aol, it was over sort of a no-nonsense approach. overall, has he been good for aol? >> he has been.has turned the company around, improve the advertising, improved it from a creaky dial-up service. they still have 2.5 million people paying to login through telephone for some reason. he transported from that to our premium publishing content play that gets big advertising dollars. has been very upfront and trying to be refreshing in terms of what he is trying to do with the company. in that way, he has definitely been there in terms of understanding the strategy. it is good to see that upfront. you so much for bringing us your perspective on bloomberg west. aol acquired the online identity website in 2010 just a week after the site's launch. the founders back the company at a fraction of the cost that aol paid for it. a year after the buyback, did aol missed the boat? , coryitor at large johnson. >> what can aol do with the things it's got? tony conrad joins me now. aol acquires the business, doesn't find the way to monetize it. what was it like? just goneiness had public. they were

when we got to aol, we felt there was integration opportunities that didn't materialize and aol' wellson media so we sat down with tim over the course of a year and we had a fairly adult conversation and thought this could thrive as a pendant company, would you be open to us buying it back? after some conversations, we made that happen. it's a really great outcome for everybody involved. liz: did he charge you more than what he bought it for? >> the negotiations went well. liz: you are the head of product development, you've come up with great products, everything from the collections to the compliments and people have everything they need under one umbrella when it comes to the digital experience. you have gone from 1.6 million. last it was 4.25 million users. is that a correct number? >> that is around the correct number, yes. liz: how do you get more people say can continue with look at how well we are doing one year after we pulled from aol? >> we're focusing on making some of the energy behind customer acquisitions. trying to build energy. trying to make certain new features like

is aol throwing its employees under the bus?. 37% said no. interesting. here are some of your e-mails. folks writing to us about food stamps. bob from florida food stamps from s.n.a.p. are too easy to get. $3 11 in crap paid for later. my tax dollars paid for that. it must stop. everybody agrees with that. and terry from virginia writes in some places it's easier to get food stmps than a job. in some ppaces you get more than if you're working. chris from arizona said -- it's a different topic. in the talk about the hacking mess i haven't heard anyone mention prepaid debit cards. my husband and i each use them for all online purchases and in some retail. we keep about $100 loaded on one of them. if someone gets ahold we not much. we reload with cash. >>> finally credit card debt across e country are rising. which makes me wonder have we learned nothing from the great recession in which consumers loaded themselves with mortgage debt. nothing from the target credit card hacking in which millions of consumers have had their personal

overall, has he been good for aol?all, he has been and turned the company around and improve the advertising and transform the company from a dial-up service -- they still have 2.5 million people but he has transported them from that to a premium publishing contents player that gets big advertising dollars. credit to him for that and he has been very upfront and tried to be refreshing in terms of what he has tried to do with the company. he always gets on the phone with journalists or tries to when we have big questions. has been a help in terms of understanding the strategy. if you are an investor, it's good to see that up and. lee, thank you so much. aol acquired the online identity a week after.me the sites launch and two years later, the founders bought back the company at a fraction of the cost aol paid for it. a year after that buyback, there was impressive user growth. did aol missed the boat? cory johnson has more. do?hat can aol talk to me about how this happened. aol acquires your business. it does not find a

the stock fell 3.5% today. >>> aol's chief executive had better days, perhaps. armstrong found medical issues suffered by two employees' children and an unpopular change to the 401 k plan and this isn't the first time he's been the center of controversy. julia boorstin looks at the man at the top and whether the company's reputation has been damaged. after a controversy filled two days, armstrong reversed the decision to change 401 k benefits from a per pay period contribution to a yearly lump sum contribution. armstrong reversed the policy over the weekend after listening to an outpouring of employee feedback about the 401 k changes and comments he made about two employees having quote distressed babies costing aol over $2 billion. armstrong apologized and said he made a mistake. >> so a very good idea with leaders when they know they are wrong to admit it. you never look weaker by an apology. in pact, you can look stronger. >> reporter: the mother of a children mentioned by armstrong during the town hall says he apologized personally. she spoke to nbc nightly

the internet lit up with criticism, and aol quickly did an about-face, restoring its original 401(k) policy. in a letter to the staff, armstrong said, i made a mistake and i apologize for my comment last week at the town hall when i mentioned specific healthcare examples in trying to explain our decisionmaking process. today, nbc news reached out to aol and a spokesman says armstrong has apologized personally to the family. >> he has spoken in very heartfelt ways about how badly he feels for having caused us this hurt. and i accept that. >> reporter: but for faye, who wrote an article in slate magazine that has now gone viral, it's about her baby. >> i think it's important to have the national conversation about health care spending that we are having, but i also think it's important to keep in mind the lives that are sometimes, you know, so tiny, so vulnerable, so perilous that are really what we're talking about. did you have a good night, baby? >> reporter: a mom putting a face on a national conversation. kristen dahlgren, nbc news, new york. >>> in florida tonight, that state's s

