♪ welcome to "squawk alley" nor a wednesday morning. joining us this morning, roger mcnamee joining us from out west. as always, jon fortt and kayla tausche here at post 9:0nine. good morning to you all. kleiner perkins investings 20ds million in snapchat valuing the company at a whopping $10 billion after records alibaba was interested in its own investment in snapchat. here's the ceo evan spiegel with us last year. >> we're not making money right now, but fortunate to have a role model in ten cent.

huge build in china. we've seen they've been able to do that without relying on brand advertising. that's exciting for us. in the near term look at transactions and further down the road, afdvertising as well. >> and app square, getting money from singapore among other governments. valuing square at $6 billion. speaking of valuation, janney downgrades to neutral believing the social network's strong performance to date will face head winds next year. trading lower. one of the worst on the s&p in a relatively thin tape. roger, where's your head on valuations overall? more cautious i know on the market because of geopolitics. but what does this all say to you? >> well, it's almost as though the venture community is partying like it's 1999 all over again. you know, it remains to be seen whether these companies actually can earn the valuations that they're getting right now.

but it does feel to me a little as though there's an expectation that the largest players, whether google, facebook, alibaba, are ultimately acquirers of all of these businesses with huge reach, because there are common characteristics. snapchat has more than 100 million active users, and that seems to be a threshold that's caused a lot of m & a, and maybe that's what the venture people are looking at. it strikes me that expecting the public market to provide a great return from these valuations through an ipo is, to me that seems like wishful thinking. it doesn't seem super obvious. >> yeah. seems like we're in this period now with mobile and cloud and messaging where there are big shifts happening and they're happening quickly. you see mark zuckerberg taking advantage of that with instagram and what'sa apsapwhatsapp.

doesn't seem it will safr the valuations they're getting. maybe they will. snapchat is an interesting property, but 10 billion? we'll see. >> carl, the simple way to think about it, a like musical chairs. they're going to pull the stops and see who has a seat and who does not, but to me the thing that's -- this isn't really an issue for the broad market. a very small set of people with moderate amounts of money, very high valuations. this isn't an issue for the broad market. >> saying gopro might be overheated. but at that market cap -- that is essentially half the size of what we're talking about about snoop kha snapchat. you wonder because the companies are in the private market, does that give these number, $10

billion isn't close. still looking at more strategic money. could go the way i look at thes things, look at durable context and in a segment context. historical context, this is a precedent valuations and have been really for about three or four years. ever since the private -- of facebook and twitter. and have been for -- ever sinsz the private financings of facebook and twitter of a few years ago, but the key thing here is the venture business does not have anybody -- you know it doesn't have a daily market that provides any kind of discipline, and so as a result, you go long periods of time whe whe

whe where -- >> roger, tweeting, snapchat at $10 billion. not absurd. crazy growth, clear montization path. long, figuratively, he says. is that someone who's already enveloped in this space? >> for sure. if i'm dick i want to see lots and lots and lots of people with big valuation, because if smaller companies have big valuation, that's going to be good for twitter. i look at this and i said, i don't know how it ends, but what i do know is that the smart money is probably not diving in head-first here. >> and dick costolo not the one to call the times -- >> i'm going to guess that is a brilliant forte. >> speaking of valuations, kayla has new information on alibaba a. new filing with the most recent quarter's earnings numbers. revenue growth up 46% compared to a year ago. profits nearly tripled from the

same quarter a year ago. noting growth is starting to slow down compared to 55 revenue growth for all of 2013. a number investors will look at when that road show still eyeing a start next week, but that's not firmed up. that will likely happen in the next couple days, but the most interesting thing to me as we're all thevaguati valuations. underwriting restricted employees over the last few years. a little bit of a chart on this. last september, a year ago, less than a year ago, fair value was $20.25 a share. as of august 27th that is $59 a sha share. that more than doubled, nearly tripled where share was a year ago. obviously, roger, a behemoth in e-commerce space and the china asset management space. a company that touches so many different lines of business. when you look at escalation in

