good morning. 8:00 a.m. at google headquarters in mountainview, california, 11:00 a.m. on wall street and "squawk alley" is live. ♪ ♪ ♪ good tuesday morning. we've got a full house on "squawk alley" here at post nine. joining us is dennis berman,

business editor at "the wall street journal". good to see you. >> good to see you. >> with is from silicon valley, josh lipton in the house today. came all the which from the west coast just for this. >> there's still snow on the ground in march blows me away. >> simon hobbs sticking around, jon fortt here. we want to start with the tragedy in southern france. 150 people are believed dead after a german wings flight crashed in the swiss alps. what do we know? >> and kayla, two bullet points that have crossed within the last ten minutes, rescue choppers have landed near the crash site. they are on scene now. and according to the french prime minister, those who are there are reporting that plane is disintegrated. it's going to be spread out over a wide area. springs up the question, what happened this morning in southern france as this germanwings plane went into the french alps. he here's our understanding. there was clear weather in the

area. it does not appear to be weather related. about 10:545 a.m. the a-320 started a rapid descent dropping 3750 per minute. not in a freefall. look at th this graphic here. this plane went from 38,000 feet down to 6500 feet, what you see with that orange line there, that is the speed in knots and see how quickly that ends or comes down there at the end. by the way, this germanwings plane, the crash killed 150 people. 144 passengers on board, a crew of six and again, no survivors are expected. germanwings is the discount brand for lufthansa. it is not a separate entity in terms of owned by a separate company. it's owned by lufthansa, it is separately branded as a discount carrier. this plane if question was built in 1991.

it has logged more than 58,000 flight hours, so it's been around for a while. it is a work horse, not only for air bus, but also for germ germanwings. the last routine check done yesterday and the pilot in this case had ten years of experience with lufthansa. five rescue helicopters are on the crash site. they are reporting that the plane has disintegrated and debris over a wide area. we're getting updates from europe and we will bring those to you as quickly as we have them. back to you. >> all right. thanks so much, phil lebeau. >> gosh, a tragedy. next up, closing arguments start today in what could be a landmark gender discrimination lawsuit in silicon valley. scott cohen live outside the courthouse in sacramento holding the ellen pao kleiner perkins trial. he has more. >> hi, jon. this is a big trial. you know this space well. ellen pao is in the house. small crowd of onlookers in the

house as well in a case that really has had silicon valley transfixed. pao got here just a short time ago. we can look at video of her from an earlier court appearance. she is a woman of many accomplishments, three ivy league degrees, joined kleiner perkins the preeminent silicon valley firm as a junior partner but complains she was not allowed to advance or progress the way her male colleagues were and this case, which has been going on for the better part of the last month or so, is likely to go to the jury today and this jury of six men, six women, has multiple questions to consider. did kleiner perkins discriminate against ellen pao, keep her out of meetings and gatherings and getaways and retaliate against her when she ended a consensual affair with a senior partner and filed this lawsuit in 2012. was the discrimination at the firm allowed to continue, not just against ellen pao but allegedly against other female

associates and junior partners. what about the question of damages? over the weekend, the judge in this case ruled that pao can seek punitive damages in addition to the $16 million in compensatory damage she is asking for and that means that if the verdict goes her way, it could be well into the nine figures. kleiner perkins has painted a different picture of the junior partner they say was difficult to get along with, not collaborative, said she was not promoted just as many men in the similar status were not promoted because she didn't have the so-called thought leadership that the firm was looking for. so the order of business today, some instructions to the jury to start, and then closing arguments and then more instructions to the jury and this case could go to the jury by the end of the day today, but already no matter what they decide, it is changing the way people think about gender in silicon valley. this hour on "squawk alley"

julia boorstin will look at the broader issues here of the fact that this lawsuit, while high profile, is just one of many. guys, back to you. >> all right. scott cohen outside the courthouse in san francisco, scott, thanks for the latest on closing arguments beginning. josh lipton you're based on the west coast, scott mentioned this has the valley transfixed. what affect will this have on the valley culture when it's said and done. >> it's interesting because it's more than that story, right. i think it gets to a broader narrative that silicon valley tells itself. when i talked to older vcs, i mean people who have been in silicon valley for decades, some say there isn't a problem here. it's the first and best merit tocracy, the best and brightest survive, no problems with race, jender and religion and try to square that with the stats you see, some of the reported stats, vc investors only 6% women, down from 1999, so i think it's a bigger than just a case, it's really taking aim at a story that's silicon valley tells

