around ♪ ♪ i ain't got time for that now ♪ ♪ happy friday welcome to "squawk alley." i'm jon fortt. rewriting playbooks in tech. amazon's nfl play. why one in four colleges might go under after the pandemic and where tech tools factor in and instagram tests a kids version, but we're going to begin with work-from-home stocks and a thesis from our first guest this hour who says the covid rally isn't over, won't be any time soon barclays chairman of internet investment banking back heck

jo - bob heck joins us now. i'm looking at peloton which is sort ofs the poster child in my book for the work-from-home or stay-at-home stocks. it is well off the highs it saw at the beginning of the year, up 167, now 108 when the rally isn't over, is it going back up there? >> yeah. first of all, thanks again for having me. always enjoy being here. maybe to answer your question back just for a second, since p precovid, 13 months ago, the nasdaq 35%, s&p up 20% you had a tremendous rally as you think about near term year to year, they're more muted. s&p up about 5% give or take nasdaq up a point or two muted rally recently the work-from-home stocks is one of the things that we've spoken about many times on your program. you have the acronym called covid, a collaborative software,

security, video games, streaming, in home services like peloton and delivery that basket precovid back to february 19th is up over 100%. if you took it off march last year you're up over 200% you've had a tremendous run. looking at just this year alone, though, that basket of stocks is down about 15% you had some pull back of that tremendous run now what we think is interesting here and why we think we still have more to go, we think you've seen a pull forward of demand, not just taking share from near term, but true pull forward of the very large secular changes take video streaming for one of them or video conferences for one of them. things like schools and governments that put infrastructure in place to do this this is something -- and education around it as well to teach the people how to do it. this is something when kids are sick later next year or so and people back at school, they'll

have the option to be able to do that you see the secular changes in forces that change the underlying factor of society even older people engaged in technologies they couldn't have before or e-commerce companies, not only amazon, but others delivering in day too. you sense a changing of the capabilities and i think that's brought the technology or demand curve much more forward. >> to call it out again we have a ceo on this hour about those kinds of, you know, structural changes we're seeing happening in education as so many industries let's talk about strategy because you mentioned a lot of covid stocks are off their absolute highs but there are a lot of investors just now piling into the market. so if you're talking strategy how you should think about either pull babbs or how long you're going to have to wait for today's big bets to pay off, what's the time horizon? >> i think number one you want to bet on the big secular

winners and never going to time the best entryp point, right number two, i think you have to be cognizant of valuation. when you look at the stocks, the market, the s&p around 22 times and has been in the high teens when you look at tech overall, tech is up about one or two turns from seven to nine times revenue. what i think is interesting is when you look at it growth adjusted, right, you had the revenue to growth for the sector, up to about 0.4 or 0.5 from the 0.3s. as you look at these companies you want to look at ones that have the long-term secular themes you can play into take the one you pointed out on peloton, i believe down around 30% from the highs but that's off something that was up 300%. i think it had internal issues as far as deliveries and stuff when you think about those options you want to think about companies that are big tams you're seeing this major shift >> bob, really seems like you're

saying these are not work-from-home stocks, these are not covid stocks, these are stocks that represent the new economy and the way people will be living going forward. if that's your thesis how do you calculate in the lack of visibility we have about what the hybrid world is going to look like over the next six to 12 months? >> yeah. great question you know, i think when you think about it that way, you want to think about these things that are going to happen and quite honestly were already happening no matter what let's take e-commerce as the main example that was having tremendous adoption, people staying at home, had that accelerate even further. when you go back to work or actually working from a building, you're still going to be delivering things to your home you're still going to be expecting one day shipping, two day shipping, those things will not change take something like video conferencing you assume may get hit on the demand side we're not so sure. clients of ours, for a one-day meeting or sometimes two zooms

and the hybrid world where sometimes it is live and in person and you want that contact and engagement but sometimes a zoom is fine enough. so i think you're going to have this, you know, hybrid world as you called it and i think these trends were already occurring, are just getting brought more forward than we could have imagined before we hit covid so it's something clearly to watch. >> certainly an acceleration of those trends i want to make sure we get your thoughts on another phenomenon that has exploded during the past year of the pandemic which is spacs how is that impacting the market and what do you anticipate from this spac phenomenon going forwarded. >> first of all, it's a tremendous time for our clients. you have all these methods of raising capital whether it's in the private markets or the public markets or traditional ipo or direct listing and now the spac phenomenon. what's astounding to us is the growth of spacs in 2021 alone, right. in 2021, 2 1/2 months you've had more spacs created than all of