fair value of a company shares, ipo, even as revenue growth is slowing, does that smell funny to you? >> not necessarily, because the key issue of employee shares, generalizations. companies try to keep the companies as low as possible until a public offering. so at some point you have to bring everything into balance, and so traditionally you do that in time for an ipo. that is not per se an issue. kayla, i think the thing to focus on, especially alibaba, is that we're in a very low growth economy right now. and most of the growth we see in the s&p 500 has been financial engineering things like that. so companies with real underlying growth are few and far between. that's because they're stretching really far and really hard to get them, and are we willing to pay off quite a lot? and in this environment, you know, a speculative bubble and

blowoff wouldn't be a huge shock, because, again, there are companies out there that are putting up big, big numbers, and you can see the venture guys saying, hey, wait a minute. we haven't had our speculative blowout yet. that's still in front of us. we're going to get crazier than this, and that's entirely possible. go ahead? >> some talk of rebalances from amazon shares as well. people saying i'm going to sell amazon to be able to buy alibaba. you can see that rebalancing. if this road trips starts next week should, get a price range by the end of this week. >> imagine that? all in one week. getting busy. squawk on the street, senate khat, $10 billion no revenue. what's the next thing a business doesn't need? tweet us at "squawk alley," your responses later in the show. meantime, up next -- roger, what? >> i have an answer for you.

>> you do? okay. when we come back. uncovering new details how far uber will undermine lyft. teams of independent contractors burn our phones and credit cards, request rides from lyft and either cancel them or try to recruit the drivers. you recall these contracts bread ambassadors providing protection. the company commented saying, "never use marketing tactics that preevlt a driver from making their living that includes never intentionally cancelling rides." thoughts what this means, the battle between these two companies, jon? >> seems like a bitter knuckle brawl when it comes to driver recruiting. that really that bad? trying to avoid protection because lyft doesn't want their drivers recruited away. the driver, the competitive advantage, convince the mass of drivers in a particular state to go with your service. the issue is, if they're cancelling rides that could potentially ruin their

reputation with drivers in the area because they tr preventing drivers from -- >> yeah, although a phone, you get poorly rated. who cares, because no one knows who you are. right? >> that is the main issue. one service or the other if it's undermyroning the driver's reputation or their ability to make a living, that hurts the business, and could lead to charters. but this kind of are ground-level, trying to recruit drivers, sort of what you expect in a blue collar, local drag-out fight that's gone nationwide. >> right. roger, thoughts? >> no. i'm saying here is, the new thing you don't need to have is any kind of moral backbone. seriously. this -- if the details of the first story are right, this is incredible unethical, and it really saddens me, because i think uber has a great business opportunity, and they should be above this kind of stuff. and, you know, if the story's really true, i'm really disappointed in them, because they have a gigantic business

opportunity. nonsense like this is just -- it doesn't speak well for the people at all. >> interesting. i mean, i'm trying to compare it to other hard numbers -- it's not unique, roger. >> but i don't dispute that for a moment. that doesn't make it appropriate. it doesn't make it, you know, an honorable thing to do. i look at this, this is the kind of behavior people did in the 1890s through 1905 that led to the sherman act and all kinds of reg lace. like i say, this country should be more highly appalled than that. seriously, this is -- talking about getting a ride. not talking about, you know, defending the country from some kind of attack. >> and for a company already that's attracted so much regulatory and political scrutiny, you'd think they would want to run in the other direction rather than attracting more attention. regardless of -- >> yeah. they have an incredibly good

service. why tarnish it? this is part of what distresses me about our society now. people have forgotten that there's a right way to do things. they've forgotten the golden rule. >> whether it's that, valuations, your view on the markets, roger, you always come in with a precise point of view, and for that, we are glad to have you. see you next time. >> take care. >> roger mcnamee here on "squawk alley." we want to look at the broader markets now. turning positive again. they had been mixed earlier in this session. look now. the dow up 14 points. s&p is back above that 2000 level. if barely so. nasdaq by a point and change there. certainly a reversal after some headlines speculating potentially qe is still on the table, maybe not next week. maybe the following week, but something that injected the market with optimism this morning. shares of best buy rallying, a day after falling almost 7% on

weak earnings. why it's currently the top gainer on the s&p. for a day, at least. that stock up nearly 4%. shares of express rallying after its earnings beat analyst estimates. retailer raising its forecast for the rest of the year in very elite company and in doing so, leaving the stock, carl, up nearly 11%. intraday. >> all right. when we return, apple ceo tim cook speaking exclusively to carl mossberg on the future of the ipad. tablets in general. walt will tell us what he told them in a moment. plus, cooling off on e-commerce. why the sector isn't really the growth story it's made out to be, and from kim kardashian to tom hanks, celebrities showing the right app can be a itch m r major moneymaker. trying to sell us on his new app a little later this hour. "squawk alley" is back in a moment. ♪

