thank you so much, julia boorstin reporting from los angeles. >>> as julia just mentioned in her internet story, one of the service providers includes comcast. that's the parent company of cnbc which produces this program. >>> we begin tonight's market focus with an earnings beat out of tesla after the market closed. the electric carmaker saw strong demand for its model s electric car. it delivered nearly 7,000 of them in the quarter. that's a record for the company. it expects to deliver 35,000 of those cars in 2014, i said, a more than 50% increase from just last year. shares initially spiked after the bell. the stock ended the regular session, though, down 5% to $193.64 the grocery retailer safeway is in talks with private equity firms be an a possible sale of the company. there is buzz that serveris capital management is exploring a deal for the grocery company. the firm also reported fourth quarter sales after the bell, but they were shy of estimates. shares initially rose on the news of that possible sale. the stock ended the regular day up 1.5% to $34.61. but you can see the jump a

for "nightly business report", i'm julia boorstin in los angeles. >>> we need to remind you that comcast is the parent company of cnbc, which produces this program. >>> blackberry lands two major deals. shares of blackberry shuurged o news the messager service will be available to windows phone and nokia x users starting this summer. accept prettibre separately ford, picked it for the insync. >>> rf micro devices says it's paying $1.6 million for the semi conductor. the two companies get most of the revenue by supplying parts to device makers like apple and system sung and the deal makes them a bigger player. shares of both companies surged on the news. rf micro up 21%, triquint to $11.64. >>> the suit saga continues. mens warehouse rised the offer for jos. a. bank by 10% spurring hopes the month-long battle of back and forth between the two companies might finally be over. men's warehouse says it may raise the bid further. shares of both companies up, as you can imagine. men's warehouse up to 4.5 -- 48.51 and jos. a. bank to close at 4.99. >>> pfizer vaccine prevented several. the treat

i'm julia boorstin in los angeles. >> what a story. how lucrative will this deal be for facebook? will it ever generate enough money to justify the price that facebook paid for it? that's what julia asked. let's get some answers now from scott kessler, the internet equity analyst at s & p capital iq. would you bet against facebook, scott? against zuckerberg on this? >> well, tyler, it's hard really to question facebook and mark zuk erburg at this point. they've both been so successful over the last year or two. the stock is up almost 150% just over the last year. however, and i say however, it does seem like even though a lot of people are rationalizing the merit of this transaction indicating that mobile is very important to facebook and whatsapp is a leader in mobile messaging, the reality is two-fold, we think. number one, we wonder how sustainable whatsapp's growth and leadership in mobile messaging is going to be, and then secondly, $19 billion, we had to go back a long ways to see an internet deal that was valued at that level. >> what is their revenue stream here? they give

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 news over the weekend. >> i think what he was trying to do was explain his justification for cutting employee benefits with this rational that we're spending this much on health care, it has to come from somewhere. and i think this was the wrong way to go about that. >> thi

julia boorstin has more. >> reporter: box has reportedly filed confidentially to go public. the ceo won't comment on ipo plans, but it's clear that 225,000 businesses helping to manage and share information wants to steal market share from giants like microsoft. >> we're investing very aggressively for growth right now. that's something that we're very happy about and excited about as we see a window of opportunity with this market where the leaders of the next generation of software are going to be created right now. so we're investing to ensure that box is one of those leaders. >> reporter: the market box is tackling, cloud tool for businesses, grew 20 or $30 billion and growing 25% annually in a market where i.t. spending is growing at single digits. the big question now is which of the tech giants are looking over their shoulder fearing disruption by box and other start ups which take software services to the cloud. >> it's the emcs, the citrixs. or an sap. really any of the traditional have vendors where quad mobile is a potential opportunity. it also is a threat. that'

julia boorstin is back to make the case for martha. robert frank is making the case for oprah. is the ultimate domestic goddess, turning her name into a household name starting with a catering company in the '70s that turns into an empire of all things living. cooking, entertaining, gardening and home making. martha stewart living omnimedia. it went public in 1999. martha stewart has 8,500 products at a range of retailers from macy's to petsmart, to home depot, plus books, cookbooks, monthly magazines, websites, apps, a radio show, and various tv shows. the company reaches an estimated 100 million consumers each month. the resilience of stewart's brand is all the more impressive considering the fact she was convicted and served time for insider trading. mandy? >> thank you very much. julia, stick around. that is the case for martha. but we want to get the other side. the other side is the case for oprah. robert? >> thanks, guys. oprah doesn't really need much explanation, but i'll do it anyway. she really proved the power of the personal, not just the personal brand, but the pe