aetna, gm, 20th century fox, and aol. we will pay close attention to aol, because the ceo of the company, tim armstrong, will be on later with us. after the bell, news corporation, linkedin. the olympic guys begin today in sochi. one guy is trading three lightbulbs for a doorknob in his room. data check. equities, bonds, currencies and commodities. one screen today. futures are up nine points. the yield is back up, a good sign. calming the market at 2.67. your wreck -- euro goes nowhere. here is what i am looking at ahead of tomorrow's jobs report, dollar-yen. weaker yen over the recent months. a little bit of a rollover here to 100 one this morning. a busy day. the twitter news last night was something. we scour the pages of the web. >> this is certainly one of the top stories, but we want to start with disney. profit climbed 33%, beating analyst estimates. credit goes to " frozen" that every little girl and apparently tom knows pretty well. let her go ♪ go, g >> he has been spotted singing on the sidewalks of new york.

>> yes, do i. >> what more do you want from aol? >> you know, i think aol is actually a company that does strive to take care of its employees and we have generous benefits. but i think that, you know, in the future just with any discussion of health care expenditures which are important and necessary for to us have on a national policy level i think it's legitimate for health care experts to talk about what's appropriate in terms of caring for extreme preemies. given what the costs are and how many people have to do without health care. but, i think in this situation it was certainly not the time or place to have this kind of conversation. you know, we're talking about a company that just posted its best quarterly earnings in years and paid its ceo $12 million. when we have these necessary conversations we approach it with more sensitivity and when we're talking about the dollars and cents we're mindful of the actual human lives that are at stake. >> do you think that tim armstrong -- what do you think should happen to him? should

rebuilding the aol service, platforms that scale not just to aol, but across the web. we are focusing on long-term human needs. -- everybodyst needs news everyday. -- technology is the biggest cultural trend. the third one is women. we think women are underserved on the internet. we have the first conference next week in now way -- that is another -- in la -- that is another huge area. i would love to have more brands to serve more content brands. >> speaking about brands, you essentially sold the majority stake in patch, the local news service. was it hard? it was a pet project of yours. was it hard to let it go? >> yes. but it was the right outcome for aol. it was a $150 billion space. the product had to get restructured. i think it will get restructured more successfully than it would have on our own. we are big owners of the property still and we will work closely with that. one of the things we have been able to do, both with hail and the content properties, we just purchased gravity, the personalization property. le going to do that aol could not do? >> they are

how is aol treating their employees? they are holding onto their compensation and what it does to make happy employees make happy people. if you have a bunch of disgruntled employees the writing is on the loss. gerri: at the end of the day i think it only underlines the importance of people taking the responsibility for the retirement on their own shoulders. it's up to you at the end of the day. you are the one who needs to put extra money away. gerri: you can't allow the government or your employer. it is up to you to take responsibility and to come up with a plan of action for yourself and roll with what is given to you. gerri: for most of the people that are in the working world, they are saving and what else should they be doinggit macnair contributing to the 401k. does it make sense to open up an ira? the most successful investors may not be about stocks but other kinds of investments like real estate in small businesses and what you folks do? >> i don't think it impossible to save too much. regardless of the type o

. >>> next the ceo of aol blamed "distressed babies on quotes to employee benefits." tonight the mother of one of those babies out front. who is hillary clinton blaming for the monica lewinsky scandal. and the production rests in the loud music trial where a white man is charged with shooting and killing a black teenager opinion is it a premeditated murder. we'll tell you who is that teenager? we'll tell you tonight. let's go "outfront". >>> good evening everyone i'm erin burnett. "outfront" tonight distressed babies. two words thrown out by the ceo of aol. two words that now have the nation talking. tonight we're joined by the mother of one of those distressed babies. but here's how we got here. it all started last week when tim armstrong the aol ceo started discussing some cuts in 401(k) contributions at the company. first, armstrong said the cuts were due to the rising cost of health care citing obamacare. then he got more specific on an employee wide town hall referring to two quote distressed babies that he said cost the company $1 million each. the reason he sai

