with doug mcmillan, he is intimately knowledgeable of the company. sometimes from the outside, they take one, two, three years to get a quainted with the new company and how it works. the plus for this person is he already knows what doesn't work. the question is: can he bring real change to move the company forward? >> what is not working at wal-mart he needs to work on. >> what's not working is fundamentally how will they grow the united states? in the past few years, they focused a lot internationally. >> has not necessarily been very successful for them. they actually closed 50 stores in brazil and china. so now, a lot of industry experts wants them to really focus on growing their share in the market. they are getting a lot of competition, not only from dollar, as you mentioned but target and online railers like amazon offering customers low price products. so they've got to figure out how to attract the american customer. >> is the future heading more toward the online world or to build more stores in the united states? >> i think a bit of both

while analysts didn't think walmart's new ceo doug mcmillan would say anything dramatic on the prerecorded earnings call, at some point he will need to do something bold if u.s. store sales remain sluggish. but because of external economic precious, investors appear to be giving the retailer a pass. for now. for "nightly business report" i'm courtney reagan. >>> onto facebook now, followingup to the breaking story we brought you last night, facebook will pay $16 billion for the mobile messaging app whatsapp, sending facebook shares to an all-time high today up more than 2%. julia boorstin now on what exactly whatsapp does, who's behind it and why facebook has hit the like button. >> reporter: with whatsapp, facebook will become the biggest mobile messaging company in the world. whatsapp handles nearly as many text messages as the telecom industry's entire $100 billion text messaging business. the app sends text messages, photos and video to anyone else with the app. without carrier fees. it's free for the first year, then charges 99 cents annually. no word on how many users pay, and it doe

slightly below the low end of its previous forecast, leaving investors waiting to hear what new ceo doug mcmillan says about the company's outlook. while he wasn't yet overseeing the company during its holiday quarter he'll lead the earnings call on monday morning as investors wonder how walmart will deal with a difficult environment. >> gas prices are starting to head up a little bit. weather is impacting everybody in retail. and most of all, we just have a consumer at the low end that has been struggling for a number of years and doesn't seem to be getting really any benefits from any of these real improvements in the economy that we're seeing. >> reporter: while not everything seems to be working for walmart, the retailer has repeatedly touted its small format stores as a point of success, announcing plans to add up to 150 more of them this year. while walmart has traditionally grown by opening more stores, credit suisse analyst says walmart should buy family dollar. the research shows family dollar locations have the least overlap with walmart compared to other dollar stores, which would mean

a new president ceo, doug mcmillan, took the rinse, starting as an -- reins, starting as an hourly worker in 1984. being an insider gives mcmillan an edge. >> well, i think that they view that that has historically been successful for them. the prior ceos had a similar experience and track record. doug is knowledgeable of the company. sometimes when you get a ceo from the outside, they get a lot of time, one, two, three years, to get acquainted with the new company. the plus for this person is that he knows what doesn't work. can he bring change to move the company forward. >> the new ceo comes in after wal-mart closed 50 stars in brazil and china. and after the retailer is set to lay off 2,000 employees. >> microsoft is likely to name sadia nadella to the top spot, to become only the third ceo. >> doctors are worried about a food allergy. they are seeing a spike in patients that become allergic to red meat. >> jonathan martin explains. >> for september norman, it came on fast and could have killed her. the allergic reaction startled her awake. >> i felt my lips and tongue swelling. i tol

what can doug mcmillan do to turn the tide? we'll talk about that.ne more look at futures and we'll get the opening bell in a few moments. "squawk on the street" is back in a moment. ♪ >>> walmart reporting fourth quarter earnings of a buck 60 a share, slightly above consensus, but revenues missed forecast and the same for the full-year earnings guidance, let's bring in stacy ridlets and david strausser, david, let me start with you, give me your take of not just on the quarter, of course, but more importantly on the guidance. >> i think the guidance i think we're seeing something we're going to see a lot of other places. we're seeing a weak start to the year because of weather. they talked a lot about higher health care costs, they talked about a weaker low-end consumer, none of that is a surprise. the other thing they talked about cap-x and increasing it in the u.s. and away from the international cap-x i think that will be a bigger story some of the things they are doing on e-commerce and neighborhood cap-x. >> the growth of amazon and the seeming

doug mcmillan rose through the ranks. starting in a distribution center in 1984. coming up, a teenager inspiring a community, taking to the basketball court on two prosthetics legs. >> an ice fisherman will have to pack their botches with beer after a drone has to stop. >> and to pennsylvania, where everyone is waiting to see if the silver ground hog will show his shadow today. >> good morning to you and welcome back to al jazeera america. ahead - ice fishermen in minnesota will have to carry their beer with them. first a look at the forecast today with the meteorologist. mark morgan, it's going to be a bit cooler for some locations. it's mile. let's take you to the country, hoping to see if we'll see the shadow. if we do, it's six more years of winter, if he doesn't. it may be a cloudy day. it means they see spring. we have time before they come out. lots of people out there to celebrate. it is a big event. we are doing a pass-over. it's wet. people are having a lot of fun. the boundary from the north-east, lots of deep moisture. that's what is hoping to trigger

and we think one of the top priorities for new ceo doug mcmillan will be to come up with a small storevely pursue it. he says why not family dollar. which it believes is best positioned geographically for walmart should it choose to play. even the idea of this may be enough to at least spark some thoughts on the dollar general side. what i can tell you is at this point at least family dollar has not been in any talks, and when it's talked to its shareholders, many of whom are fairly active, think nelson pellson and a number of others, it's not indicated at this point at least a willingness to potentially doing a deal. it withstood the -- went through what might have been a potential proxy fight last year but nothing says that won't come and you connect by written consent here. will that happen? who knows. but this continued chatter about consolidation in the family dollar space no doubt that's going to continue. some execution issues have been certainly a key when it comes to family dollar and some of its critics. but we're watching both of those shares. it's rare that you see an analy