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samsung, best buy, microsoft, felt a slowdown in its tablet sales. in walt mossberg talked to tim cook about its ipad sales, he said, we couldn't be happier with how we've done with the first four years of the ipad. i i'd call what's going on recently a speed bump and i've seen that in every category. but is the tablet really coming to an end. here from re/code, joining us, walt mossberg. >> great to be here, carl. >> you took this conversation to a new level when you talked to the ceo of best buy about

tablets what did cook tell you? >> well, he told me what you just put up on the screen. my strong impression in talking to them is that they're not backing off. they're moving ahead on the ipad. the ipad is last quarter, it was about a $6 billion business. and that's after two quarters of declining sales. so it's a huge part of their business. a lot of people are still buying them, and point of the high road this week, wasn't so much about the marketplace and the numbers but it was really about a defense of the tablet as a digital device, which i find incredibly useful and which i do think while it doesn't totally replace the laptop, it's a

terrific, terrific device. >> well, i don't know if anybody -- the issue, how often you need to replace it. right? >> right. well, there are two theories about what may be happening. we have sumpch a short amount o data, four year, it's hard to judge, carl. one is the relacement cycle, you mentioned. nobody really knows that the multitouch tablet's only out four years, but it might be even a four-year replacement cycle and not like a smartphone cycle which is shorter. the other is, that the bigger screened smartphones are cutting into at least the smaller tablet screen part of the market, and that may account for some of this. >> walt, a couple things jump out at me about these comments. one, a number of predictions that tablets would be bigger than pcs. sets the bar rather high. then cook says that he's seen a pause like this in every category.

this seems a little different from the ipod, for instance, which kind of plateaued and then declined. didn't just pause this way, from what i recall. >> right. >> and the iphone, which didn't really have this kind of a pause. slowdown growth rates, but not kind of are flattening out. what do you make of that kind of the long-term prediction to the ipad being the main computing device and the fact that this pause seems to be different characteristical characteristically? >> you know, i don't -- i don't know. i think -- i think we're just going to have to see. remember, the overall tablet market is bigger than the ipad. the ipad is the biggest single tablet brand out there, but it's really closer, i think, by most estimates, to half a billion units out there. mary meeker who does this famous internet state of the internet report every year talks about how nothing has ever exploded as fast as the tablet market.

way above the growth rate of either, that pcs ever showed. so, you know, apple -- cook said publicly that he is optimistic about tablets in business, and he's optimistic about tablets in emerging markets. that may be where this thing is headed. >> so, walt, if four years is not enough data points for us to actually engage what the outlook is for the ipad market, with apple rumored now to be preparing a bigger ipad and experimenting with some of these different sizes, at what point do you think we will be able to look at this market with some predictability? >> well, obviously, the predictability gets better every year. so next year you'll have more. in two years you'll have more predictability. for the point of actually, the users, there are just -- when steve jobs launched this he said this thing has to be better than the phone and the laptop,

needing enough things to make it work. for me personally and for a lot of people, it is better, enough things to make it a valuable product to own. how many, how fast, i don't know. but it's a valuable product to own for a lot of things, and i find myself using my laptop about half as often as i used to, now that i have the ipad. >> yeah. my favorite tweet of the morning, josh brown saying apple's going to unveil a 12 inch apple tv with a touch screen. meaning the ipad, how a lot of people watch tv these days. walt, great to see you. see you next time. >> tyke care. >> walt mossberg, reminder, cnbc news group a minority stakeholder and we sdo have a content sharing product. and check out what's happening with garmin shares, gps company, stock moving lower after analysts began coverage of

the stock with a neutral rating slapping a $59 price target on the stock. investors taking notice. sheas down off the session low, do you, kayla, 3% on the day's trade. back to you. >> quite a move for that stock this morning. thanks, dom. when we come back, if you week wake up in new york or l.a., you may not have had internet this morning. details on that. and why some investors might want to think twice before investing in the ekmert sector when "squawk alley" comes back. open an account and find more of the expertise you need to be a better investor. ♪ ♪

