think you will see more chinese interest in these companies and from the u.s. >> is there anything significant in funding that you see in 2014? >> the funding markets remain very strong. if

vodafone is the name we hear most often, vodafone will be willing to sit down once they conclude theizon wireless transaction. we'll see if we get anything there in terms of at&t/vodafone. would not be a surprise. but the other concern is erosion and lack of growth in wireless in terms of share and what we talked about many times, which is increased competition. >> sprint mobile. >> sprint is going to spend a lot of money next year and t-mo, as you say -- >> boy, are they good. remember we talked about ad campaigns. the ceo there is an ad campaign for t-mo. they just have a different feel about them. >> by the way, there may not be consolidation. the ftc's chair seemed to indicate he would not look favorably on four to three. >> i don't want to be in this stock. i would be in verizon if hi to -- if i had to be in one. another worrisome downgrade, evercore downgrades ebay. a lot of people have been rumoring thinking something is wrong with ebay. that's why the stock went down here. right here maximum pain. guy waits for a bounce and they he takes it off? does he know something, david.

vodafone, looking to for instance. >> yo boy, has that thing done well.one is almost the same size and market value. i think the big regulatory shift is in the eu. they are getting a little bit of pushback from the european commission parliament, but this woman from the netherlands who is overseeing this sector has really gotten the memo and a starting to say we need to be pro-consolidation. >> your talk about regulation big deal, and michael, i am going to suggest minimal regulation other than the nsa headache, and mark zuckerberg should be celebrating. >> they wait too big for forgiveness than ask for permission -- >> but there are so many startups, to be fair, versus telecoms, where there are what, like, five in the u.s.? >> if you look at what is happening me sectors, yes, there will be a lot more mergers between a big. right now, we have charter circling around time warner cable, and sprint, let's not forget that sprint is pretty much owned by softbank, which ago upstarthortly itself. >> i'm going to be cordial and ask what the future of yahoo! will

if you look at a lot of the deals, verizon, vodafone, pcs metro with t-mobile, the new nokia, the reste participants have to react to those events. those are truly landmark events. we are going to see a lot of reaction stemming from the rest of the sector responding to those deals. as we all get more confident in economic recovery, i think that any sector which is cyclical, natural resources, chemicals, we should see more activity coming from those sectors. offonally, japan had a real 2013. they are concerned that there is no local demand. i think you will see more japanese companies going abroad to diversify. suntoryd with gs k when acquired their business. that is a good example of a big japanese corporate wanting to diversify, to be more international. i think we are going to see more cross-border deals. the area of the world that is more confident is the u.s.. i think we will see more u.s. companies taking advantage of that confidence. >> thank you so much for your time today. up, we will dig into nathan bostock's resignation from rbs. ♪ >> i am francine lacqua and london. this is

they have a new ceo, a guy by the name of guy lawrence, from vodafone.nk he can help the company grow. we know the canadian consumer is doing better. and that means 2014 could be a good year for rogers, making this a smart time to buy a stock that has a lot of catching up to do. what other canadian stocks can you buy here given this thesis? when the consumer is flush and the confident that the consumer will buy a house or expand a business, you need banks, and banks correlate really well with the health of the nation. canada has one of the strongest financial systems in the world. their banks are habitually anti-leverage and they didn't need to be bailed out. they are incredibly well capitalized and well regulated. they're free to pay dividends without having to get approval from the regulators like we have. they're a tad more dangerous because they're in the reporting season. once they're done reporting i can tell you which ones made the cut, some left behind. some will make the playoffs, some are not. some will be saying the playoffs? still, let me giv

names like aetna, vodafone, for example, you've got varco, it's really quite a panoply of sectors here we try to be iversified by sector as well as holding, so we own about 62 different holdingsing. and, again, trying to get that 30% discount to the market, that way when you do run into these speed bumps, hopefully you don't go down as far as the market has. liz: isn't it interesting that pat's two favorite names right now -- he loves microsoft, microsoft's done pretty decently, up 45% over the past year. >> yeah. liz: and yet steve balmer's being chased away. >> yeah, true. liz: i don't quite understand that just as the stock has done quite well. but, pat, you like plum creek timber. not doing much today, but this is a name that's up about 3%. price to earnings ratio 26, and again, as i mentioned, lumber falling about 2.25%, and the housing market not stalled but not necessarily vaulting. >> so this is a name off of its highs that came onto our radar screen this summer when interest rates started to go up a little bit, and all the -- liz: largest timber company in the u.s.. >> yeah. l

