good morning. it's 8:00 a.m. at the facebook developers conference in san francisco, california. 11:00 a.m. here on wall street. and "squawk alley" is live. ♪ ♪ welcome to "squawk alley." and what a show we've got for you this morning. why sam altman one of the top names in the start-up world is with us in a first on cnbc interview. chris sacca named number 3 on

forbes list and will join us and documentary filmmaker ken burns will join us live to talk about his latest project. joining us is nick bilton, new york, times columnist and for the first time cnbc contributor. welcome, also here for the hour is our friend jon steinberg, ceo of the daily mail north america. and with me as always, kayla tausche. hey, everybody. let's start with news alert on facebook. reporting i've learned facebook messenger now has more than 600 million monthly active users from 500 million back in november. this comes as the company is expected to officially turn messenger into a platform during an announcement at the developers conference later today. ceo mark zuckerberg will give his keynote at 1:00 p.m. eastern, 10:00 a.m. pacific. this is especially important, i think, because it shows that facebook isn't just buying growth. of course, instagram was a big win for them before the ipo.

whatsapp a year ago has continued to grow. this is organic growth from facebook and adding 100 million users in four months, i mean that's -- >> and taking a line out of the playbook of the asian messenger players, making it a platform, payments, ordering a taxi, potentially shopping as well, they already have stickers in messenger which is similar to what line and we chat do as well. my question, why do it in messenger and not whatsapp? >> i think they're going to actually see probably maybe this year, maybe later on in the ear, but i think you will start to see more integration. when you saw the facebook purchased instagram at first wasn't really a lot. now when you save photos they get sent to both platforms, likes, shares, all these things can happen between the platforms. one of the things facebook messenger benefits from that whatsapp doesn't, use it on a desk top and mobile device. i wonder if we will see more integration as far as that goes between the whatsapp mobile

device and the facebook messenger app. this is about a move to make it so you can send money and stickers and communications and videos and content within a messenger app. it's fascinating to see the direction they're going. >> i'm all about sending the stickers. i'm glad they're doing this. nick, "usa today" used strong language and said they're hurdling into the developers conference with momentum befitting a company at the peak of its powers. what do you think facebook has done so well to say something and have investors actually believe it? >> to get the benefit of the doubt. >> here's what's fascinating. we talk about other social start-ups like twitter and things like that, the number of users and the slowness in growth and all these different things. when we talk about facebook the user numbers have not changed really in the past year or so. still around 1.4 billion users, but all of the other numbers internal to the product have grown rapidly. as you just said, 500 million users on facebook messenger last year up to 600 million this year. everything is still growing,

even though the numbers aren't as far as the user growth. this company still has a long, long way to go and especially in you look at what they're doing overseas by trying to get people in third world countries and china on to facebook the platform, they have a tremendous amount of growth potential, both with revenue, with users, the way they interact with the products and messenger which is what most people want to use this product for these days. >> we have a note, john, this platform thing is not guaranteed to work. facebook has a spotty track record when it comes to treating developers the way and having lon gevty with a platform? >> the thing that all these platforms do, come in, build stuff, die what we like and turn down the dials or shut you out. zynga is the classic example if you build on one of these platforms and goes the wrong way. >> twitter and meerkat, that's a recent example that that company is dealing with now. >> or twitter and the clients. shut off a lot of clients. >> i think what you're seeing with facebook though is they want to grow their advertising

revenue and so by bringing in the third-party apps and third-party developers and so on this is going to be a completely new way to grow their advertising and, you know, twitter definitely messed up with the way they approached things and regret it a lot and i don't think facebook will make that mistake again either. >> all right. next up, get ready to pay your bills through gmail. re/code is reporting google is working on a project that will allow gmail users to pay bills within their accounts instead of going to another website to complete a payment. the service is scheduled to start in the fourth quarter of this year. it's nicknamed pony express. is this just part of this trend toward messenger and communication apps taking on payment functionality? we were talking about facebook messenger, facebook is building that capability into messenger, kayla. we're seeing other apps do that. is this going to work for them and is this kind of a new era of payments? >> it's unclear if it's something that facebook is looking at as a brand new revenue stream or a new way to get users on to the system, rather than system that they

