As the board drama continues, well go live to Paramount Pictures for the future. And microsoft wasnt the only offer on the table for linkedin. How sales force missed out. Viacom issuing a warning for the current warner. They cite weaker sales after redstone moved to oust five board members. This is a significant warning on estimates. Yeah. They blame one movie. They claim the slate is going to be very good going forward. But they said the slate was going to be very good going backward. This is a company thats in disarray. If you buy the stock, its a complete crap shoot. Its rare you are say do we know whats going on in the company . I think they dont. And i say in a vacuum, the stocks a poorer vacuum. I think you buy it because you get a bid but thats just reckless. Theyre looking at 1 to 1. 05. The street was at 1. 38. A lot of people come in say a nice base had been set on this name. Yeah. I just look at this situation and i just think that this is such a poorly run company that the earnings estimates mean nothing. Theres a core value to it that we cant determine. I just think that this is a black box. But the stock is going up. Its been very hot. And it not going down big on this preannouncement, which tells me people feel like this companys in play. And i think that its in play because no one can recall a company that doesnt have anybody running it that doesnt have somebody gunning for it. I wish i had a valuation for it. It ha its hard to figure. Some argue a great activist play turns out to be a duel stock like this one. You set up a dual class so your family inherits and there isnt anyone who can come in. Remember dow jones had a separate situation and the families broke and murdoch came in. Look, to figure out what this companys worth on top of this preannouncement, why do they e preannounce . Are they afraid people might be bidding on the stock and theyre in possession of the that say, listen, our numbers are so much less than you think so before you take a shot at us, understand this is a material decline in our business. So at least theres someone issuing it. I mean, theres someone who pressed the button, right . I guess thats a positive. Well get to a lot more media news today, including disney in a few moments. First up, though, st. Louis fed president jim bullard cutting his economic outlook. He said under Current Conditions only one rate hike may be necessary over the next 30 months or more, barring unnecessary shocks, he sees gdp around 2 . He continues to see unemployment around 4. 7, inflation around 2, but he is clearly the outlier. We wondered who that was. Yeah, he was a guy who last year in august was talking about how strong the economy was. He had to pull back, saw the data wasnt so hot. You two have a history. Little bit. Fair to say. Came around to my view. Hes not on the board of lululemon so were okay there. Chip wilson, i do want to speak to you later because i do have comments on the insurgent founder, who i kind of like. Bullard is a guy letting the data determine it. I was surprised at this because when oil came up, he was using oil as a sign that the economy is weak and then oil doubles so i thought he might not go this way. You know, people change and i think bullard was a little doctri doctrinearian and hes backed away from that. I want to hear its the beginning of its amazon doing it, its digitization, its disruptor. When is the real world going to intrude on the federal reserves analysis. Youre not going to have as many people do as many things. Some of the people at sales force talking about how all the apps replace people. I need them to come out and say, listen, we are at a moment where the reason why we cant really grow jobs is because technology is just killing jobs. You could also do offshoring. Im just saying i need them to understand what digitization means. They dont seem to get it. A lot of questions about the model that the st. Louis fed is switching to. Housing, the mortgages are fixed, the lowest in a way. I will say this. I get the st. Louis fed, i get everything the st. Louis fed sends out. Their data is so superb, even week to week. I worked with them in the 80s. Theyve been the most disciplined in terms of their analysis. We need housing to be stronger. Were talking about a housing start number that was the same as we were when we were a nation of 150 Million People, we are 317 Million People. Rents are the cause of the cpi going up other than health care. Diana ola talking this morning correctly about some of the obstacles. Its not a Strong Economy but there are pockets of the economy that are very strong and theyre wiping out other pockets. A week from today, jim, were going to come in here and we should know the result of this brexit vote. This murder of jo cox is abhorrent. What happens if theres a remain . Do we shoot to 2140 . What . I have to tell you yesterday when oil was down a buck and a half and the market was looking bad, it really seemed like there was no way to come back. Im going to hate what i say here, but and then she and then the wow, then the incident occurred, okay, and then the stock market flew up because the incident was viewed as something that said wait a second, we have to cool the rhetoric and maybe the stay wins. If you look at the s p, it literally was right up when the murder occurred. You think it could change the trajectory of the vote . Yeah. I mean, it certainly changed some people say betting lines not changed, jim. I say the s p violated its ratio with oil and just turned up the moment she was murdered. Its rather remarkable to see that. These betting line, you have all these polls, but the s p, you got a unique thing with the s p if they stay and its going to be pretty bad if youre short. Theyre suspending campaigns, both sides for today. We mentioned la guard. She said there hasnt been a meeting with anybody in the past few months with anybody in which brexit has not come up. Take a listen. Zit going to cost, its going to be negative for imcome purposes, its going to reduce trade due to uncertainty. Those are blatant facts. And reuters quoting kbw that u. S. Banks could get a 6 hit on earnings. We