chief executive marissa mayer says chief operating officer henrique de castro is leaving the company. our senior west coast correspondent john ehrlichman has the details. any reason for the sudden departure? >> i think this is a reminder that there are still some struggles for the yahoo business. we have talked about this being one of the hottest stocks around over the last 12 months and the fact that they have a prized position -- possession in their stake in ali baba. it is very difficult these days when you're competing with the likes of google and facebook. that has shown up in their numbers, the operational performance, and this is the operations guy. this is somebody that marissa mayer did know from her time at google. >> do we know whether he went on his own, or was he pushed? >> well, we know this is somebody who got a lot of money.

ceo marissa mayer?> plus, jerry seinfeld is asked about the secret meeting he had earlier this month. we'll be right back. i procrastinated... nbc universal's coverage of the 2012 london games was the most watched television event ever. so, what's next? the upcoming winter games from sochi. where every second of nbc universal's coverage will be available on every device. on tv, online or streaming on the nbc sports live extra app. beginning february 6th, experience the winter games everywhere. welcome to what's next. comcast nbcuniversal >>> welcome back to "the lead," we're live from waukesha, wisconsin. the interview with president obama will be airing tomorrow on "the lead" and at 6:00 a.m. on "the lead". >>> now, she was a superstar exec who left google. yahoo!'s ceo may be in trouble. marissa mayer. is this the end of the line for mayer? jesse of "fortune" magazine has more on yahoo!'s future. is this a defining moment for marissa mayer? >> it's definitely a defining moment for marissa mayer. you a

marissa has been turning around yahoo.she has been rebranding the company not just as a web search solution but as a media powerhouse. there's been a lot of high profile names that they've been hiring over the last couple of months including katie couric, david poe from the new york times. so they are really on fire. they're doing great. there's a lot of buzz here on the showroom floor and in the twitterverse about marissa and what the future of yahoo holds. >>what trends are emerging at ces this year? >>i mentioned a couple like wearable tech and connected devices. convergence is another great one. these areone product that can do a number of things very well. for example intel has had a really busy booth with what they call 2 in 1's. these are laptops that turn into tablets. i've got one in front of me as an example. this is the dell xps-12 that can transform from a keyboard centric laptop into a touchscreen. so from your 9 to 5 life and then into your 5 to 9 life. when you want to kick back and use your fingertips with

how does this reflect on marissa mayer? higher top-d to notch people, but we are waiting for them to put a business model on the table that creates real excitement for yahoo!. the buck stops with her. person may make everyone feel better in terms of isating energy, but the fact where is the new business model? where is the sizzle that is going to make it more exciting? >> let's move the focus more broadly to the valley in general. do you feel like there is $109 million for 14 months of not good work -- is this indicative of a race for talent that has gotten out of hand? people are throwing around money and it needs to come back down to earth a little bit? >> i could not agree more. i kind of trick is something that you would've expected on wall street. not out of silicon valley. what you usually count on them doing is coming up with some ingenious idea from surprising people. it is not hiring all-stars. it is the person who suddenly stumbles on something. there is a culture that enables that idea to grow and achieve some no

marissa mayer has been working to revamp yahoo! to compete with google.rendan greeley writes about technology. he talks on "surveillance." >> i am not surprised they are having trouble, everybody likes marissa mayer. she is doing a good job with a company -- i am not sure what the company does. i am not sure what yahoo! is for. it is hard to explain how they are going to make money other than as a media company. she has been hiring journalists, it looks like one strategy is to attempt to become a real news organization. we know that it is really hard to make money off of news. they have all these disparate properties, it is not clear how they come together. they are chasing page views. as page view advertising rates decline or fail to rise with me, it is not clear what -- how the company will make money. >> bloomberg terminal calls yahoo! "a global internet media company." >> that means anything and everything. >> my question is how much time does she have, when does the pressure start to ratchet up, these can go on forever. they try strategy after strate

have a marissa mayer different strategy than the one described by henrique de castro?e a different focus? --i think that there is obviously, a lot of things are happening at yahoo!, bringing in fresh talent, interesting acquisitions, small ones to get talented people on board, and other ones to get other strengths, like the purchase of the name ofin trying to build this business, make yahoo! relevant, and find new advertising dollars. as i said, the platform that is yahoo!, despite having hundreds of millions of daily users, is trying to find its place in this new world of searching on our phones, social media, not really a big presence for yahoo! overall. i think that is the name of the game, figuring that out, and maybe it wasn't getting figured out enough fast enough. >> the chief operating officer, henrique de castro, leaving yahoo! thank you, jon erlichman, our senior west coast correspondent. have you ever wanted to hit your head against the wall trying to get through to customer service, a live human being? we will talk with executives from a company called geth