just can't afford not to have. if you are a standalone messa messaging platform and don't have a way to transmit cash you have one less bell or whistle from your competitors. seems more like a nice perk rather than a strategic opportunity, at least from what we've seen so far. >> jon steinberg. >> kudos to jason del ray at re/code, he talks about bill payment and says maybe other types of mail as well. there was a bunch of start-ups that came out that did this whole thing around digitizing your mail and called pony express. i think this is the post office killer. i think payments is only ones aspect of it and maybe what leaked out so far. >> you know, nick, gmail the last time we got an official count of its users, 425 million users, back in 2012. ostensibly it's far higher than that now. is this a way for google to reapproach the payment system from a different direction after google wallet had such mixed reviews? >> yes. so if you look across all these

platforms we talked about facebook, they are integrating payments into their messaging platform, snap chat where you can send money using square, you have square cash, there are slews of these applications to send money to people in a very simple way, and i think google doesn't want to miss out on that. what they're seeing is, you know, people don't use google plus that much, sure they probably use the messenger service but i'm sure not as much as they use gmail and it seems like the perfect way to do it. what john said i think is correct, we saw a few years ago, a number of these start-ups that were trying to disrupt the mail system so you didn't have to walk to your mailbox and go through all of this paper stuff and i think it's going to be very, very difficult for google to pull this off but if they do, it's a whole new ball game for them i think. >> interesting. some of these documents coming out as part of the ftc investigation of google showing that they're conscious of the fact that they're pursing to business network, isn't as strong. i wonder if they view this as a

way to fix that. thanks so much for joining us today? >> thank you. let's move to another massive story this morning, kraft foods and heinz in the biggest merger this year. a deal that would create the third largest food and beverage company in north america. sara eisen here at post nine with the details and kraft shares up 35%. >> surging. i feel odd talking about a company that is over 100 years old, at least traces it brand back to them on "squawk alley" but this is a giant food package company that will be created. kraft reborn combined with heinz. more than $28 billion in sales. it brings together the makers of kraft singles and oscar meyer with philadelphia cream cheese and heinz beans and ketchup for the consumer products awareness there. set to be the fifth biggest beverage and food company in the world. there were a few calls this morning, one with investors, one with media, two themes that management wanted to hit hard. number one, is international. kraft is primarily in north america, but management did highlight the international

quote untapped opportunity and that is where the combo with heinz comes in. heinz gets 61% of its sales actually overseas. it's got the infrastructure and the leverage to put kraft and help build those brands of food overseas. the other big theme here, of course, talked about by management and analysts is cost-cutting potential. 3g. renowned operator and cost cutter, management expects this deal to have $1.5 billion in synergy. plenty of shared cost savings opportunities in manufacturing, marketing, and other areas. no doubt wall street likes this deal. kayla mentioned the surge in kraft shares. kraft was a $61 stock yesterday. a $36 billion company. it's now trading almost at 85, $50 billion company. the question is where is the growth going to come from from the xwcombined company? consumers are changing what they want, want natural, organic, fresh. that's why we've seen the double digit growth from companies in the food space like white wave

and haines. both of those companies are up on the potential for bigger deals and buy outs on those companies. what happens to general mills and campbell soup and some of the other kellogg packaged food companies dealing with the slow environment because no doubt this deal is creating a behemoth in the industry and the others will have to respond. >> a couple of those had been rumored as potential targets for 3g, obviously that's off the table, but we'll see. >> not necessarily. credit suisse put out a note saying campbell soup could be in play and the analyst did say he wouldn't be surprised if 3g went to campbell'ss first, and ended up with craft, may still be part -- >> operationally it's scary. when i deal with a client and even they change their cmo or have a small internal change they say we're not going to do anything this quarter. they need to grow their client base and innovate their products. they will do nothing but deal with this integration. >> that means cost cuts and synergies and market expansion something 3g is known to do very

well. >> big deal, sara, thanks. finally closing arguments continue today in the ellen pao/kleiner perkins trial. scott cohn is live outside the courtroom in san francisco. >> hi, john. a trial that's sending shock waves through silicon valley and thus far in closing arguments two very different depictions of ellen pao, the former junior partner, who claims that she was blocked from promotions and blocked from getting ahead by blatant sex discrimination at the preeminent silicon valley venture capital firm kleiner perkins. in closing arguments yesterday, the attorney for the firm, lynn hermly said that ellen pao's failure to succeed a at kleiner perkins had nothing to do with her gender. in a withering hour or so of closing arguments saying pao was a bad partner and the only people she didn't have conflicts with were people she hadn't dealt with yet. when it became clear she wasn't going to get ahead she began plotting this suit.

