good tuesday morning. i'm carl quintanilla with jon fortt, kayla tausche. "squawk alley" this morning with the dow up 41 points. busy day for tech especially given the twitter posts tonight after the bell. julia boorstin joins us from san francisco, talking way ceo in a few hours. >> good morning, carl. the bar is high for twitter following facebook's better than expected earnings raumt out last week, and after a recent management shake-up, twitter's ceo is under pressure to show growth in two key areas. first, monthly active users, where growth has been slowing. this quarter, twitter is expected to get a boost from the massive global conversation about the world cup, expected to add about 12 million user to grow at about 267 million. the question, whether they'll be able to staunch the turn and hold ton those new yeusers,

second, average revenue per 1,000 timeline views. how much money twitter marks from ads when people check the service. that's expected to grow to about $1.49. now, the company has been making a slew of changes over the past quarter to make it easier for people to join and reduce churn, while adding more way toes make money. like app install ads, huge suction on facebook, bodes well for twitter as well. investors will also be watching the top line revenues expected to grow to $283 million from $250 million in the first quarter while the company is projected to lose 1 cent per share. last quarter it broke even. immediately after earnings are out before conference call, sitting down in an exclusive interview. you can tweet in questions for us to ask with a #askcostolo. we'll get his responses to many of them. carl? >> i noticed tweeted, what? is cnbc too lazy to think of

their own questions? clearly he doesn't know we do this all the time. julie, talk to you soon. julia boorstin out west today. for more on twitter, senior equity analyst. scott, good morning to you. >> good morning, carl. >> we have seen a few upgrades in the past weeks and months largely on the notion that user growth is going to reaccelerate in q2. is that what you're looking for? >> it's reasonable to anticipate that, as julia indicated, the world cup we think gave the company a nice shot in the arm. some momentum during a period when really there isn't so much going on in the world to prompt people to hop on the twitter and engage more regularly. however, i think really the big issue here is how twitter tries to kind of change the conversation around what people should be focusing on and how they're delivering against those metrics. >> scott, shot in the arm aside, most traders i talk to say they're only willing to play this name in the options market.

too expensive and vulnerable to own out right. the equity market. when does the stock get safer to own and start to stabilize in terms of growth and the predictabilipredic predictability for where it's going? >> we think about twitter, kayla, a couple different recommendations on the stock since we initiated coverage in november, and what's interesting is that it definitely has not been a boring stock to kind of track or follow or presumably own. i think it's fair to say people want to see more consistency in terms of the results. they want to hear more from the strategy side, from the new kind of management team, and i think they want to become more comfortable with the long-term business model. >> scott, facebook was supposed to be slowing down. it was supposed to be old and uncool, and the kids were supposed to be moving to twitter, but i think quarter over quarter, facebook had something like 40 million monthly active user growth and maybe we're hoping for 10 to 15

from twitter. what's the story there? what do they have to say or show on the user number, the monthly user number, to show they can really grow? >> i think, jon, that's an important question. i think twit sir at a disadvantage, because they're constantly compared to facebook. which is executed tremendously well over the last number of quarters. what i would say is that twitter, without question, is trying to become kind of broader and more, i'd say, accessible and usable by a larger group of constituencies. so whether it's journalists like you or analysts like me, we're already on twitter. it's the mom and pops of the world that really don't understand the value proposition. that's what twitter needs to work on more, we think. >> scott, you know, when you listen to costolo speak now, he inevitably reerchs to off-line viewership. not about your user cut billion the degree twitter is driving traffic even off the platform.