ceo marissa mayer giving no reason for his departure.ds another should down including $tuesd. it's thursday, january 16th, 2014. "squawk box" begins right now. >> good morning, everybody. i'm becky quick along with joe kernen and andrew ross sorkin. blackrock reporting better-than-expected earnings this morning. the company raising its quarterly dividend by about 15%. blackrock's chairman and ceo blairry kimp king is whichever thattette gob on. what a megs al ya should. the ceo marissa mayer said she fired enruqui de castro. he was her first major hire. made $632 milli million. the financial times reporting

marissa mayer is some and we will continue to watch out for. "bloombergctic rag, businessweek" writes on technology with a real economic view. were you surprised at this? i've heard a lot of constructive criticism about the marissa mayer regime. are we surprised that he castro is out? >> i'm surprised by him having to leave, but i'm not surprised with are having trouble. everybody likes marissa mayer and says she's doing a good job. she's doing a good job with the company that i'm not completely sure what the company does or what yahoo! is for. it is hard to explain how they're going to make money other than as a media company. she has been hiring a lot of journalists. it looks like one strategy is to attempt to become a real news organization. kind of a mugs game. it is hard to make money off of news. disparatethese properties. it is not clear how they come together. there to -- chasing page views. as rates decline or fail to rise with need, it is not at all clear what the company is going to make money with. >> calls it "global internet neede

marissa myer is said to have fired him. she was disappointed with his efforts to boost growth. get this. he was in the role for 14 months. >> not bad at all. >> european auto sales raced ahead with 13% surge in december. let's get over to berlin where our autos reporter chad thomas has more. what is behind the surge and what are the markets surging particularly well? >> hi, francine. good morning. not only was this the bigs gain in four years, it wases there fourth consecutive monthly gain. you could say we're starting to see a friend here. many markets did well. half of the markets in europe post a gain of 10% or more with . e u.k. up a whopping 25% spain being held by a cash for clunkers program in that country's government incentives essentially and in the netherlands sales more than doubled in december and that is because taxes on cars are going up in january and so people rushed out to buy a car before that tax increase came into place. when we look at the automakers that did best, it was volkswagen and renault and volkswagen done well because of their discount brand. it h

marissa mayer struggling to turn user growth into our dollars. -- into ad dollars.toryis a revenue growth -- >> except there is no revenue growth. >> investors have been waiting for yahoo! to figure out how to monetize its users. we know digital advertising is growing 15% a year. yahoo! and aol are unable to take advantage of that. marissa mayer is starting to feel some pressure now that she is a year-and-a-half into her leadership of the company. >> we saw alibaba results, they are trailing. take 51% yearwill over year. slower than it has been. -- of whate signs of that business is showing. in terms ofow revenue growth in the third quarter, they report one quarter in arrears. people feel very bullish about alibaba and e-commerce overall in china. ali baba is the place. the valuation associated with the ipo, whenever it may come in 2014 continues to be the driver. >> people say mercer mayer has turned around this company when they look at the stock price, not the results. you really see the financial -- youd sharing of lope really see financial engineering of dan lo

marissa mayer is starting to feel some pressure now that she is a year-and-a-half into her leadershipf the company. >> we saw alibaba results, they are trailing. 51% growth, i will take 51% year over year. slower than it has been. showing some signs of -- of what that business is showing. >> it did slow in terms of revenue growth in the third quarter, they report one quarter in arrears. people feel very bullish about alibaba and e-commerce overall in china. alibaba is the place. the valuation associated with the ipo, whenever it may come in 2014 continues to be the driver. >> people say marissa mayer has turned around this company when they look at the stock price, not the results. you really see financial engineering of dan loeb. >> they are to monetize part of their investment in alibaba last year. they did a good job of returning proceeds to shareholders, they have done a good job from that perspective. if you look at the stock, it is a complete bet on the value of the ali baba ipo. no real improvement on fundamentals, marissa mayer suggests it is a "multiple your turnaround." >> n

