BUSINESS-01
Authers, Felipe Calderon>
day. Oil prices plummet.>
Also very intriguingly because they're going to split themselves into three thereafter. And you would think each of the three new companies are going to be very dominant in their particular segment that they're creating.
I think people are that much more accommodating at this point because the environment is that much more difficult for growth (inaudible) share.
QUEST: Related to that, the Pfizer Allergan - the criticism of their and I think you might have even made this criticism.
AUTHERS: (Inaudible).
QUEST: Was that a deal predicated purely on tax savings -
AUTHERS: Yes.
QUEST: -- or even cost savings but doesn't have a growth component -
AUTHERS: Yes.
QUEST: -- is basically financial engineering but not a real merger.
AUTHERS: Yes, precise - well I can only say you always make the impersonal finances as well.
If you're letting a taxpayer wag the investment dog, it's generally a bad idea.
Certainly in terms of the great rubric of whether there is a crash between Wall Street and Main Street. You can see that. In this case this plainly will be pretty good for shareholders.
I don't know how good, but it will produce some money for the shareholders - it's going to be in layoffs.
And Allergan and Pfizer similarly you have a big issue there of whether it's really going to boost the economy even if it does boost shareholders.
QUEST: From what you're understanding, are the great M and A banks - the Goldmans, you know, the Barclays, the Morgans -
AUTHERS: Yes.
QUEST: -- and HSB. Are they running `round the world now salivating at what they believe will be opportunistic moments like, you know, to pick up business from companies waiting to do deals?
AUTHERS: No. I don't think - I think we're pretty close to the top of the cycle and I think most bankers would probably, well, whether they were an asset on the record is (inaudible) good.
QUEST: No, they wouldn't, they wouldn't.
AUTHERS: They're never going to do that. I don't think people are salivating. I think people are a little bit nervous.
This does, as I said, we haven't reached the moment of supreme overconfidence. We had that in the AOL Time Warner deal of unbelievable (inaudible) risk this cycle.
But there is still a sense that this is getting about as good as it's going to get, I would say.
QUEST: You say AOL Time Warner in the fort hallable (ph) of this building and the walls do not collapse. Thank you, sir.
I remind you of course that AOL Time Warner - Time Warner parent company of this network.
U.N. Secretary Ban Ki-moon says delegates at COP21 talks in Paris have almost reached a deal, it's a big (inaudible) to tackle climate change.
The French foreign ministers says it won't be done until at least Saturday.
Today had been floated as the possible decision day. The former Mexican president Felipe Calderon says any climate deal won't hurt economic growth when he spoke to Paula Newton.
(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)
FELIPE CALDERON, CHAIRMAN, NEW CLIMATE ECONOMY: We cannot say that any single measure would provide economic benefit.
We can say that we take the right steps in order to frame in a comprehensive way a model to a low carbon economy, we will not lose economic growth or we will not lose the potential job we can create.
So if we do the right change in the next 15 years, we can have better growth and better climate at the same time.
And that is going to be in favor of all the countries. Some of them with bigger benefits, some of them with lower benefits.
And there will be winners and losers and for each specific country we can decide a way in which they can make the transition, get a benefits and compensate to the losers in each country.
[16:40:08] PAULA NEWTON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You know, but what you propose - you say that you didn't want to talk about optimism, but what you're proposing is something quite optimistic.
I mean, in terms of the concept that you're talking about, do you envision a country like India - the third largest polluter in the world - coming on board?
I mean, Mr. Modi has been quite clear where he stands on this.
CALDERON: I know that and accordingly kept some concerns about emissions, especially Mr. Modi. And I tried to understand what is happening there.
I'm willing to say that India, third world country, is right (ph) in that, second, India is the largest democracy in the world.
And I remember myself as a leader of a country, anything (will war do) pronounce (ph) has repercussions with your constituencies, with your congress and with your media.
So we need to take care -- we need to take in account that situation.
Now, Mr. Modi's government is doing real things in favor of tacking (ph) climate. For instance, its emissions program related to renewable energy, solar energy in particular.
They are talking in some way that they don't want to quiet from the program related (ph) with coal facilities for instance. At least they received a way to be compensated for that.