did some yesterday and we went over different American Companies that get hit. Goldman sachs hit the most. Do you have to move to paris . Do you have to move to london . This is a job killer. Its so amazing. Theyre very the brexit group is very blithe about the jobs. Theyre not really talking about the jobs that will be lost but American Companies, american banks may have to shift, they may have to go to another country, which is really pretty amazing. Diamond has basically said as much to the u. K. , our Business Model here is going to have to change. You were totally dominated by events. Apple going down right now because of talk that the chinese are blocking the six. This country itself, its so funny, i do all this work on the country itself and i just find its hapless. I go why am i wasting my time . Its brexit. Its china. Its anything but home. Its going over kroger and kroger reversed yesterday. There wasnt anything that really reversed it. I stopped and said i must be the only person studying kroger, theyre studying british polls and apple in china and im sitting here i like kroger, its only the largest grocery chain in the country. Forget that. I care about having will frost on about the sales for rbs, royal bank of scotland, for barclays. But thats right. Thats right. Thats not the wrong approach. You have to focus on international. Those of us who have prided themselves of being able to do analysis of individual companies here, i accept the macro judgment. You have to accept the verdict. Were going to dig into that apple news. The journal saying beijing says the 6 and 6s violate a chinese patent, halting sales. Tim cook was just there not that long ago so i dont know. China is i mean, look, obviously the stocks going to head down more than 1. 75. Coming up, some tough talk from larry ellison. And the latest on the viacom board saga. He did show up for work today. Heres some video him showing up this morning. Take a look at the premarket. Not much action in either direction. Well see what the day brings. More squawk on the street from post nine in a minute. Okay. What if a Million People download the new app . Were good. Five million . Good. We scale on demand. Hybrid infrastructure, boom. Ok. What if 30 Million People download the app . Were not good. Were total heroes. Scale on demand with the Number One Company in cloud infrastructure. Using 60,000 points from my chase ink card i bought all the fruit. Veggies. And herbs needed to create a popup pickyourown juice bar in the middle of the city, so now everyone knows. We have some of the freshest juice in town. See what the power of points can do for your business. Learn more at chase. Com ink see what the power of points can do for your business. Man 1 i came as fast as i man 2 this isnt public yet. Man 1 what isnt . Man 2 weve been attacked. Man 1 the network . Man 2 shhhh. Man 1 when did this happen . Man 2 over the last six months. Man 1 how did we miss it . Man 2 we caught it, just not in time. Man 1 who . How . Man 2 not sure, probably offshore, foreign, pros. Man 1 what did they get . Man 2 what didnt they get. Man 1 i need to call mike. Man 2 dont use your phone. Its not just security, its defense. Bae systems. Salesforce confirming his company made a bid for linkedin before microsoft swooped in to buy it for 26. 2 billion. Salesforce will face increased competition in Customer Relationship management software. What did you think when you heard that . Id gone over linkedin. They were surprised they had such macro weakness. He always felt its a good social mobile cloud company. Id like to hear more from mark about the actual details of what he intended to do because he does not talk about material nonpublic information to the press. But i know that he thought the company is great and he was stymied by that previous quarter, as so many were. But even going over literally each paragraph of what was wrong. And i know that he was surprised. That next quarter made him feel better. When we asked him about demand wear, he said this is a deal we could get down. I kicked myself because that statement when he was right here and said it was kind of an admission that there were other deals i couldnt get done. It was right there and i just go over everything that i heard and i realize i screwed it up. I had that moment. I had that moment. Let others do the monday morning quarterbacking. No, i watched the tape, i was wrong. I handed it to the wrong guy. Who would have been the better story of linkedin . Who would have been the better story . I think that the independence of linkedin is much better for sacha because microsoft, they need the growth. Salesforce does not need the growth. They would be buying a Company Growing roughly the same, maybe a little less. But you dont know because if you listen to the unbelievable oracle call last night, youre dealing with a company that says theyre not growing that much at all. The oracle call, one of the great thing, Larry Ellisons three mentions salesforce negative, you always have to keep score of what they say because these guys are the fightiest guys evfight ie feistiest guys ever. At one point honestly, if marc benioff were an upset guy, he would have thrown his mouth guard at ellison instead of just steph curry. Lets listen to what ellison said last night. Wed like to accelerate our staff and past growth and make sure were growing at least double the rate of our closest competitors. We think we have a fighting chance to be the first staffed company to make it to 10 billion in revenue. No. No. Really, its going to be look, this is a horse race but benioff is going to be their fast tracker. Hes that close. Hes that close. But they do a platform as a service. It could be a photo finish between these two. Its been an important benchmark for both companies. Now, there is no shortage of promos on their Conference Call. Safra katz, who i love, she starts of with we were thrilled and says the results for q4 were fantastic. They dont wait for you to tell them its fantastic, they tell you its fantastic. Weve seen our movie and its fantastic. Erye did that about star wars but theyre competitors. Its the