my next guest advises on some of the biggest deals this year, including the massive horizon vodafone deal. that was the biggest, was that? 130 billion. the man at the helm here, ubs co-head. great to see you. live a lag, and is that anything that is a little worrisome. for 2013 we d.c. companies snapping each other up. >> that's a good question is typically when the equity markets said the strong you expect to see robust activity. and it is always a byproduct of confidence. and i think today's growth number is encouraging, but i think we have lost sustainable growth. and so you have a little bit of caution. understandable given the macro environment and also understandable just given the fact that the crisis is, you know, a recent vintage. so people in board rooms and management suites are a little bit more careful about taking risks. i think that if we get sustainable growth and particularly, you know, a better job environment i think people willlbe encouraged in moving forward and taking -- liz: so measured when he is talking. i love this because you are the consummate wall street

larger deals, vodafone for example, it will be up to the high single digits by the end of the year. saying for the last few weeks that i think it will be better in 2014. it is not necessarily showing up in the data. if you look at the number of billion-dollar transactions in the last three months, we have been running at 50 per month. the last time we did that was at the end of 2007, beginning of 2008. there does seem to be some velocity. >> you could argue that is not necessarily a good thing if we are going back to 2008. we did a bubble thing last week. >> i hear you. suggest think it does -- i also think there is a slightly better outlook globally. the jobs report. it seems to me that it feels like my comments with ceos and boards that there is more to receptivity -- there is more receptivity. >> is there perhaps a little 2014?larity for >> it is either that, or the last five years is the new normal. waiting for major economic upturns. there is the ability to grow organically versus achieving shareholder return targets and earnings targets. there is a pretty compelling argument f

who could forget verizon buying the entire stake .ack from vodafone that was an enormous deal. it helped deal volume spike up a little bit. at the end of the day, the number of deals we have seen is relatively flat compared to last year. the total number was abysmal, quite dismal for bankers and lawyers on the street. they will have to look ahead to 2014 to see if there are opportunities to bump the number up. a lot of private equity firms are waiting this out, trying to make a big splash in 2014. >> you mentioned verizon. most of the big deals were in tack or telecom. >> that is right. we might see a few more going on. this is a mature industry. there are some big deals we could see going forward. mobile outu have t- there that is still a target. we might see softbank make a run for that. they are the majority owner of sprint, so they will have to consolidate to capitalize on that business model. that is one deal we are watching. front,smallest deal johnson & johnson is trying to sell a division, and we could get that announcement as soon as today or the end of next week. asgo

what is vodafone do? still plenty of things to talk about. >> that is it for "the pulse." cupid right here for "surveillance" from new york with tom keene -- keep it right here for "surveillance" from new york with tom keene and his team. >> kn your customer. customer. your 's economist.nomist slated to be the next chairman, vice chairman chairman, rather, of the fed. i promise, i will not fall asleep and start snoring with asse plush new seats at amc they reinvent the movie experience. good morning, this is "bloomberg surveillance." it is thursday, december 12, i am tom keene with scarlet fu and alix steel. it is a busy front page. >> it is a busy day. retail sales for november as we get a check on the black friday sales, also in his -- initial jobless claims. as well as business inventories for october. lulu lemon reporting before the bell. after the bell, adobe

we like vodafone, but i don't like euro bank.e and freddie, we are seeing bruce berkowitz in the game. it is almost ludicrous to think the government is going to want to enter into anything where hedge fund managers went out and homeowners lose. is that a fair assessment? >> we modeled out the gse preferred. slightld model out increases in the gc, so when you look at what happened to fannie and freddie, they were unfairly penalize compared to the banks. when fannie and freddie were taken down, they were required to provision for the full cycle. fannie and freddie ended up using -- losing 320 basis points in their portfolios. they lost more than all of their money. if you were to raise the gse up gfee, you could model out that these would be good. after meeting with everyone that i could meet with, i decided i did not want to be involved because it is not going to be your fundamental analysis that wins this game. it is going to be how you handle the politics. i have no clue how to handicap politics. i do not know how it ends up. i

