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American Morning

Minding Your Business: Martha Stewart's Tide May be Turning

Aired October 06, 2003 - 08:39   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Martha Stewart, a trip down memory lane now with Andy Serwer, who is "Minding Your Business."
Good morning.

ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Good morning.

It's not over.

CAFFERTY: Yes.

SERWER: She hasn't even gone to trial. The trial is supposed to start in January, but there is some stuff happening here. The pace is glacial, but we are moving ahead, some important developments over the weekend and Friday for Martha Stewart.

First of all, a Delaware court threw out a lawsuit against the company, because it said the directors aren't responsible for her behavior. Good riddance.

Then also -- this is very important -- James Comey, the U.S. attorney who brought these charges against Martha, has just been named to be the deputy attorney general by the president. That means he's out of the picture. That's good news for Martha Stewart, because this is a guy who was very hard-nosed.

Now, today, apparently Martha Stewart's attorneys are going to be filing motions to dismiss the charges. I think they're doing that because Comey is going by the bye, because he was the guy who really wouldn't compromise with them.

Also, Martha Stewart's fans want to put this billboard up in Times Square. They have raised $3,000 of the $20,000 needed to put -- that's how much it cost to put a Jack Cafferty billboard up there -- 20 grand. My suggestion to these people: Ask Martha. She's the one with the cash, right? I mean, why are you guys raising money, nickels and dimes? Ask her for the money. So, that's interesting.

Sam Waxel last night on "60 Minutes"...

CAFFERTY: Yes.

SERWER: ... kind of an interesting interview there. The first one he gave was before he went to jail, obviously. I think we have a sound byte. Let's listen in to what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you commit insider trading?

DR. SAM WAKSAL, FORMER CEO, IMCLONE: It is very difficult for someone who thinks about himself as someone who does good things for society to be led away in handcuffs and thought about as a common criminal.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SERWER: Yes, I mean, he was sort of, well, you know, I'm a really terrific guy, but I guess I messed up a little bit. And the worst thing for a father to do was to get a daughter involved. You got that right.

CAFFERTY: Yes.

SERWER: But anyway, I think that it's very possible, Jack, they may settle the Martha thing before trial -- before they go to trial.

BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Really?

CAFFERTY: Somebody suggested a long time ago that her lack of willingness to make a deal is the only reason she's still involved in this whole thing. That there was a chance for her to maybe get out of this.

SERWER: Yes, early on. It may come back, though.

CAFFERTY: Yes. Markets had good job news last week.

SERWER: Yes.

CAFFERTY: Earnings start this week. More upside, do you think?

SERWER: Yes, it's very possible, Jack. A really terrific week. Let's look at the numbers. We really moved ahead nicely there -- 259 points there on the Dow. We kind of rebounded from a bad week before.

Interesting news this morning. USP we talked about. They may be moving higher on the news of speeding up their delivery. And Motorola, remember they lost the CEO a week ago because they wanted to split the company up? It turns out they will be splitting the company up. It looks like getting rid of their chip business. That stock is moving much higher this morning.

CAFFERTY: Thanks, Andy.

SERWER: All right.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.





Turning>


Aired October 6, 2003 - 08:39   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Martha Stewart, a trip down memory lane now with Andy Serwer, who is "Minding Your Business."
Good morning.

ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Good morning.

It's not over.

CAFFERTY: Yes.

SERWER: She hasn't even gone to trial. The trial is supposed to start in January, but there is some stuff happening here. The pace is glacial, but we are moving ahead, some important developments over the weekend and Friday for Martha Stewart.

First of all, a Delaware court threw out a lawsuit against the company, because it said the directors aren't responsible for her behavior. Good riddance.

Then also -- this is very important -- James Comey, the U.S. attorney who brought these charges against Martha, has just been named to be the deputy attorney general by the president. That means he's out of the picture. That's good news for Martha Stewart, because this is a guy who was very hard-nosed.

Now, today, apparently Martha Stewart's attorneys are going to be filing motions to dismiss the charges. I think they're doing that because Comey is going by the bye, because he was the guy who really wouldn't compromise with them.

Also, Martha Stewart's fans want to put this billboard up in Times Square. They have raised $3,000 of the $20,000 needed to put -- that's how much it cost to put a Jack Cafferty billboard up there -- 20 grand. My suggestion to these people: Ask Martha. She's the one with the cash, right? I mean, why are you guys raising money, nickels and dimes? Ask her for the money. So, that's interesting.

Sam Waxel last night on "60 Minutes"...

CAFFERTY: Yes.

SERWER: ... kind of an interesting interview there. The first one he gave was before he went to jail, obviously. I think we have a sound byte. Let's listen in to what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you commit insider trading?

DR. SAM WAKSAL, FORMER CEO, IMCLONE: It is very difficult for someone who thinks about himself as someone who does good things for society to be led away in handcuffs and thought about as a common criminal.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SERWER: Yes, I mean, he was sort of, well, you know, I'm a really terrific guy, but I guess I messed up a little bit. And the worst thing for a father to do was to get a daughter involved. You got that right.

CAFFERTY: Yes.

SERWER: But anyway, I think that it's very possible, Jack, they may settle the Martha thing before trial -- before they go to trial.

BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Really?

CAFFERTY: Somebody suggested a long time ago that her lack of willingness to make a deal is the only reason she's still involved in this whole thing. That there was a chance for her to maybe get out of this.

SERWER: Yes, early on. It may come back, though.

CAFFERTY: Yes. Markets had good job news last week.

SERWER: Yes.

CAFFERTY: Earnings start this week. More upside, do you think?

SERWER: Yes, it's very possible, Jack. A really terrific week. Let's look at the numbers. We really moved ahead nicely there -- 259 points there on the Dow. We kind of rebounded from a bad week before.

Interesting news this morning. USP we talked about. They may be moving higher on the news of speeding up their delivery. And Motorola, remember they lost the CEO a week ago because they wanted to split the company up? It turns out they will be splitting the company up. It looks like getting rid of their chip business. That stock is moving much higher this morning.

CAFFERTY: Thanks, Andy.

SERWER: All right.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.





Turning>