she said the complaints of el hen pao were made for one purpose, a huge payout for team ellen, not for the good of the firm, and ellen pao could win tens of millions of dollars. the attorney for the firm is allen axlerod, painting, of course, a different picture, saying that pao was a very accomplished partner going in. she was the person who came up with the idea of investing in twitter which was rebuffed initially until it was later proposed by a male, and said that sexism ran to the very top of the kleiner perkins, that the company ran kleiner perkins like a boy's club and no woman was going to challenge them. these closing arguments will continue with lynn hermly of the firm continuing her closing arguments and then followed by more rebuttal from axlerod. the jury could get this case later today. back to you. >> all right. scott cohn in san francisco with the latest on the kleiner perkins trial ongoing right now. thanks. we want to get a quick check on the markets. relatively low volume week but a

few data points moving today's trade, a bigger build in crude oil inventories here in the u.s. as well as durable goods orders that fell in the month of february and why you're seeing major averages down today. shares of merck are in the green after the company increased its stock repurchase program to $10 billion. that stock is up by about 1%. meantime shares of tesla slipping after getting downgraded to underperform at clsa. the firm is citing a risk to near term earnings from lower model x margins and that is bringing tesla shares down by about 3.5%. coming up, as we told you at the top of the hour, a great lineup here for you on "squawk alley." sam altman from y begin nater will tell us why some of the bubble talk in silicon valley is a bit overblown. plus, top vc and early twitter investor chris sacca will walk us through the huge move in that company's stock, up over 40% this year alone. and finally, hows the documentary is changing the world of netflix. filmmaker ken burns is with us

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visit comcast.com/wireless to learn more. with large rounds of funding and higher valuations our next guest says what might be inflated is all the talk of a silicon valley bubble. sam altman the president of y combinator which invests in funding for startups. some names include stripe, instacart and coin base among others, also with us at post

nine is our own josh lipton. sam, it's an interesting topic, though, because a lot of people say just the fact that we're talking about the potential for a bubble means there isn't one. what would you say to that? >> yeah. i mean i don't -- whether or not we're talking about it people mostly talk about a bubble because it's an easy way to get on tv or say we're not in a bubble, but these companies are doing incredible work and i think that by and large, the valuations are reasonable. i don't think most vcs believe we're in a bubble. >> sam, question for you, you throw down $100,000 bet in your post and you make it available to private -- basically to vcs. my question is why not broaden it? why not open it up to private equity analysts, execs, media executives? >> if somebody else wants to take it that's fine with me. my point is vcs don't believe this. and if they do, they shouldn't be investing in startups. i think what's going on is that vcs have sort of less and less of the power in this sort of

company dynamic and people are like well, it's hugely overplayed but the vcs investing the most money ever in startups or at least in the last ten years are the ones that are saying there's a bubble. you know, ten years ago i was a 19-year-old college student and people told me not to start a company because there was a huge bubble and this has gone on every year since. yeah, valuations are high, interest rates zero, that's to expected but i don't think valuations have become widely disconnected from value. >> you know, sam, josh lipton here. sometimes i talk to vcs in silicon valley who are worried about an overheated market and some will look at one basic metric, the sheer number of startups valued at at least $1 billion. i saw cb insight said 40 tech companies entered the billion dollar club in 2014, a jump of 150% year over year. what do you make of that kind of stat, sam? does it worry you? >> you know, i think that we are in sort of the third great

technological revolution in human history. we have the agriculture, industrial and now the software revolution and that's a big deal, right. like new -- there is an incredible shift going on in sort of just how we do everything with software. and, of course, that's going to create a lot of valuable companies. >> sam, i understand what you're saying, i think. but i want to get down to -- there are parts of what's happening right now in silicon valley in the bay area, in tech in general that are unsustainable, right? so maybe it's an argument over semantics. i'm not exactly sure that everybody defines a bubble the same way. but how do you distinguish -- >> what -- >> parts of the market -- >> sorry? >> what parts do you think are unsustainable. i can respond to those. >> i think the gap in affordability for workers in the bay area that and the way that has accelerated is unsustainable. some of the things in commercial real estate are probably unsustainable. those of us who have lived there for a while know the signals