. >>> the price of aol dropped $4 between thursday and friday. the loss is linked to tim armstrong's comment blaming distressed babies to two of his employees. he made the comment during a conference call defending his decision to cut winds. thiarmstrong also blamed obamace for the cuts. >>> professor this all started when aol decided to match a lump sum rather than distribute it throughout the year. what does that mean for workers or parents of sick kids? >> well, the real issue here is not the 401k or the technicals of getting it taken care of. the issue is that the ceo has to convince people of two things. first, that he is competent enough to run the benefits package for the company and the people who work for it. second, that he cares enough about them authentically that they're not going to be thrown under the bus. he has dug a hole and he keepings digging after a while. >> is this bigger than aol. is this a practice sweeping across corporate america? >> i don't think so so. i don't think you would see this in every company or every corpora

you and i have talked quite a bit about aol.ne a great job of turning around the company, on the other hand he has been known to, and as already, been part of several gaffes over the last year. >> he was the early -- had the early incident where he tweeted out the firing of an employee. the thing with armstrong is that he is a consummate salesman. he likes to talk, and he likes to talk too much. that is what is at play here. even so, the company is doing pretty well. this dial-uponger service, they are a premium publisher. >> the first guest talked about employing -- the employee firing, do you expect something like this could have a longer damage to him? intomething we are looking from a reporting perspective, but i can tell you this much, aol relies on advertising. whatever goes into a sales meeting, and talked to a potential advertiser, they will ask about this. not because they are concerned about the finances of the company, but the reception. advertisers are aware of percent -- reception, where they are going into. >> to b

aol's ceo tim armstrong is issuing a back track following a back lash. armstrong made controversial comments last week... citing two high-cost births of "distressed babies" by aol employees as the reason the company needs to cut expenses and would contribute only once a year to employees 401k plans. he also blamed president obama's health care reform. public backlash was swift and severe. "well, he just gave us the hook and it made him look bad -- high costs of births of our employees? that's a healthcare problem, not his problem, so why did he put his foot in his mouth? it was double-dumb" that was car-ee anderson -- a connective behavior expert and a former wall street journal reporter. armstrong issued a memo obtained by reuters to the aol staff over the weekend-- stating: i apologize for my comments. and the company will return to year around matching contributions aol recently reported its best growth in a decade. just as mcdonald's opens its first restaurant in vietnam..comes word the chain is making gains overseas. mcdonald's reported stronger tha

so when the aol ceo caused a nationwide uproar, armstrong said "we had two aol-ers that had distresseds and we made sure those babies were okay." one of the mothers is blasting armstrong for his comments. >> to me there did sound like the implication that somehow we were greedy consumers of health care benefits, that we had gobbled up more of our share of the pie. >> now, armstrong has since apologized and reversed the decision to cut the pension plans but what got lost in all of this is how the company learned about the health conditions of its employees' babies to begin with. aol would not respond but believe it or not it's perfectly legal for employers to have access of their group health plans. that's right. the stuff that you thought was just between you and your doctor. joining me now is founder of the group patient privacy rights, patients fighting to get more control over their records. doctor, nice to see you. how much of our health information is truly private? should we be concerned that our bosses can take a peak at our medical data? >> absolutely we should. technology has

>> you have to look at what the rules were under aol.the ceo could have had access to that information or not. the fact he said it publicly was at the very least, a hugely stupid management move. but whether it was privacy requires a little more investigation inside the company. well, one thing a lot of people don't talk about, which is true, aol is self-insured. they have an insurance company that manages and maintains the paperwork. right? but at the end of the day tsa ol stroking the check for the coverage. >> right but other companies. gerri: do you think that ceos should know where the health care dollars are going? is it his responsibility to keep up with the stuff? >> no. you can manage benefits without doing it. for example ibm absolutely refuses to dig in to any of the employee's health information. they're able to manage the plan and the cost just fine without singling out distressed babies and families. gerri: steve, keeping tabs on the people and these folks is isn't it the responsibility of the ceo to know who is getting sic

saying their care boosted aol's health care costs by a million dollars each.iate backlash overshadowed aol's fourth quarter results to show the company's best growth in a decade. armstrong later tried to clarify his comments saying aol wanted to be, quote, open and transparent about the choices that it makes, but he's been accused of using the infants as cover for an unpopular policy change. the mother of one of the babies deanna fay whose husband works for aol came forward to address armstrong's comments and in an interview with nbc news. >> it was sort of impossible to process that he was talking about my daughter who was home with me at that time. you know, to hear her label a distressed baby who cost the company too much money and therefore the ceo had to make the decision to cut retirement benefits. it just seemed like so completely dehumanizing. >> in an e-mail to staff on thursday, armstrong said aol would reinstitute matching 401(k) contributions on a per pay period basis. he also apologized for his remarks saying he made a mistake by mentioning specif