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trade school's in session. in case you missed it, time warner cable suffering a nationwide outage this morning leaving many users completely unable to access the internet. time warner says most services now back online and that the outage was due to an issue with what it calls its internet back phone that occurred during routine maintenance. the outage hit -- it hit concentrated areas.

this happened to be time warner's most concentrated areas. "washington post" says some 80% of its customers were affected. routine ma routine maintenance. >> serious stuff. growth used to using the internet. like air. not only streaming things, e-mail. try to contact people sometimes through data services instead of texting. that goes down. >> yeah. >> comcast posted on its blog yesterday, of course, yesterday was the deadline for public comments on comcast's proposed acquisition of time warner cable and they said, if we are able to buy this company, we will be able to provide faster internet in this backbone. timing seems -- interesting. consequence dent coincidental. to say investing in better internet and have 80% of your internet out. >> think back to outages on christmas eve. hbo not able to stream "game of thrones." see how long it takes to figure

out. >> people hate cable so much. this is the stuff they remember. >> wait for an airline to do something. >> yeah. bring inside simon hobbs to count you down to the european close where a lot of comments about the ecb simon seem to be stirring up? >> right. whether they're about to embark on qe next week. for the record, consumer confidence, investor confidence, italian, coming through. negative today. really set the stage for more speculation for the big banks whether it will embark on qe when it meets thursday. take a statement from reuters. ecb sources saying any new policy is unlikely at that meeting, unless you get a deterioration inflation data that comes out tomorrow for germany and spain. spain could have 0.8% deflation in that country, and then the cpi friday. take you to face value, now our focus. remember, mario draghi, jackson

hole, talking ak inflation expectations. those you can pick up in realtime from the market, for the instrument. it's not really about published inflation dates. let's leave that there. nonetheless, pushing in europe, still higher. the yield still lower to record lows. so record lows on the bund today fairly below 1%. the spanish, italian, the french yields, also all directly low. meaning people are making money. prices are going higher. of course, as they speculate more action from the ecb to push the rates down. you may say, why do you need to push rates down further jer for example, jp morgan thinks you can still do benefit particularly periphery. one of the key aims, make interest rates less attractive in europe compared to rest the world. therefore put pressure other than the euro. sure nudge, the euro responding recently to the news flow and dragging all of these in the news conference.

a sharp decline you have. almost perhaps unbelievably high level against the u.s. dollar. today's actually bounced on one-year low on that ecb denial. equivalent today, new covenant met in paris, of course, francois hollande, urging left wing public dissenters. a future thing, basically presuming the policies stay intact. most notably, 50 million euros. talking about france, don't forget about that. the establishment closing in around him in support from the former head of the ecb trichet. >> absolutely necessary, in my opinion, to have this because one minister, a key minister, the current minister, was openly arguing against this. >> very unpopular government. back to you. >> simon, thank you very much. when we come back, thinking about investing in e-commerce.

you might think twice after hearing the next report. we'll explain. and the "squawk on the street," $10 billion, no revenue. what's the next thing a business doesn't need? tweet us at "squawk alley," we'll get some of your answers later this hour. help make ths the best they can be. building something better for all of us. ♪

is e-commerce the growth story it's widely believed to be? not a cording to a new report. who's investing in e-commerce stocks like amazon, ebay and brick and motors adopting

strategies over the last three kbreerps what to know about investing in that space, author behind the report, mike stiller, lead tech analyst at nasdaq advisory services. mike, good morning. what piqued your interest in this area? in putting this report together and what did you find in the research that you did? >> kayla, really, it stemmed from the fact we seeing in the space apparel names you mentioned, some retailers you mentioned, seeing double digit e-commerce growth over the last couple of years and tried to dig into it a little, and uncover whether that was truly the growth story some believed it to be. first and foremost, our main takeaway was the fact it may not be. in the soft line space driven by factors. in the soft line space, the fact they're all fighting for the same ball of share. so the soft line consumer spend