marissa mayer. randall stephenson. they talked about everything from the future of technology to the nsa. i want to bring in our editor at large cory johnson. good to be in the same place now. >> we have been in separate places for a month. [laughter] >> one of the interesting things about the nsa, the tech leaders pointing fingers squarely at the government. >> it is interesting. certainly sac,o, and yahoo! as well getting these requests from the nsa. here they are at the world economic forum talking about the impact on their businesses. could askd if you president obama one thing, what would you ask for? let's look at marissa mayer. >> what one thing would you ask president for? >> transparency. so users understand the background requests we are getting and how that data is going to be used. we need to be able to rebuild trust with our users. trustyou think that the has fallen because of this? >> i definitely think so. not only within the u.s., but also internationally. me there are other countries that have concerns

marissa mayer struggling to maintain market share.her ability to renewinground -- questions over her ability to turn it around. tom orlik with us as well. yahoo!'s display ad business keeps falling, is it too late? have marketers stop spending because sales are falling, sales fall even more? >> if you look at the stock chart of yahoo!, greatly divorced from the revenue -- >> sure, because of alibaba. >> because of u.s. investor incitement -- excitement about the potential of alabama'ibaba'. growthsee a big piece of and yahoo!. yahoo! has spent over $1 billion -- $1.5 billion in acquisitions in the last three year, get revenues have failed to grow for four quarters. we saw a 2% decline in revenues year-over-year. the business slows down, they are spending over $1 billion to try to grow revenues. >> what about the purchases in asia? the investments in ali baba and yahoo! japan have paid off. tom, you live in beijing and you use ali baba. a combination of ebay, amazon, paypal. is it impossible to avoid? ubiquitous, 70% of packages throug

. >> please welcome marissa mayer. [ applause ] >> reporter: for yahoo ceo marissa mayer it was an hourf geek talk and star power boasting 400 million users every month, yahoo is launching contextualized home streams, basically apps that rearrange themselves based on your location like the gym, grocery store or the office. >> think about how much your phone understands about you -- your location, your contacts, your calendar, your emails. and now, imagine what happens when that context becomes part of the search experience. the future of search is contextual knowledge and we are investing to be part of the future. >> reporter: remember the startup that yahoo bought last year from a 17-year-old boy for $30 million? it's launching its yahoo news digest. yahoo sees itself as a content creator, for example, hiring katie couric to conduct and broadcast exclusive interviews. >> and we're also in the process of reimagining, i think, how we can take both original and curated content and deliver in a much more thorough and useful way, particularly on mobile devices. >> reporter: to drive home th

. >> an old colleague of marissa mayer. they worked together. it was a big higher. -- marissa mayer made it clear this was her choice. i want to read this statement. during my own recollection, she says, i made a difficult decision than our coo should leave the company. i appreciate his contributions and wish him the best in his future endeavors. and makes you wonder what happened. she did know what she was getting. today have to do with the personalities? does that have to do with the numbers? >> the numbers do not help the situation. the ad revenue has been down year-over-year. the share is down to five percent this year from 5.8%. google andike facebook have seen their fair share increase. something was not clicking. i will give her points for calling it like she see that. sometimes you see reorganization. maybe the guy goes to lead innovation or something. >> creative differences. >> she is admitting that it was the wrong decision. moving on. >> that is to her credit. what might be to her or the board's demerit is what he is walking away wit

. >> coming up next week, kathie lee will be back, we'll have marissa hargitay, kellen lutz. >> also, kris jenner, dean cain. sophia bush, and much more. >> have a great weekend, everybody.

the decision by marissa mayer was to say, i will go with the team that i have. yahoo's story has been one with a lot of positives. they have been red hot, marissa mayer have done a lot of interesting acquisitions. she has brought in fresh talent. they have brought in people like katie couric. they have a very valuable asset in ali baba. when you look at their online performance, you do not see a lot of change. when they last came out with their quarterly results, there was disappointment among analysts about performance. there was a decline. in the most recent quarter, 420 million. the story has been a similar struggle. the search relationship between yahoo and microsoft, they are still trying to figure out how well that works. the bottom-line is that google is the big search engine in that category. they continue to be dominant. yahoo is trying to figure out its story. the performance is not there. de castro is not there either. >> let's talk about the people she has added in the last year. who are today, and how does she fill this role? >> she likely feels ok