. >> why aol's c.e.o. is offering apologies. >> a massive meat recall. why the tainted beef could be in your freezer. >> welcome back? a. looking live at the olympic stadiums in sochi, russia. it's morning. gay rights have been a major story line of the winter games. >> attorney-general eric holder plans to give same-sex couples wider rights. this follows last year's ruling saying the federal government cannot refuse to recognise same-sex marriages carried out in states that allow them. >> on monday i will issue a new policy memorandum that will, for the first time in history instruct all justice department employees to give lawful same-sex marriages full and equal recognition to the greatest extent possible under the law. >> among the changes same-sex spouses will not have to testify against each other. his move will affect the bankruptcy proceedings and visitation policies. >> n.f.l. season - when it kicks off it could have its fires openly gay player. more on a college football star that came out over the weekend, months ahead of the draft. >> it's a

not so much aol.ou seem to be telling the troops, look, we paid these and happily paid these this is involved in the company inspect is a big expense. i think you should know what is going on. and then, of course, without saying the people in particular gotcited. o tp rt igt not have been gd. the rashtell ebehd it good? >> i'm always thankful when ceos talk to you and tell the truth and lay out how the world is happening. that was the best thing that tim could have done. the ceo. the problem was what he said distressed babies. babies are -- can be indies stressed but you don't have distressed babies. you have distressed properties distressed clothes, you don't have distressed babies. when he uses the wrong words and talks specifically, are you kidding me? you're the ceo! neil: not in perception. i want to hear from that. i can, i get, i quit. you think that carr will -- go but said sees no reason to keep it with now what he wants from app toll spend the $150 billion and buy the stock. it turnutha'sha

. >> a mom's blistering response to aol ceo tim armstrong goes viral after he refers to her child as distressed and the reason he had to cut staff benefits. she's getting a personal apology. i'll talk to her live. >>> plus, women's best friend. a show dog turns into a life saver after detecting his owner's cancer. the doberman and his owner join me live in the studio. he's in town for the big westminster dog show. i'm craig melvin, in for tamron hall. >>> reaction to michael sam's decision to come out, setting up what could be the first time the nfl has had an openly gay player on the field. >> hopefully players will see that they don't judge me by because i'm gay, they see, hey, this is -- this person works hard, can he win us games? can he win us a championship? i can. i'm not afraid of who i am. i'm not afraid to tell the world of who i am. i'm michael sam. i'm a college graduate. i'm african-american. and i'm gay. >> almost immediately the nfl released a statement supporting michael sam's decision, saying, in part, quote, we admire michael sam's honesty and courage. michael is a

aol is part of that story as health reform comes bearing down, how aol is restructuring costs. >> i meanman was solid on the economics of running aol in the face of obamacare, but going off script and owning his mouth about two very sick babies costing the company a lot of money while one of the mothers of one of the sick babies was watching and listening. >> right. that's over the top and across the line, awful and across the line and he's apologizing now for it, the optics are very bad. stuart: that's what killed him, i think. big name you know, strong profit forecast from dirk's sporting goods. all right, nicole, how good is the stock doing, how well is the stock going? >> the stock is doing quite well. and bucking the trend over the holiday season. you saw names like kohl's and j.c. penney saying they have shorter amounts of time during the holiday season, but dick's sporting goods shows from golfing gear, and same-store sales have been on the rise and they're rising the forecast and move to stay to the upside. a high would be 58.87. >> and i'm glad you would pick out at least one wi

what is out there that aol wants but does not yet have? >> our strategy overall just as a refresher is to be the leading media technology company in the world, and within that, we are focused on three big areas. one is rebuilding a well service, the second is the contact brands dass content branscomb in the third is a platform that scales not just to a world across the world. if you think about the huffington post, everybody needs news every day come if you think about techcrunch, technology is probably the biggest cultural trend in society. the third one his women, and we think women are underserved on the internet. you have been involved in this, but the makers project, and we l.a.the conference in i am a big believer in brandon i would love to have more content brands and more platforms to serve content brands, not just the ones we own but across the internet. >> a world made some gains because of deep cuts at its local network at neighborhood never called patch. ceo tim armstrong talked about it with betty liu. >> it is $150 billion sp