isn't really growing relative to general consumer spend. so kpip a is fighting for company b's wallet share, and they're disrupting themselves from the point of view that e-commerce is taking away from their brick and mortar store. >> and you found that the majority of the buying was being done by hedge funds, for instance, and that they were putting a lot of money into these so-called pure play e-commerce companies. what is your takeaway from that? >> sure. so the pure play and brick and mortar names that are e-commerce leaders typically see about 175% greater hedge fund increase in over ship over the last three years. largely driven by the fact growth investors are selling out of the names we mentioned in the report and headphones are taking up a great irshare of their shareholder basis. hedge funds typically like to play quarter to quarter moves. they're able to play the market share, gains and loss, both from a long and short perspective,

but huge for headphones. >> what do you make, mike, of the fact that in e-commerce in general there seems to be a move away from investing in infrastructure, the idea that you can just sort of use stores that are out there already, and the take margin, perhaps eventually, from delivering goods and just figures out what people are going to want before they want it? how does that fit into the what you're finding here? >> interesting question. sure. from the standpoint people are coming into the store, showroom and going home and ordering is an interesting trend. what we see typically, margin erosive. go home, order ten different items and try them all on, return nine of them. the net impact is a net margin detractor. >> what do you make of those that start out as pure plays in e-commerce and inevitably find themselves saying we need to have some kind of physical presence? is that generally a smart trajectory to take? >> yes. we're seeing it on kind of the

private side with bonobos and parker and other names of the sort. i think it's interesting. i think they recognize brick and mortar has a place in the omni channel scheme. retailers and consumers are recognizing they want to get their goods at the most convenient way. that's the rise of amazon. so whether that's in-store, out of store, retailers are having to adapt. >> amazon has been pretty much left alone in the e-commerce space for the last decade or so, but now a new entrant. alibaba coming in the next couple weeks and starting to see a shift of allocation of capital as many managers prepare for that to come on the market. i wonder what sort of reception you think a company like alibaba, which is also an asset manager, a media company, not necessarily a pure play e-commerce play, i wonder what type of reception that will play based on your researches? >> alibaba is a different story. secular tail wind, china consumer, as you mentioned, it

does many different things. it's going to be large he well-reserved, irare theive of the nuances of the listing. irrespective, where it's located and domiciled but largely well received by a host of julia boorstin joins us. >> tomorrow's launch of pilots offering them for anyone to watch for free asking for viewers feedback on which to turn into full series for members that are $99 annual prime subscription service. the three half hour comedies and two-hour long drama, packed with big names. oscar winner stephen societierberg and microforark fr

making debuts. five nor kids tv for productions. in july spending more than $100 million on original video content this quarter saying that is significant increase over the prior quarter and the quarter a year earlier. amazon hasn't released data on its originals, saying twice as many customers launched its second season pilots as the first season. amazon is looking to gain on netflix, doubling spending on original content this year saying it will spend less thanes 3ds 20 million on originals. average of $80 million a quarter. $20 million less than amazon is spending this quarter. but amazon's a prime video along with streaming music are perks that come with free unlimited shipping on most products. amazon wants to sweeten the appeal are prime, because subscribers spend about 7% more than non-subscribers according to a study. back in january, amazon confirmed it has over 20 million prime subscribers, hasn't

updated since then. we'll see how many more the likes of soderbergh can help. carl? >> which is soderbergh series? >> the one, one of the dramas. hold on a second. i have to pull it up. five of them, dramas and comedies. soderbergh is producing, not directing. >> right. interesting on a week where netflix gets shut out at the emmys. like, how do you manage your expectations? would you agree, jon? >> we'll see how soon amazon gets an emmy nomination. >> could be ay while at this rate, but when you look how much they're spending on content, this whole ecosystem is spending on content. netflix, amazon, twitch. factor that in. a lot of money. you've got to hope if you're an investor that really starts to pay off a couple years down the line. >> because it is expensive. >> very expensive. >> spending hundreds of millions of dollars. >> not like you buy a bunch of content this year and sit back and let the revenue flow in. >> next year. julia boorstin on amazon

today. when we return, call it the celebrity app economy. kardashi kardashian, lady gaga, even tom hanks in the app game. dule hill will tell us a little later in the hour. rick santelli what are you watching today? >> heard many arguments over the last several sessions, carl, that the u.s. treasury market is not taking into account better news. we could argue about durables, yet interest rates continues to move lower. is it a valid argument? we'll talk about the very strange, odd, even twilight zone world of the relative value trade, after the break. thank ythank you for defendiyour sacrifice.