2020 and in 2020 you had about 250 spacs created. you had a big burst of growth in 2020 and we're already ahead of that now just tremendous opportunity for private clients as they think -- private companies as they think about raising capital. for investors when you think about that, actually the spacs have been an asset that will stay around for a long time and the bell curve the middle of the pack will do fine, and you will have some ones that will struggle. so far from what we've seen in the spacs in the 2020 class from the d spac announcement to current you're up a good 15 or 20% or so. it's been a good performing class for investors as well as well as for the private companies utilizing that availability >> bob, a lot of what's happening in tech it's hard to divorce it from what's happening more broadly in macro and specifically on rates, b of a a nice chart out today, argue tech is more exposed to higher rates

than in about 20 years, more than in the taper tantrum of a few years ago. how much of that overpowers sort of the secular dynamics you're talking about? >> great question and clearly investors are focused on rates and inflation. if you look at where we are today the 10-year around 1.75 give or take pull the lens back a little bit that's where we were at the end of '19 and pull it back to the beginning of '19 we were in the 2.5. if you think about 2019 as a year-end performance that was a phenomenal year. it's still very cheap capital versus where rates have been you're looking at companies investing, acquisitions, raising capital and you sort of saw the proof points there in 2019 in that year alone. we think yes, while they're creeping up we need to keep an eye on it. it's still cheap historically and that's why you're seeing so much activity in the markets and across all our markets, converts, ipos, m&a, it's been

robust we're still optimistic. >> right the other sort of macro backdrop is china we talked about the meeting this morning, yesterday between the chinese and the u.s. it wasn't that long ago that was the story, u.s./china relations regarding trade and technology and intellectual property. to what degree do we revert to that environment or are in some new era where we are contentious on one hand and cooperative on the other? >> i think that's what we're hoping for i will leave the answer to the geopolitical experts i think the general sentiment for investors and clients they've gone too far in one direction so hopefully you can see more of a bilateral cooperation between the two governments as well as the other governments around the world not impede the growth of technology which clearly you can see from the consumer demand is really robust >> bob, there's something more internal company wise i want to

ask you about. we had pager duty on yesterday and in the quarter and really in the guidance i guess, one of the interesting things was on margins. some expectation that an increase in travel, some things related to reopening would add to some costs even as there are also some benefits on the revenue side i wonder if you expect to see that across even tech companies. some costs increasing with reopening as companies adjust to the different sort of motions they need to have in their operations to get the new normal going again, whatever that is. >> yeah. one of the things you've seen happened through the covid period over the last 13 months or so is you have seen companies continue to invest both in the hiring and engineering side and you're right, as we open things up, you know, as far as travel and entertainment, those costs will come back on. the key here will bes the demand curve, right do you see business continue to go on pace for where the cfos

and ceos built this cost structure to is there any pullback on that which would obviously hamper margins. is there an increase or an acceleration business that can get done, maybe more difficult to get done in a remote only situation something to watch on and the cfos of these companies have built certain expectations in mind which is probably assuming a moderate growth. >> probably a good idea to get those expectations set out there. bob peck, have a good weekend. good to see you. >> thanks again for having me. great segment, bob thanks thursday night football gets a new home we're going to get you some details on that next in the meantime watch visa down on this report that the doj's antitrust unit is investigating the company's debit card practices. resqwkll" ntuen almost 5%. mo "ua aeycoins in a moment every morning to a world that must keep turning.

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the nfl announcing its media rights deals for the next 11 years last night, with amazon getting exclusive rights to all thursday night games outside of local markets. joining us now is nfl's chief media and business officer brian rolapp thanks for joining us on the heels of this very big news for the nfl. i got to start off with amazon this seems like a momentous deal paying a billion dollars a year

for those thursday night rights. how meaningful is this in terms of the overall shift of television to streaming? >> well, i think it's a pretty momentous occasion for us. i think the commissioner called it seminole in our media evolution. thursday night football, 15 games in total, moving exclusively to a digital platform over the air in television and local markets is a pretty big shift i think it's similar to other parts in our history where in the late '80s we developed a package for cable television that went to espn or, quite frankly, a package that fox took in the early '90s when they started a broadcast network. this feels this is a new medium but by no means means the end of television i think we've allocated all of our games in some shape or form. television is not going away and we don't think it is, it will be important, but we're happy to have amazon as a partner

