An eye onn is keeping them. If you look at why we are seeing the gains, one of the reasons is we are seeing a rally in Health Insurance stocks. Humana is up 10. 5 , and that is because some cuts were announced to medicare reimbursements, but they were smaller than expected, rally, sog a relief that is one of the bestperforming stocks in the s p 500 today. Others include the oilrelated stocks. One company says it is trying to decide whether to sell or spin off to shareholders it Oilfield Services unit, which has about two point 2 billion in annual sales, and finally, the menswear business, joseph a bank its get another offer from mens wearhouse, higher than the last one, so these are rallying. And it is said that the stock could go higher in joseph a bank drops the eddie bauer offer. Carl icahn is using fighting words in his latest letter, saying the ebay paypal division should be spin spun off. He wrote, we believe in any sane business environment, these directors should resign immediately from the ebay board either out of decency or sheer embarrassment out of the exposure of their selfserving activity. We are talking about the man this letter,enned carl icahn. Always good to talk to you. We know you have taken aim specifically at some, including Mark Andreessen. Why do you say they are not working in the interest of ebay . Well, i have been through a lot of these over the last 30 or 40 years. I sent the letter, and i mean it. I have never seen one as blatant as this. You know, we have seen a lot of were but, i mean, if it not sad, it would be funny. This is one of the problems with Corporate Governance in this country and why it is sort of dysfunctional. Mark andreessen on the board of , and another we will talk about, they are two of the most respected and value driven leaders in silicon valley, and i sort of agree. I think they are respected and accomplished, and they are value driven leaders. The problem is the value driven, that i amfor those four. Skype was going to be sold by donahoe, who, you know, i think at theer naive or asleep switch year, and he was going to sell skype, take it public and keep a big chunk for himself. Instead, Mark Andreessen, on the ,oard, who is greatly respected basically he and silver lake bought most of the company, 70 . Valuationbuy it for a of 2. 7 billion dollars. Now, i never saw one like this, this big. 18 months later, they flip it to microsoft, the people who buy it, silver lake and andreessen, for a . 5 billion. In other words, in those months, the shareholders were robbed of billions they could have kept, and it would not be so bad. Asleep at the switch, but andreessen made himself over 150 million off of that. Response,e saying, in the board determined because of these limited synergies, it would be in the best longerterm interests of stockholders to look at divestiture. I have to tell you, you have to be a bit myopic. If you have something that 1. 5 years later, not even, microsoft buys it, i wonder if anybody has called microsoft. We are going to look into it. We are putting out a 220 request, meaning we are looking for all of the books and records. We will investigate whether or andthey really did go out explore everything or just listen to andreessen. Rightow, interestingly, after it, you know, andreessen around the time that they are doing this that skype was phenomenon of breakthrough technology. His partners stated at the time pretty much that skype is on the way to becoming one of the most Important Companies in the world. So i say, one could only wonder what happened to andreessens fiduciary responsibility to ebay, and what about these companies in our country . I will tell you this. At mutual funds have a responsibility to make sure really with the rest of the board, and the ceo has a responsibility, even with chesapeake, which got a lot of pr and all, they never sold something. Something at a 4. 5 billion profit to one of his Board Members. I mean, it is sort of unheard of, and now that i have really dug into it, i have been a little busy in the last couple of weeks, but now that i have gotten into this, this is phenomenal, and i am just saying it. I hope the large shareholders just do not sweep it under the rug like the company is trying to do. Do you think some of these Tech Companies face a certain struggle or a specific struggle in that some of the Board Members, as you try to recruit Board Members who have an expertise in the area, the reality is that tech is a ahat and session with somewhat incestuous to environment, and there are these people that have these conflicts of interest, not at ebay, but in silicon valley. Going to go into silicon valley. This is just bad Corporate Governance, and it is bad anywhere, and i will tell you something else. Another grand slam for andreessen coming right after this is his investment in another. Ebay sold another company back to its founder for just 34 billion in cash. And one yearght, later, andreessen goes then, and at that price, with that note and everything, put in 150 million. He does not go and tell donahoe, why the hell did you sign this . Get this. And they do this at 1. 5 billion of valuation for that company. Just the yearend, it was valued at 3. 1 billion. Ing andreessen other another paper gain. We do not know, but these are the things that stand out. The company today, it is almost, the company says, we do everything right, we explore , andthing, and they go they say that mr. Andreessen and extraordinary insight, their leadership, scrupulous in their government practices, and the ebay board hey, i do not blame andreessen and cook, and i will talk about cooked in a second. Are fully transparent, i guess these guys are sort of blind. I do not understand how they get away with it. There is a shareholder meeting, and you have two candidates. Going on the board there. What happens if you do not get your people, carl . The same commentary on Corporate Governance in general in this country. At the risk of being immodest, we have been through chesapeake, many others,o motorola, where we had to clean up the situation, and i think a lot of people say we have saved these companies, or some of them, and you can go on 420 of them, and it would be a sad domentary, you know, if we not get on the board, i think, but, you know, anything is possible. I have been saying and railing against this Corporate Governance, and this is an example how something can happen and do nothing about it. It is basically a sad thing for this country. I do not think the market is high necessarily because companies are doing that well. I think it is high because it is a bernankemade market. Bernanke is good, and he made it happen, but there will be a day of reckoning. We still have Pension Funds still way underfunded, and they will be more underfunded if you take 4. 