And if we think about it, maybe that is fair. Maybe we need to design a world in which India and other poor countries will be compensated.
Maybe we need to design a real pragmatical mechanism in which anyone could take their right of (stead) without suffering in economic tariffs (ph).
QUEST: No more hoverboards onboard (RINGS BELL). The airlines are banning one of the most sought-after gifts in 2015.
After the break, just see how I fair with one of them.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
QUEST: Ah hah! It's the must-have gift of this holiday season. But now airlines are banning them from being taken onboard flights.
So you join me at the hover station as we point out just what this year's travelers are really wanting.
But if you do have one of these machines, do not think for a moment that you're going to be able to take it onboard a plane because all the airlines - most of them, more and more of them - can I go backwards on this thing without doing a serious injury? Maybe.
[16:45:17] United and American have joined British Airways and several other carriers to say no to hoverboards, saying that they are a hazard.
The fear is over the lithium batteries that are within them. Well if you've ever seen the video of them, these self-balancing scooters, some of them are overheating and catching fire like one that happened at the shopping in the U.S. state of Washington.
The airlines say the hoverboard makers aren't disclosing enough information about the size and power, and that's way Virgin America, Alaska, Delta, United, B.A., JetBlue, American and many, many more.
Hoverboards have aided and abetted mischief in the past. In one case - look at this - the thief used it to steal from a convenience store and then rode off into the distance.
They have been declared illegal in London and in New York to ride in public.
I managed to get one and I managed to get - come here. I managed to ride one. The problem is getting on these things.
But once you're on it, I managed to get one to ride on assignment in South Korea.
Help, Mother.
Right, so new technology is always problematic. In the case of computer hackers, they don't need fancy gadgets to get them into the systems of even the biggest companies.
All this week Laurie Segall has shown us the secret world of the super hacker.
(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)
LAURIE SEGALL, TECHNOLOGY CORRESPONDENT FOR CNN MONEY: What do you think of when I say the word hacker?
Some creepy dude in a basement? Well, that's a misconception. What if I told you there's a class of hackers who don't just have social skills, they have more social intelligence than anyone you'll ever meet.
David Kennedy is one of them. He's what's known as a social engineer or a people hacker. His craft is to dupe you into doing things and sharing information you probably shouldn't.
DAVID KENNEDY, PEOPLE HACKER: Could I just get your credit card number?
SEGALL: Some use it for illegal activity. In David's case, companies pay him to find out if employees are leaving the company vulnerable.
He and his team show us how it's done.
Step one, spoof his number so it looks like he's calling from inside the company and then call tech support.
KENNEDY: Hello, are you there? Hello.
KEN, TECH SUPPORT: Hi, it's Ken, can I help you?
KENNEDY: I was wondering if you can take a look at a website I'm trying to get to. It's' for a big customer thing I'm working on for Monday and I can't seem to get to the website from my computer.
KEN: Sure. What website? I'll see if I can get to it.
KENNEDY: Thanks, Man, I really appreciate the help. I mean, it could be a stupid thing, I barely suck at computers, but - so it's www.survey- pro.com.
KEN: Yes, I got a prompt to open. I just clicked open and I'm at the site now.
SEGALL: Here's what the IT guy doesn't realize. By clicking that link, he's just given David full access to his computer.
KENNEDY: Whoa, OK that's great. I just hit it and it seems like it's working fine now. Awesome. I don't know what you did, man, but I really appreciate the help.
KEN: Hey, no problem. That was easy.
SEGALL: That was it?
KENNEDY: We're on his computer right now.
SEGALL: You were able to take over this guy's computer within I would say like under two minutes.
KENNEDY: Under two minutes, yes. Under two minutes took over his entire computer and think of it as not just his computer but it's () the entire company.
SEGALL: In this case the company was paying David to hack them and see if their employees will fall for it. They did.
To show you this demo we agreed not to use the company's name. Kennedy hacks to protect. He's part of a growing number of hackers using this skill for good.
Josh Corman's one of them too. He started a group to help bridge the gap between hackers and big companies.
JOSH CORMAN, HACKER: Hacking is a form of power, not surprisingly as you walked into my house and saw all the Spiderman stuff.