for "nightly business report," i'm julia boorstin in los angeles. >> that is "nightly business report" for tonight. i'm susie gharib. have a great evening, everyone, and we'll see you right back here tomorrow. >>> this is "nightly business report" with tyler mathisen and susie gharib. brought to you in part by -- >> the street.com. founded by jim cramer, the street.com is an independent source for stock market analysis. cramer's action alerts plus service is home to his multimillion dollar portfolio. you can learn more at the street.com/nbr. >>> tonight on revolutioners: >> i was the paper boy in palo alto where steve jobs used to live, and larry page lives today. that was the beginning of my journalism career. ♪ [ music ] ♪ >> steven levy of wired magazine, facebook author david patrick, and pulitzer prize winner john markof have seen it off. here they talk candidly about everything they've seen at the revolution. >> this evening is a little bit of a retrospect itch, i

for "nightly business report," i'm julia boorstin in los angeles. >> that is "nightly business report" for tonight. i'm susie gharib. have a great evening, everyone, and we'll see you right back here tomorrow. >>> this is "nightly business report" with tyler mathisen and susie gharib. brought to you in part by -- >> the street.com. founded by jim cramer, the street.com is an independent source for stock market analysis. cramer's action alerts plus service is home to his multimillion dollar portfolio. you can learn more at the street.com/nbr.  >>> i think you should go for it for a moment. >> robert kelley is deep into rehearsals for "proof," opening in just days at theatreworks in palo alto. >> i'm sorry, katherine. but, it's a question of priorities and work takes priority. you know that. >> he founded this company in 1970 and has seen it through boom times and bust, directing more than 100 productions. >> i think we got this down pretty well. the timing seems about right. i just want to take another look at it. >> tonight on "spark!" -- we follow in the footsteps of

julia boorstin is live in los angeles with the answers to that. julia? you'd have to have very deep pockets. the $16 billion acquisition shines a spotlight on just how valuable messaging and social apps are potentially raising price tags, which other start-ups could be up for grabs. snapchat drew offers at a $3 billion valuation. the messaging app that focuses on privacy, in december raise the another $50 million. we'll have to see if its 400 million daily messages draw more acquisition interest. and snapchat isn't the only hot messaging app but you may not have heard of the other ones because they are overseas, there's a hybrid of facebook and twitter it's a chinese microblogging platform and last year alibaba invested $586 million in the company at an estimated value north of $3 billion. the parent company is traded on the nasdaq with a $4.8 billion market cap. popular in japan, taiwan and thailand is a start-up called line, it has more than 340 million registered users offering text messaging, and voice calls and photo sharing and games. it's free but

. >> julia boorstin all things immediate jahr and money from hollywood and wall street and jon fortt,chnology guru. who on your list, jon is a shoe in and w shoo in? who is overlooked? >> the google guys, my top pick had to be stephen jobs, of course. ceo, co-founder of apple. the reason is, look, he created a product that really, several products that really changed the tech world. he managed to do a couple of turnarounds, and he changed the culture with itunes, the apple store, et cetera. for me, the thing is he did it multiple times. like michael jordan retiring, quarterbacking a super bowl team, and then coming back to basketball after that. as far as overlooked, founder of sap. not company that everybody is intimately familiar with, but this is the software that runs the back office of just about every huge business. it's a german company. not a lot of huge multibillion dollar european software companies. he's very important figure, hasso. particularly in europe g. point on that. julia, your shoo in? >> top pick, mark zuckerberg. looking back over the past 25 years and 25 years a

bringing in julia boorstin from the information.com and luke kerner from the social internet giant. great to have you here. lou, begin with you, looking brilliant or moronic. that's what makes it bold. no doubt. too pricey, though? >> i don't think it's too pricey, to the extent facebook has $170 billion fran xhiz chis protect. the biggest threat, whatsapp. they get rid. threat, incorporate in it and take advantage of the growth ahead forwhatsapp. >> what else ask in play at this point, julia? >> in terms of the other start-ups, we look back at snapchat. reportedly turned down a $3 billion offer in facebook and google. have they moved on or will they take another look at it. and apps our asia incredibly popular like line and wechat. start-ups you maybe haven't heard of but have hundreds of millions of users overseas and some of the folks here in the u.s. will look at them and wonder if that global strength is something that could be valuable to a microsoft or a google or an apple. >> a mere you know, look at the value of the deal. it values whatsapp. stunning. at more than es 275 of