after all, aol only brought in $2.3 billion in revenue last year. and mr.rned $12.1 million himself. but still they blamed sick babies for cuts to retirement plans? that is shameful, but it's what we have come to expect from the 1%. one billionaire compared the treatment of the 1% to the holocaust. another said this -- >> the, quote, 1% are being pummelled because it's politically convenient to do so. the 1% work harder. >> the 1% work harder? try telling that to folks working two or even three jobs just to get by. arguments like that are getting harder to swallow at a time when we're fighting to raise just minimum wage or extend jobless benefits, and make this country more fair for everyone. joining me now are congressman emanuel cleaver, democrat from missouri, and krystal ball, co-host of "the cycle" here on msnbc. thank you both for coming on the show tonight. >> good to be here. >> what does this whole aol controversy reveal about the debate over inequality and workers rights today? >> first of all, i think it's very sick. i'm willing to get a room for

cheapest gas can be found in montana where gas sells for $2.99 a gallon or as we well know, $3. >>> aolapologizing, reversing changes to its 401k after a controversial comment that sparked a entir firestorm. the ceo said it was changing its plan because of two babies that were driving up of cost of healthcare. the mother of the child said her child was important three months prepremature and medical bills e in the thousands. >> it was impossible that he was talking about my daughter who was home with me at that time. to hear her labored as a distressed baby. to me it did sound like the implication that some how we were greedy consumers of healthcare benefits, that we had kind of gobbled up more than our share of the pie. he's spoken in heartfelt ways about how badly he feels for having caused us this hurt. and i accept it. >> aol now is keeping its original 401k plan in place. >>> when we come back $1 billion and counting why facebook founder mark zuckerberg has so many new friends. >> welcome back to al jazeera america. i'm del walters in new york. here are your headlines at this hour.

aol is cutting 401 k.ions that it makes to employees -- to some of the employees that leave the employ before the end of the year. armstrong told poppy harlow that the reason he's doing this is due to the rising cost of health care. partly due to, drumroll please, obamacare. he got more specific on an employee-wide conference call. that's where this whole conversation begins because according to a transcript of the call that an aol staffer gave capital new york, armstrong said and i want to quote him, this isn't a situation to paraphrase. we had two aol zwlaers had distressed babies that were born and we paid a million to make sure they were okay. when we have the final decisions on what benefits to cut, we made the decision and i made the decision to basically close our 401 k program. maybe you buy into it, maybe you don't. just yesterday announced its most successful year is to come. kevin o'leary is joining us. just how can two complicated pregnancies justify cutting the 401 k. for the company? because,

he's the ceo of aol.g over in 2009, aol has spent hundreds of millions on properties like "the huffington post" and patch while laying off thousands of employees. but armstrong is doing okay. in 2012, he took home $12.1 million. so he's pretty good at making money. but what kind of boss is he? well, he once fired an employee on a conference call. >> if you think what's going on right now is a joke, and you want to joke around about it, you should pick your stuff up and leave patch today. patch from an experience -- put that camera down. abel, you're fired. out. >> abel lenz was fired for taking this picture of armstrong. armstrong later apologized but lenz remains no longer with the company. lenz was an employee of patch. a hyperlocal news site that armstrong founded and was personally invested in. it was one of the first accusations he made as ceo of aol. it was armstrong's baby. aol sunk $300 million into patch and sold it off losing upwards of $200 million. laying off hundreds after patch employees in

i know the patch deal didn't work out for aol on the local strategy and aol decided to finally jettisonhat experiment. i think yahoo! will face same challenges aol did combining the deal with yelp. you would like to see it work out but a little bumpy for yahoo! as of late. melissa: gentlemen, thanks to both of you. >>> from the u.s. to every corner of the globe money is flying around the world today, starting in the united arab emirates where drones could be delivering mail within the year. i love it! dubai is ramping up investment in technology so official documents can be carried from place to place without needing an actual person. watch out, post office. fingerprints and retina idea to make sure the drones are bringing documents like i.d. cards and driver license as uh-oh, to right people. what could possibly go wrong with that? still it is not known how the drones will react to severe weather conditions like sandstorms and extreme desert heat. sounds like reality show. >>> brazil is embracing chubbier football fans. they were being offered discount citizens to the world cup. obese

>> if you look at the andisition of aol by icq aol today, aol acquired time warner in 2001.g of the end. after that, -- >> what you are really saying is technology is changing so fast that a seven-year year discounted cash flow model with light does not work. a seven year discounted cash flow model does not work. >> the question is how do they monetize. >> does that make you nervous? >> they are trying to monetize content, we are a commerce based platform. commerce as a way to build the business. look at amazon. >> what does this mean for twitter? the valuation for whatsapp is less than half of twitter. >> twitter has to turn their business into a transactional platform, look at yelp. they take users coming to their site to read reviews entering them into b -- and turning them into buyers. >> facebook has to turn like buy.want into need into fascinating, is the usage and the idea of where we will be in 36 months. >> our twitter question of the day, it relates to the conversation. what is your take on facebook buying whatsapp? interesting responses. "an of seen price tag, --