when you talk about changing the story what noda or costolo will talk about tonight? >> i don't know. a lot of speculation whether twitter is going to roll out some of the new metrics that we think they're kind of thinking about in the context of telling their story and hoping people measure them to those characteristics. i think the reality is that they've already started to talk a little bit about reach. i think in the q 1 conference call they talked about mobile reach from mopub above 1 billion across ios and android. that kind of contextualization is important as people think about the breadth and the power of twitter. >> scott, when you think about some of the items that got crossed off this quarter for twitter, i'm thinking of the partnership with billboard. thinking of a couple deals they passed on and the media rolled

out for user. do any of those items bear fruit or is it slow and steady moving towards hopefully more growth for users? >> kayla, more blocking and tackling that over time. kind of enhance of the company's growth and profit act profile. now, if you think about, as carl referenced early a number of upgrades on the stock. seen bounce from 30 to over 40 settling in the high 30s. frankly, the pressure is on for twitter either to deliver this quarter or indicate something good is coming sooner rather than later for people to continue to be excited about this name. >> scott, go big picture for us a moment. what is twitter's advantage going forward versus the likes of pinterest and tumbler and others trying to come on stronger in the space? what might they have the ability to do out of left field we might expect that could accelerate things? >> jon, an important question to

think about, right? when we think about twitter and the competitive advantages they have, clearly the fact they're global and realtime and egalitarian in terns of distribution and realtime for everyone, that's powerful. figuring out ways to better that. impair to television, twitter h proven over and over again, we think, there's a link to what they're able to offer as people are kind of watching shows and events and then commenting accordingly. i think the next stage, however, is really going to be about twitter driving actions, and so you mentioned app install ads, we think those have been a nice drav driver and in addition, looking at e-commerce. we see some potential there, but it's too early to tell. >> schoott, we'll get more clary tonight. appreciate your time.

over at s&p pie capital, iq. several wire services, carl, reporting that the european union agreed to new sanctions against russia. let me give you some details. saying they'll be involving the financial sector, the energy sector, defense and sensitive and dual use technology as well. they're called sectoral sanctions, that's the phrase thrown around a lot. that would mean the entire sector, the entire financial sector, entire energy sector. we don't believe that's the case. we still think within the subheads i've told you, they'll come up with specific kpifs and specific names, large ones likely affected. one of the goals, make it extremely difficult for large russian state-owned companies, in order to be able to raise capital in the west, to do any underwriting. that kind of situation. wait are for the details to come out. russian market over the last week got hammered yesterday on,

when really we got signals this was coming down the pipe from the europeans. you can see that there and also spurbank, one name that keeps popping up. will they actually target this very large bank in russia that would be meaningful? back to you. more details when we get them. >> thanks for that. with that, the s&p has now gone negative by a little more than a point. markets for the most part are flat right now. the dow has pared off most gain. nasdaq up by 8 points. markets hedged earlier in the session by the highest consumer confidence number since october 2007. of course, the fed meeting also kicks often today, and we'll have more from the fed tomorrow afternoon. the earnings parade rolls on. phrma, sector, busy today. merck had earnings this morning as well as pfizer. stocks of both companies up. merck by 1.5%. pfizer, just a fraction of 1%. both of those companies beating estimates and seeing a different sales picture.

you can see both to the upside this morning. check out shares of darden. part of the pressure it's facing from activist ceo clarence otis announcing yesterday he'll resign. stay on until a successor is chosing. that's something activists had pushed for. the reason, carl, stock is up better than 3% day. >> now the dow has gone negative. keeping our eye on companies like visa, mastercard, bp, an interest in russian sanctions. meantime, open for business. uber announces new tools to lure corporate expense accounts. svp of business joins us next. plus, jon chan on blackberry's latest acquisition, and east versus west. live in malibu and the hamptons comparing real estate on the coasts. "squawk alley," back in a moment.

in a world that's changing faster than ever, we believe outshining the competition tomorrow requires challenging your business inside and out today. at cognizant, we help forward-looking companies run better and run different - to give your customers every reason to keep looking for you. so if you're ready to see opportunities and see them through, we say: let's get to work. because the future belongs to those who challenge the present.