julia boorstin, what was the most troubling headline from twitter? >> mandy, here's the thing. twitter's earnings and revenue both beat expectations. the concern here the reason why the stock is taking all comes down to the user numbers. twitter only added 9 million new users since its ipo in november through the end of 2013, and the real issue there is not very many, considering twitter's growth is slowing. twitter's growth in terms of users in the fourth quarter was slower than each of the prior three quarters. so this is a bad trend, and also another concerning trend, which is the number of page views. sort of, it's a measure of the amount of times people basically refresh their twitter page. down 7% from the third quarter to the fourth quarter of last year. this is obviously something that's really going to be a problem if twit hear these grand plans for expansion, but it's something also the ceo talked about a lot on tearnings call yesterday outlining a plan to make twitter more accessible, more engaging, more video. making it easier to have private conversations. also to

i'm julia boorstin, on the twitter earnings call. company says the company is doing a combination of changes that could change the slope of the growth curve. they could have impact on different metrics. mike gupta warned that the first quarter would be seasonably weaker in terms of advertising trends. they also did point to one future source of revenue. they talked about retail. how retail is already happening on twitter. that's a big opportunity for the company to dive into in the future. no specific announcements were made. back over to you, melissa. >> you see on the after-hours chart, twitter down about 15%. stock is getting hit hard today. some traders think it's about to get worse. we go to the cme with today's "options action." >> we saw the gaming and inspection coordination bureau announcing revenue for macaw. that's the slowest growth they've seen in that area for 16 months. part of that might be attributable to the fact that there's not any new capacity. they're not building new casinos. the existing ones are pretty filled

she tells our julia boorstin about what's next for social media and cnbc is the home of olympic curling, of course, and hot stuff. we've been airing a lot of it. we'll have the highlights and the medal count from sochi when we come back. the works. because when it comes to feeling safe behind the wheel, going the distance and saving at the pump you want it all. get our multi-point inspection with a a synthetic blend oil change, tire rotation, brake inspection and more for $29.95 or less. get a complete vehicle checkup. only at your ford dealer. you stand behind what you say. there's a saying around here, around here you don't make excuses. you make commitments. and when you can't live up to them, you own up, and make it right. some people think the kind of accountability that thrives on so many streets in this country has gone missing in the places where it's needed most. but i know you'll still find it when you know where to look. >>> hi will. we've got winter weather alerts extending all across the northeast. winter storm watch across d.c. atlanta, we'll be watching for significant ic

julia boorstin in los angeles.e netflix comcast deal from john steinberg, a man who joined us last week talking about this kind of issue. wlo do you blame, your provider or netflix themselves? does this mean netflix had a problem? >> i don't think there's anyone to blame. when the news came out on sunday night, everyone was saying netflix is going to have to pay more. they're not actually going to pay more, they're going to pay the money to somebody different. they're paying directly to the cable providers instead of cogent or intermediary. my gut is it will be cheaper pricing to buy direct from these providers. what's interesting is how much the tv landscape has changed. cable channels used to get paid affiliate fees. now we're seeing cable networks paying a fee to time warner or comcast or whoever's parent. it puts cable networks in a better position as they were the debundling and over the top before. >> that was going to be my question because previously we've always seen content companies with greater leverage

julia boorstin there and we'll have more on twitter in about half an hour's time. >>> up next, disney'sn" is heating up the stock today. look at that gain up almost 6%. certainly the film or the movie boosted the company's fourth quarter profit, but is there another hit that you can bank on in the pipeline? find out how you should play disney now. right after this break. about retirement. ou a 401(k) is the most sound way to go. let's talk asset allocation. sure. you seem knowledgeable, professional. would you trust me as your financial advisor? i would. i would indeed. well, let's be clear here. i'm actually a dj. [ dance music plays ] [laughs] no way! i have no financial experience at all. that really is you? if they're not a cfp pro, you just don't know. find a certified financial planner professional who's thoroughly vetted at letsmakeaplan.org. cfp -- work with the highest standard. open to innovation. open to ambition. open to bold ideas. that's why new york has a new plan -- dozens of tax free zones all across the state. move here, expand here, or start a new business here and pa