I'm a big fan of the Stan Lee line of with great power comes great responsibility.
We're coming to a point where in the outside world there's a breach a week, a breach a day affecting people's personal lives and national security.
We've got to grow up a bit and we need to be very deliberate about how we use that power.
SEGALL: Corman formed the group after his mom passed away.
CORMAN: She was my science teacher. She kind of taught me that darkness is the absence of light, you know. If you see something missing in the world, maybe it's our job to put it there.
There are very, very bad people which means it falls to the good people to try to fight it.
SEGALL: You feel like you have a very personal responsibility.
CORMAN: We have so much potential to shape our culture, our values, our safety. If not us then who?
(END VIDEOCLIP)
QUEST: Laurie Segall reporting.
Fast food that, well could have you fast heading to the smallest room in the house. Chipotles reputation is taking a serious hit over the latest in a string of food safety issues.
Now the fallout's being felt online. You of course will have a moment to enjoy "Make, Create, Innovate."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[16:52:40] QUEST: Shares in Chipotle have closed down nearly 2 percent, the fallout from a food safety scare continues to grow.
So let's go down - 1.8 percent - 565. But the shares are down almost 20 percent on the year to date.
The Mexican restaurant chain is still dealing with an e. coli outbreak that made 52 people sick. Now that was over nine states including California, New York, Ohio and Illinois. A vast wave of - well not huge wave, coast- to-coast.
Then there was the salmonella outbreak in late August. That was in Minnesota. And now the norovirus has struck with 141 Boston college students being sick after eating at Chipotle Restaurant near the campus of the university.
E. coli, salmonella, norovirus. The fallout's spreading online. CNN's Christina Alesci is with us. Good to see you.
CRISTINA ALESCI, CNN MONEY CORRESPONDENT: Nice to see you.
QUEST: Is the company just unlucky? Is it just bad luck that they have been the one hit by three health scares?
ALESCI: There is an element of bad luck here. There's also an element of the fact that now the company is under the microscope.
Just yesterday made national headlines that one of its stores was closed for a health code violation, right. It's anything that happens with Chipotle around food safety now is just going to be a national story.
So that's part of the problem here. And I spoke to just so many food safety experts who tell me, look, for the most part, companies really don't take food safety seriously until something like this happens.
So when something like this happens, they go crazy with food safety.
QUEST: Is the company perceived to have been doing a good job in handling these crises?
ALESCI: It's a little bit of a tough spot they're in because they have to wait for the federal government to give them the signoff.
So some people have said why hasn't the CEO been out there apologizing more and been more vocal about - look, people got sick.
E. coli is not a pretty thing to have and some people consider the fact that he wasn't out there a big affront to their customer base.
[16:55:01] QUEST: But that - well sure, but hell, that -- that's PR 101. Even if you can't say look, you know, we did it or whatever but we are - the empathy.
ALESCI: OK fine, Richard. But as you know, liability here rules, right? If you come out as a CEO before you know exactly what's going on and you're apologizing for a problem, you're putting yourself in a situation where you're opening up yourself to more liability and that's the problem that Chipotle faces.
It's really between a rock and a hard place. You going to have some?
QUEST: I promised to take you out on a date -
ALESCI: (LAUGHTER).
QUEST: Hey, big spender.
ALESCI: OK. Yes, (LAUGHTER). You got the wrong gal. You must have been thinking about somebody else.
QUEST: You just choose what you like. (LAUGHTER).
ALESCI: It's all for you.
(LAUGHTER)
QUEST: A "Profitable Moment" (RINGS BELL) after the break. "Quest Means Business."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
QUEST: Tonight's "Profitable Moment." So, the Dow closes down 309 points, oil is off 3, 4, 5 percent and it starts to feel as if some of the wheels are looking wobbly on the financial world.
And guess what happens next week? The Fed. Yes. Interest rates probably going up next week on the 16th as the Fed decides it's time to start tightening monetary policy.
It's going to be an exciting week with volatility left, right and center.
And that's "Quest Means Business" for tonight. You better join us next week. I'm Richard Quest in New York. Whatever you're up to in the hours ahead, (RINGS BELL) I hope it's profitable.
Let's make a date to be together for Fed week next week.
END
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