when things have gone beyond the norm in the basic heart beat of life in the bay area in silicon valley, right? >> look, i think income inequality and especially in san francisco, is probably the biggest social problem that we face now and will face over the coming decades. i don't think that means that we're in a bubble. it just means that technology is a lever and it concentrates well. because all the stuff is working for real we have huge wealth but we have to fix this. this is a huge problem. the problem is not debating whether or not we're in a bubble. look, the problem is not any of this things that could be debated on finance shows, whether a stock is up 30%, down 30% today, in a bubble this year or not this year, 2008 the end of the world, you know, everyone is like it's over, there's a crash. 2009, airbnb and uber start. over a 5 to 10-year time frame how i think about investing on the short end none of this matters. this is the junk food of financial advice. >> here's why we're debating

this. yes, we talk about public stocks but that's a market that has so much more transparency, so it's easier to follow the ups and downs and some of the more nuanced moves but there's so much less transparency on the private market which is why we want to hear viewpoints from people like you living it day to day, but there do seem to be some red flags, at least anecdotally and we're trying to figure out what the fallout will look like. i hear people citing things like liquidation preferences, investors who will say i will invest in your company but want three times my money if you go bust or ratchets where people are saying i'll invest in your company at that valuation but if you go public at a valuation less than that i get to remark my shares down. these are phenomenons we haven't seen before, and i'm just wondering what you make of some of these behind the scenes? >> the cool thing about markets is they have to be a willing buyer and seller. if you don't understand something or think something is overpriced you can say no. and that's what i think vcs think we're in a bubble should

do, should not be investing if they think everything is overpriced. you know what i make of this, is that by and large -- look, i think there are some companies that raise money and price that makes me squint and i would not invest in those companies. that's what i do when i think a company is overpriced. i think by and large, you know, these companies are generating real revenue, real earnings or a path to real earnings and growing at a pace that's pretty impressive when you don't see a lot of other growth wrelgs in the economy -- elsewhere in the economy. no, i think that by and large, these companies are not widely overvalued. what i do think many companies have gotten wrong is that burn rates are way too high. high burn separate from high valuation but i think a high burn rate in the start-up is usually very.s poison us to a culture. >> we appreciate you joining the conversation today. >> thanks for having me. >> sam a altman of y combinator. >> not going to be the last conversation we have about that for sure. up next award winning filmmaker

ken burns joins us live to talk about his latest documentary on cancer. the emperor of all maladies. he's with us when we come right back. in my world, wall isn't a street. return on investment isn't the only return i'm looking forward to. for some, every dollar is earned with sweat, sacrifice, courage. which is why usaa is honored to help our members with everything from investing for retirement to saving for college. our commitment to current and former military members and their families is without equal. start investing with as little as fifty dollars.

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it's not fast, it's not easy. sometimes we think we know the answer and we didn't. then we get corrected. but we know we're on the right path. every field in medicine has had a moment in history that has been transforming. the moment where the knowledge that was acquired to change the field became available. this is the moment of cancer. it's happening. >> that's a clip from the new and very powerful film from award winning documentary filmmaker ken burns "cancer the emperor of all maladies" premiers next week on pbs.

we're happy to be joined by ken burns. >> good to see you. >> how do you turn such a morbid topic into something people want to watch? >> we are on the threshold of so many new discoveries, new therapies and this has been part of the history of cancer that we're really looking at a golden age, that things are about to merge, diseases that were fatal, cancers that were fatal are becoming chronic, and we think that the developments in new drugs but more importantly targeted therapies, genetic revolution and immuno therapy will change the landscape. we wanted to do ap executivery. where have we been, where are we now and where are we going. there's no one at this table, no one in this room, no one who can hear the sound of my voice that has been untouched by cancer somehow and one out of two men, one out of three women will get it in their lifetime. we ought to know about it. if it is the emperor of all maladies we're all obligated to be part of the resistance