5 billion away from companies. So, carl, i spoke last week ebay, johno of donahoe, and asked him about this potential spinoff and his thoughts on it, then i want to play for you an excerpt from that interview and get your reaction. Here it is. Looking at how ebay is most accessible, the board and i believe that the best way is together, and ebay makes paypal stronger, and it makes paypal stronger by helping you to grow faster. It provides more data, and it provides a Strong Financial foundation that will ultimately special as part of ebay as opposed to separate. Why do you think he wants to do that . This is the same type of thing that happened to motorola. You have john donahoe trying to run the company. He is trying to attract really top people. Top people are not going to work for john donahoe just as they would not work for motorola. When you get these top people, the only way you can get a man of a certain caliber, and i did him great credit for saving a company that was really going off a cliff, i worked extremely to gety and night, and someone like him in, and that was a great guy that i love and am still friends with who ran motorola, and he said he would not come to the Company Unless it was going to be split, so we he wasm coceo, and willing to do this, split these companies up. Sanja did a good job. The company was in disarray. Motorola mobility. And we were able to sell it. And let me tell you this. I have looked at a lot of these. I think i have pretty good instincts about this. Paypal is doing great. Paypal has a big chomp. I am afraid that paypal will not be able to compete, looking three or four years ahead, with even motorola did not have the kind of competition that you have with things like samsung and apple that are moving very swiftly in this mastercard, mention and john donahoe has not done a great job at even ebay. If you look at the numbers i show in my letter, he is way outclassed by amazon, and amazon is another player coming into this. What you need to do if you want to do what is good for shareholders, it is really a binary thing. If you want to see this company go up in value, enhance value, and more importantly, enhancing the productivity of a Great Company and make it great, new separate you can bring in great talent, which you do not have now. Going to have them working under the mushroom of , and to say that paypal needs ebay is completely disingenuous. Hereou do not do it is the thing. You can say, lets wait a few years. What the hell . You do not have the luxury of time with this. Have that. To have a multiple to attract talent and a premium possibly when someone wants to take it over, and that is where this company should go. You know, they say we are shortterm oriented, which is completely nonsense. I have a list of companies that we of own for 5, 10, 15 years. Doing this. Biggest record on wall street. 24 return. That is what we are making annualized, even with 2008 being really bad. Is buy thee to do stock when we went on the board, just bought it, in the last five years, and you made over 30 annualized return, and that tells you something when we get on a board. Andn promise you one thing, i can say this now. If i had been on that board, if my representatives would have been on that board, and reason would not have bought skype. We would have done a very thorough search, as we did at forest. Look at for history of the stock was 35, now 97. Aroundosoft was waiting the corner in 1. 5 years, i think it is criminal. Some people think criminal, it is go to jail criminal, but it is terrible, reprehensible that this should go like this with silver lake. Au know, you say you have got worldclass board, but a worldclass board for who question mark they should have been watching this. I am not saying we are experts in the world of technology. We are not saying we are, but you have got x board you have got experts on it. I am really worked up a lot, and i grew up on the streets of queens. Let me tell you, those guys would not have let Something Like this happen. Tony sopranone having somebody take that money away from him in 1. 5 years . And you are note tony soprano. Let me ask you before you go. I know you have been purchasing more stock. Can you give us a sense of how big it is . In fact, i do not have it in front of me, that we have over 1 billion. I could look it up here, but i will tell you this. I believe in it, but only do not say sell. Separate it off. Then it is great. It is binary. And i have to tell you, the Corporate Governance is scary. And then what cooks did. Billion. 