In the takeover. Berkshire hathaway are getting 51 of craft. A solemn minute of science of silence today. They were mourning those lost yesterday when a german plane crashed. We are learning today two americans today a former u. S. Safety investigator says authorities want to know why the pilot made no distress call. Collects that will certainly be the number one item they will look closely to see what is going on around the cockpit. Betty a hong kong conglomerate is no written passes biggest wireless a 53 billion deal. Defense spending will be the point today when the house starts budget debates. Lawmakers are not sure. There are six republican plans. Against lawmakers who want to lower the deficit. Facebook founders reaching out to Software Developers today. Reaching out to the companys conference in San Francisco. We will let out designers reach facebook users even better than now per facebook shares are at an alltime high. Forecasting adding revenue this year just 37 . Those are your top headlines this morning. Warren buffett teams up with 3g. They bring kraft foods and heinz to the same shelf. Your dinner table. The deals have got shares surging. Warren buffett shared this statement in a deal. He said, this is my kind of transaction for more, i want to bring in julie hyman and craig, who covers Consumer Retail and has been covering the news for us. First off, this is classic Warren Buffett tiered walk us through how quickly the deal can together. Craig it has now there are the American Food companies have fallen on hard times. There was talk that 3g was gearing up to make deals. Craft was out there, kellogg. It came together very quickly. Last night and into this morning. Absolutely. It has been rumored they were looking but it is not clear what they targeted. Betty Warren Buffett is saying he is looking for more acquisition to her you can just hear him saying people eating mac cheese forever. Julie he is talking about these worldclass companies but what 3g has been doing is cutting not growing the top line. It is cutting the bottom line and so as the folks on surveillance where do you find the growth from when youre looking at these companies. A troubled business over the past couple of years in the united states. You have this trend toward fresher food and what is perceived as healthy food and not boxed mac cheese or it is going to market shares to Companies Like any. Perceived as better by some folks. Betty what about regulators . Are they likely going to approve this . Craig you would think these guys know what theyre doing, so it is hard to predict what regulators would say but you would think with them involved, they would have a decent chance of getting through. Betty what happens to management . Julie the ceo of heinz would be leading the combined company. Craft is artie seeing management turmoil. Departing last year and then there were more Management Changes just in february. One would think there would be more. 3g has a tradition of cutting costs. Part of that is cutting costs so it would not be shocking to see the playbook repeated in this situation. Betty thank you julie and craig , who has been on this story as well. Lets turn to another story now. The crash in the french alps pier 1 hundred 50 people were killed when the plane went down yesterday, including two americans. The search and recovery operation is now focused on finding evidence as to why exact way this lame crashed. The plane passes cockpit has been found but badly damaged. The search continues for the second black box. For the latest update on the Recovery Mission we are joined by hans nichols, who is in the area. Tell us how the investigation is going so far. Hans it is very busy. About five helicopters are getting to the site. One challenge they have had with the site is it is on a steep slope, difficult to land a helicopter. But they have established a footpath into the area. If you look tiny, you see the alps. We understand recovery workers are able to work. They do have access to the site. A german minister said earlier today that there are literally millions of airplane pieces authorities on all sides. Unlikely to be any survivors. The speed with which that airplane hit these mountains, spreading it all over the place you begin to understand the challenges for these recovery workers. They fit together like a jigsaw puzzle and try to figure out what is what has happened in the crucial eight minutes. We are coming straight down. They may still have had a glide path according to aviation officials we have been speak to. They have recovered one part of the black box, the voice recorder that may have given us a sense of what happened in the cockpit, whether or not the cockpit heard the calls from french air authorities asking what has happened in the plane. Remember they knew the plane is falling at a rate it should have been. There were no mayday calls from inside the clock hit and the search is still on for the second part of the black box, the data reported. Betty thank you so much. We will have further updates on the crash throughout the show. Stay in the loop with us. Back corporate front, keeping a close eye and American Express here it shareholders will be eager to hear from a ceo on how the firm plans to recover from a string of setbacks heard it has been a rough year. You can see what disappointing earnings, job cuts, the end of partnerships just about a month ago, as well as losing a critical antitrust ruling. Joining us now from washington elizabeths investors. Collects it is an important day for shareholders. There has been a string of bad news for the company in the past months. Investors want to hear specifics about how the company will recover from the loss of their relationship, their jet relationship, as