julia boorstin in los angeles. >>> the winter games in sochi are heating up, especially on the ice.n, it is all about the russians today. >> yeah, really is, carl. sort of two clouds hanging over the games right now. when we get to sports in a second. want to give you an update on the russian stock market. we are here obviously. the news of what is happening with the protests and the police backlash in kif, ukraine, a country financially and politically supported by russia. has been a topic here. in fact that is the rsx's etf. down 1 1/2% today but look at year to date. down more than 11%. many of the big russian companies have seen their shares go down in the last couple of days. don't forget the russian economy and stock market and the region all very closely intertwined. something to pay attention to. carl, you will appreciate this anecdote and this is our segue to sports. couple of hours ago i went into the tulip hotel next to the broadcast center. there was a group of men watching television during the russia hockey game. i assumed they were watching the game. they weren't. the

julia boorstin on the cnbc news line. >> good morning, carl. that's right.several other filming locations. this includes four series and one mini series adding 60 one-hour episode. the state is expected to unveil reportedly about $4 million in incentives, this happening in a press conference right now happening with andrew cuomo, governor cuomo. this would make it one of the largest incentive production deals ever in new york state. the production announcement is part of this big deal that disney struck with netflix in november to create four live action series based on lesser known mar havel characters reled on netflix starting in 2015. >> julia, just thinking about all the news on disney in the past 72 hours. raising prices at the theme park, right? the mobile movie service. "frozen" at the oscars this weekend and now this. little surprise it has hit all-time highs recently. >> disney has been busy. i think the reason why this announcement today is interesting is just that disney's relationship with netflix has been so fascinating. and it shows that disney

joining us is jeffrey katzenberg, ceo of dreamworks animation who is out in california with our julia boorstina? >> thanks so much. and jeffrey, thanks so much for joining us today. >> great to be with you. >> you're announcing this big deal with merlin entertainment. why are you making this deal? >> it is just another step in what is, you know, a path to building a branded family entertainment company, and, you know, diversifying, using the great characters and stories and ip that we've built up, some of which we acquired with classic media last year. and suddenly there are many, many opportunities for us to really diversify the company. >> and the stock is up on this news. how long will it take before we start seeing profits generated or real revenue generated as a result of this deal? >> the first will be next year. they're on track to open up the first attraction right by the eye in london which is maybe the greatest piece of real estate, and that will be spring/summer of next year, and then, you know, we've committed to roll out a half a dozen of these with merlin, and, frankly, in succes

julia boorstin takes a closer look. >> facebook's $16 billion acquisition of whatsapp shines a spotlightn social networks. some other start ups could be up for grabs. snapchat grew offered from facebook and google. the messaging app in december raised another $50 million. we'll have to see if it's $ 400 million daily acquisitions picks up more interest. many of the social apps are based in asia. a chinese microbloging platform last year drew investment from alibaba of $586 million at an estimated value north of $3 billion. and parent company cena is traded on the nasdaq with a 4.8 billion market cap. more than 340 million registered users. offering text messaging, voice calls, photo sharing and games. it's free but its charges for the likes of stickers, which users can add by chat. it's developed by neighbor, a korean internet company. >>> china's messaging app with wechat earns most of its revenue from games. it's owned by chinese media giant tencent but is eyeing growing attention in the united states. blackberry is in the spotlight sending its shares higher because of perceived potent

julia boorstin sends this report from silicone valley. >> candy crushmaker king has filed to raise up$500 million in a public offering expected to value the gamemaker as well more than $5 million. it was downloaded over 500 million times since its launch in 2012. the company generated 1.9 billion in revenue with adjusted earnings at $825 million. the big concern is that king might be too much of a one-trick pony like zinga, whose ipo was fueled by the success of its farmville game. meanwhile, streaming music service spotify which has over 25 million active users hasn't filed for an ipo yet, but certainly seems to be moving in that direction post ago job opening for an external job specialist to prepare the company to set up all reports necessary to be s.e.c. compliant. spotify raised $250 million back in september in an evaluation of over $4 billion. we'll have to see what its valuation is when it does eventually file to go public. this is a very busy ipo season for start ups this year. >>> meantime, virgin atlantic has begun testing google glass with its staff. virgin hopes staff wil