itself about its own values. >> one of the takeaways from the kleiner side the culture of a partnership is different is different than a publicly traded company. but is that right? i mean do you see the culture of these very tightly knit oftentimes fraternal partnerships changing at all as some of the details of this case have come out? >> as it is right now, i don't. i think josh brings up a good point. these are tight groups of people that work with each other for years upon years. whether a woman is sort of admitted into that club, you know, when she's being continually propositioned sexually i think that raises a very legitimate question about whether she's truly a part of that partnership or not. that was revealed in the trial and it's remarkable to me, kayla, that they have not tried to -- or perhaps they have tried to settle but not reached a settlement. so destructive to the firm at large. it baffles me they've not done it. >> i think the meritocracy issue is going to be the legacy of this.

i mean, in my years in silicon valley, this was the myth, again that silicon valley tells itself, but even from the beginning, when i got there in early -- late 1999, there were very few indian or east asian ceos that at all. there are a lot more now in tech, not just in silicon valley, but nobody really wanted to talk about that. it's taken sheryl sandberg, a different kind of executive, bringing these kinds of issues to the fore. we see more tech workers and managers who are women saying this isn't right. the previous generation it was more stiff upper lip, you know, bear it, get to the top, and then you can tell your story. now, there's a different culture emerging. >> everything you may have said may be true, can you hang that on this case in particular? it may be they haven't settled because she truly is a hostile employee and that's why they're fighting it to the end? do they not say 20% of the senior partners are women.

three times the industry average. it may be. i'm not there on the jury. i have no idea. it may be they feel their case is strong and she may not be the posterchild for this potentially. >> no. if you take a look at some of the coverage looked into, you know, who she is and her background, positive and negative, sure, of course, it's hard to find the absolute perfect victim to bring a case like this, but i think bottom line, the culture in silicon valley is being forced to confront some things about itself that it hadn't been forced to in the past and it's unclear exactly where that's going. >> i have to say i don't think silicon valley is necessarily the best at self-examination in terms of knowing thy self. i don't expect -- >> who is the best? >> wall street isn't either which gets us to the next story. >> it's moving fast. >> moving fast. >> you might have in a big consumer package company that can't grow its revenue. >> there is a change.

to jon's point there may be a recognition what we're dealing with is soft prejudices. look at the tech companies coming out with reports -- >> what are soft prejudices? >>, for example, in this case we're talking about things like all boys dinner, frat boy humor that may be making people uncomfortable, being aware of that and impact on people. >> whether they realize everybody on the private jet was a man except for ellen. >> very few confederate flag bumper stickers in silicon valley. >> that's as good as -- >> i don't know what to say about that one. >> me either. >> can't know how the jury will decide. we could get that this woke. we will keep you posted on the kleiner perkins trial. finally a huge move in the tech world. morgan stanley's cfo routh porat announcing she's taking a job at google. porat does have a lot of experience in the valley, led financing rounds on companies including amazon, ebay and net scape, the head of technology investment banking from 1996 to 2000 at morgan stanley.

certainly a very important time for the tech industry. she will start at google on may 26th reporting directly to ceo larry paige. we were talking about the culture of women in silicon valley. google has admittedly been trying to increase the number of women in its leadership ranks. >> it has. >> now poached arguably the most powerful woman on wall street. >> with sheryl sandberg she will be the most powerful woman? silicon valley. m marisa mayor a notch below that. she has experience in washington, mentioned as someone involved in the u.s. treasury, turned that down. experience on wall street, experience in silicon valley. the most interesting thing about routh porat i will say is perhaps not her gender it is her age. she's 57 years old. not that many 57-year-olds running around silicon valley either. speaking of soft biases perhaps that's one of them. >> there are a lot of 57-year-olds running around silicon valley, just a lot of them are guys and they're on sand hill road and, you know,

