we know you have taken aim specifically at some, including mark andreessen.hy do you say they are not working in the interest of ebay? >> well, i have been through a lot of these over the last 30 or 40 years. i sent the letter, and i mean it. i have never seen one as blatant as this. you know, we have seen a lot of were but, i mean, if it not sad, it would be funny. this is one of the problem's with corporate governance in this country and why it is sort of dysfunctional. mark andreessen on the board of , and another we will talk about, they are two of the most respected and value driven leaders in silicon valley, and i sort of agree. i think they are respected and accomplished, and they are value driven leaders. the problem is the value driven, that i amfor those four. skype was going to be sold by donahoe, who, you know, i think at theer naÏve or asleep switch year, and he was going to sell skype, take it public and keep a big chunk for himself. instead, mark andreessen, on the ,oard, who is greatly respected basically he and silver lake bought most of the

. >> so andreessen was part of that. they took, a 70% stake in it.aded it to microsoft. what you're saying by unload it to microsoft, instead of spinning it out or doing ipo, what they left was $5 billion on the table for shareholders, correct? >> and gave it to the buyers which was andreessen and company he was partner with, silver lake. >> right. >> and you know, just to give you the number, they valued skype at 2.75 billion. >> light. >> which was below what they paid for it. which only 18 months later they flipped it to microsoft for 8.5 billion. >> sound like a massive conflict of interest to me. we should point out there andreessen and ebay, you're making stuff up. searching the internet for stuff and these guys are very credible investors and board members. i will say this though. do you think what was done from your standpoint was illegal? it smacks of, i mean, what it sound like you're saying that they basically ripped off shareholders? >> i think, it is what i'm saying. i will tell you this, that we're going to do a 220 request as of today,

when you see mark andreessen buying those assets, it is a concern.criticism not just to him, but to john donahoe. >> does this happen elsewhere in the industry? >> very unusual. if you are the shareholder of ebay, and you look at the value that skype was able to get in the open market, i think it is a great concern to ebay shareholders. there are assets at ebay that ebay is not monetizing. >> they bought skype for $2.5 billion, and shortly afterward, sold it for $8.5 billion. >> ebay sold it and did not make much of a gain of anything. it was obviously worth more to microsoft than it was to ebay. >> ebay has said carl icahn is taking things out of context. mark andreessen has not responded, although he has been tweeting up a storm about net neutrality. the rsa security conference kicked off in san francisco today. cyber security, big topic edward snowden. we talked about everything from snowden to cyber security to the latest security flaw in apple products. take a listen. >> we are trying to encourage them to share only cyber threat information. we

. -- mark andreessen. ♪ >> welcome back.ing personal, taking strikes at mark andreessen, board member of ebay. about iss really upset the whole thing that happened with skype. and recent -- mark andreessen bought skype and flipped it at a off better price, ripping shareholders of value. byskype was going to be sold donahoe. who i think was either naÏve or asleep at the switch. i will say this now. board andeen on that my representatives have been on the board, art andreessen would not have bought skype. does carl icahn have a point? ebay.has been advising when you see mark anderson later buying-- mark andreessen those assets, it is a concern. it is a criticism not just to him, but to john donahoe. >> does this happen elsewhere in the industry? >> very unusual. if you are the shareholder of ebay, and you look at the value skype was able to get in the i think it is a great concern to ebay shareholders. there are assets at ebay that ebay is not monetizing. quickly bought skype for $2.5 billion, and shortly afterward, sold it fo

marc andreessen is a visionary. i love marc andreessen.ld pay attention to. so i definitely agree with what marc is saying. i think it's a different world than 1999 -- >> but is that good or bad? i guess that's a good thing, right? but i'm thinking through what does that mean? does it mean that the infrastructure, the cost is so much lower now so there's a lot more successful companies and that's a good thing or does it just mean a lot more players chasing after a similar kind of space? >> it's a great thing. it's a different world now. technology is what fuses everything. it's in your house, it's in your car. everyone -- the smashrtphone market is ridiculous and growing globally. there's huge opportunity with tech. everything is going tech. >> dom, i just worry when something sounds like it can't fail. it's a no lose. >> that's what my dad always told me. if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. technology has not led the way higher since the depths of the financial crisis. it hasn't really been the leadership role. what g