>> not the end of television, but so interesting that, you know, nbc, cnbc's parent company, will get the rights to stream their games on peacock, ditto cbs, those games on paramount plus, so there's a sense that everyone who buys rights is also going to have the option of putting those games on their complimentary streaming platforms. my question there is, does this mean that football has broken free of the tv bundle and do you think that's going to drive cord cutting? >> i mean, look, smarter people than me will tell me if this changes the trajectory of paid television it's not a mystery paid television has been losing subscribers for some time now as people shift their consumption to digital platforms that's been clear. it's something we've been seeing for a long time. but again, as you see in these deals is we allocate rights to our partners and encouraging them to build their reach.

we're ultimately at the end of the day a sport built on reach and these days reach is more complicated because of technology by enabling our partners to have more digital rights for their streaming partners we think we're going to increase that reach and think our partners are doing a good job navigating that what they've done at disney, with their subscriber base at paramount plus, cbs, peacock for nbc, and tubi grows for fox we think they're making the necessary investments and expand it to digital environment. that's clearly where more and more fans are spending their time. >> it's fascinating. you guys have been so nimble, brian. i wonder, does in terms of color, does the league see the presentation of the game any different in a streaming era versus a strict linear era we've seen you do, you know, our media partners do minor adjustments around the edges regarding the way commercials are presented, divorcing

yourself from the game a little bit in shorter increments? should it feel any different under amazon >> look, i think it will i think for all of our games that are streamed and we've started doing this for some time close it a decade through nfl mobile and other platforms, i think streaming will certainly provide reach as people spend more and more time on digital but if we're getting to the end of these deals and all we're doing is putting television on the internet i think we've missed an opportunity. i think with these partners you'll see them take advantage of all of the different things that a technology allows you to do there could be developed interactive features that can change advertising because once you have a digital platform the targeting and the interactivity of that advertising can change something you can't get on television i think the experiencing will be different. what they will be remains to be seen the underlying rights of the deals provide for that type of

innovation which i think we're excited to see and was really part of these discussions. nobody just wanted to put television on the internet we wanted to take advantage of the medium and see what other things could be added to the telecast and quite frankly added to the advertisers who invest in those telecasts. >> let's get into that along with the reach, brian, it's jon fortt, good morning. >> hi, jon. >> did amazon have to promise you some things on reach and how they're going to expand that are they going to stream some games on amazon.com, for example, to people who might not be prime subscribers and is there anything in here with merchandising? amazon sells stuff and does that very well. advertisers like to have their stuff sold are there tie in like that that were part of these discussions >> we've been in business with amazon for quite amount of time. we've been simulcasting our thursday night package on

amazon, amazon has had exclusive games, including last year, so we -- this isn't our first time around with our partners at amazon as we built that relationship, we've started to see and really one of the reasons we had the relationship is start to see what kind of reach that platform can provide. everybody knows about prime. everybody knows everybody is in prime. it is a gigantic platform with plenty of subscribers. to answer your question directly, there are in this deal contemplates distribution beyond prime. clearly on amazon.com on twitch, which is a unique platform, imbb and i think when we worked with amazon to see the totality of their vision about what they're going to do with video distribution across all of their platforms other than prime video it was pretty exciting to see. i think you will see that reach increase as they continue to innovate i think, quite frankly, they're somewhat early in their investment in their video business and it's only going to

grow >> certainly only going to grow. the question is whether they go after rights to the sunday ticket package which is one part of your deal you did not negotiate. what do you think will happen with the ticket rights at&t holds them now. will amazon or another streamer go after them? >> as you said we did not make those rights part of this round of discussions having said that, we've had lots of interest in those rights. as you know, sunday ticket is an out of market package, a premium package, for people who want to pay to get all of the games. it's done well in a paid tv environment and i think it will continue to do well in a paid tv environment. i think a lot of interest we've had and a lot of innovation we will see is on a digital platform i think the type of custom nature of it where you might be a fan of a certain team versus

carl may be a fan of a different team, the fact that a subscription lends itself very well to digital platforms and so we believe that sunday ticket has a very bright future, certainly in the digital space, we will get into those conversations with the market at some point in the future we have not done that yet. that's clearly the next thing on our docket which we'll get to work on. >> graeeat. i hope you will come back and talk to us about that and much more >> thank you good to see you all. >> let's take a look at dell shares, slightly lower this morning, despite a thumb's up from jpmorgan. price target to 103. the firm bullish on pc and server markets and possible spin out of its vm business "squawk le iba ia mentaly"s ckn stay with us tonight's matchup: me versus an ugly fender bender. if i can eke out a win, it's going to be a miracle, baby! uh, mr. vitale? it wouldn't be a miracle because geico gives you a team of experts to help manage your claim. it's going to be a nail-biter.