well as the antitrust policy you mentioned. They also want to hear reassurance that the setbacks are not indicative of your problems for the company. Betty just outlined for us four things he needs to adjust. Elizabeth one of the first ones is American Express has for a while now been falling back on some of its own growth goals, specifically revenue growth. Particularly, that is something investors want to hear more about in light of the fact costco, one of the biggest retail pollard scholarships, one out of any 10 cars, that potentially goes away next year and how that factors in in terms of broader financial goals. That is one of them. Betty better rewards is the second goal. Lower costs, and wider acceptance. Wider acceptance meaning what . Elizabeth American Express is excepted at fewer stores than cars. For the most part American Express charges at a higher rate. That is something they address. They announced a program where they will be trying to sign up more Small Businesses across the u. S. It has been a year now and additional attention on American Expressss relationship has come into focus, particularly in the past few weeks after they lost the lawsuit. They should threaten the Business Model charging higher rates. Betty thank you so much. Much more ahead, more on the brandnew home, we will talk to enterprises joining me in a few moments. Plus, sex discrimination case rocking Silicon Valley. What does it mean for Silicon Valley women . We will be back. Betty u. S. Surveillance claims. Junior Officials Say the iraq is a giant to retake saddam husseinss hometown from islamic extremists is. It is the first direct involvement by coalition forces. The governor of new jersey is trying to give his likely bid for the presidency a shot in the arm. Republican Chris Christie resumed his home state appearances, holding weekly meetings last month. He still is not officially a president ial candidate. He says he intends to announce his vision his decision in late spring or summer. A gender discrimination lawsuit against Silicon ValleyVenture Capital firm. Lawyers say she is an accomplished junior partner. The firm says she was a failure who sued for payout and was shown the door. Some tech adVenture Capital companies to reexamine cultures and practices even before the jury reaches a verdict. Coming up, one financial advisorss word for with words of wisdom. She has got 22 billion in assets for properties and he has got 22 billion in assets and properties in 20 companies. The global ceo is still to come. Staying in real estate, home buyers are out with old and in with the new. Sales of listing homes rose at a slower pace than last year while new purchases merged to his sevenyear high. This is seemingly good news, as evidenced by enterprises over the past few days, it will paid an uncertain picture for the housing recovery. Want to bring in the ceo for more. It seems like it is good news. Sales are surging. But this home market that we really care about that is 90 of the Housing Market here. Why would anybody buy a used home . Betty what are you seeing in the new home market . Overall, it is a very positive trend. Everyone is excited about one months data. But what is accurate is the trend has been very positive. That is the big Housing Market but in general, trends are positive. Betty is it different this year . What is it, exactly . What is the feeling . Is it the got . The norm is 1. 5 million starts per year in this country. We finally have broken in one million. That is how far down we went. We should be some percentage higher than last year, for sure. Betty homebuyers make up i believe a third of buyers in the country. Are they little shake your here given where we might the in rates . Part of the challenge has been very difficult particularly for firsttime homebuyers. That is slowly getting back to normal. The normal that suited this country well for decades. Betty i found an interesting number that there is 5. 2 million renters in this country right now. That is one million more than last year. 5. 2 million renters poised to buy homes. If you are selling your house, even got 5 million of them out there. What are they looking for . Does the numbers surprise you at all . Does not. A lot of people doubled up after the recession. They went back home or rented with friends and theyre waiting for the right opportunity, waiting to qualify. Everything is going up and that really helps the call the cause for buying homes. Betty you Just Launched a new model. This is more modern . Very much. We launched it and then brought it over to washington, d. C. Extremely popular. Were introducing more. Betty these are modern homes. What are the features . Features people want to have in their home. Designs have been changing. Lots of gathering space. A littleknown can where people can have their computers and do a little internet search in the middle of the day, while their cooking and watching tv and in the Family Gathering space. Betty a connected room. Multigenerational living. Less absolutely. Were seeing with aging population people have a place for the parents whether they visit or live with them for extended stays. That means a proper bedroom on the ground floor. That is a growing trend. Betty stay with me to we will talk to the ceo of enterprises. Betty good morning. The u. S. Economy is on a roll. Here in new york, you can see by the amount of cranes operating a commercial sites and also the number of angst being signed, including the one retailer barneys did. 57,000 square foot downtown Flagship Store at its original location. Barneys will release a stays called equity one, a subsidiary of a Shopping Center starting later this year. The chairman of equity one is with us. Also staying with us is the ceo of one