speaking of driving, uber getting down to business. the fast-growing on demand car service targeting business travelers and corporate accounts this morning. joining us first on cnbc, vice president of uber at san francisco today. good morning. >> good morning to you. >> this is a fascinating move by you. doing it in conjunction with concur making expense reporting software. we use it here at nbcu and

comcast. who are you trying to disrupt? a move aimed at improving efficiency and data analystices or just want to drive car companies out of business? >> this just makes uber better for employees and corporations. this is not about disrupting car rental companies. it's about making the experience of using a car for a business purpose just better than it already is for both the employee and for the corporate account expense manager. >> i'm an uber user both for business and personal use. you suggested this weekend, with concerns, a couple high-profile insurance issues. one an accident where a little girl was killed. family members injured. another where i believe a driver was involved in an accident, fire hydrant sheared off, flew 80 feet, hit a pass per by, uber arguing liability limited because the drivers are contractor es. once you sgee this deeper

relationship with businesses, are businesses who contract with you through concur possibly going to be on the hook for some of that liability, should something happen, god forbid? >> look, safety is our number one concern at uber and everything we do is -- is about safety from a first priority standpoint. and the we take that very seriously. but i'm here to talk about uber for business and do want to say we have best in class insurance. >> that is what i'm talking about. there is there's question, you're setup liabilitiwise differ than other car companies they might contract if. if i'm a business, i'm wondering how that might affect me? >> we have better insurance coverage. i repeat that, better insurance kov coverage than any other ground care provider today. business is tes are covered end end and employees more so than any other means of transportation today. >> safety and insurance, one

issue. price is another. some of these large multi-national companies, many of whom concur customers already have relationship, sometimes multiyear, multimillion dollar relationships you with fleets of car services to take frequent travelers from place to place. i'm wondering how you plan to woo some of those corporations to use uber instead when that might be a corporate customer that's held captive you can't access? >> yeah. there's an easy answer to that. employees are already using uber today. and their demanding from their corporations that uber be a part, permitted as a part of their business travel options. and xoe what i tell you today is that right now, business expense manager at a corporation deals with written taxi receipts, with some credit card receipts, with vouchers from black car company and they can't look at spend for ground transportation across their business. so what we're trying to do is give them a consistent way of looking and analyzing their

spend on ground transportation. so i think we're going to give tooling to the corporation to do a better job of understandinging where they're spending money and the individual through concur is going to be allowed to put their reits dire receipts directly into expense accounts, no more paper. for both parties we think this is a woon. uber is cheaper than a taxi in most markets we're in. corporations are going to save money as well. >> yeah. we keep asking if that status is technically true. depends when and where you're going. we talk about all of the political battles and fires that you have to fight on the consumer side in cities all around the world. i know miami, for instance, some of the laws for medallion owners and liveries are entrenched. is that any less so on the corporate side? >> there's no difference, cities have their own rule. i think in cities where there are big corporate customers like new york, the regulations have been sort of friendly to

competition, which benefits corporations and employees and consumers. so different cities have a different ball game, but either way, we think the arc of history is bending towards uber. even in place s like miami and other places where we've had to convince regulators to do the right thing by their citizens we think that battle is going to be won over the long term. >> ubers are making interesting moves lately. you're in google maps. you're doing this deal with concur. there are talks about possible linkage with facebook messenger. is this partly a strategy to define uber as a technology platform and sort of accelerate your lead ahead of competitors live lift? >> yes. uber is a technology platform. and we're going to get distributed in lots of places in the u.s. and abroad. and this is part of our strategy. absolutely. to get uber in the hands, of as many people as possible all over the world and all of those things that you mentioned are part of that strategy.

>> emil, we hole you'll come back. thanks for your time. >> thanks for having me. >> a vp of business at uber. over to bertha coombs for a quick market flash. >> carl, check out corning. stock moving lower after the company best known for gorilla glass, apple and samsung report admissed second quarter. shadowing better than expected sales, stock trading down nearly 10%. kayla? >> and anything that has to do with ap until close focus, thank you so much, bertha. when we come back, a robot, and a cam kera that texts you during a robbery. we'll show you exactly what they do, up next.