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[announcer] and this fight is a long way from over, leonard is coming back. ♪♪ ♪♪ the pandemic has shifted the landscape for major cities in this country as work-from-home has evolved. kate rogers is live in san francisco with a look at how the

pandemic has altered that city over the last year hey, kate. >> hey, carl good morning nearly 40,000 people left san francisco from march of 2020 through the end of last year that's according to a new study from the california policy lab it's also an increase of nearly 650% over 2019 while people have left san francisco they didn't go too far. about two-thirds of them remained in the bay area and 80% stayed in state. part of the city shift has been due to changes in the technology landscape. here you can see companies that are located in buildings being sold, set projects that have been canceled or have leased sections of their offices after announcing permanent work-from-home policies like salesforce and twitter new commercial leases have dropped with asking rents down nearly 10% according to curbman and wakefield and the group says no new projects were completed in 2020 at all

businesses large and small have been hit hard as well. overall in the city about 54% of storefronts were nonoperational at some point. that number is 75% in the zip code that houses both chinatown and most of the financial district where businesses were disproportionately impacted. another major factor is tourism. the chamber of commerce says about 28 million people typically visit san francisco in the average year you have to remember some of the strictest stay-at-home policies and shelter in place policies were in san francisco so a lot of that tourism that would typically happen during the year was also lost. julia, back over to you. >> fascinating stuff it will be interesting to see how much of that comes back, kate thanks so much. shifting gears, it's up more than 840% in the year, "squawk alley" talks crypto, nfts and more after this break. stay with us

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welcome back i'm ra hel solomon the cdc says it's okay for students to sit three feet apart. a break from the six-foot standard the cdc still recommends teachers stay six feet away from each other and students. a judge has refused to delay or move the trial of derek chauvin and the judge ruled he will only

allow limited evidence from floyd's arrest to be presented to jurors. more than 1.4 million travelers went through tsa checkpoints, the most in more than a year and the eighth straight day of more than a million travelers. take a look at your screen in russia, a 10-year-old boy is painting amazing portraits of cats and dogs to help animal shelters he started doing it after his own cat died and people showed interest in his work on social media. people pay for the portraits by buying food for a shelter. how about this, as his work became more popular he and his mother started raising money for shelters across russia such an impressive kid artistically and also doing quite a bit of good there. i'll send it back to you, julia. >> what a sweet story, rahel, thank you for that we're getting more details on the doj visa investigation. what's the latest? >> hey there, julia. shares of visa are down about 5% after the wall street reports

that doj is looking into visa's debit card practices and whether it's engaging in anti-competitive practices those come after the doj sued to block visa's $5 billion deal to buy plaid, "the wall street journal" citing sources saying that merchants have complained that they are paying excessive debit card fees and looking into whether visa limits debit card routing. shares down about 5% no comment so far from visa. back to you, julia. >> i'll take it. thank you very much. our next guest is invested in or successfully exited companies line venmo, robinhood, pinterest and slack, her latest investment is crypto. joining us is jill carlson of slow ventures. thanks for the time and great to see you. >> hi. so great to be here. >> i got to get your broad view first. it's been a remarkable week on

wall street when it comes to crypto because it seems like every day a new investment firm, this week morgan stanley and bofa, trying to make an senutioa call on where it fits in a diversified portfolio. what's your view >> that's exactly right. that's been the story of the last year as institutions finding crypto and bitcoin specifically in my view, all of this, whether we're talking about start-up valuations, whether we're talking about spacs, bitcoin, crypto currency broadly, ntfs which you've covered extensively on the show over the last couple weeks part of this broader trend of having so much capital in the system and investors reaching for return, further and further out the risk spectrum and you're seeing institutions respond to that rightfully so. that goes for treasuries, that goes for investment management firms, that goes for the big