movement against it. monday, tuesday, wednesday night next week, we're going to show you how to join that resistance movement. >> you were personally touched by cancer as well that caused you to take a little bit of a different role on this project than other projects. >> i was asked to do it. i said, you know, i can't do this. i've got all these films i'm working on and then i read the pulitzer-prize winning book of the same name and said i'm in and will be an executive producer and picked a wonderful filmmaker bare ra goodman and all credit to him for the job he's done. it's a complicated story that has to mix history, wonderful detective story, science that's understandable, and then these human stories. we embedded ourselves in several hospitals and have the most poignant stories of families dealing with not always good outcomes but mostly the news is puff on this frontier. >> tell me how this project is different? it seems to me like a lot of documentaries deal with history or maybe something happening in the present, but this one is so visceral and so personal for so

many people and it also affects the future. how does that change the way you tell this story? >> you know, there's an old one that says whatever works works. some ways this one law of filmmaking however this is, because it is a mixture of history, what i normally do with bara goodman normally does, a mixture of science which you think isn't that nova, and then it's got these intimate case studies, where you're really drawn in. the intermixing of them is what i think gives this thing its strength, its positiveness, its hope in the face of stuff that normally people would says this is mored by. >> ken, my wife had the brachagy similar to what an ge lianna went through, we discovered it with home testing. we've been outspoken and fair there's a strong amount of paternalism, people can't do clinical trials, have you found that in your documentary work? >> i have. and it's reflected in earlier

moments in the history of cancer, but right now, so suppliesed yesterday at the push back against angel lin na jolie. first of all, we don't know what her conversations with her doctor and it turns out to be a whole battery of doctors, she's getting the best possible advice and she gets to make personal choices for herself and when you find yourself in a genetic crosshair you have a suseptibility and we know that genetics plays a huge part on triggering the start of cancers, as well as viruses as well as environmental stuff, don't smoke cigarettes, this is an important thing. she's permitted to make these kinds of decisions for herself and it may be the old paternalism that says, oh, don't worry, we'll cut it out later on. >> ken, tell me about this period in time for a documentary filmmaker, technology has certainly changed the game in distribution in who's able to create art and film. how has that affected things for you? >> it's interesting. everybody has the tools to make a film now with their phones,

but you still have to be a storyteller, still have to understand how do that. i do believe we're in a golden a age of documentary. it is wonderful time to be around. when i say next monday, tuesday, wednesday on pbs at 9:00, i'm saying it's available for download, streaming, available tore for a dvd and now we have all these possible platforms for people who don't necessarily have time to do appointment -- >> on all these platforms did you listen to -- >> of course i did. >> was your ken burns podcast coming do that format? >> i might. in some ways, in the early stages of our films when we're editing we do what's called a blind assembly. we wanted to read, to sound good and then we'll add the pictures. we're working on the basics of story. so quite often we have an early podcast going on, it's very, very interesting. >> and just the last couple weeks people say now we have hobbs's "the jinx" every documentary has to be tied up neatly in a bow at the end. do you agree with that? >> no.

in some ways -- that was a wonderful film and that movement took everybody' breath away however you saw it, but it tells you how unsettled things are. now dethe debate is, is that admissible in a court of law, moral issues filmmakers have to follow. i think it's opened up a really good conversation that i know andrew, the director of the film, and the rest of us, are constantly engaged in not only with ourselves and our own co-producers, but with all of you and our -- the people who watch our films. this is a wonderful ongoing dialog and when you think how tired and fatigued the hollywood plots are, you know, where you're having, you know, sequel seven, you begin to realize that real drama happens to be what is and what was documentaries. >> ken, we love having you. come back soon. >> i love being here. >> ken burns, legendary documentary filmmaker, the series "cancer emperor of all maladies" premiers on pbs march 30th, three-part, six-hour

series. when we come back this chart will probably make our next guest happy. shares of twitter down by about 2% but up about 40% so far this year. chris sacca is one of the top vcs in the country with investment in twitter, uber and instagram and will join us in a cnbc exclusive in just a moment. friday night, buddy. you are gonna need a wingman. and with my cash back, you are money. forget him. my airline miles will take your game worldwide. what i'm really looking for is -- i got two words for you -- re-wards. ♪ there's got to be better cards than this. [ male announcer ] there's a better way with creditcards.com. compare hundreds of cards from all the major banks to find the one that's right for you.