meanwhile, what a mess over at aol. the ceo now apologizing for citing the cost of providing insurance for, quote, distressed babies and plan to match 401(k) payments only at the end of the year. who should the ceo be looking out for first, his workers or shareholders? >> we'll make the payments at the end of the year or no. that was easy. also, that report that obamacare is going to cost the equivalent of over 2 million full-time jobs. that just continues to rattle washington right now. it was a big focus of the sunday morning talk showinp morning talk showins morning talk showinhows, and no tommy thompson will be here exclusively. he's ringing the closing bell for his organization tooteday. he's got some views coming up. >> we know we're going to hear a little bit more about it perhaps from the gop in just a couple hours time as they grapple with the debt ceiling. >> we have breaking news on general motors. phil lebeau has that story for us. phil? >> bill, general motors has announced the 2014 compensation for new ceo

aol ended 2013 with decade-long best results.where do we grow, how do we grow? and spinning things off and financial engineering has taken a back seat to how do we focus on our strength area. >> tim armstrong, thanks for joining us this morning. >> thanks. >> it is spectacular. >> it's my go-to map program already. >>> general motors, they make cars. also, breaking news on the jobs front. stick around. >>> time now for today's aflac trivia question. how did the name jeep come about? the answer wednesday cnbc "squawk box" continues. i have ae that met with, uh, an unfortunate accident. while he's been incapacitated, somebody's been paying him cash. now, is this your doing? aflac? now, if i met with some such accident, would aflac pay me? ♪ nice. this is your stop. [ male announcer ] find out what aflac can do for you and your family... aflac? [ male announcer ] ...at aflac.com. for you and your family... aflac? sometimes they just drop in. always obvious. cme group can help you navigate risks and capture opportunities. we enable y

. >>> and take a look at aol shares. as you can see on your screen, down 2.5% despite an ad sales boost that helped the company post its strongest revenue in a decade. chairman and ceo tim armstrong will be joining me. we're going to have this and a lot more in the next hour of of "markets now." ♪ ♪ cheryl: well, one thing we do have today, at least, is the dow up 145. will this, of course, bring us back up to that 16,000 level, and at this point we're far from it. and one day does not a market make, unfortunately. dennis: yeah. but to be up at all has been so, so widespread, i'll take it. maybe it's just selling fatigue and we've got top of the hour stocks, nicole petallides at the floor of the new york stock exchange. nicole, what do you think? >> reporter: well, that's the question. you know what's really going to, you know, it's hard to really gaugg which way the market is going to go, dennis and cheryl. what to i think? well, a couple of things i'm watching ery closely. the dow jones industrials up 148 points, that'

. >> jeff: aol chief tim armstrong reversed himself this weekend and restored the company's previous 401(k) match policy. armstrong touched off a fire storm last week when he made the cut in the match at aol to the cost to two employees who had given birth to what he called distressed babies. we are joined by cbs news business analyst jill schlesinger. you have followed this closely. what happened? >> aol announced the change to 401(k) match, instead of matching based on every single pay period, they were going to match at the end of the year. this would save them money because any employee who wasn't there by the end of the year would to the get the match. now the reason for the change was according to armstrong, because of these two complicated births for two employees at the firm, as well as an increase of 7.1 million dollars due to obamacare which he didn't really go into detail about, but he said the combination meant that something had to give. and this was the 401(k) match and his mind was going to be the thing this they could pull back. >> jeff: he reversed himself. they will

. >>> on deck, aol's distressed ceo, but with the stock up 300% in just the past two years, does anybody really care tim armstrong is putting his foot in his mouth? >>> plus, the case for lurking on twitter. herb greenberg thinks all you non-tweeters are actually people, too. >>> later on, protecting america's stash. how security firms are benefiting from the u.s. pot boom. plus amazon is upping the ante in the battle for your living room. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. yeah. everybody knows that. did you know there is an oldest trick in the book? what? trick number one. look-est over there. ha ha. made-est thou look. so end-eth the trick. hey.... yes.... geico. fifteen minutes could save you... well, you know. >>> aol's ceo tim armstrong in the news again, reversing course after comments he made over employee health care. let's go straight to julia with more. this is getting a lot of traction. >> that's right. after listening to an outpouring of employee feedback, tim armstrong reversed the company's decision to change 401(k) benefits from a per

aol did an about-face restoring its original 401(k) policy.ogize for my comments last week at the town hall when i mending specific health care examples. nbc news reached out to aol and a spokesperson said armstrong has apologized personally to the family. >> he has spoken in heartfelt ways how badly he feels for causing us this hurt and i accept that. >> reporter: but for faye who wrote an article in "slate" magazine has has now gone viral, it's about her baby. >> i think it's important to have the national conversations about health care spending we are having but i think it's also important to keep in mind the lives that are sometimes, you know, so tiny, so vulnerable, so paralist that are really what we are talking about. >> reporter: a mom putting a face on a national conversation. >> up next, dr. oz is here with his prescription to living the good life. it's the focus of his new magazine and he joins us next to explain and i'm hoping he has zip lock bags of food which he seems to always bring us and he always seems to be eating. what if