marissa mayer said transparency. yahoo! a number of companies have been asking the government permission to be more transparent about the data request they are getting, but marc benioff turned it around a little bit. >> transparency is not just about the government. it is also about vendors. vendors have to provide complete and total transparency themselves. they also cannot pick it all on the government. -- they cannot pit it all on the government. >> what do you make of him saying that? >> all three companies on that panel have had to deal with government requests to get information from those companies. in the case of at&t and yahoo!, in the case of cisco about technology. salesforce has not had to deal with that. i think he is in a rare position on that panel to make that request. >> did benioff have a point there? should we be looking at the companies' policies as well as the government policies? >> absolutely. benioff made a great point. it was excellent of him to say that. large companies like google and yahoo! get r

clearly the public perceptions of marissa mayer and yahoo!and a half have been i think overwhelmingly positive by and large. but what we have seen is an increasing focus on the i'd say eroding and lackluster at best fundamentals in the company. people have been emphasizing the tremendous value in some of the asian assets including the aforementioned alibaba group. but the reality is i think people are growing uneasy and uncertain about the future of yahoo! even with that investment. >> let's talk about alibaba in a moment. ben, let me just ask you about where we are with marissa mayer and let's not forget that she kicked out one of her friends in running the company coo recently with a $110 million payoff whatever it was. rbc capital is saying there is a window of opportunity to innovate in the way that twitter and facebook are innovating and that window of opportunity is closing quite rapidly. would you agree with that, ben? >> yeah. generally i think that is fair. but, you know, the reality is don't forget the stock and that's what we care

ceo marissa mayer. they worked together for a long time. he was a big higher and so long. -- a big hire. >> i want to read a quick statement from this. it has been a widely reported memo. i made it difficult decision that the coo should leave and i ique'siate henr contributions and wish them the best. it has to do with personality and the numbers. >> the numbers don't help the situation do they? they have been down year-over- year and the share of the ad 5.8%t is down to 5% from while google and facebook have seen their shares increase. clearly something was not clicking. i will give props for it doing it as she sees. like sometimes you see creative differences with the bands. >> to her credit, she was admitting it was the wrong decision and moving on. >> what might be to her, or the demerit is what he's walking away with. 14 months on the job -- $109 m illion. >> 109 million dollars for 14 months on the job, severance for yahoo!, his bonus, salary, stock . >> continuing to get paid even though he does not work there anymore. >> had to the

marissa mayer fires his first in command, you're out of here.investors now worry about the earnings and the turn around at yahoo!? best buy's holiday sales failing to impress. jcpenney shutting 33 stores. are we now seeing the reshaping of the entire shopping industry as we know it? and auto sales have had a great year or so. but is the honeymoon over? a new survey suggests one key demographic is not buying. what this might mean for automakers worldwide. scott, back to you and "halftime" team. >> thanks so much. let's head back over to the market flash desk now. the domino is always watching. what does he see? >> scott, we're going to begin with nu skin. china is investigating the company's business practices. the company says it's an inquiry, not an investigation. the stock up 113% over the last year. again, nu skin in focus. dragging down other multi-level marketers as well. think herba life also moving lower on that bit of news. on the flip side, tyson foods, this after reports that reuters is saying that the company was considering buying mi

is the honeymoon now over for ceo marissa mayer? coming up, we'll hear from somebody who says mayer's time at yahoo! may be running out if she doesn't produce results. your best tweets will be revealed later on "the closing bell." >> @cnbcclosingbell is the way to reach us. it's all coming up in about 45 minutes. keep it right here. you're watching cnbc, first in business wordwide. ldwide. here's a word you should keep in mind "unbiased". some brokerage firms are but way too many aren't. why? because selling their funds makes them more money. which makes you wonder. isn't that a conflict? search "proprietary mutual funds". yikes!! then go to e*trade. we've got over 8,000 mutual funds and not one of them has our name on it. we're in the business of finding the right investments for you. e*trade. less for us, more for you. the fund's prospectus contains its investment objectives, risks, charges, expenses and other important information and should be read and considered carefully before investing. for a current prospectus visit www.etr