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coming um at the top of the hour, silicon valley gone wild with the latest sky-high start-up value acations out tod. warning signs from the west coast? and u.s. equities at record levels. is there a bear in sight? we're ask jp morgan and call of the day, double down on vegas and a warning about mccow. where the trieders are placing their bets. see you in a bit. >> sounds good, scott. thank. everywhere you look and go, there's a '90s tv revival based on that -- you know what it is? "full house" plated eslated to according to tv guide. some of the original cast leading the charge, who else but uncle jesse. john stamos.

starring bob saggette, also involved in some way. hearing no olson twins but the rest of the cast is expected to be there. >> like an olson twins empire. i'd like to see that. they're in charge. they bought the "full house" and the rest of the block, wouldn't quite be the same if you saw the little twins all yogrown up, though. >> that's all we see in the magazines. >> and candace cameron is onboard. rick santelli, t"the santeli exchange" this morning. >> hi, carl. we've had some good data and average data, and taken cumulatively since the crisis ended over the last six years, our economy's done better than. . you've heard that on cnbc. based on its own demeimensions possibilities. we could argue. we could argue if the believe

the government reads on inflation, disinflation or deflation. for the relative trade propelling the market, all about central banks. you have to use their vernacular. what the numbers are, that's what the numbers are. not whether we agree how they calculate it, that's what it is. look at, is the u.s. pricing in its good news adequately? oh, yes, it is. and it's pretty easily proved. right now the euro is a bit under 132. for our example, looking at eurozone versus the u.s. so we'll keep it at 132. let's get this straight. to basically, for $1.32 u.s., if you were going to buy a boon, you're basically spending $1.32 u.s. to get a 1% return. it's actually 95 basis points, or, of course, take your doll dollar -- and you could get 2.37. now, this is oversimplified but you're going to get the point. so why would anybody take this

risk? why risk $1.32 positive make 1% when you could risk $1 to make 237? think about what the risks are. now, look at the inflation spread. no matter where it is. relative value trade. the spread between their rate and ours, somewhere between 1 and 1.5%. a huge difference even at 1%. less inflation, your debt is getting more expensive. if you have more inflation, like the u.s. has, your debt is getting cheaper. okay? super significant. borrowing. this gets lost, but i talked to a lot of european investors. okay? and i talked to a lot of american investors. it's much more difficult for american investor to borrow euros than here. a big leverage gain, like the kerry trade going on.

it's also a huge amount of price movement. a lot of what makes this work is the fact that we've had huge price precision, almost dwarfs the return on yields. here's the thing. it boils down to would is two i the end. credit worthiness. maybe the european central banks, but the biggest anomaly that's going to come out of this, remember the 1930s, an xx trade, because what makes all of this make more sense is if this goes to 1 to 1. euro trade. back to you. >> all right, thanks so much, rick santelli. in chicago. you might recognize our next guest from tv moments like this. >> hey, man. what you doing? >> i just got here. >> never more important for us to score. could be our last case. >> give me two hours.

>> what about -- >> 90. >> 1 hour. >> can't go backwards. >> it's not a negotiation. 45 minutes. >> 40 seconds. >> done. you clean this mess up. >> i can do that. >> you know actor dule hill from "psych," from "west wing." he's moving from tv to creator of a brand new app. why the move? he'll tell us up next on "squawk alley."

kim kardashian, lady gaga, even tom hanks, a wave of

celebrity apps hitting the wavelengths lately. joining the ranks, star of the hit television star "psych" and "west wing." dule hill launching an app, nomeno. great to have you here. >> good to be here. >> working on this a couple years? >> launched in the app store. >> i saw thousands of downloads in the first 48 hours. >> yes. >> walk us through what it is. >> an app that game aphis photo sharing. photo jeopardy meets wheel of fortune. challenges users to answer questions. the game coins, it's prizes. >> came to you with a friend who said i wonder if i post the photo -- >> would my friends know where i was? driving through mall dew cibu c