right. >> and make money and don't need to work. >> professional board members. it is interesting to see not only google but amazon, sort of reinforce the ties with wall street. story today about amazon meeting with some of its top shareholders on the east coast to talk about some of the increased disclosures around the cloud. do you sense the idea some aren't immune to the pressures that wall street is putting on them? >> i think that's true. here is my take on this, kayla. my immediate response was, one, i've talked to john about this before, google had seen departures in the past 12 months. it wasn't just pat pichette it was allen useis. i would talk to some analysts some were raising red flags, a lot of talent to lose in 12 months. they have a deep bench, but there was red flags here. importantly when you talk to analysts they moved quickly to

someone who the street could respect solid background. for investors what i'm hearing is why that stock up almost 10% year to date a lot of enthusiasm about maybe capital return that wasn't going to happen to a cfo in so maybe a step in the right direction if you want that. >> important for google. a big loss for wall street. i mean there has been all this talk about the glass ceiling in wall street leadership and how if you're a woman who rose to a certain level you were in trouble. porat seems to have gotten out unscathed and going on to a good job. it's interesting that there's this movement from wall street to silicon valley. sue wagner going to the board of apple, we've got ruth porat at google. not a lot of movement the other way. i wonder what that means for women in power positions on wall street? >> if we look at the mba enrollment and where students want to go post-graduation, right now, silicon valley is at the top of the list. wall street is below it. >> can i just pick up the point that josh made there. if you look at the cash flow forecast for google, they're

huge in what they're likely to generate moving forward if this is an indicator it's going to start increasing your return and cast shareholders people could take it to the bank. >> on the last earnings call when investors thought they heard hey, listened to pichette at that point. >> google stock reacting positive to this news up 2.5%. dennis, thanks for coming in today. josh lipton good to see you. >> no snow in california. that's another reason to go. >> no snow. >> thanks to you both. we want to get a check on the markets. trading to the positive, the dow by about 22 points. s&p up by about 2 points, nasdaq up by about 18 points. we did see better than expected new home sales. that's helping some of the home builders this morning. shares of netflix rallying after getting a price target upgrade from barclays and cantor fitzgerald pushed stock up to 440, up by about 3.5%. shares of facebook in the green near 1% in earlier today touching a new all-time highs

since the company's ipo in may 2012. up above $85 a share. some news about possible partnerships with content companies and news by your news feed. coming up, he has the highest priced target on the street for apple, $180 a share. cantor fitzgerald's brip white will tell us why the tech giant could be the first trillion dollar company in a moment. plus as the ellen pao trial heads to closing arguments one of the top voices advocating for gender equality in the valley. shares of twitter soaring. what's going on. but until then cnbc india speaking with ceo dick costolo this morning. here's what he had to say. >> we've already done a lot and we've made it a lot easier to report abuse for a third parties to report abuse and we're flipping that economic equation and making it harder to be an abuser on the platform and we're

going to continue to ratchet up that pressure on those people and make twitter an even more clean place for everybody. i mean, come on. national gives me the control to choose any car in the aisle i want. i could choose you... or i could choose her if i like her more. and i do. oh, the silent treatment. real mature. so you wanna get out of here? go national. go like a pro.

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welcome back. is apple on track to become the world's first trillion dollar company? analyst brian white thinks so upping his price target to $180 a share based in part of the release of the apple watch and growth prospects in china. shares of apple currently trading at $127 a share, near $128 and joining us here at post nine is cantor it fitzgerald managing director brian white. okay, couple years ago, people were saying apple will be the first trippen dollar company, stock went down below 4 bucks a share. how do we know this time it's going to get there? there are headwinds even in the next six months, the tough comps on inventories of the iphone, the challenging ramp of a new product sometimes can ding margins, why did this target

now? >> i think think about the concerns a couple years ago. tim cook is no steve jobs. samsung is going to destroy apple. why doesn't apple more cash to shareholders? they're not innovating. all those things are slowly coming off the table and what we've seen over the past i would say six to eight weeks, number one, more details on apple watch, so this is a first new category in five years, number two, apple war, apple tv articles out there, number three china put up the licenses out, bigger 4g build out this year and iphone is killing it around the world, doing well in china. i think -- we also have a cash probably distributed more in april. for all these reasons does it deserve to trade at such a discount to the s&p? i don't think so. >> maybe not but it's in the dow now and trading 17 times earnings. that's roughly the average of the dow. 17 times earnings. arguably it's a growth stock so it could have a couple more turns on that.