julia boorstin filed this report. >> twitter's announcements disappointing for investors.han 17% after hours. this despite better than expected revenue growth of 116% to 243 million while earnings came in at 2 cents per share, excludeing one-time items beating expectations of a loss of 2 cents per share. but the loss determined on how slowly the company added subskrooip scribers to end the quarter with 241 million users. for the first time, timeline's use, a measure of usage, declined from the previous quarter. they're confident in twitter's ability to scale revenue by expanding its global reach. he says the plan is to add users by making twitter easy to use and especially easier for new users to start using and making it more media rich with video, making it easier for private conversations as well as public ones by organizing content by topic so people can browse all the conversations on twitter more easily. this game plan didn't reassure inesters as the stock dropped over the course of the call. over to you. >> kind of interesting, the metrics. >> i'm not surprised by t

julia boorstin sends this report. >> this is facebook's biggest acquisition by far and whatsapp is theder in mobile messaging with 450 million monthly active users and engagement is incredibly high. 70% of those monthly users use the mobile messaging service every single day .it's growing very quickly, adding 11 million new users daily. clearly, this is about scale and engagement and like facebook, amid facebook's own service, they're more focused on getting all of that engagement and all of those eyeballs up before they are the revenue. but the thing here is what's up does have a revenue model. they charge some of these users $1 a year to use the messaging service. there's also obviously the potential to roll out fees more broadly, but to add advertising. so there is a little bit of revenue. it's unclear how much or how many of those 450 million users pay for the service. >> what do the analysts city? citi analysts say when you look at how many users whatsapp has, the deal is not so expensive. it equates to $42 a month per active users. there is significant area to extend revenues wit

julia boorstin has more. >> dreamworks quartert results fell short of wall street expectations sendingtrading. revenue fell to $204 million and net income swung to a profit on lower costs offsetting the revenue decline. 20% earnings per share fell 12 cents short of estimates. the disappointing results of home takentertainment sales for "turbo." the franchise is valuable and the series is set to become one of the most popular kid series ever. the good news for dreamworks animation it is successfully diversifying away from movies. ceo jeffrey katzenburg calling 201 a "transformational year." since the quarter ended, katzenberg announced more moves to diversify, a new publishing division and theme park attraction based on the popular shrek franchise announced monday. back over to you. >>> target set to report fourth quarter earnings, strategic resource insight group, burt, we saw target reduce their estimates for sales and eps $1.20, $1.30 back in january. >> we expect target to come in at the low range of the estimates. philip clarke reported problems at tesco with brand baggage, target

want to get to julia boorstin who has the numbers i believe on the media giant. julia?justed earnings of 78 cents per share, 2 cents better than expected and up from 64 cents in the year ago period. revenue at $3.91 billion. that's higher than the $3.8 billion expected and up from $3.67 billion in the year ago period. the real headline here might be the fact that cbs announced a plan for a $1.5 billion accelerated share repurchase plan and in the earnings -- and in this press release les moonves says 2 billion of that prime minister will be spent ft. fir -- in the first quarter of the year. >> the stock appears to be moving higher after hours on the news, julia. thanks very much. we got a couple of different themes here. we get cbs earnings. any reaction here from what they're saying about read through for media, market for generally? >> content is king. we talked about that a lot. distribution is also extremely important, diversified asset base they have. the fact they're going to have an accelerated share repurchase at this price, that's very important. >> isn't it ve

julia boorstin has a preview for us. >> mobile will be in focus across social media. and for twitter, which is up over 150% since its ipo, the pressure is on to really show investors its growth potential, perhaps with the likes of an ad network or e-commerce. analysts project their quarterly revenue will double. pandora also out tomorrow is expected to benefit from user growth and to swing to a quarterly gain of 7 cents per share. yelp is expected to turn things around and slash its earnings loss from 6 cents a share a year ago to 2 cents. then thursday growth across linkedin's three divisions plus a price increase should help drive revenue 44% higher and earnings per share up 9%. we'll have to see if results from all these companies help alleviate concerns there might be a social media stock bubble. guys, back over to you. >> julia, thanks very much. you notice we're down here standing in front of post 8 where twitter traded and where it famously traded 100 million shares on the day of its ipo. >> remember the crowd that was standing around here? glen is still here,