asked herself that question, and go for t. how do you create the infrastructure of the app to make sure it's as addictive as it sounds. >> generate content. you find, say, for example, my fan base is in there and they talk about what they enjoy. for example, "psych" one of our brand launch partners. a great place for "psych" review the eight eyes of trivia and challenge friends if they know the answer. challenge me, other cast members. >> how did you do? >> not too good. which is very -- disturbing at times, people telling you about you and you don't know the answer. fun pap great way to engage fan base. >> what is going on here? a number of celebrities now coming out with apps. some might sit back and say, okay. popular and so -- here as marketing to get this thing popular. are you adding your creative insights from your experience as

an actor into the crafting of this app? something you're working on daily or weekly? >> i'm working on it daily. daily. i mean, from the time i had gotten engaged with social media, i fell in love with it and i love playing games. talking to the developer, how do we make it more gamey, with my parter ins, what attributes we can add to it to take it further. i can't talk about other -- other celebrity, but surprising celebrities are getting involved with apps. as entertainers, we look for ways to engage and entertain our fan base. that's more of part of our daily lives. a logical progression to engage in apps to do that. >> study the corporate finance at seton hall . >> i did. >> when your career took off. you were into soccer. television and film. is tech more interesting? can you do both acting and sort of this entrepreneurial work?

>> i believe i can. tech is very interesting. trial by fire. learn along wait. understand what you don't know and connect with people who do. i'm learning so much every day and love the journey. what i like about nominno, fans engage with their users to drive further with customers. where the modernization comes in. >> how far away from you this? would you describe this move as more of a pet project or do you think it will become lucrative -- >> i believe it will monetized -- a lot of times, you get get fashion and come out quickly. with nominno, quickly. user base, more brand partners, and monetize that one. >> what is next, do you think? photos now. video. >> video, too. video is a regular part of it. what we really would like to do

next, make the game even that much more sticky. and add more gaming elements to it. that's the next short-term stage we're trying to do. >> hopefully you'll get a better score on video. >> say again? >> a better score on video. >> hopefully. know be the "psych" fans, probably not. smart people. >> dule, come back. great seeing you. >> i will, pleasure. >> dule hill. today's "squawk on the street," twitter went public, now side temperatustepping with revenue. what's the next thing a business doesn't need? tweet us @squawkalley. your answers coming up next. [ woman ] the cadillac summer collection is here.

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hurry in -- this exceptional offer ends soon. this guy could take down your entire company.h? stay with me. on thursday a hamster video goes online. on friday it goes viral - a network choking phenomenon. why do you care? he's on the same cloud as your business. the more hits he gets, the slower your business may get. do you want to share your cloud with a hamster?

today there's a new way to work. and it's made with ibm. "squawk on the street" today. twitter went public with basically no profits. snapchat, $10 billion basically no revenue bringing us to the squat on the tweet. what's the next thing a business does not need. rick writes a product.

josh writes, valuations, how about a business plan? noah rights, no more needs for inversions when a business la no nationality. >> a lot of responses about taxes. >> yeah. amazing to me how that crossed over into the mainstream media, just as a debate about what it means to be an american kpip these days. >> especially with burger king. iconic brand like that, in the retail space, has consumers despited fact not as outright as others have been. >> no revenues. don't worry about taxes either. >> that's also true. interestingly, at this hour we started out talking about the facebook downgrade, which continues to be a laggard, at least in the tech space. alibaba moves probably, under afforded today. people will pay attention next week. >> go under reported because we knee we would get quarterly numbers. just waiting for that price range. that's going to lock the market soon as we get that, that's what investors are waiting for. the road show to kick off in the next couple of weeks.

trade in mid-september. definite lip the biggest event this fall. >> biggest tech, ipo and biggest product launch in tech ever, the new iphone. thinking about the scale of what's happening in the next few weeks. >> between the road show and the iphones, september bananas. that does it for us here on "squawk alley." back to post nine as the judge gets the "half" under way. >> welcome to the "halftime report." today's starting lineup, josh brown, along with mike murphy, and also jon and pete najarian, and we begin with the markets. eye-popping numbers. not talking about the s&p 2000, or where the dow is trading. focused today on the sky-high valuations of two steck start-ups. snapchat, thanks to a new round of funding worth a whopping $10 billion, and square worth $6 billion due to its own cash dash. it's got us wondering whether it's all a case of silicon valley gone wild and