what is the fair value for a company that large? >> so, you know, when i think of apple, i'm looking at calendar '16, looking x the cash and it's about 10.5 times. the s&p is 16 times. so all we did, we took an s&p multiple, put it on apple's earnings and added back the net cash. and so if you look at apple's growth over the past five years it's actually been 38% eps and the s&p has been about 13. so apple is growing three times. maybe it won't continue into the future but it's fair to say that they could match the s&p. and if that's fair to say, why can't it trade at an s&p multiple. lot of companies that trade at a premium to the s&p but grow slower and what we've done is very, very reasonable. you know, it's tough to get your head around a trillion market cap but i think apple will be the first company to do it. >> we had colin gillis on yesterday the other side of this the one with $103 price target at the beginning of the year which looks really bad now, but how much of your trillion dollar target relies on the iphone to

continue its momentum and profitability because so much of the revenue and especially the profit, is coming from that one line? >> yeah. so iphone is still very, very important, right, as a percentage of profits. we expect it to remain important. i think what we're doing though is opening up new buckets of growth. you know, apple watch is one step in wearables, right. thing about china where we are with apple. there's a long term -- we think that could be 140, $180 billion opportunity the next four to five years. there's a lot of tunftt of oppo not just in new markets but iphone still. >> don't you stop and think isn't that too good to be true? if you go $50 higher which is what you're suggesting the stock -- i don't know what is that 12 month price targets? >> yep. >> it will have doubled in value over two years to a trillion dollars. in terms of law of large numbers that would be a phenomenon. is that really likely to happen to double in value? >> well, i believe that the

fundamentals have justified it. they walked through, grew three times faster than s&p. the other thing i would look at, look at the p/e of apple relative to the s&p since 2007, it's contracted 60%. so apple's multiples contract significantly, s&p expanded relative multiple contraction is 60%. to me that's crazy. >> we had the bear case yesterday, the bull case today. apple certainly a company worth talking about. brian white thanks for joining us. >> thanks. >> many will hope you're right. up next on the program, check out shares of twitter. in full rally mode up more than 5%. now is the time to buy or sell? answers when the alley returns. for trading never stops. so open an account with schwab. and when a market move affects, say, a cloud computing stock you're holding, we can help you decide what to do. with tools that help you see how market activity is affecting your positions. so when the time comes to decide whether to scale in or scale out... you can make your move, wherever you are. and start working on your next big idea.

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the shepherd that google needs at this point? >> okay. good morning, kayla. we thought that we published a note on this. we think she's a very good hire for the company. she's got certainly the financial where with all to manage one of the biggest sprawling enterprises out there. there's two things investors have been looking for out of google she probably gives a greater chance that they are going to happen. one is cash back to shareholders not this year but 12 to 18 months and slightly greater financial discipline. she worked in the space, well known in the valley and knows how to handle the book. she's a very good appointee. >> mark, mary maker said of her, and i quote, she is the best banker i have worked with since catrone and while franks has the tech relationship edge ruth has the creative edge, back in 1999. when you get a cfo with that kind of creativity i expect more than just cash return. do you think m&a, what extra creativity could she bring to google here? >> well, full disclosure i

worked with mary and ruth back then. what i think what she also brings to a company like google is the understanding that a company like google, a company leading company in the tech space, needs to constantly keep investing. the point isn't to crack down on expenses. that would drive shareholder value down at a company like google. it's to make sure enough investments they make, three, five, ten-year bets the company has laid out done as efficiently as possible. it's coming to -- >> i'm sorry, mark. i didn't mean to interrupt you. finish your thought there. >> no, no. to be able to nuance that, have the financial discipline but the recognition and industry like this under investing what creates shareholder loss rather than creation. >> i mean, it won't be lost on shareholders and google that stock over 12 months has net gone absolutely nowhere. >> yeah. >> what scale of cash could she return to shareholders and where could that take the stock do you think? >> the stock trades around 20 times current year estimates.