of the biggest homebuilders in the u. S. You are both heavily involved in florida real estate. How big of a deal is it to release the location back and what does it say about the commercial Real Estate Market . I would say worldwide. That means a lot to us and it means a lot to new yorkers. I think it is a great story of going back to its roots. Barneys would just be the first one in a row for other big names. Betty you specialize in retail outlets not just here but overseas as well. You are in poland czech republic, finland, sweden, minority countries. This is a smattering of Different Countries around the world. Im curious if the dollar is helping you at all. Chaim it does help a little bit. We as a Global Company diversified over currency. We are not too happy because we are hedged, when one currency drops. Betty it does not make you want to do more deals, does it . Chaim we do our deals on the strength of the real estate not so much the currencies. Betty what will be the determining factor for you in making deals Going Forward . Collects in the u. S. , we look at every property this is going on today. We are out in the market every day. Ara hovnanian ara northern california, the Silicon Valley area has been blooming. Texas is one of our strongest markets because of the oil market and even dallas, which is less oil. Betty does that match you . Chaim two out of three. [laughter] Silicon Valley, the bay area. We have the secondlargest operator and owner in the bay area. We actually own a major portfolio in texas in 2006 that we sold out. I totally agree it is a very strong market. Betty what would make you reenter the market . Are you looking at it at all . Chaim we are in the process of moving from secondary markets to the metropolitan areas. We find in major cities in San Francisco, one of those cities same as new york city and same as washington dc or around the world. A small city with only 20 Million People. These markets really attract us and we deliver the growth there. Ara an better Pricing Power because others cannot go there. Chaim exactly. Ara we find the markets in the boom times can be very profitable. Betty thank you for joining us. Breaking news out, i mentioned durable goods was going to come out. It is out now for the month of february, down 1. 4 , the headline number. Scarlet fu break down the numbers for us. Scarlet this is an unexpected decline for durable goods in february. Economists were looking for an increase of 2 10 of 1 . If you break it down, backing up transportation, you look at only nondefense goods, excluding air shipments, airplanes, it all comes down to a disappointing read, a drop of 4. 1 when you bring transportation, one for 1. 4 for nondefense, excluding aircrafts, and only a gain of 2 for nondefense aircraft spirit there are provisions to prior months which show a lower provision. Perhaps because of stalled export growth on the back of a smaller dollar. The dollar hitting its low at 96. 63. The 10 year yield coming down to the recession. U. S. Stock futures are a little bit lower but it all comes down to little changed. Betty thank you so much on that. Here is a look at our top stories this morning. A major deal, north america passes third biggest food company. The Brazilian Private Equity Firm teaming up with Warren Buffett in the takeover. Archer hathaway getting 51 of craft. Craft shareholders get 59 dividend. We are also learning two americans were among those killed in the crash of the german wings jet. Workers observed a minute of silence today. They were mourning the six crew members and 144 passengers who died yesterday when the planes went down in the alps. We will tell them why the airbus crashed. The recorder was found at the crash site. Officials talked this morning about the problems crews are facing in the rough terrain. It very large for the moment. It is quite difficult. That is why aircraft unleashed. Betty google executives reportedly held a flurry of washington meetings while the Company Facing antitrust group. They checked laws and found google employees had fitted visited the white house about once a week since president obama took office. Regulators decided not to file and to press charges against google three years ago over the advice of staffers. Republican ted cruz takes a shot exit at his wifess employer. She is taking an unpaid leave from Goldman Sachs while her husband runs for president. He said goldman can be a force for both good and bad in society. Ted cruz my criticism with washington is they favor wall street big business and that is why i have been an outspoken opponent of crony capitalism. I think the business, a fair building a better mousetrap, great. But it should not be government wavering. Betty he says they should not get government subsidies. Where many big things are not done, the fairway in washington. Coming to the capital to receive a congressional gold medal. The highest reward Congress Gives to civilians. He teared up during the ceremony and soda john boehner. You can see it is quite an emotional ceremony. Those are the top headlines this morning. Coming up facebook has doubled since the trading debut. Mark zuckerberg still has more to prove. Were live in San Francisco for an update on his latest pitch to developers. Betty scarlet fu looking at the early action, including the crash deal. That is right. Combining it with clients. Certainly leading to a big swing in kraft shares, a big jump. It could also lead to more consolidation in the Food Industry overall. Youre seeing gains in other names, a global snack and food spin off of craft, up 3 . Campbell soup also rising. Other food names that could be in play. General mills to another gainer here. Another m a transaction, but from last night. This is from the tech sp