it was a big higher. -- marissa mayer made it clear this

some of the moves that marissa mayer has made have been very expensive.hey have yet to show any results. >> what can she do about this hole in her see suite? it seems like she will be taking on a lot of responsibility. what does it mean when a ceo is personally doing what the coo should do. >> these jobs are different in every case in the way that those job responsibilities are delineated. there are so many people who used to work at yahoo!, myself included. i think a lot of people in silicon valley root for the company because they have some memories of the place and want to see it succeed. people talk about yahoo! as though it is hewlett-packard, as though it is part of the ancient value. so many people have been in and out of the revolving doors that i think before that in santa clara that you have a lot of people rooting for the company and is trying to find a way. somebody will walk in eventually. you have to vote on 10 short years. >> it is funny and talking with new employees at yahoo!, old .mployees at yahoo! they say the energy is different. how

it is interesting that marissa has made big hires in the media space.ired a girl who is a phenomenal editor. are they in the news content business? when did that happen? >> i think a lot remains to be seen on where this is going. it certainly goes toward a trend where we are seeing journalists who have brand names that are taking their audiences with them and not just katie couric and david poe. you mentioned ezra cody worked with. >> we overlapped at the washington post. >> he is starting his own thing. >> i think he was -- >> what are your thoughts on this? what are his chances of success? >> i biggest worry here is at the end of the day, all of us in this new age of media we are dealing with, you have to your own institution. what is that about? what i find interesting is the move of all of these people. will the content be judged? we know how much ezra klein is worth. if it is the graphics and all of that stuff, people will think on that. or are they clinging to that because it was on the washington post website? >> you do nothing automatically he w

the first being marissa mayer today and justin bieber last week.ry tough for you. >> it is. >> here's how i look at it. alibaba, their revenue growth year over year slowed by 20%. that's significant. pricing is coming down. i think we focus too much on what that means. that's already in the stock price. alipay, that's in the valuation already. what we've got is a ceo who is over a little bit. she said the head of sales who she hired doesn't fit. now she's taking over the sales role. watch out. she's never done it. you've got a declining company here with declining metrics and market share in growth. despite the 10 million people they added prices are down. they're not worth that much. >> where he's right, judge, maris isa mayer has to perform here. revenue has to pick up. they're going to do it -- >> how long have we been saying that, though, doc? >> you do have the embedded put here. the put is alibaba and yahoo! japan. >> what if the franchise goes down you're more than comp is it for that put and you don't know what alibaba -- >> i think alibaba

. >>> later on, marissa shakes things up. ouchting her number two. >>> if you feel like telling your boss to take this job and shove it, pretty good news for you. there's an app noor. we'll explain when "street signs" returns. [ 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 ♪ ♪ this magic moment does it end after you've expanded your business?? after your company's gone public? and the capital's been invested? or when your company's bought another? is it over after you've given back? you never stop achieving. that's why, at barclays, our ambition is to always realize yours. >>> welcome back to "street signs." lots of

today it is all about marissa maper and the latest drama at yahoo!.ulia boorstin and jon fortt. chief operating officer, firing, hand-perked guy, henrique de castro, with the company about year. one of the highest paid execs in silicon valley, apparently they didn't see eye to eye and ms. mayer decided it was time for him to leave the company. raising questions, multiple ones. yahoo!'s earnings outlook. folks, is this an early warning is sign about bad earnings? jon, take a whack? >> maybe. we didn't expect much out ofy revenuewise. the display ad businesses, the main area he would have been concerned about, search and other areas have been contributing more. so, ah i think it says more about marissa's hiring and ability to work and act quickly if her decisions aren't working out tht julia, thoughts on the earnings specifically and second topic, is the turnaround at yahoo! coming off the rails? >> well, remember that earnings are coming up at the end of this month. this news comes a couple of weeks before those earnings announcements. i think jon's ri

coming up, 18 months into the job and the outlook isn't good for marissa mayer and yahoo!.e will tell you why investors sold off in extended trading after the company reported results yesterday that is next. ♪ >> welcome back. i am francine lacqua in london. here are some companies on the move. novartis profits missed analyst estimates for the fourth quarter. the european drugmaker was hurt by emerging-market currencies and strong swiss francs. novartis is seeking to replace its best-selling drugs which are starting to lose patent protection. nintendo's third-quarter income dropped 77% as christmas shoppers shunned its console. the company said it would buy back shares for as much as ¥125 billion. nintendo shocked the market when it forecast a surprise annual loss and said it is considering a new business model. lenovo is said to be ready to pay an unusually large fee to ibm as it fails to acquire the low-end server unit. lenovo will pay a so-called reverse breakup fee, about 8% of the $2.3 billion price for the unit. normally deals like this are about pre-.5%. the ibm unit