that's kind of a high end of where it's traditionally traded. there's clear sentiment for some sort of return of cash to shareholders. apple can -- went through the same transition when it reached 80 to $90 billion cash bounces when it began to return cash and done well in terms of innovation and share price performance. i have to imagine i have to believe that google executives particularly larry paige and sergei see what's happening with apple and realize this is the appropriate move for google. we see this when google gets close to those levels of cash at the ind of '16. >> you have a note on amazon, cost discipline there as well, margins increasing but talk about the opportunity in india which is something that not only amount but flip cart and twitter eyeing that market to get growth there. we heard from dick costolo in cnbc india today, he discussed growth in that country and i would love for you to take a listen. >> india's one of our fastest growing countries in the world for user growth.

secondly, it's increasingly clear to me that india is going to be a center of innovation for us as a company technologically. >> mark, sounds great in theory, but there are a lot of obstacles to really scaling in india. how soon could we see this growth happening for twitter and elsewhere in tech? >> especially for retail company, there are dramatic obstacles in india. amazon is going with a third party marketplace business, ebay/alibaba business, precisely because regulations don't allow it to retail directly in that market. that means in terms of generating material revenue, unlikely. in terms of again rating material profits out of that market just as plausible as we have what they've done over the years in countries like germany and japan and the uk. it's a long haul but it is -- it has the potential to be at least close to the next china and amazon should be investing there and they are. >> mark, we always appreciate

your time. >> thank you. >> mark mahaney of rbc. tragic news out of europe with 150 reported dead after a plane crash in the mountains of southern france. what might have gone wrong? we'll get into it with the former vice chairman of the ntsb when we come right back. first impressions are important. you've got to make every second count. banking designed for the way you live your life. so you can welcome your family home... for the first time. chase. so you can. is it crazy that your soccer trophy hey, girl. is talking to you right now? it kinda is. it's as crazy as you not rolling over your old 401k. cue the horns... just harness the confidence it took you to win me

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good morning, everyone. i'm sue herera. here's your news update at this hour. greece will run out of money by april 20th unless it receives fresh aid from its creditors according to reuters. athens is scrambling to send a list of planned reforms to the eurozone in the coming days in hopes of getting that aid and averting bankruptcy. amount's twitch.tv is warning users that it may have been hakd. twitch is a popular video streaming site where people can broadcast live pictures of themselves playing video games. it has more than 55 million monthly active users yao the supreme court handed a narrow

victory to omni care throwing out a ruling that revived security class action claims alleging the company had misled investors prior to a stock offering. it's a top provider of pharmacy services to the elderly. a new study reveals that the pay gap between male and female nurses has not narrowed over time. over the past 25 years, male nurses outearn their female counter parts by an average of more than $5,000. and that's your cnbc news update this hour. let's get back to "squawk alley". thank you, sue. authorities in france expect no survivors after a germanwings plane crash landed near the alps carrying at least 150 people. cbs's will fred frost is live in london with the latest. >> kayla, thank you very much. as you said, the prime minister

manuel has said that he does expect there to be no survivors. the crash, of course, in a very remote region in southeast of france in the alps at 6,000 feet altitude but in recent minutes and hours we have heard that french government officials have crossed over the site in the helicopter, a able to land nearby, one local mp has described the scenes that he saw as a horror. he said that plane is totally destroyed and added that there was nothing left bibut debris and bodies. a very sad image that he has been painting. we also heard in the ceo of germanwings in the last hour or so and confirmed as you said there were 150 people on board. also that the aircraft was an a-320 with lufthansa since 1991 though the ceo was clear he said the age of the aircraft had not been an issue. it had been serviced as recently as the day before with its last full service only a year and a half before. there are over 6,000 such aircraft of a-320s in service

across the world and they do in jenville a very good safety record. the pilot had been with lufthansa for some ten years with plenty of flying hours experience on the a-320. the search, of course, for the black box continues. perhaps that will explain why the plane had this odd eight-minute descent from 38,000 feet to its final resting place of 6,000 feet in the french alps. as yet the black box has not been found and, therefore, the reason for the descent unknown. this is the worst civil aviation tragedy in france since 1981. with that i'll send it back to you both in the u.s. >> thank you very much. wilfred frost reporting for cnbc in london. joining us on the phone is the former vice chairman of the national transportation safety board, mr. francis, welcome to the program. >> thank you. >> i see your former organization while stands by ready to help the french it won't probably be sending anybody over to france for