1 they compete with us. It is a little overlapping. We just ought braintree. Who is ebay flowing when they write these letters . Bull. There is an overlap. They just bought a company to get into this process more and more and more. And the department of justice, they still have a case against them for agreeing with cook that they would not compete and hiring people away from into it. I mean, what the hell goes on there . We are going to be in it, and we will see how it goes. Sounds like you could beginning up for a pretty big fight, because john donahoe has been pretty clear that he is not interested in doing this. The board has looked at it before, so you will continue to persevere. Let me ask you. What happens if come april you do not get your folks on the board. What do you do then . Do you stay in the stock . I think we need people on the board to watch them, and just as soortantly, we need to win that even with this board if you have got a strong preparatory, they want to see this split up or mandated, i think this company is worth a great deal of money. That, i have get to tell you, unlike even in , and ia, i am concerned do know apple, gearing up to get into this very, very lucrative business. Look what happened to blackberry and nokia and motorola and eastman kodak. So listen. I enjoy doing this. I do not enjoy the five. I would rather have us, but this, to me, is one of the most interesting ones i have been in because this is very binary. There is a part of me that thinks you enjoy the fight, at least a little. I would rather make love than war. Come on, you know that. In a very spiritual way. All right, thank you very much for joining us today, and i just want to mention to viewers that i did reach out to Mark Andreessen and to ebay for hear fromnd if we them, we will for sure let you know. We will get back to you we onl get with Mark Andreessen this. All right, samsung has just unveiled a new version of their flagship phone in barcelona. Bloomberg businessweek reporter is in Lower Manhattan though, where samsung is hosting a partner event. Sam, you have been playing around with the new phone. What do you think . Well, it is certainly better than the previous phone. 5, and theregalaxy s are some things that stand out right away. A larger screen, five point one inches, as opposed to five inches. You have a fingerprint sensor on the home screen, sort of like fingerprint sensors that have appeared on other brands, and also the galaxy s5 is waterproof to up to one meter for up to 30 minutes, so obviously if you are worried about dropping it in a puddle you can drop it in the toilet. In the breast pocket, at theg it in the toilet bar. Exactly. All of the usual improvements that you would expect, better camera, better conductivity. It also has a heart rate sensor. You can put your finger right on the back, and it will tell you it also hasate, and better materials. People used to complain about plasticy. Ing a little about goingalking down there, and you are saying, i hope they have a nicer case, a nicer package with the phone. Were ike it question yes, this definitely follows on things like the alex the note and another that has taken on more of a handcrafted feel. It is a lighter phone, but that is because they are packaging more into it. Got it. Sam, thanks very much for the quick review on the galaxy s5. Smart is back in just a few minutes time. Welcome back to street smart. I am matt miller. The dow and the nasdaq are getting back to gains for the year on the s p and backup to a record. They a look at the dow, putting up 152 points, and the founder and president of a group is here. I know you want to talk about commodities, and they have been part of a rally. Rally there . Eing a Growth Numbers are slow. This is getting back to where we were at the beginning of the year, and i think the risk is getting higher. Commodities are more risky. Why are they risky . Why . Because we have much more clarity about growth. We have much more about the weather conditions. As we come into this thing, we will figure out whether or not the economy is going to recover, and typically stop stocks in their tracks, or it will be week. Look at these charts here. Does this not tell you that growth is ahead . This is an amazing thing, and because few people have positioned themselves for it. Thatand the gold miners, is great. Coffee is a market that is not rather insignificant. This makes you wonder where the smart folks are visiting as opposed to buying stocks that are at alltime highs. There are commodities that are relative to where they were, so there is an opportunity, perhaps, in the commodities sector as opposed to somewhere else. All right, jay, you are going to stay with us, and we have more with things that carl icahn had to say. Stay with us here on street smart. All right, time for our big story. There is a manhunt underway in the ukraine. Arrestve issued an warrant of viktor yanukovych, accusing him in the death of more than 80 people last week, and he fled his home, freed his political rival after two point five years in prison. Elections have been scheduled for may. If she ends up running, ukraine. We are joining now our roundtable. We have richard falkenrath. We also have with us the president of an advisory group. Let me start with you, richard. Take over atto this point . Who is in charge, i should ask, right now, and who would have a chance of running . The person who was released over the weekend. Actually, trish, a small correction. She was released by the parliament. He fled town, and then parliament passed a series of acts, one of which freed her from prison. He took off. They passed these laws, one of which freed her. Were hisof them cronies up until a week ago and have seen a and our voting him out of office, and there will be a new round of president ial elections. What we do from here until may is a caretaker government. By the way, his cronies were concerned basically that people were going to take away their stuff and their money. The ambassador to ukraine. Let me ask you, ambassador, how did this go from on friday, we were talking about yeah ninkovich would be staying on until elections in december, and today, there is a manhunt to d him yannick o getting in and seeing what a crock this guy is. His kid had a Million Dollar car collection. The question is, can they get rid of that, and do they run the risk that it is simply the orange regime all over again, and similar problems . I am not really sure what the answer to that question is, but as an investor, i am thinking, do we even get to may. Covering their shortfall or the eu willingness to do so. Those are the big issues, and to me, if we see russia go into the ukraine, saying we will cover the shortfall, i think you short the ruble. I do not think they have the capacity to short. Ukraines debt is trading at a yield of nine percent. It is trading at triple c. You can buy triple c tapered here in the United States for almost double that. There is an incentive for vladimiroton putin to come out