as twitter hits with its first earnings report on wall street, let's get straight out to julia boorstin that's right. twitter reporting revenue of $243 million. that's up 116% over the year ago quarter. showing accelerated revenue growth from the prior two quarters. now, the nongap eps number is a positive of 2 cents. so we're just trying to figure out exactly the comparisons. wall street had been looking for a loss of 2 cents per share. we're getting that the nongap eps number is positive 2 cents per share. we're going to continue to dig through the numbers and just look especially at the growth rate here because obviously there's been a lot of focus on user growth and i'm trying to figure out the comparison. i don't know if anyone from our breaking news desk can help us with that. but the active monthly user numbers was 241 million. that's an increase of 30% year-over-year. mobile monthly active user numbers is 184 million, increase of 37% year-over-year. time line views, that reached 184 million in the fourth quarter, an increase of 37% year-over-year. that represents 76% of total mo

julia boorstin joins us for a breakdown. >> there's no question netflix's success with "house are cardsred competitors to step up their game. amazon announced the streaming of its second group of prime time pilots, doubled from last year as the number of subscribers have estimated to have doubled as well. hulu is introducing four new original shows and microsoft xbox live first original, a stephen spielberg produced show based on halo is expected to launch in the next few months. so far netflix rivals haven't gotten close to "house of cards" success which kicked off number of original hits including "orange is the new black" helping the company had new u.s. subscribers. netflix won't reveal viewer numbers just saying there has been an increase in people catching up on season one of "house of cards." the cap says it plans to double investment in original content this year though originals would still represent less than 10% of itsoverall content expenses. reviews of the second season of "house of cards" with been even more positive than the first and buzz is huge. house of cards is trend

julia boorstin joins us with details. >> that's right, bill and kelly.er king has filed to raise as much as $500 million in a public offering. candy crush saga was the most popular free app last year downloaded more than 500 million times since its 2012 launch. king's s-1 filing reveals the company generated $1.9 billion in revenue in 2013 with adjusted ebitda earnings of $825 million. the big concern though is that king is too much of a one-trick pony like zynga whose ipo was fueled by the success of farmville. zynga's stock has fallen by half since the ipo. spotify, which has over 24 million active users including over 6 million paying subscribers hasn't yet filed for an ipo but it seems to be moving in that direction. posting a job opening for a, quote, external reporting specialist to prepare the company for s.e.c. filing standards, set up all reports necessary to be s.e.c. compliant. posting that job opening on its own website and linkedin. spotify raised $250 million in september at a valuation of $4 billion. it is expected to go public in the next

julia boorstin has those numbers. >> kelly, the reason why linkedin shares are trading lower right now their guidance for q-1 and full year 2014. linkedin is projected revenue between $455 million and $465 million in the first quarter. that's lower than expectations of revenue in the first quarter. excuse me, $470 million. projections for the full year of $2.02 billion are also significantly lighter than the $2.1 billion expected. kelly, in terms of this most recent quarter, q-4, the results were better than expected. the company ended the quarter with 277 million members, that's higher than expectations of 273 or 274. also, earnings per share adjusted coming in at 39 cents. that's a penny better than estimates. revenue at $447 million up from $438 million expected. back over to you. >> the first two earnings reports out of the gate. expedia moving higher. linkedin, a miss in terms of shares, which are down almost 12%. >> yeah, linkedin is a company we've been used to seeing really blow out the expected numbers. this isn't quite the level of blow out that we're used to seeing. on the g

let's go over to julia boorstin in los angeles. julia? on right now. there's a big focus on hbo. this is the first quarter that hbo has been broken out as a separate division. ceo just moments ago on the call talked a lot about how big and successful hbo is, saying it's in a league of outs own, clearly addressing the rise of netflix. he says hbo remains in a league of its own. noting last year it added 2 million subscribers in the u.s. highest increase in 17 years. while this is significant it's worth pointing out that netflix added over 2 million subscribers just in the fourth quarter. now, bewkes not to be out done by netflix, saying it's going to invest in original programming with five new series in this coming year. he also talked about the focus on digital with hbo go saying active users grew 30% in average monthly usage increased by double digits. there's a been a lot of talk about whether hbo go can be a stand alone alternative to netflix. there was no mention of that in the prepared statements on the call but i do predict that th

cnbc's julia boorstin joins us to explain what is going on at aol.ines. >> that's right, simon. after a controversy-filled few days aol ceo tim armstrong reversed the companies decision to change 401(k) benefits from a pay per period to a yearly lump sum contribution. now, armstrong reverses the policy over the weekend, after listening to an outpouring of employee feedback about the 401(k) changes as well as the comments he made about two aol employees having distressed babies, costing aol over $2 million. he said, quote, on a personal note, i made a mistake and i apologize for my comments last making process around our employee benefit programs." the mother of one of those children mentioned by armstrong during the town hall spoke to nbc "nightly news" over the weekend. >> i think what he was trying to do was explain his justification for cutting employee benefits with this rationale that, well, we're spending this much on health care, it has to come from somewhere. and i think this was the wrong way to go about that. >> this all started this past t