even when verizon wireless vodafone, aest from $30 million deal.e borne but the buying heinz. comcast buying nbc. all of that combined and you have 20% of overall deal volume driven by those five or six big deals out there which was incredible. the fact that verizon pulled the deal on their stake bumped up telecommunications to number one, even though it is a very highly consolidated industry as it is and there is very little to do there, but we should see more in 2014. bigveryone says the next moves in telecommunications will be in europe. >> that will be big. >> what about joseph a bank? >> there are a couple of deals in the pipeline. who will be the buyer, who will get the deal premium? it will either be joseph a bank or men's wearhouse. the question is whose management company, team gets to keep their jobs. and then we have time warner cable still out there. ter has been rattling the cages. we know that regulatory pressure has eased quite a bit. and then we have t-mobile hanging out. we should potentially see sprint, which is now backed by soft

. >> we know vodafone is spending 7 billion to up gragrade its network. what are the carriers doing? >> i think it's different from the regions. i can only relate to what voe da phone has communicated. are they going to accuracy their spending on the networks to come. if we look at our business, we're growing over 20% in europe in the third quarter, so we have a lot of business in europe. but we're taking market share. it has been a little slower there. japan, korea, where we've been growing and, of course, another level of investment on 4g at the moment. >> global smartphone penetration reached 60% in 2019. here's the thing. just does that sort of growth in smartphones also necessarily equate to a similar growth in data usage and traffic? because if you're the last person to get on the train, you won't use as much as the earlier. >> so far, we see no different patterns and usage. basically everyone get to go a smartphone are using that eight to ten times more than what is called feature phones. many of the people that will get the smartphones in the pred

one corporate story may interest you, b sky b, higher, renewed talk of possibly vodafone could use somee they've obviously returned a lot of cash to shareholders, to buy rupert murdoch's operation in the u.k., and then have the triple play. as we head for the hills, spare a thought for my home country, the united kingdom, lashed by really bad storms again today. from a financial perspective, what it means is those that had to work in the city of london found it very difficult to get in in the first place, because the trains weren't working and find that those that did get in, very difficult to get home for christmas, carl, because more trains and indeed more flights have been cancelled. >> interesting insight, about how the european shopper is buffetted by transportation costs than the american consumer. >> yes, very interesting. as far as the weather concerns, a depression over the atlantic heading their way. >> simon, enjoy the holiday. >> i will, in the sun. >> nice. see you soon. our simon hobbs. >>> let's get a check on energy and commodities shares, at the imex. >> gold prices are

shineway in the smith deal and tokyo electron in doing a deal with applied materials and verizon with vodafonets being issued out of the u.s. in those deals. people didn't think you could do that before. i think we are going to see a lot more cross border deals. if stock prices stay up, we'll probably see a lot more of stock deals. people always talk about debt is so cheap. so why won't you do a deal? you actually do have to pay it back eventually. >> it helps when it is 3% as opposed to 8%. >> if you are taking a long-term view, just because debt is cheap, that doesn't mean you could borrow. you have to get back to fundamental borrow. i am hopeful on next year. i would say we should be up 10%, 15%. >> hopefully, you will come back before a year passes and who knows, you might even be right. rob kindler, as always, thank you so much. >>> head of global m&a at morgan stanley. simon, over to you. >>> let's send it back to dominic chew at headquarters. >>> let's keep that activist theme going. the soap opera surrounding italy's biggest telecom italia company, they upped their take to 7.8%. there

vodafone may come in on a defensive move -- >> unless it wants to sell to at&t.ts own issues with the nsa. that's a real issue amongst european retailers. >> some people say half of soft bank ebidta for the past year? >> they would not be in a position to pay the type of fee that at&t did. there's a lot questions here, carl, when you look at it. the key, though, is are they willing to go down the road to really entertain. are they willing to go down that road yet again? because when we're not anticipate softbank would be able to come anywhere near the monetary damages, if you will, that at&t was able to pay to get them to agree to a deal. >> listen, the company's been performing well, which again goes to this point as to why you might want competition from the dno -- cme. >> good morning. as you look at the charts, it did touch 1.75, the psychological level. at one point the 10-year note did touch 3 intra day but didn't stick at that handle. many traders believe we're going to be a lot more aggressive. when the long end starts to move through those levels, a lot