wall street banks. >> when someone like a bofa comes out and says it's too volatile to be a store value, it's too volatile to be at least at this stage an efficient means of payment, does that bother you? do you actually believe they are still legitimately crypto is still ironing out very large kinks here >> absolutely. crypto is still ironing out very large kinks. but you have to look at it in context and what you're compare it to. we still have kind of the haters of bank of america coming out and saying that. but if you look at the number of institutions who were scentics three years ago relative to today that number has declined dramatically and that's a result of the infrastructure growing in maturity you know, you were just talking about a second ago visa and some of the kinks visa is still ironing out whether in terms of high fees, yes there are high

fees in bitcoin and ethereum as well, but a lot of hand wringing is very misplaced because if you look at the trajectory of the technology and the problems at solving, even today stacks up very well relative to the legacy system i don't know when the last time you tried to do a bank transfer to zambia was. i tried to do one a couple weeks ago, and let me tell you, i was very tempted to call up my counterparty and ask them if they could just accept bitcoin instead because it would have been an easier process. >> i'm tempting to ask you why you were transferring funds to zambia but i won't. >> for another day. >> another day perhaps. >> a donation. >> i've been surprised -- good i've been surprised over the past say five years, how little success there's been in blockchain start-ups like in the mainstream and it struck me over the past week that part of what this ntf thing has done is get the mainstream, not just

investor, but person on the street, talking about the applicability of blockchain beyond bitcoin and ethereum and that's exactly what medakoven who bought this beeple piece was going for. it wasn't just the value of the piece but part of the move by crypto capitalists to expand what we think blockchain can do, right? >> that's exactly right. what's cool to me is for the first time we're seeing people using this technology, whether it's on the artists side creating the ntfs, the consumer side, people are using this technology without realizeding what it is in many cases and without having blockchain enter the conversation which is how it should be. for too long, the emphasis on the value of the technology has been wrapped up in the technology itself. people are excited about blockchains for the sake of blockchains. that's not right people need to be looking at the unique things that block chain

technology is enabling and, you know, i loved that you had beeple on the show i've spent a lot of time talking to musical artists and other artists making use of this technology and again, like i was saying about bitcoin relative to the financial system, artists are flocking to this because they can see the existing system of how they get treated, of how they are intermediated, of how they do not accrue the value that they're creating for the world is broken for them and they want something different. now whether ntfs and block chains as they exist today are the exact version of the solution that makes the most sense, i'm still a bit skeptical of it even myself. i think there's a lot of evolution still yet to happen there. but artists are saying, there's value here that i can't get from the existing system in infrastructure that exists around me today. >> so interesting. i would like to ask you to take a look beyond blockchain there's so many companies in the

slow ventures portfolio that really touch on the way that consumer behavior has changed during the pandemic and in particular, i want to ask you about clubhouse which we've talked about a lot here on "squawk alley. i'm curious if you see a new rise of a new type of social network, social audio being a new phenomenon and where you see clubhouse going from here the role it's played in some of these conversations about trading on say robinhood, another one of your portfolio companies. >> yeah. absolutely i was joking the other day that i think clubhouse has been the most well-timed product launch since bitcoin. bitcoin came about in the midst of the financial crisis post-2008, clubhouse came about almost a year ago as the pandemic was kicking off and we were all searching for new ways of connecting with each other of creating serendipity and clubhouse has just played directly into that and yeah, i mean if you look at all of these themes that we're

talking about, ntfs, clubhouse, rise of audio, robinhood, retail investing all three of these things play into the same trends which is around the amplification and the empowerment of creators and so whether that's, you know, sort of podcast hosts, porting their communities over to clubhouse, whether that's brands creating their own spaces within clubhouse, that's going to be a really important use case i think of that technology and that platform going forward is the use of it by again companies, brands and so forth, that's all sort of very much in line with, again, what we're seeing in the ntf space, which is creators looking at new mediums, getting really creative with how they bring their products and themselves to market and with robinhood, it's a different form of creator, a different form of influencer, but the rise of, you know, wall street bets, the gamestop phenomenon, i see all three of these topics as very much interconnected and i think it's

a really exciting sort of evolution or revolution as empowerment gets transferred back to creators and individuals across all of these platforms. >> one last thought on bitcoin, jill, before we let you go one of the stats, it's not the first time these have been made, but this week, somebody did say that energy consumption of bitcoin is equivalent to say an american airlines which flies 200 million people a year, equivalent to the u.s. government which employs 2 million people do you think esg will wind up being a significant headwind for large-scale investment in bitcoin? >> look, this topic has been so well covered, i think that the first and foremost thing that i would say is to me, it's actually really exciting that we're having this conversation because to me, that's a sign that we're reaching a point of mainstream adoption where people are starting to care about these implications of bitcoin. now if you look at bitcoin i know that cnbc has had pom on