andreessen is on the board of ebay.n calls the board dysfunctional -- carl icahn calls the board dysfunctional. he points to the case of skype, the internet phone service. ebay spun it off back in 2009, and andreessen was part of the team that bought it. he made a fortune when microsoft later bought skype just two years later at triple the price. >> let's talk about carl icahn's latest crusade with our next guest. he is a law professor at ohio state university. stephen, i want to read you something from carl icahn's latest letter to shareholders just about 30 minutes ago. "i can resoundingly tell you i have never seen what looks to be such a blatant disregard for for douche area application to stockholders as i have seen at ebay. the ebay board seems to be in a state of denial concerning what is -- has occurred under their watch or cope -- what has occurred under their watch." what do you make of that? >> well, this is carl. >> what does that mean you go >> there is a well-worn activist playbook and then there's carl ic

and markit in for him andreessen.e called them out in a letter to the ebay board saying they are not working in the companies test interest. >> i have never seen one as blatant as this. we have seen a lot of them. weren't sad it would be funny. it's all about corporate governance in this company. it is sort of dysfunctional. mark andreessen on the board of and scott cook are two of the most respected and accomplished and value driven leaders in silicon valley. i agree. i think they are respected and the compass and agree mostly their value as leaders. the trouble is, value driven leaders for themselves but not for ebay or the shareholders. notcahn two complementary about ceo tom donahoe. was going to be sold by donahoe. he is eithernaive or asleep at the switch. i will say this now -- if i had been on the board, mark andreessen would not have boughtskype. >> mr. donahoe spoke with us last week in an interview and here's what he had to say. we are not working at odds with them. the board and i have been looking at thes

andreessen was very visible.sed most of these comments because i could not get to the fourth type of flappy birds. >> who better to do this than matt miller? isis an addictive game that soaring to the top of iphone and android app stores. it has disappeared. as tom mentioned, flappy birds -- worst name ever. announced that he cannot take it anymore. he pulled the game without allowing any other publishers to buy it. i cannot explain this phenomenon. there is no room for flappy bird in my dojo. matt miller understand that. explain. is from vietnam. he is an independent developer. this is an exciting story. had one loner programmer who makes a game against a number one on the charts. this game has 50 million downloads. at one point, near the end, he made $50,000 per day. there you go. better than me. >> i have gotten 27. here's the deal. you can see, instantly from the game, if you have played a lot -- you will recognize the pipes. they are mario hypes. -- pipes. the bird likes like a bird from jet pack joyride. yo

obviously marc andreessen has built a fabulous firm.hey have been more in front about talking about these are processed. sequoia has done many of those things from the beginning. we just hired someone to head -- had a recruiting services and make sure we have the best talent in all her companies in the midwest. getting talent is on them for thing. >> you mentioned kleiner perkins. us cofounder recently joined . he got a lot heat for his comparison of the war on america's 1% to nazi persecution of the jews. from your position where you are, what you make of his comments? >> unfortunately he made some very poor choices in analogies. it is really poor. it is sad. he is on a college man who made some mistakes. it sounds like he has stepped back from some of those comments. >> do you think kleiner perkins should take his name off the door? >> any firm or you have multiple founders -- he has not been with with the-- he has been firm for many years. many people just call the firm kp. that is one of the things about firms that have people's nam

mark andreessen has built a fabulous firm, they have just been more on the forefront of talking abouthese services. here at drive k we just hired a up making is heading sure we have all of the best talent in the midwest. getting talent is just as aboard as marketing and sales services. cofounderr perkins' just recently joined us on bloomberg west. he has been getting a lot of to ther this comparison not the persecution of the jews. and ohio, what do you make of -- in ohio, what do you make of his comments? ? >> he made some very poor choices and analogies. it is quite sad, because he is a very accomplished man. he made some mistakes. it felt like he is a step back from those comment, but a very poor choice of words. >> do you think he should take his name off the door? >> any firm or you have multiple founders, he has not been with ny -- he for many, ma has been with the firm for many, many years. people just call it kp now. when they started sequoia, they did not want to make it about any individuals. itsonally, we did not call after ourselves, we wanted to create a firm for 30, 40,