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a divergence from venture capital and ipos, more and more entrepreneurs are getting start-ups off the ground withes

25ds at time. the average donation received using funding programs like kickstarter. they can turn into big dollars. sometimes these companies raise millions. this week's tech crowd looks at two smart devices for the home, that have started to pick up some steam. ♪ the first artificial intelligent robot for the home. >> welcome, home. >> tracks family action and acts as a personal assistant. the campaign's goal, $100,000.

it's received more than $1.2 million. blink. a wire-free home security system with no contracts or fees. users receive alerts on their smartphones and can check on their house via live video operating. the goal $200,000. the project surpassed its raising more than $250,000. who should be this week's "tech crowd leader"? vote now at cnbc.com/techcrowd. there you have it. jibo and blink. jibo looks fascinating to have around the house. can take pictures, order food, do anything you need lech tru g electronically. >> and also not into dropcam. industrialing probably won't beat up on jibo too bad. >> and iot, as jen called it yesterday, its own acronym.

tough choice. last week was tough. this week, tougher. >> it will be. because blink, we know there are a lot of home monitoring apps and devices. this one is cheap and wireless and there aren't many out there like it. we'll see which viewers choose. and simon is here to walk us through the european close. >> a good session earlier on earnings in europe, but those gains have been cut basket basin half in confirmations of new sanctions from russia coming through from the european union. the most interesting dynamic at the moment continues to be the way in which investors continue to buy sovereign debt in europe. appreciating asset. and we actually hit today an all-time low on the yield on the german ten year. by thisser because you think there's no growth and the inflation or because you believe the european bank will come through and buy the bonds qe 3

forward. or perhaps cutting gas supplies to germany would reinforce your view the economy was looking precarious. reno owns the largest automaker along with russia in larger brands, russian automotives, the market can protract because of what going on. bp, largest oil producer in russia, state owned. it, too, warned actually its objectives in russia, the level of income, production reserves and our investment and reputation could be at risk by further russian sanctions. bp is in negative territory. a lot of companies reporting in europe today. ubs, actually came out above expectations. importantly revealed its dark pool here on wall street is now under a series of investigations from authorities here. its ceo also mindful when we spoke to him at the beginning of

the session that he, too, could have his business hit by those sanctions against russia. take a listen. >> we have to respect any sanctions that will be imposed by authorities, but we're nort going to go and discriminate against any clients or segments. i think that's, we are committed to the russian markets, and the russian clients. >> the question is whether they can continue do that moving forward, guys. back to you. >> simon, thanks. when we return, why is microsoft being investigated in china? we'll look at technology firms getting the squeeze in a moment. plus later, robert frank doing reporting on the ground. or should we say on the beach? in the hamptons. what does $17 million buy you in the hamptons? well, this. 16,000 square feet on 7 acres, right on the water. we're going to take you inside, coming up after the break. in today's market, a lot can happen in a second. with fidelity's guaranteed one-second trade execution,

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chinese officials descend on microsoft offices across china as the company confirms it's the subject of an investigation. we have more. >> reporter: china confirmed an investigation into microsoft. the state administration for industry and commerce has said that the software giant is suspected of a monopoly. the agency cited compatibility issues for the windows os and office software and said about