and many other people who have covered this in depth. if you look at bitcoin mining, miners are incent vised to find the cheapest, most efficient energy out there and by and large that is green energy and renewables bitcoin miners are taking advantage of that and there's been a lot of worry about ntfs and their impact on environmental implications and there again, if you look at it, you know, there are blockchains today that reduce by 99% the impact that -- places like ethereum and bitcoin have, there are options for people worried about these things to engage with this technology and they should look there as well. >> jill, obviously as julia said, so many topics we could cover with you and we hope you will come back to do that. thanks so much. >> thanks for having me on well, a reckoning is in store for a higher education how deep will it be?

our next guest saying one in four u.s. colleges could soon be out of business. chegg's ceo joins "squawk alley" next stay with us get decision tech from fidelity. [ cellphone vibrates ] you'll get proactive alerts for market events before they happen... and insights on every buy and sell decision. with zero-commission online u.s. stock and etf trades. for smarter trading decisions, get decision tech from fidelity.

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profitable >> it was born out of personal need my oldest kids were getting to the age i wanted hethem to be creative and build their creative confidence. i remember talking to one of our early investors and the advice was centered around the notion of leaning in and kind of keep on i mean it's like keep on swimming one of the big lessons and takeaways for me has been to focus on the customer, really trying to gather an understanding of with what it is they need where they're coming from, but then also coming up with solutions that may not be obvious. i was described as driven, so certainly always wanting to get things done and achieve goals that were put in front of me

i was also probably described as being fairly well rounded. so interested and curious about a lot of different topics. i think that still holds very true and now get netflix on us with your plan. and this rate is fixed, you'll pay exactly $70 total. this month and every month. plus, switch today and get a free smartphone for each line. the best value and award-winning customer service. only at t-mobile. ♪♪ ♪ now here we go ♪ ♪ i can't help it if i'm poppin' see them watch like ♪ ♪ who that girl ♪ ♪ it's outrageous how this flavour got em shook like ♪ ♪ hold up ♪ ♪ work work work it out ♪ ♪ ah ha ♪ ♪ i hit it back with a brand new style ♪ ♪ like woah ♪ ♪ bring it up into the fold get wild ♪ ♪ we turning up all the way on the dial ♪ ♪ like woah ♪

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rosenweig. dan, good to see you let's set the table. i know chegg, your revenue growth has been impressive, profitability growth has been impressive your focus is on high school and the end user, not the institution. how has the pandemic changed the end user's tech adoption curve and how will they force change at institutions along the way? >> well, thank for having me, jon. that's the perfect question because change is going to come because the students are going to force it, not because the schools want to do it. as you know, because you've been following start-up and tech companies forever that the empire always strikes back they're going to try to go back to what was and what was was failing. 43% of college students don't get a degree but graduate with substantial debt, $1.7 trillion debt and 44 million americans in it and there's 3.5 million jobs that can't be filled because we're not educating them on the right categories

what we did was too expensive and not accessible to the diverse communities that make up america and the college student is getting older what we've seen in the tech adoption to your question is, we've surveyed students before the pandemic and in the middle of the pandemic and actually just a week ago about online learning and what they in the ce learning, 75% of all students now want hybrid learning online and in person they want the ability to take certain classes online, watch them when they want, being able to work. 40% of all students work 30 hours a week or more while they're in school full-time. the interesting thing is professors are now up to 44% believe they can and should teach online but it's overwhelmingly at business schools and at community colleges we still have a lot of work to do with the four-year colleges they're not experiencing the same problems. they're not experiencing housin costs and the commute time they're not experiencing having to choose --