ceo marissa mayer, salesforce ceo marc benioff.y covered everything from the nsa to the tech industry at large to what technology has changed their lives the most. i want to bring in nicholas thompson, editor of thenewyor ker.com, as well as cory johnson, our editor at large here. marissa mayer talked a lot about the mobile business, how mobile traffic will surpass desktop traffic by the end of this year. she also made an interesting comment about hiring. let's listen to that. >> a lot of it comes with people. it is a matter of hiring the right people and making sure that those people are really informed. very transparent. we do things that are considered kind of crazy. >> let's focus on the context because she just fired her top lieutenant. >> they are hiring the right people, right. yahoo! must be looked at as nothing but a turnaround right now. products a couple of people are hanging onto with yahoo! mail and the homepage, but she does not think the team at yahoo! is the right team to do that. >> what do you think? >> i think th

marissa meyer says they need to be more vigilant about your information. collecting your information is for your benefit. >> if we can anticipate the things you might want to know or some of the questions you may have, we just make you smarter. we want to go from you telling us what you want to know to us suggesting things you might want to know that might make your life better. >> the president says nsa surveillance is key to national security and has not overstepped. >> nobody's listening to the content of people's phone calls. >> recently, target and neiman marcus, retailers you trust, forced to admit your information was stolen in their care. the economists calls bruce schneider a security guru. he is the author of "liars and outliers." you say we are not customers. we are the product. >> well, it is true. think about google and facebook. they are free services and the reason they are free is because the sites are collecting your information and using that for manipulation to persuade you to buy things and part you from your money. we are definitely th

let's take a listen what marissa meyer had to ask. >> what is one request you would make that presidentma? >> transparency. the ability to, one, understand, so we can help our users understand exactly how many requests we're getting and/or the range of requests we're getting and how the data will be used because we need to rebuild trust with our users. >> do you feel the trust has fallen because of this, marissa? >> yeah, i definitely think so. and not only within the u.s. but also internationally. certainly there are other countries that really have concerns about what the n.s.a. is looking at and i think transparency is something that would really ultimately help them. >> you do wonder what the fallout is going to be internationally in terms of how it's going to affect the growth of these companies if international clients, for example, don't trust yahoo! or other companies to hold their daysa. then they turn somewhere else. >> every one of those c.e.o.'s, at&t, cisco, yahoo! have all been to the white house to talk to president obama specifically about this issue. out last sco came q

ceo marissa mayer brought him on board and this week he revealed the new yahoo! he's been working on. she's acquired dozens of start-ups and young entrepreneurs with them. like the yahoo! ceo i'm biullis on millennials. no celebrity represents millennials like dunham. her business is all about lost 20 somethings and business is good. >> everything has been so terrible and painful in the last few months, leading me to this point. >> award winning show, a multi-million dollar book deal, and a whole lot of buzz, all by age 27. >> everything actually is awesome for me. >> inspired by her own post-college aimlessness, lena dunham wrote, directed, and started in "tiny furniture." it won praise on a indy circuit and best narrative feature at the 2010 south by southwest festival. >> how do i look? >> reporter: two years later dunham hit it big with "girls," creator and star working along side comedy director and producer. the hbo series tells a story of 20 somethings struggling to get their lives on track in new york. >> and then i am busy, trying to become who i am. >>

i love about what marissa is doing at yahoo! is she has modernized the company. she is focused on product. she is brilliant at that. >> but the numbers aren't working. is turning it around. i love what she is doing at yahoo!, and i love the direction the company is going in. they are working harder. parking garagehe and it is not empty at 4:00 in the afternoon. what she also has, i'm not kidding, she is hot thomas and that helps. there was a study by the university of wisconsin that said that good-looking ceo's help the stock performance over the short-term. ballmer,ook at steve he was sweating and jumping all over the stage. >> he was hot. >> you are talking about microsoft having all this cash. you are doing a set up where you my friend is overweight and boring, but he is rich. >> what about buying all these companies. is that the right move? small companies have great ideas and they are going to be putting in the extra hours. theou plug them into resources of yahoo! are facebook or google, then they can really take off. here foro have you this hour. thank you