100 officers raided microsofts offices in various cities across china to gather more information into the way microsoft bundles its software and adds security features. the inspectors are also investigating senior management and other american knell in chiin -- personnel in china. that they're out of contact and is urging microsoft to cooperate with authorities. microsoft confirmed the official visit monday and said it was happy to answer the government's questions. microsoft is the latest american tech firm to face scrutiny in beijing after washington's repeated accusations of chinese cyber theft. eunice eun, cnbc, beijing. for more on the story, robert atkinson, a tech policy think tank in washington. robert, good morning to you, good morning. >> microsoft's spokesperson in the "times" today says, talking about the cause of these visits, given the sensitivity of the

issue we can't say anymore. what do you think the chinese want? >> this is essentially the equivalent of a show trial. there's no real substance the chinese have. they're doing it for a couple of main reasons. one, retaliate against us for when the obama administration brought a suit against five chinese hackers in the red army. the chinese policy is always to match that and then give it one more, and that's really what they're doing. sending a message to the u.s. government saying, don't challenge us, or we will challenge your companies. the second thing the chinese are doing here is that they're trying to put the squeeze on microsoft so that microsoft lowers their prices, they have more open standards so the chinese companies can get in. trying to weaken microsoft as well as other tech economies to fave irchinese technology companies. >> robert, go big pictuture for mere as you started to do at the

end of what you were just saying. last year we saw apple get pressure from china over iphone location, over customer service policy. we saw ibm get hit. now it's qualcomm and microsoft. what's the big picture that tech company, maybe companies in general, should be taking away from the way that china is pressuring these american companies? >> don't forget cisco and emc, add them as well. what the chinese have fundamentally done over the last five or six year, shifted their strategy, attracting investment, growing think economy to what they call an indigenous innovation strategy, fundamentally it's about prioritizing and favoring domestic chinese firms. the chinese have asset goal, for example, that in 159 ye years t want to be the world's leader in semiconductors, putting massive amounts of money into this, favoring their own state-owned enterprises. part of that strategy is to take

down u.s. companies, particularly foreign technology companies which are mostly u.s., to try to get, weaken them and then also give them, have them give preferences to chinese companies. for example, in the qualcomm case, it's to license ip at a lower rate. the microsoft case, probably around standards. >> robert, tech companies have been vocal over the last year about their position between a rock and hard place with regard to where washington is in all of this. i'm wondering, given some of the news we're just starting to see trickle out, should washington have a response? what, if anything could, it say at this point? >> look if washington doesn't have a response, we know what this end game will be. the end game will be a slow erosion of u.s. technology company position and sales in china with the result of fewer jobs in the united states, and a bigger trade deficit. that's going to be the end game, unless the obama administration and congress really steps up the

game and takes action. and one thing they could do would to be make it very, very clear, very public, from the president and congress that this is just unacceptable. this is not about the rule of law. this is not about their anti-monopoly law. this is purely brute force, if you will. this is something out of the godfather that just is not appropriate in an economy that is purportedly governored by the wto. the world trade organization rules. >> right. soon to be the biggest economy on the planet. given all that and the uncertainty regarding the behavior of regulators there and here, rob, it's still a huge market, obviously, with huge potential rewards. in general, do you tell companies it's still worth taking a gamble on expansion in china? >> i can't advise individual company, but you're right. china, it's such a huge and fast-growing economy, you have to be in china. that's really, that is the ace in the hole for the chinese government. they know that.

they're not like, say, a small, little country where companies can walk if they don't like what's going on. they have u.s. companies over a barrel. companies have to be there. it's really incumbent upon the u.s. government to be the bodyguard, if you will, to protect them. to protect their interests because that's protecting u.s. economy interests. that's something the u.s. government simply has not done adequately to date. >> certainly got arrows in their quiver. no doubt about that. rob, come back pap story that won't go away soon. >> thank you. back to bertha coombs, a market flash with the down do you 24. >> carl, oshkosh b'gosh, specialty stockmaker stopped tumbling posting a lower third quarter profit and cutts fourth quarter earnings profit setting a fall, 6.5% fall in military vehicles. trading down more than 12.5%.