>> but they're about to. because the demographics are shifting that traditional view of the student who is 19 and goes on campus to have an experience and figure out what they want to do with their lives, that's sort of going away the full pay student is going away the complexion of the student body is getting more diverse and the median student is 30 years old or so, female. has a kid. this is not the 19-year-old typical student of the past. >> that's absolutely right i think you're going to see three things happen. you're going to see the wealthy schools continue to be the wealthy schools, and they will fain diversity but essentially they'll educate people who are already born in a way that allows them to be ahead of the curve when it comes to the education between 18 and 22. the rest of america, 70% goes to state schools. over 10% go to california community colleges alone those folks are going to look to

move online. they are older they do have children. they do have jobs. they cannot afford the debt. and so you're going to see all of -- many of those people move to online. two of the largest schools, maybe the two largest in the country, not for profit, are online institutions. southern new hampshire university grew by 30% while other schools went down. that tells you everything you need to know and the third category with chegg is excited about is the skills category. i think we're going to see a revolution of people saying is there a faster way of learning to earning where i can be skilled for the tech enabled economy without being an engineer and not being tied down for the rest of my life in debt i think that movement is started and i think it's inevitable. >> speaking of the skills economy, how much do you think the future of higher education is going to be or should be determined by companies? we had the ceo of guild education on yesterday she's working on this model

where companies pay for their employees to get a college education. should corporate america be involved in sort of determining what skills are necessary right now? >> so if you ask me, yes and what i mean by that is that think about it the end-user is the person who is learning. 80% of every college kid tells you the primary reason, and maybe the only reason they go to college for many of them is to be more employable and earn more money and be more relevant in the future economy who is hiring? corporations. if there's a mismatch of the middle person, who is not educating them on the curriculum they need, or putting them in such a state of debt that they can't take these jobs, then the system fails that's what's happening now. so i do think corporations should be more involved in helping with curriculum. community colleges were originally designed to do that why they got away from it? i don't know many of them are going back to it i think you're seeing other companies like google and amazon educate people on their own.

so i think corporations are going around the historical institutions that we bet on because these institutions haven't evolved with the correct curriculum and the correct cost structure and the correct support structure. so guild is doing a great job bringing people into these companies. but i also think corporations should be involved in getting rid of student debt. chegg got the opportunity for corporations to make it tax deductible for their employees, meaning they didn't get a charge to tax when we pay off their debt the system was designed for a country we don't have, and needs we don't need anymore. we have new needs. we have new folks. and we need to move very quickly to serve them. >> speaking of student debt, dan, i wonder the discussion of student debt forgiveness how seriously do you take it isit a pipe dream on the left. and if it were a legit discussion how does that effect

the dynamics you're talking about? >> what it would do is take the 44 million americans who have already finished and eliminate their debt it wouldn't change the higher education system at all. the higher education system like every business like traditional media did for the internet, like streaming is now doing to traditional tv, something has to put the pressure on the institutions so the debt system, 90% of people get their debt from the government. you can't refinance it you can't write it off you can't declare bankruptcy and you can't renegotiate the price. so you're stuck. they just keep giving people more and more money because schools had no pressure to reduce their price that seems to me to be coming to an end my understanding is biden is focussed on 10,000 or 50,000 forgiveness. in many ways it makes sense. unfortunately, whether we like it or not, 40% of people that have student debt are not paying it so we're forcing them into a life of systemic poverty

and we know that overwhelmingly it indexes to people of color or first-time college students and it's not right and it's not fair but the system needs to be cheaper. needs to be on demand. needs to utilize online. needs to expand the curriculum to be skills-based as well as knowledge-based. and it needs to have a scaleable support system like the one that chegg offers that's why we're so popular. we're the only people that can scale the support and answer any question you have when you get stuck. schools can't do that. they've not made the investment in technology the way we need to >> yeah. well, access to opportunity is what it's coming down to in technology enabling that dan, tha ynkou and squawk alley will be back in two minutes.

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before we go, guys, facebook is working on a kids version of instagram with instagram ceo tweeting, quote, kids are increasingly asking their parents if they can join apps that help them keep up with their friends, a version of instagram where parents have control like we did with messenger kids is something we're exploring. carl, over to you. all right. well, we'll keep an eye out for that they did have interesting demonstrations of some ai tools as well yesterday. we'll watch that overall, guys, we know it's quad

witching be prepared for all kinds of changes in the intraday trend, but the s&p has, in fact, gone green. we're up 5.5 points. the dow session low is down about 350 as we saw the pronounced weakness in the banks earlier. that also has reversed a bit down now only the worst day since yesterday instead of march 4th. have a great weekend let's get to the judge and the half carl, thanks welcome to the halftime report front and center this hour, why one strategist contrarian call could be the key to the markets and your money the details and the debate begin right now with the investment committee joining me for the hour take you to the wall, show you what stocks and rates are doing. as carl said, the dow is down 107. off the lows for a change it's a reversal the nad zach is up by 10