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good morning, everyone. i'm sue herera.

here's your news update. president obama wants to cut health care costs reducing inefficiencies like unnecessary long hospital stays by doctors. he made the remarks by a speech marks the fifth anniversary of his health care law. ford recalling 220,000 ford explorer suvs and interceptor utility vehicles in north america for potential issues with door handles vacuum pump relays and sensors. the years affected 2011 to 2013. the leader of the united auto workers union rejected a third tier of lower wages for members who make auto parts claiming the uaw already has it too many paid tiers. greece may be in financial straits but that's not stopping them from celebrating. thousands braved the rain to watch the country's annual independence day military parade. it marked the start of greece's 1821 uprising against the ottoman empire. that's your news update this hour. let's get back to "squawk alley."

thank you, sue. shares of twitter trading a little bit lower this morning after setting a five month high yesterday. that hardly matters since the stock has been surging more than 40% year to date. can the social network keep on climbing? joining us now exclusively is legendary investorer chris sacca founder and managing director of lower case capital and investor in uber, twitter and instagram. worth noting forbes unveils its 2015 midas list this morning ranking the best investors of the tech world and not only is chris on the cover he came in at number three. not that anybody is counting. okay. chris sacca, let's get into this. the last time you were on you made the case for why people weren't looking at twitter quite the right way. people who bought that day probably have done pretty well. how do you frame the importance of twitter, the promise of twitter, given all the other things happening in the social

media world especially today? >> yeah. first of all, high five to all those buyers that day i was here. it was fun to see the market selling it off and anyone who stuck with this has been richly rewarded. i think it's becoming clearer and clearer twitter is an indispensable part of not just the media landscape but the economy at this point. it's where everything real time is happening and what we're starting to see is the emergence of twitter as a true multimedia company. the strength of their video plays, the photo engagement that's happening there, and literally the interaction between companies and their consumers is becoming richer and richer. and as a result, we're seeing more and more ad dollars flow in. advertisers know that the interactions on twitter are more valuable and informed by more information and highly targeted than just about anywhere else. they have the interest that nobody else has. wall street is starting to pick up on that. >> right now you and i are doing the first two-screen parascope i believe in the history of parascope on live it television.

when i play with parascope my first conclusion was it's a broadcast platform. this is the transformative move for twitter, more things like this. how big do you think parascope is? every investor i've talked to is entreesed by and how many more things do you think we'll see like that? >> parascope is the new imminently launchble kind of forthcoming any day now i'm told, i don't work at the company, but personal live video broadcasting platform that the company has in the works. i've got a beta, i have a camera right here in the studio that's broadcasting what i'm doing, with you to all my followers on the service. it's absolutely amazing. so far on parascope, i've seen incredibly touching moments like a 7-year-old blind girl teach us how to type braille, commander hatfield the iss commander playing guitar. i had a funeral for my kids' pet fish who died a couple days ago and kobe bryant watched the funeral via parascope. it's been an incredible service.

what we're going to see is more users coming on there and that video is going to be not just compelling and drive monthly active users on the service but that is going to be one of the richest troves of monetizeble data we've seen on the net. >> you mentioned monthly active users which has been debated as whether that is the most significant metric for twitter when we're measuring its growth. even if it's not, the fact that instagram did surpass twitter in monthly active users as an investor in both of those companies, eggs in both of those baskets how significant you took that milestone? >> well look, i think -- i mentioned mau to throw a bone to so many of the viewers still hung up on the metric. i think the company is going to continue to execute and to show you that the reach and the monetizeble reach of twitter goes beyond the boundaries of a logged in user, search results, third-party syndication properties over a billion devices auto month money being

made in other places and it's going to start collecting increasingly on the income statement and you guys watching out there will continue to catch up with that. that said, twitter can always be doing more to engage more people on the service, to make it easier to use, to make normal people feel less anxiety about tweeting and so there's a lot of low hanging fruit for them to improve. you're going to see parascope be the most monumental achievement in that space. people see parascope and they instantly get how to use it whether as a viewer or broadcaster and that is going to blow the doors wide open on this company. >> chris, how do you characterize the state of start-up tech right now, whether it's totally normal and healthy, whether it's bubble, whether it's just high valuation, something in between when you see the way it's affecting workers, investors, through the spectrum? >> i think it's hard to generalize sometimes. there's certainly companies that i think where the prices have gotten way ahead of themselves because we have investors with big, big funds that they've raised, they need to get this