of course, orb gosh ba sgosh more of the clothing. what i think when i hear oshk h oshkosh. >> yes. and "squawk alley," today at cnbc, announcing the launch of the cnbc tv everywhere tv. watch retile streaming of all your favorite market days shows includings "squawk alley," "squawk on the street" and "mad money." plus access weekend programming wherever and whenever you want. a very big deal in the ongoing chapters of cnbc television. both online and on digital. >> yes, indeed. i use apple tv, and eager to get cnbc content on there to raise the bar of what they've got. this is programming live. so -- now i can use it for that. it's great. >> a big deal. meantime, john chen, blackberry ceo on the company the news, a new acquisition announced we'll talk about that with jon fortt. rick santelli, what are you watching? >> watching the fed, like everybody else and trying to handicap exactly how many

floatation devices they've passed out. of course, as we see, the balance sheet rise, stocks rise, corporate profits rise, but what happens when the fed's balance sheet stops rising? tune in, after the break, and we'll discuss all of that. the cadillac summer collection is here. ♪ ♪ during the cadillac summer's best event, lease this all new 2014 cts for around $459 a month or purchase with 0% apr and make this the summer of style.

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in a we believe outshining the competition tomorrow requires challenging your business inside and out today. at cognizant, we help forward-looking companies run better and run different - to give your customers every reason to keep looking for you. so if you're ready to see opportunities and see them through, we say: let's get to work. because the future belongs to those who challenge the present. ♪

coming up at the top of the hour, a social standoff. facebook versus twitter. wait until you hear what one expert says twitter must do to turn things around. our nasdaq 2.0 series continues with two outspoken reporters who were there when it went down. is it different or more of the same? k one betting big on housing. when urban compass sees the most opportunity for growth. all straight ahead on "the half." john chen announcing this morning the company will double down on enterprise and acquire a german company. what could it mean for the company going forward? here's what john chen had to say. >> i think there should be interpretation that we're now focusing on growth. i'm working to laying the groundwork on growth. that's not to say that we're, where everything is great, but i feel good about our financial

positions, and where we are. we have $3.1 billion of cash in the bank. you know, if everybody believes me in two, three quarters we'll be generating cash and add to that $3.1 billion. spending a little money of growth is the right thing to do. it's not now the time to retrench. this is now the time to be more aggressive. we will do a little more but it is going to be in the area you talk about. maybe the enterprise application side. maybe in the securities side. certainly very technology oriented. >> why i guess it's key to find a partner with already an expanded sales force so you don't have the to spend too much money there? >> i would prefer. one of the earlier conference calls high done, to help people i'm foes ig r cusing on distrib agreements. we'd like a win-win solution across the board. in the good, old days built on

we're number one. we're no longer number one and we need to focus on that a lot more. and focus on margin. i'm happy to say we have a blueprint for it. still need to execute. it's not like we're done, done. but the thinking process is there, or the groundwork is laid. so now i'm going to have to focus on growth. >> so you can think of this sort of as a game of keep away. my first impression when talking to him about this, look, you're already partnering with them. did you buy them to make sure somebody else didn't get them? in deed he said that's part of the case he made to the board. deeply embedded with a number of governments wouldn't be good for somebody else to get their hands on that. germany, now angela merkel's phone is secured, exec cue smart. harder for the nsa or anybody else to -- >> listening to him say we were number one. you forget what a juggernaut they were, and how plainly he has to admit that's obviously was a long time ago. >> and enterprise and consumer, he's trying to now position them as the go-to choice for not only

mobile device management but also mobile security. it's quite a tough case to make given all of the competitor, out there now but he's going to try. >> it's not material financially for the company to have to disclose the price sdwrag we don't know how much they spent? do you get the sense he's willing to use that $3.1 billion to keep rolling out smaller companies to build on? >> yes. exactly the question he was answering, expect more in the enterprise. maybe applications. certainly security. but that's? he wants to be spend the money. more on r & d and with partners. >> thanks. over to rick santelli and "the santelli exchange." good morning. >> good morning, carl. a lot of talk, of course, about the federal reserve and basically -- let me move my floatation device. fed's balance sheet as of thursday of last week increaseds 12ds.5 billion to a grand total. look at all the zeros.