obvious reasons. there will be many people watching now who are concerned as to why an a-320 with 5,000, 6,000 of them in service should get to its cruising altitude of 38,000 feet and then plunge down from that so very rapidly within say ten minutes until contact is lost at 6,000 feet. what would you say to people with all the experience that you have? >> well, i think it sounds like this was a controlled descent, while it was a very rapid descent. and if that's the case, then you wonder about some oxygen for the passengers and whether there was a problem with the air system in for the internal air in the aircraft. on the other hand, as with most accidents you really -- you can speculate a little bit, but you really can't speculate a lot until you get the recorders and

then they will tell you if that kind of a thing happened that will be indicated on the flight data recorder. >> can you describe what you mean by a controlled descent? >> well, it didn't sound like the air -- it sounded like the aircraft was flying in a descent rather than it blew up and was falling. now maybe that's just a linguistic thing and my interpretation or misinterpretation. but from what i've heard it sounded like the aircraft was flying as it was descending as opposed to falling. >> mr. francis, what are likely to find out if we're able to recover the maximum information from this plane and what questions might we never get answers to here?

>> well, i mean, hopefully we'll get answers to most of the questions that we would like to ask. obviously if the plane was being flown down at a very rapid rate, it was still being controlled by the pilots, and the conversation if the cockpit will be extraordinarily valuable. and it sounds -- again, that's my interpretation of what we're hearing on the news. >> yes. >> and, you know, who knows. >> i just -- mr. francis, i want to pick up one point that was made and your suggestion that it was ultimately mechanical and they were still in control of what was going on. nbc's tom costello is reporting at 10: 47, 50 minutes into the flight they sent a digital code i don't know if this is automatic 7700 which would indicate there was a mechanical problem to the point that you're making.

>> yeah. well, that, again, based on what we've heard and this is just confirmatory, that it does sound like they had some kind of a problem with the aircraft, but that it was controllable, at least to a certain extent. >> okay. we'll leave it there. thank you so much for your time. robert francis, the former vice chairman of the ntsb. coming up on the program, an update on the ellen pao and kleiner perkins trial. it's a big one the san francisco. and a look at sexism in the valley. first, rick santelli, with the santelli exchange almost imminent. hi, rick. >> hi, simon. you know, today we're going to kind of discuss the dynamics of cause/effect. it's very important. why? we talk about collateral damage. what i'm going to talk about after the break is collateral success. take a deeeeep breath in. . . and . . . exhale. . .

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i have a wandering eye. i mean, come on. national gives me the control to choose any car in the aisle i want. i could choose you... or i could choose her if i like her more. and i do. oh, the silent treatment. real mature. so you wanna get out of here? go national. go like a pro. coming up stock picking with all-star portfolio of fidelity's contra fund, first interview if nearly three years and he will name names. still sexy one one analyst thinks about el brands. do the traders agree? big changes for the way you watch the nfl next season. dave grigs around with the latest on the nfl meetings. kayla, see you in about 20 minutes or so. >> sounds good.

thanks. new video of ellen pao, former junior partner of kleiner perkins arriving in court just moments ago as closing agruments are getting under way. the trial is against her former employer, kleiner perkins one that put gender disparity in silicon valley in the spotlight. julia boorstin joins us now from outside the courthouse in san francisco with a closer look on how serious the problem is. julia? >> hey, silicon valley has a major problem with gender disparity. last year all the giants reported major imbalances, google, apple, twitter work forces, 70% male. facebook is 69% male and yahoo! 62%. women are just 11% of executives at silicon valley top 150 companies, that's 5 percentage points less than the s&p 500 average according to fenwick and west. these companies are key training ground for start-ups and vc funds so improving those numbers would have ripple effects. >> there is a vicious cycle that needs to be broken and it's