. >> benedict evidence of andreessen horowitz, ben thompson of stratechery.will be back with more. ♪ billion price$19 tag for whatsapp shocked many. was it a huge surprise to whatsapp's competitors? i want to bring in a special roundtable of whatsapp competitors. the cofounder and cto of tango. whoa whenrybody went this was announced, but what did you guys think? >> the sheer number of the purchase, when you factor in the rs you -- rsu for keeping employees. when you divide it by the active number of users it's only about $40 a user. when you factor in the growth in the growth and add one million users a day, you are looking at outng them out a few years $20 a user. you're talking about something realistic in terms of being a good return on investment. one of the reasons it surprised people here was because they have an app used mostly overseas. a lot of people in the u.s. have not heard of them or use them. >> i have tried to use it personally, but not enough of my friends here have it. people do communicate with me from abroad. what was your reaction? >> wh

he goes on to talk about mark andreessen.skype from ebay and then sold it for a big premium. he mentioned that he has invested in five competitors to paypal, online mobile payment systems. he points to scott cook, the alsor ceo of intuit, who had some conflicts and has, apparently, advised or asked ebay not to hire people from intuit. there are interesting things in this letter, as well as urging shareholders to vote for his proposal in april. >> tell us a little bit more about this proposal. you say it is nonbinding. >> this would be a nonbinding vote, but it would send a message to management, if shareholders say we like this idea. this idea of paypal being spun off from ebay so much so that we are willing to vote on this proposal for it. nonbinding, would not require the company to do it at all, but maybe it would send a message. i spoke with them must week on "street smart." we talked about this very issue. here is a listen. >> we look at how ebay and paypal can be most successful. the board and i continue to believe that

you heard marc andreessen talk about this tech depression.st money" freestyle. we'll track the cisco conference call. that's one tech company that may be in its own depression. much more so in the after hour session. we have the ceo of fire eye, a high value stock, one of the best ipos in 2012. dave dewalt will sit down with me for more on his stock. >> it's going to be a great one. half an hour. that's coming up after this. melissa, thanks very much. we'll let you get to it. what did you think will be the impact on the auto industry if workers unionize in the south? c carmine saying union leadership has ruined every industry they have touched including government workers. william tweets, growth in union workers means growth in the middle class, don't let anyone tell you different. look at history with seven exclamation points. two polar opposite views which represents how people feel about this subject. steph, is there a trade you make off this one way or another or is this a wait and see? >> i new you have to wait and see how it plays out b

andreessen is. but there's a larger question about andreessen in particular.rd of facebook. he's on the board of hp and he's on the board of ebay. and he's got a lot going on. >> these companies they all want to compete in the end. >> right. and, you know, he was on the board of hp when they did autonomy. i don't know. >> you think he has a point? >> i kind of think there's a point to be made there. and i know, listen, andreessen as an extraordinarily smart guy with a great deal of experience and he is somebody conceivably you could say i want him on my board, why wouldn't i? knows everybody. can help the company. but -- but -- >> the allegiance, where is the allegiance? >> marc, you want to come on and discuss this? any time. love to hear your point of view on it. >> certainly vocal on a number of topics on twitter. >> right. >> but doesn't come on. >> has not responded to this, though, interestingly. >> no. >> i was looking at his twitter feed the other day and did not see any response to this whatsoever which is challenging his credibility directly. >> yes,

icahn, they are cot cook fowntder of intuit and marc andreessen and he attacked the integrity of our donahoe. they have my full support. over the last six years our company has been led through a significant turnaround a job many people thought was impossible and in that he's driven paypal's growth and brought a renewed focus on innovation across the company. >> i don't know. because the attacks are so brutal. in carl icahn's note he says, the idea that -- >> this is a new one. this is the third. yesterday he came out with one. today he follows it up. he must be a little bored. >> here's what people at home can really understand. the analogy. having mr. cook on the board while planning paypal's future is akin to having pete carroll sitting in when the denver broncos were constructing their game plan during the super bowl. that actually did happen. illusion how bad the broncos played. >> don't rub it in. >> what you are really saying in this charge is it's treason. he's saying corporate treason, all right? >> although, again, to this idea on skype in particular where icahn has attacke