$4.4 trillion. of course, that's 12 zeros. we talked about earlier with our guest, jeff snyder, whenever you look at a chart of the fed balance sheet there's many that will drought charter of the s&p 500, because it seems to follow. corporate profits follow the s&p 500. we're all floating up with the fed's balance sheet, but what happens when the balance sheet stops moving higher? well, many think you could have a fat tail or a doomsday scenario. i'm not sure. i basically think if everything went up with the fed's balance sheet, when the fed's balance sheet goes sideways i have a feeling stocks may go sideways or a very subtle glide back. but the key to that is, that everything is based on what have you done for me lately? so even if we remain at historically high levels for equity, if it moves sideway, month over month, quarter over quarter comparisons will be basically zero. so the return is going to flatline at a very high level. now, is that going to be the

case? i'm not sure, but one thing i am very sure about is, nobody kn s knows, nobody knows if all of the people in the water, all of the investors, all of the markets, that have floated up with the fed's balance sheet, are they going to be able to do it on their own? and i can't tell you that, but i know sooner or later, all of these floatation devices are going to have to come off. the subsidy cannot go on forever. switch gears. we learned today that the eu is going to adopt sanctions. something the u.s. has been pushing for regarding russia. and i just have two comments and it isn't political. nobody thinks putin is doing the right thing, but in the end, tyke a baseball bat and hit a hornet's nest, i think a response. i think the response with with regard to putin is the only card he's holding and it's big. it's energy. remember what happened in the '70s with a subtle glitch in our energy input? those gas lines what did it do to the economy? in the end, i guess my question to stay on the theme of central

bankings, what do central bankers do for an encore? if there's an energy glitch at a time when boon yields are approaches 10%. under 2.5% spanish. what do they do for encore performan performance? the road to utilization probably should have been embarked on a while ago. >> rick santelli, thanks. when we come back, the battle of the summer playground. west coast or east coast? jane wells waking up neighbors in malibu. what are you going to show us? >> when? i'm here with my yoga mat. going to start the day right. here in malibu, you wake up to this every day, but it ain't cheap. gosh, look over there. paddle borders. this isn't right. tell you how much it cost, when we come back. wow! chocolate is very individual.

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s it is the battle of the summer home. jane wells and robert frank are throwing down. jane in malibu, california. robert in westhampton, on long island. jane, has her yoga mat out. jane -- [ speaking in foreign language ] how's the humidity, carl? >> how about the bugs? we don't get that here. the moat expensive home for sale. $54 million. just the poolhouse. hearst castle.

on 6.35 ac5 acres of gardens. ready to move on. 13 bedrooms 14 full baths and a poolhouse used as back drops for things like "true blood." >> it's like a palace. on the beach, in malibu. one of the most trophy locations. really across the globe. interior poolhouse was built with 1 million-plus shells. it's probably the most glamorous indoor pool i've ever seen. every day, whether it's, you know, january 1st to summer, we wake up to this. >> reporter: now, there has been some interest, mostly foreign, mostly cash. while you do have the occasional fire, or earthquake, mudslide here, the odds are federal reserve forever in your fave around there's always insurance. >> not always the case. case in point, turn eastward. something closer to home? >> reporter: yeah, carl. at one of the holdest, grandest

estates in the hamptons. actual areally in westhampton beach, about two hours from new york city and it is classic hamptons grandeur. wood shingles amazing water views, lush gardens and blue blood history. built in 1903 for the coal barren. designed the lincoln memorial. 16,000 square feet. bigger than jane's. got 24 rooms. 6 fireplaces, 9 bedrooms. the ground sits on seven, anote a 56-foot pool. the poolhouse, don't have vampires but 100-year-old grapevines growing on the ceiling of the poolhouse. amazing to see, and the guest costage, its own greenhouse. all this, carl, can you yours for a mere $17.7 million. a quarter of the price of jane's property, and it's bigger. >> ah, that's right. i imagine you can probably -- >> but mine's better. >> jane, what?