not -- it's something that will require really conscious active thought by current decision makers and leaders. >> reporter: targeting the leaders at facebook and twitter, two new lawsuits. facebook which has more senior women than the average, execs are 23% female, was just sued by a former employee alleging she faced discrimination, harassment. we have substantive disagreements on the facts and believe the record shows the employee was treated fairly. and a former twitter engineer alleged in a proposed class-action lawsuit that it uses a secretive biased promotion and hiring process. twitter saying it, quote, is deeply committed to a diverse and supportive work place we believe the facts will show that mishuang was tweeted fairly. there is no question this case is drawing question to gender disparity and many lawyers have predicted we will see many more

lawsuits. guys? >> thanks, julia. let's bring in adobe project manager divia who has written several op-eds for "the new york times" and "time" magazine on sexism in silicon valley. so the pipeline is one issue. i would like to talk about women with technical expertise, such as yourself, who are already in the industry and the experience that you've had. you've written about the experiences that you have had being harassed, even being asked by companies to make suggestions and speak up about ways to improve the lot of women in companies and then that advice has been ignored. what's the significance of this ellen pao case and where do we go from here? >> yeah. i think ellen pao case is pretty significant because it is a signal that says it acknowledges there is discrimination in the industry and i think some of the instances that she has pointed out are egees you and kind of similar to some of the instances

we have highlighted in our op-ed that we wrote about eight of us about gender discrimination and harassment of women in tech and i think what it signifies, i think like all of -- most of other people have said we are seeing there will be more lawsuits. more people feeling bolder to say this is not okay. >> well, silicon valley companies like most companies i guess, hate being sued, right, so what's the impact of this going to be? it's only in the past five years that i've seen women in silicon valley feeling more emboldened to speak out on these issues and it's still pretty counter cultural. what's going to cause a move forward, getting women in leadership positions or different conversation or do you think it is these lawsuits? >> i think we just need more women full stop anywhere in executing leadership positions everywhere, in engineering, as managers, and i think that's missing. right now it's usual lie like

one woman in a team of ten and that's not good either. you are powerless around a group of men who can dictate what they want from you. i think we just need more women right now in tech. >> i would say, though, at least the conversation is happening in the technology industry. the reason why we have the sta ts testics about how -- statistics about how few women there are at the top ranks because they're being transparent about some of these numbers and being vocal about doing things to help balance the scales a little bit. but, you know, this dis pairty happens across industries and i'm wondering with only 17% of executives in the s&p 500, as women, how do you think that the tech industry cab not be an example in this respect? >> i mean, i think given that there is economicization that is happening right now, i think what my -- what that has led to

is that there is acknowledgement that needs to be more women and as i don't know, recently, most recent hire, the google cfo was a woman and i see signals of more women being hired in board leadership positions or other ways and i think that's going to lead to some change. i think technology is always, you know, lot of start-up intellectuals and pontificators love to say technology is leading the world in terms of the next generation of thinking and leadership and i would like to see that there will be more leadership -- women and generally more non-white men in leadership positions in technology to lead the change before other industries. >> do you have any sympathy for the men that are at the top of these organizations that are growing as rapidly as they are? if they were to give you the top job now, at facebook, alongside cheryl, could you within two years ensure that there was a

grassroots change in that organization or would you acknowledge that actually, the reality is it may be difficult to do or could you change it if you were given that job? >> i think there is a lot of ways to make small changes that will have large impact and i think one of the ways you can do it is to ly acknowledge, give women the safety of a platform where they can express harassment as it happens and give the power to all of the managers to take action immediately when such things happen. >> do you believe that women are under represented in these organizations because of harassment? because to many people that might be two separate issues? >> no. i don't think they are under represented because of harassment. i think it's just that we wrote in our op-ed we have a death by thousand paper cuts. a lot of things that happen that is very -- it's very -- it doesn't seem like much but somebody makes a joke about some

hot babe or something in a team and then you are supposed to just be quiet because you don't know what to say. there are a lot of things like that. sometimes as ellen pao mentioned she got left out of meetings, things happen that you don't know how to place it. at some point you get tired and you leave and i think that's why there's a lot of underrepresentation as well. >> interesting. i will say, i've heard stories of women feeling bullied out of companies and deciding to do consulting, it isn't worth it anymore. thanks so much for sharing your perspective. >> all right. when we come back news on facebook's push to become a media publishing company. the high above $85 a share. more on "squawk alley" in just a moment. [ male announcer ] your love for trading never stops.