but bit point does have a lot of sad investors betting on its future, like mark andreessen, the winkles twins -- i do not know what size they are. >> they are very tall. >> but maybe the most important is berry filbert. that may just be what bitcoin needs for legitimacy. worst of all, thanks for coming in. secondly, i thought it was interesting, the timing of your announcement that you are going to start your own bit point exchange right when mount cox and theyexchange down, bought lots of weed to hide in their apartment. who knows? >> this is entirely coincidental. we were planning on doing it next week, but when we heard the rumors we thought -- why not counterbalance the storm that we saw coming? >> how does it work? >> we are setting it up in an interesting way. we are looking at the stock exchange model with a number of firms regulated to tap into this exchange in close collaboration with a number of banks and regulators. >> this is interesting. i said this to you earlier, that there needs to be regulation in the market to trust it. you made the point and made it again that part o

carl icahn sent his letter to shareholders highlighting the leadership of mark andreessen and scott cook. ebay holds the claims quote blatantly false -- ebay called the claims "blatantly false." >> my next guest turned what kids did for fun into a moneymaking sport. he turned pro by the time he was 14. since then, he is taking skateboarding mainstream. he is taking his clothing line global. tony hawk's one generations chairman of the board and he joins me now from los angeles. great to have you with us. tell us a little bit about how you managed to turn skateboarding into almost everything, a videogame, on online experience as well as the clothing line. what haven't you done yet? >> well, i just did things that i felt were intuitive and that were easily associated with our culture and our sport. skateboarding is not so much a sport as a lifestyle. there is so much night that transcends in terms of music and fashion and entertainment. that is what i wanted to do. i wanted to promote skateboarding in the best way possible through different media as well. >> using different medium, you have

he had singled out both mark andreessen and cook. is that their claim for false.s rose in ebay when icon went public with one of his letters. there is a back and forth between carl icahn and ebay. >> olivia sterns in new york, thank you so much. i can't claim is against scott cook, the cofounder and chairman. they claimed he claims against them are false. we will follow that story as it develops. i want to get your bloomberg cap headlines. u.s. prosecutors are investigating criminal activity by mt. gox. they are requesting documents from bitcoin service providers. they say there may have been criminal activity at the range. gox was shut down after hackers stole most $400 million in bitcoin. west virginia is banning drivers wrong wearing google glass. they are concerned about the potential for distraction. google has hired lobbyists to educate lawmakers about the device. barnes & noble reported that revenue fell. sales were down more than 50%. aftero is cutting ending lowering prices for the note -- nook. they announced plans to offer a color model earlier this the

criticized the online marketplace for lapses in corporate governance and singled out to directors, mark andreessentt cook for directly competing with ebay. ebay responded saying ebay and paypal are better together and icon has cherry picked old newsclips and anecdotes to attack the integrity of two of the most respected leaders in silicon valley. towill speak exclusively bloomberg television coming up later today at 3:00 eastern time. you don't want to miss that. broke to comment and maker of set top boxes, is weighing an initial public offering. this is according to people with knowledge of the matter. the ipo would take place in the united states sometime this year. some person at the company recently's oak with tanks of the possibility of an offering. microsoft is making a further push into mobile software to develop cheaper phones for emerging markets. under the new leadership of satya nadella, they are working with qualcomm and lenovo on a low-cost phone decide that handset makers can use to build their own devices. microsoft plans to update its software this spring. to mobile world congress

i spoke with ben thomson, an author, who joined me from taiwan and andreessen horowitz partner benedictvans. i asked them if whatsapp is worth the price tag? >> it's a bit like the instagram acquisition. was instagram worth $1 billion or 1% of facebook at the time? the question for mark zuckerberg is around maintaining share engagement and share of social activity. whatsapp now has 450 million active users, 70% of them active every day. that is a significant advantage of facebook users. whatsapp is taking a big chunk of people who should have been using facebook and they are using facebook first. the question for him was do you just sit and try and compete with that? they have been looking at facebook message for the last year or so and that has not stopped the clock. -- whatsapp from gorwing. you might say this is a great mobile conversation and that should be part of facebook. >> looking at the landscape of mobile messaging apps, you are in taiwan and you have seen the rise of wichat and others. do you think this is worth it? >> i tend to think it is. i think the price per user is ver