nfl. Apples down almost 2 . You got to get apple on the phone, guys, because the story, you know, china obviously so important. Jay clearly said the numbers are pushed out. Were getting a number of soft downgrades. Yesterday we had another. No one is downgrading. We reiterate buy and cut the price target. Thats the soft downgrade. I cant get confirmation other than theres been two stories that said the 6 is pulled. I need confirmation of that. Beijing regulator orders apple to stop sales on two iphone m mode models. Cook was just there. I know. They just invested a billion dollar in an important ride share company, which some say was an attempt to build goodwill. If this story is true, they did shut down the apple ibooks and itunes movie sight. If this is true, the stock will get hit with more than it has been. But this is not whats in the game plan. The 6 being pulled. And the China Mission was a kind of a, please, were working with you guys and this is not the reaction. Its a subpar situation. Suboptimal clearly for apple. Talk about difficulties in doing business in that country. Great example. Yeah. The big growth came from china. Its one thing to say the growth is slowing. Its another thing to pull it as if its just a box of secereal, theres something in the cereal, pull it. We act like its a democratic china and now, its a communist dictatorship and they control every aspect. There are a lot of people that criticized that thicahn thiss no longer worrying. This is in your face. The 7 has to be for sale there. They have to get the 7 in order for them to make anywhere near numbers. Does the fact that the 7 is around the corner take any of the sting out of this . This relates to the 6, which is in its twilight. They got to get to the beijing intellectual Property Bureau today. Yeah, look, you cant be out of that market unless you want to be out of that market. Google. Its bad. Im going to say its bad. I wish theyd check in and get some confirmation that this isnt a permanent ban or that theyre in consultation with them because you cant lose china. You cant lose china. On that note, we will keep an eye on that. Well get cramers mad dash. Well count down to the final opening bell of the week. One more look at the premarket and squawk on the street is back after a break. Ked and intellectual property being stolen. That is cybercrime. And it affects each and every one of us. Microsoft created the digital crimes unit to fight cybercrime. We use the microsoft cloud to visualize information so we can track down the criminals. When it comes to the cloud, trust and security are paramount. Were building what we learn back into the cloud to make people and organizations safer. Jake reese, day to feel alive jake reese, day to feel alive jake reese, day to feel alive with iphone sales, you saw other regulators suspending the companys movie and music business. There was a lowcourt ruling months ago that apple has infringed on those patent and immediately important all apple products are still on sale in china. Any idea how this takes fire . Were not talking about a tech blog out of nowhere. This is the wall street journal. I cant say. I dont know what the journals reporting was here, carl, what their sources were. I can only say who im talking to. Maybe some confusion about the Lower Court Ruling. There was a ruling. I think whats important is that apple is now appealing that ruling so the injunction has been stayed, carl. Thank you. Meanwhile, jim cramer is with us who has been working the phones on this. On the record confirmation. Absolutely not true. If it were true, its only beijing. Its a Lower Court Ruling. It is not true. The story as reported is not true. And if it were to affect china, it would only be beijing. I had it confirmed from the company. They dont expect it. Theyre saying its minor, minor, okay . You can argue a Lower Court Ruling is still stunning. But they are saying, listen, were for sale and even if it did occur, it would only be beijing. Obviously beijing a big city. You say only beijing, thats like saying only california. Its a minor court ruling and they dont expect any interruptions. And on the record, no interruption in sales . On the record. Talk about a big head fake on this. Jim, im glad its cleared up but it does, again, highlight concerns about doing business in a country where Something Like this even gets to this level. Yeah. And remember again the Chinese Court system is controlled by the communist party. So in other words, its not like the u. S. Court system. Thats a communist party ruling. You are not going to get a lower court to take a look at the facts and take each side. The communist Party Controls the courts there, so thats a communist party ruling. So lets not forget we make things up. We say was apple represented, fifth amendment, fifth amendment. Communist party made its ruling bu its selling. You mentioned other estimate cuts you dont call them soft downgrade. The cuts were real. Is it a value trap . A lot of my best guys are saying, jim, come on, its like an airline. Its going to sell six times earnings, but i have to tell you that i still believe that this is an inexpensive stock and i do believe, as apple just put on the record for me, that this is a minor, minor matter and, again, i say its a communist party. Can you say im trying to put a little nuance on my own because i know the chinese system pretty well, but there is other issues involving the actual number and whether the 7 is not going to sell as well. Im looking at the bill rate of within particular company, jbill, which is the principle according to jabil. Everyones kind of cutting their price target, everyone is cutting their price target or wants to cut their price target. At the same time, i generally have to say if youre going to panic on this particular aspect, i think you have to panic on other reasons. It does take a strange coat on a week, the car, everything weve been talking about thats promised in a long time. And ted leonsis. I do feel very strongly that the quarter seems soft. Obviously the stock off the lows of the premarket. That was down about 17, its turn around somewhat with th