facebook's business that cheryl sandberg has granted in a year and a half, she sat down with our own julia boorstin at aol's makers conference which is focused on women leader. sandberg was asked how facebook keeps from hitting a ceiling of how much money advertisers have set aside for social. >> we think we're way beyond what is a social ad budget, 12% of consumer media time is on mobile and just 3% of the budgets and we think we offer by far the best opportunity to reach consumers on mobile. facebook gets one in seven minutes on the desktop. we get one in five minutes on mobile, so greater percentage and when people are on facebook on their mobile phones the thing they do the most is read their news feed and engage with their news feed and so our ads and news feed offer a really interesting way to reach people wherever they are. >> all right, one in five minutes on mobile versus one in seven on the desktop. >> interesting. she's talking about -- this return on investment for the large-scale advertisers. i keep hearing from large scale advertisers, they don't like to talk publicly about it, they l

i'm julia boorstin.d what he's most proud of is the fact that he's helped connect 1.25 billion people. looking to the next ten years, zuckerberg says he's focused on helping people connect and communicate in new and different ways with a series of stand alone apps like facebook's instagram and its paper news reader app which launched just yesterday. >> there are all of these different things that people want to do. and you know, i think increasingly people aren't going to get them all from just one app which is why a lot of what we're trying to do is build new experiences for people. there's going to be the core facebook experience that you've gotten to know over the last ten years and we're going to continually focus on improving that. a lot of the next few years is also going to be building new great experiences for people that help people share and consume content in new ways as well. >> facebook has transformed into a mobile advertising giant, seemingly overnight to set the stocks soaring. zumer berg

julia boorstin is live in los angeles to tell us what it means to tell us for netflix bottom line. >> a fraction of the boost the first series did, it's a huge win. last year's debut, original premium content which helped lure 6.3 million new u.s. streaming subscribers and sent netflix stock up over 130% over the past 12 months. reviews of this season have been even more positive than the first one and buzz is huge. "house of cards" is trending on twitter nationwide. there's been backlash from fans disappointed netflix wouldn't release the series early for those who are house bound due to the storm. even president obama tweeted, tomorrow, house of cards no, spoilers, please. netflix won't reveal viewer numbers just saying there's been an increase in people catching up on season one. last fall netflix announced it would double investment in original content. the originals would still represent 10% the company's overall content expenses. there's no question that netflix' originals including "house of cards" are spurring serious investments from the competition. amazon announced the seco

our julia boorstin joins us now to break it all down with groupan's ceo, hey, julia. >> thanks so muchd eric lefkofsky, ceo of groupon, thanks so much for joining us today. your fourth quarter was strong, eric, but the first quarter that outlook for earnings really is concerning to investors, how can you explain to investors why this makes sense to lower outlook so significantly? >> actually, i think the guidance for the first quarter's actually fairly strong in terms of revenue. i think we guided a $710 million to $760 million which is pretty aggressive. it's 22% at the midpoint. and we're fortunate to be able to guide to growth, you know, 2013 was all about building a solid foundation. and 2014 is about growth. to get some of that growth you have to invest in marketing and so we told the market that we're going to be investing about $45 million in marketing to drive that growth. but the growth is pretty dramatic. and we also told the world that our 2014 ebita would be slightly at or above 2013 levels, so to have a company our size growing in the mid-20s that's still delivering, you k

julie boorstin joins us with the details. juliaa big difference for a company that often loses traffic because of long lines. >> and, kelly, this is going to make popping into whole foods for a quick bite a lot faster. now whole foods shoppers will be able to use a square register or square stand to swipe their credit card or even just wave their iphone to pay at whole foods sandwich counters, juice, and toffee bars allowing them to skip checkout lines crowded with people buying groceries. this will allow whole foods to reduce wait times and serve more customers. the high end grosser is already using square stand which is a $300 ipad stand with a built-in card reader in seven of its stores and will now turn several of its whole foods locations into labs to test additional payments innovations with square. if square, which charges on average 2.75% per swipe, can snag even a tiny percentage of whole foods $13 billion in annual revenue, it will be a huge deal for square's bottom line. this partnership with whole foods follows square's