. >> we're going back and forth about the tim armstrong/aol situation. we're still going to think about this. not sure where we're going. >> join us tomorrow. right now it's time for "squawk on the street." ♪ happy birthday to you happy birthday to you ♪ ♪ happy birthday >> when you get as old as my partner, celebrate every one of them. good morning, welcome to "squawk on the street." i'm david faber with jim cramer. happy birthday. hear from carl as well at the olympics in sochi momentarily. happy birthday. >> thank you very much. >> stake a look at futures. happy to be here, not just for your birthday, i tonight know why. >> olympics exciting, isn't? i watched them all weekend. even the opening, putin, i'm not a big fan. >> that's shocking, yeah. >> i am still into the notion of humanity. put on a good show. >> the horses were really cool. you saw the market. we looked like we may open lower this morning. take a look at ten-year. do we have that? 2.69, almost around 2.7. up a bit from earlier in the week, of course. but we've got unemployment number on

still to come in the "newsroom" aol employees get their retirement benefits slashed.he ceo is blaming two sick babies and obamacare. we'll explain. [ male announcer ] this is the story of the dusty basement at 1406 35th street the old dining table at 25th and hoffman. ...and the little room above the strip mall off roble avenue. ♪ this magic moment it is the story of where every great idea begins. and of those who believed they had the power to do more. dell is honored to be part of some of the world's great stories. that began much the same way ours did. in a little dorm room -- 2713. ♪ this magic moment ♪ abreva can heal a cold sore in as few as 2 1/2 days when used at the first sign. without it, the virus spreads from cell to cell. unlike other treatments, abreva penetrates deep to block the virus, to protect healthy cells so cold sores heal fast. as fast as 2 1/2 days when used at the first sign. ♪ learn more at abreva.com. don't tough it out. knock it out! fast. [ female announcer ] only with abreva. you are gonna need a wingman. and my cash back keeps the party

. >>> aol has abandoned an unpopular retirement plan move.strong was forced to apologize after blaming the cost-cutting move on obamacare and the medical expenses associated with caring for two sick babies of employees. aol had planned to pay company contributions to employees' 401(k) accounts in one lump sum at the end of the year. the company will continue tro matching funds every pay period. >>> "the lego movie" was top at the box office. the toy company sold an estimated $69 million worth of tickets in its debut weekend. "the monuments men" opened in second place following by a police comedy "ride along." >>> dumb starbucks has opened. it's described as parody art according to a new release. iced coffees and lattes are for free. customers lined up for free. the real starbucks, no surprise, is looking into the store. anne-marie? >> you know, a lot of people are in a complete fog before they have their first cup of coffee. maybe some of those people didn't know they were at the a fake starbucks. >> exactly. >> it looks pretty legitimate. >>

is doingrong of aol this in a really bad way. all, most of your audience would be surprised to know that pretty much any employer can get your health information whether they are self-insured or not. it's available. it is sold so they can get it. that is incredibly distressing. there are better ways to do this. for example, there are companies that are self-insured like ibm, that put all kinds of firewalls between health information and management. ibm tells everyone -- they announced publicly that our company will never, ever look at your health information. and guess what, they seem to be able to manage the benefits just fine. they let another company do it and they don't look for it it's not necessary to look. the thing that tim armstrong and the rest of the ceos need to look at is what is the real cause of america's health cost? about it for a second, it's pretty simple. it's not sick people. sick people in europe do not cost what they cost in this country. at ceos should be looking the people who are the drivers, the compani