>> reporter: mine's better. >> i'm assuming, jane -- >> of course it is. >> you probably get more use of the pool where you are, year-round. right? >> reporter: 365 days of year of this. the thing about malibu as opposed to the hamptons, a lot of people with houses actually live here year-round. you're not far from l.a. the traffic in mag blibu is bet than the traffic in the hamptons. >> no question about that. >> where is kayla on this? >> i like the water view. robert, look great, house beautiful. turn the camera around and show us the water. >> we will, and the later today, we'll show you the water view. it's better than jane's. it is amazing view of quan tauk bay here. we can't turn around now but we will show you. >> a tease if i've ever heard one. >> can't show you now. i will show you. if i had a dollar every time i heard that. when we come back, one company announcing a spin-off.

that stock moving big. don't know anywhere. "squawk alley," back in two. as long as i've lived in iowa, there's always been wind. (strauss' blue danube playing)

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a spin-off in the telecon sector sending one stock soars this morning. morgan brennan is back at hq looking at windstream. not a name we talk about every day. >> certainly not. look at the telecom sector. about 2%, the s&p's biggest gainer one of the only gainers today. analysts tell me it's all tied to windstream, the world telecom company planning to spin-off its existing fiber and copper wire line network into non-traditional reit and already reserved a favorable ruling from the irss to doss so. reit status, significant tax implication, 90% taxable income going out to dividends. why we've seen the structure adopted by cell towers and most recently billboards. the first time wire line assets have been allowed to do this. that's why all the biggest

moochbers e movers in telecom, have significant wireless assets. windstream up about 12%, and that's as well as frontier, century link, at&t and to a lesser extent seeing verizon up. not as big a wireless business. at&t. why it's not moving nearly as high. two more things to watch in telecom, level three communications. that's jumping on better than expected earnings today as well. also t-mobile unveiling new family plan prices as it mocks at&t yet again calling at&t's best-ever plan a "joke." ongoing story in wireless, how the escalating price wars are affecting profit. more insight later in the week. kayla, back to you. >> thanks for that, morgan. keep an eye on that sector. a lot of movers, overall in the market, even going negative? >> yes. twitter, of course, talk about all week long, being one of the

keys to the market's enthusiasm for tech. tonight when they report. stocks really consolidated here in the high 30s, but we kicked off the hour with that conversation with scott kessler and i don't know, jon, is it going to be about a metric or about broader story they try to tell? >> a combination, i think. metrics on monthly users, key. and talk more like a carrier, reduce return, premium youusers more developed markets rather than tweet macrolevel with global. facebook grows, more than 2x, 3 it x. >> not much base. >> yeah. >> look at radio shack as well before we head out for the hour. tech retailer, of course. moody's earlier in the hour raised concerns about liquidity. radio shack closed a bunch of stores. they, of course, have a high debt level. this could be the very end of the road or at least on the credit side. >> moody's says we think it's increasingly likely they'll run out of cash by the third fisk's

quarter of 2015, before it can complete its turnaround plan. obviously, rated caa2 negative. >> right. >> that wouldn't be a surprise to a lot of people, but it's been a very long stretched out good-bye for these guys. >> yes. meanwhile, toss is over to the judge, scott wapner takes "the half" now. >> thanks. it's "half time." stephanie link, mike murphy, a wealth management firm. josh brown, ceo of a wealth management company also in new york and pete najarian co-founder of option monster.com. our top story today -- the countdown to twitter's earnings and the battle shaping up between that company and its rival facebook. so far for shareholders, at least, no contest. year to date, twitter shares down 40% while facebook shares are up 36%. so can twitter make up that gap, or is facebook the social media standard, all others will