investor carl icahn sent another letter complaining about the conduct of john donahoe and marc andreessenlling on icahn to end the charade saying that the letters are entertaining but not factually accurate. heading up steady right now, 57.52. adam: going to pot. san diego passes new laws to allah the sale of medicinal marijuana but there's a catch. that is in your minute. cheryl: target and the new hotels. ♪ hi, are we still on for tomorrow? tomoow. quick look at the weather. nice day, beautifutomorrow. tomorrow is full of promise. we can ce back tomorrrow. and we promise to keep it that way. driven to preserve the environment, csx moves a ton of freight nearly 450 miles on one gallon of fuel. what a day. can't wait til tomrow. like carpools... polly wants to know if we can pick her up. yeah, we can make room. yeah. [ male announcer ] ...office space. yes, we're loving this communal seating. oh, it's great. yeah. [ male announcer ] the best thing to share? a data plan. ♪ new at&t mobile share value plans for business. our best value plans ever. for example, you can get 10igs ofata to sha

andreessen and scott cook are thenames -- they two board members that carl icahn insists have conflictsnd should be removed from the board of directors. andreessent mark informs companies that are rivals. he said he would lay out his full business case to separate ebay and paypal in the coming days. he has called the government of ebay dysfunctional and riddled with problems. >> thank you so much. washington, janet yellen will deliver her first senate testimony since becoming chair of the federal reserve. these hearings were scheduled for a few weeks ago. they were delayed because of bad weather. peter cook is on the hill. are we looking at a six hour marathon? if it will goow six hours. i expect it to be genteel. get largely an instant replay, with her testimony at the top, which will be identical to what she delivered two weeks ago, and in the questions that we will get. the republicans will question what the fed is doing to reduce its balance sheet. republicans will be pushing. on the flip side, democrats will express reticence about tapering and concerns about the u.s. economy. expe

marc andreessen says this exact same behavior pattern is often found in the best performing companiesany space and in the worst performing in that space. do you agree with that? >> in no case will anybody advocate for that sort of behavior but when the results are bad or things are not going well, emotions take over. in a situation like this, at pimco, obviously emotions got the best of them. what you don't want to do is stick the employees in the middle of this dog fight. it makes everybody uncomfortable and no one knows who to pick. you pick the wrong side, you will end up outside. >> i can jump in here. in the video clip we just showed, there was the owner, the founder of the business who says i'm the smart guy here, i'm the founder of the business. bill gross was the founder of pimco. it's very tough when you're an employee, a hired hand, to take on that founder, isn't it? and how can a founder be smart about listening to the opposition or the dispute of an employee? >> bill gross is a genius, no question about it. but he didn't get there by himself. i think that's important to re

if you read what mark andreessen wrote, it is that it's going to change the conversation. i liken it as netscape. it opened up the world wide web and that worked out. >> this thing is that i can evolve and change, as you go along. we'll -- unlike netscape, it can be changed. pc companies running scared. apple has taken off the block wall it. it is a wallet that people use for bitcoin. apple has removed it from the ecosystem. >> hold on, i get it. they're not comfortable. couldn't target say they should not target this? >> exactly. i have been saying this for a long time at target. rather than using credit cards, they would not have had to have them cut down a couple weeks before christmas. it is obviously -- on the one hand it is a safer medium to use. a lot of people are trying to restrict its use. it is very new. i want to show some of the videos. a lot of people have gone out in protest. there is one who smokes cigarettes. not the smartest guy in the world. hitting it with a machete. someone shoot it with a rifle. a number of people have changed over to android. here is

carl icahn fires up yet another letter, accusing mark andreessen of conflicts of interest.

now we're seeing real money coming from venture capital industry, marc andreessen invested $25 milliona company coiled coin base, fred wilson in union square investing in the same company. you have the who's who of venture money building the next group of companies that will make it easy to buy -- >> to some extent, barry, these guys, they have nothing to lose. they have their money to lose, but what i mean is there's an investment here, an opportunity, and these currencies have proven if you get in early, you might capture more of that benefit as they're built out. that's a different thing than saying this is something that's safe for the general public. >> you have to separate bitcoin the digital currency from bitcoin the technology. there really is no debate that bitcoin as this protocol, as this technology, it has the potential to radically transform the way people send money, the way merchant's accept payments and that's where all the money is being invested. i don't think you can separate the currency from the in fact because you need the monetary base and quite frankly the excha