. >> aol made some gains because of deep cuts at its eep l network of nehborhood of nesor neslled p ne nem need about need abo it wh ed ay liu.h ed ay >> it is $150 billion space. we halmost 20 hion hionio consers in that spacers in theers in the product, how to get structured.ru we are to hang w tnd we are big owners of theig ownof the prerty, and we're going to work for a closewo with them. w y also one of thene oth things we have een able to do both with hail and the rest ofour content properties aent just purchas juvity, alasofvityvityesvityin gvity g >> what going to do thatg to aol could not do? >> h >> hsed pecte pr pect pect whic struggic struggic have greaors e gr'res e e ing a lot ofing a lot oft of the focus on the technology forologolog hail is going to bring tong the table, i think theb're goingb'ngb'to bringblteto by tobltebl reure reure reure >> just a >> jusonds, canonds, you bout a tie up with a tie up yahoo!? >> we are already tied up withp wi yahoo!hoo! we he hee a whole of partnershi them ross the ads an the the the rhaphe he >> that is above my pay gradeove my we a

he's aol's digital prophet.nt to look into the future of technology, he's the man to talk to. an honor to have you at the table. you talk about a more useful connectivity coming from smarter wearable computers and not just google glass but computers in your clothes that will power out what you've done, the information act your day to useful people, not just to your twitter feed, oh, i burned,000 calories today, but to your yoga teacher, your personal train sore that information becomes more valuable to you. talk about that. >> what we look at today is self-quantify case. if i measure myself, that's great, but my friends don't gave rat's where i walked 2,000 steps or not. that becomes passe quickly. if people say i want my yoga instructor to know what i've done because maybe i should be doing a different pattern, that's different. today's wearables are refined to if i wear my wearables today, like a tribal leader, no kidding. we've restricted two wrists and one face but we will have biometrics materials inside ou

and you mentioned aol and it retire the plan. i think we'll see companies try to come up with more creative ways no to the pass these things on to their employeesme the pla. i think we'll see companies try to come up with more creative ways no to the pass these things on to their employeesn the plan. i think we'll see companies try to come up with more creative ways no to the pass these things on to their employeest the plan. i think we'll see companies try to come up with more creative ways no to the pass these things on to their employeeshe plan. i think we'll see companies try to come up with more creative ways no to the pass these things on to their employees plan. i think we'll see companies try to come up with more creative ways no to the pass these things on to their employees or not pay themselves themselves. yes, there is the reinsurance transitional fee which is design tood help t designed to help the exchanges, research fee, cadillac taxes, all of these piled up on the workers. >> the list goes on and on. just drives u

. >> a cruel violation, the aol ceo cited two costly pre-mature births as justification for droppingenefits. the disclosure of employees private health matters have raised concern. what does your employer know about the state of your health? >> we had two aolers that had distress babies that we made $1 million each, the aol ceo provoked a scathing response from one of the mothers, and raises the question how much of my private medical information is my employer allowed to see? >> there is a very thin vil about what an employer knows about its employees health and the privacy. >> reporter: under affordability and accountability act or hippa companies that administrate health claims can see your information but there are limits. only h.r. are allowed to see your details, and there must be a fire wall to keep the rest of the firm like your boss from seeing your personal information. if health information claim is shared outside of the fire wall, data that identifies individual employees must be deleted. >> it's very challenging to implement. >> companies are not supposed to use your per

-- aol default search engine. you can see the innovation. good ideas get funded. consumers new good tech ideas when they see them. i believe good ideas will continue to be funded. outetflix has already shot that they could raise prices if they do not get favorable treatment. netflix release announcement reacting. i got the impression they were fairly unconcerned about what is going to happen. they said if an isp did attempt to degrade the traffic, they would be upset about it and encourage consumers to be upset about it. interest toe isp's degrade the service. customers are paid for that. that makes their service less valuable to consumers. netflix was relatively unconcerned with the decision. isp's definitely do have an incentive to degrade service depending on what it is. if it is an isp that does offer video service, why not encourage people to use your service versus netflix? i think what all of this points to is the tremendous amount of uncertainty that now exist because of this court decision. actually has a

aol's tim cook is making changes after negative publicity. and the distressed baby mom fires back. we have that story after the break. >>> and check out dumb starbucks. yep, dumb starbucks logos, design cups, all that, except the word dumb. how can they get away with that? this is called dumbstarbucks. we'll explain what this is all about when we come back in a moment. uhhh. no, that can't happen. that's the thing, you don't know how long it has to last. everyone has retirement questions. so ameriprise created the exclusive.. confident retirement approach. now you and your ameripise advisor can get the real answers you need. well, knowing gives you confidence. start building your confident retirement today. ♪ ♪ where you think you're gonna go ♪ ♪ when your time's all gone? [ male announcer ] live a full life. the new lexus ct hybrid with an epa estimated 42 mpg. the further you go, the more interesting it gets. lease the 2014 ct 200h for $299 a month for 27 months. see your lexus dealer. >>> welcome back. right now it's time for the executive edge. aol's ceo tim armstrong has aband