money deployed because they're drawing fees on it, an incentive to get it into big name logos but what i'm concerned by is the lack of diligence in a lot of those companies. on the one hand you have the ubers of the world racking up huge revenue and growth that's unprecedented at a global scale and i know the investors there have done real diligence and done real financial analysis and come to conclusions about why those valuations are supported and i'm a buyer of uber at $40 billion, but we've got other companies out there where there's just -- there's froth and investors are flocking to put money in there. >> would you be willing to give any names, chris? a lot of people talk about that other end of the spectrum but won't say which ones? >> i'm not here to throw anybody under the bus. what's broken is the investment process. that's carrying through to the ear early stage stuff where we're seeing some of the demos days you get a 2:30 minute presentation, don't see live code running and then expected to do a deal with them in the margins of the room before you've ever really met them, jammed on products, see if you

can collaborate, and gotten smart on what you're investing in. spinnings the wheel and throwing money around might be one way to get lucky in this business, but where i've made my money and all the other great investors i admire have made their money is by teaming up with guys that you really have learned to trust with a product you believe deeply in and figured out you can work well together. i see that breaking down right now in the valley. it's not happening as much as it should. so i think we're headed into some issues. >> sage words and a warning from chris sacca of lower case capital. thanks so much for joining us and congrats on the midas list. >> all right. thank you guys. it's been great. >> when we come back, watching the markets. the dow down more than 150 points right now. rick santelli, what have you got your eye on today? >> well, of course, i'm watching the dynamics between how the fx markets are moving and the aftermath of where the equities are, whether it's the dax or market you just described. the theme today, why all the negativity? and we'll be looking at

negativity a little different than you may suspect, all after the break. ♪ help join a continent with nearly 3 million rugged square miles with a single broadband connection. when emerson takes up the challenge, it's never been done before simply becomes, consider it solved.

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see you in about 15. >> meanwhile get to the cme group rick santelli with the santelli exchange. rick? >> good morning and thank you, jon. well, this morning we had a pretty rough looking durable goods set of data points and that, of course, was february and the aftermath of that is, along with a litany of other data points of late, whether they're old january, kind of middle of the road february or some of the newer data on the march reads like the regionals philly comes to mind, we're going to be seeing a rather weak looking first quarter gdp. i was just looking at some of my e-mails, some of my sources say oh, it's assuredly now going to be under 2%. i would think it's pretty safe to say it has a very good chance to be under 1%. you've heard me many times talk about seasonally adjusted data. i had quinn mills on and the acknowledgement that at some point they converge, seasonals, the adjustment process, the unadjusted data, at some point

get together, the problem isn't that they don't get together, the problem is, trying to look at where markets are, what policy is, and depending on where you are in the cycle of where that spread is, wide or tight, seasonal versus nonseasonally adjusted sometimes you just get the wrong picture. well, today, i want to point out, that today we saw a weak minus 1.4 february durables when you took out transportation it was down 0.4, nondefense orders, ex-aircraft the proxy for investment was up 0.2. look at the nonseasonally adjusted data, it was significantly better. headline would have been up close to 4.5%, transportation about 2.25%. these are pretty good numbers. just want to point that out as, of course, we move through the cycle, remember, the markets were much smarter than much of what has been written post-fed. they lower their outlook, they're data dependent. 2016 elections will be important

for one big reason. and it's called negativity and it's not negativity about the economy. here's some of the countries and areas of the globe that have negative interest rates. france out to three year, eu six year, sometimes seven year. iceland out to three years, sweden four year, switzerland out to ten year. you see belgium, austria, finland, denmark, america is not, to the going to look forward to negative rates. my prediction, all the fed policy and commercial bank issues will be major platforms in the 2016 elections. back to you. >> all right. rick, we will be sure to watch that. starting to sell-off with the dow down about 154 points at the moment. "squawk alley" will be right back.