so if you get a trade idea about, say, organic food stocks, schwab can help. with a trading specialist just a tap away. what's on your mind, lisa? i'd like to talk about a trade idea. let's hear it. [ male announcer ] see how schwab can help light a way forward. so you can make your move, wherever you are. and start working on your next big idea. ♪

and start working on your next big idea. now with the you can watch live tv anytime. it's never been easier with so many networks all in one place. get live tv whenever you want. the xfinity tv go app. now with live tv on the go. enjoy over wifi or on verizon wireless 4g lte. plus enjoy special savings when you purchase any new verizon wireless smartphone or tablet from comcast. visit comcast.com/wireless to learn more. i am an electric crew foreman out of the cupertino service center. i was born and raised in the cupertino area. it's a fantastic area to work. the new technology that we are installing out in the field is important for the customers because system reliability i believe is number one. pg&e is always trying to plan for the future and we are always trying to build something stronger and bigger and more reliable.

i love living here and i love the community i serve. nobody wants to be without power. i don't want my family to be without power. it's much more personal to me for that reason. i don't think there's any place i really would rather be. welcome back to the alley. rick santelli live on the floor of the cme group with today's edition of the santelli exchange. we've had quinn mills on, a harvard economist, talking about seasonal adjustments. one of the offshoots i find fascinating with our entires with quinn is that it's not that it doesn't at some point converge, it's that if it doesn't converge for months and months, that there are time periods where policy being applied isn't giving you the correct read. we're out of phase with the data until it reconnects. the same could be said for things like cause and it effect.

that's why the title today is collateral success. most of the time we reference collateral in the terms of collateral damage. but as i've said so many times, that big government has come up with a six-year cure for a two-year flu and what i mean by that is, whether it was the lead up to the last election or much of what we read and hear regarding the economy it's how well, it's doing. i do not want to protest that our economy on a curve graded on a curve, is doing better than the rest. and i also can't argue that there's been improvement, but what i do argue is, is that it isn't directly correlated to success in programs that look for certain outcomes. hence, it's collateral success. and nothing, nothing paints a truer image than the energy market. okay. the energy markets aren't loved by pretty much many in power,

especially the current administration, but much of the good things in our economy, have come from the collateral success of things like energy. today we had penny on, she's commerce secretary, on why investors should come here and invest and i like that idea, but this is at a time in our history where we build walls around companies already here. she talked about the rule of law. i'm not sure. think about what's going on with the internet. productivity and ingenuity of the work force, we used to have productivity and when it comes to ingenuity of the work force i don't want to speak out of school but seems like skilled labor is in short supply. look for the world as it really is because i think only then can we be honest about all these programs that may have outlived their usefulness in so many ways. back to you, jon fortt. >> all right. thanks, rick. two social media stocks on the move this morning. next on "squawk alley."

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calendar update! most of us admit to being overwhelmed by information at work. that's why ibm created verse. it uses powerful analytics to uncover hidden patterns in your email, calendars and social feeds. it continuously learns how you work. and helps you prioritize the people and projects you need to focus on. there's a new way to work and it's made with ibm. big moves in social media today. take a look at the stock for facebook on a tear, hitting a new all-time high today up 126%. since its ipo back in may 2012. right now sitting at 8571. twitter and social media news up more than 4% today after

breaking through at technical level at 50.01. we'll keep an eye on those levels and the broader markets, still in positive territory on the back of data today. good to have you. >> pleasure to be here. >> come back soon. >> indeed, please do. >> that's all for "squawk alley." it's noon on the east coast. "fast money halftime" starts right now. ♪ welcome to the halftime show. let's meet our starting lineup. joe terranova is the senior managing director at virtus investment partners, josh brown the ceo of ritholtz wealth management and pete najarian co-founder of optionmonster. our game plan contrarian week rolls on. a first interview in near he thigh years. where is this all-star portfolio manager putting his $110 billion to work and why? still sexy that's what one analyst says about shares of limited