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sitting down for an interview with dish chairman and charlie ergen this morning talking about the future of tv to whether dish's own new sling tv could cannibalize its existing business. david here with the highlights. many highlights. >> don't get a chaps to talk to mr.eringen too often. people do hear from him on the company's conference call every quarter but a key question continues to be what will you do with all of that spectrum, a company that spent over $15 billion to amass a spectrum position equal to that almost of t mobile and downleak equal to that of verizon. has a number of years to do

that. still the question is, what are you going to do with it all? >> whatever we do with our spectrum it will be for the long-term value creation. we're long-term players. one of the great advantages we had when we started sbooi buying spectrum six or seven years ago the market didn't like that and our stock went down. and then six or seven years later people realized the value of the spectrum and your stock goes up. so had we not done that, had we not done that we would have no option but to sell our company. >> and that is because as ergen said many times they're in a mature business. 14 million subscribers to dish but it is not growing at this point. instead, the decision was made to buy that spectrum. the question, though, which he really did not answer is, what will they ultimately choose to do with it in terms of building it out some way with a partner? who that partner will be remains still something to be seen. he doesn't seem to at this point at least or certainly not answering our questions, to tell us exactly what the plan is.

when it comes to other efforts of the company as well, sling tv certainly one that's gotten a good deal of publicity of late. over the top, 20 bucks a month that dish has put together with a number of cable -- with a number of programmers, it started six weeks ago. i did ask him though, doesn't selling that actually cannibalize your existing business? >> it will cannibalize our business. there's no question about that. it's innovators' dilemma. do you not take new technology and invest in new technology to protect your old technology? we view it that we have to do that. we have to reinvent ourselves and transform the company. but we certainly the vast majority of our customers are certainly people who are not in the paid tv universe today. it's incremental business it to our programming partners and better yet a better advertising model for them. >> over the top offering, of course, as you talk about all the time are proliferating at a rather rapid pace, sony certainly he expects apple tv to

be a strong product. we shall see what continues there. he does believe the bundle will keep if for most people. >> they had so many years they knew they only had the downlink and no broadband solution. so many years to figure it out. >> a man keeping his options open, one thing is clear. >> as he always does. >> thanks. up next we're still watching the markets down about 150 points on the back of an inventory build in oil and nasty february durable goods order down 157. "squawk alley" is right back. ♪ at mfs, we believe in the power of active management. every day, our teams collaborate around the world, to actively uncover, discuss and debate investment opportunities. which leads to better decisions for our clients.

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parse for internet of things, messenger as a platform and teleporetation station a few announcements we can expect from today's facebook developer conference. julia, what exactly should we expect? >> well, jon, it's about facebook's family of products, mark zuckerberg sent developers a video message teasing announcements from oculus to turning its messenger app into a platform. >> i'm really excited to talk about all of the new things we've all been building to serve our community and build great new mobile experiences to stay connected with the people you

love and care about. >> many of the headlines out. facebook is building messenger platform which means developers can enable users to do things without leaving the app, pay bills, buy movie tickets or watch or read content similar to app's line and we chat. parse is expantsing to the internet of things developers can build for connected devices like the nest thermostat. the most cryptic news about what they're calling a teleporetation station here. we can only assume that's about developing for facebook's oculus rift virtual reality headset. we're hoping to find out when it will go on sale. ad tech in the spotlight today. sources tell me facebook will launch a new ad platform to sell mobile and video ads an extension of live rail which it acquired last year competing directly with twitter's mopub. i will be monitoring zuckerberg's speech coming up in about an hour and bring you the headlines. >> we'll see you then. facebook stock down with the

broader market. interesting tape today with some of the data coming out this morning, but that does it for "squawk alley." good to see you guys. we'll see you again a little later on. let's head it back to headquarters and the halftime show. ♪ thanks so much. welcome to the halftime show. meet our starting lineup for today. stephen weiss the managing partner of short hills capital, josh brown the ceo of ritholtz wealth management, pete najarian is the co-founder of optionmonster, and kenny pull carry is on the floor of the new york stock exchange. our game plan today looks like this. retirement risk, what's really inside your 401(k) and why the details may surprise you. our special report straight ahead. technology wreck, while one silicon valley super star says a bubble is brewing out west. elevations roger mcnamee is with us on whether it will burst or not. a midday rollover for the markets and