under marissa mayer the stock price has doubled. but they bought a lot of companies last year.the quarterly earnings last quarter dropped about 5%. the ceo telling investors that they need more time to turn the company fully around. live in sunnyvale, kiet do, kpix 5. >>> only on kpix 5, as san francisco city officials work on ways to let google and other companies use muni stocks for their private buses, google is experimenting with another commute option for its workers. one experiment is the google ferry. chopper 5 caught it in operation on san francisco bay yesterday. the triumphant is using san francisco's ferry building to pick up and drop off passengers. >> carrying passengers for a tech company google on a trial basis for 30 days to see if it makes sense if their employees would like to use the bay as a highway. >> google ferry is making two runs in the morning from san francisco to redwood city. then two return trips to san francisco in the evening. it is not allowed to get in the way of public boats that serve the ferry building. >>> with more action today on capitol

pressure mounting on ceo marissa mayer on earnings which comes after the bell. as a cnbc panel last weekend, marissa mayer explains the firm's strategy. >> for us, 2013 was the year of investment. we made more than two dozen acquisitions. they were all small acquisitions and in most cases with the exception of tumbler and so that the value for us is, you know, two dozen or more entrepreneurs who are bringing new ideas, fresh technology to the problems that we work on each day. and so that was 2013. i can't really comment on 2014 because my earnings will be released on tuesday, as well. >> dan, what's going on with the core business? clearly, trends are declining. i mean, first of all, are you approving of this move to make yahoo! a content business? >> i am. i think the strategy is the right one, moving more to mobile and more towards media and they certainly have begun through acquisitions and through some strategic hires to pursue that strategy more aggressively. i do, however, wonder about some of marissa's most recent moves, for instance, the hiring of katie

marissa mayer, just on that web cast right now. it's just starting. there's footage of it. she looks very excited about her quarter. >> is that sarcasm? >> yes. >> come on. >> it is what it is. we'll bring you the updates as we have them. josh lipton is monitoring the exciting web cast here. >> i think you buy it here. there's a lot of people out there that have missed this move. they want to get in with ali baba. now, you have it down 5%, 6% in the after-hours. down 3%. now, it's chance to get in. you discounted any weakness there. >> i want to play the space through google. i realize it's an ali baba story that's the tail wagging the dog to look at the search part. but google, reporting thursday, i don't know if this is a sign of more share that google has taken away. that would be a good thing. however, i did sell some out of the money googles 1160s today. they expire on friday. this just captures earnings. that's where the stock peaked a little over 1160. so, i'm expecting good things there. but i will be upset in a blowout quarter that i sold. >> we'll monitor that web

. >> every weekend, marissa opens the house to an ever changing mob of friends, visitors, drop-ins andthis is fantastic. >> they do not skimp on the food. delicious, delicious things pour out of the kitchen, a torrent, a deluge of traditional peruvian favorites. >> i do this with crab meat, yellow potato and avocado. we love avocado. >> it is like a tureen of crab meat, eggs, avocado and mashed yellow potatoes. >> this is from the coast. >> beautiful. >> basically raw king fish fillets dressed with lime juice. >> perfect. >> that's scallops ceviche. >> fresh scallops and lemon juice and garlic. drum fish, braised with a corn based beer. >> they look fantastic. >> this is spicy. >> very spicy. >> and stuffed ricotta peppers filled with ground beef and raisins, served with cheese. >> wow. >> are we lucky or what? >> we are lucky. >> that's just the beginning. there's so much more food there's no way we can show it all, much less describe it. it's incredible, overwhelming, invariably fresh and delicious and different than what i'm used to. >> that's fantastic. >> i could get out of the ch

marissa mayer managed to increase users at yahoo! -- 20%. not so with sales. she is not managing to bring in the advertisers. they are going to google and looking to facebook to advertise rather than yahoo!. what is she doing wrong and what is she is trying to do to turn this thing around and why she is not employing -- operating -- a new operating officer. we get more concerns about ukraine. investors itells is now a good time to buy ukrainian debt even if protesters are celebrating the prime minister's resignation and promised to push on with the campaign to topple the president. >> thanks. >> more on yahoos latest earnings. we will see if your a semi or can turn the company around after more than a year and a half at the helm. ♪ >> time for today's company news. mercedes-benz has left the company for personal reasons. andad the job for a year was in target to meet the 2014 2 billion dirt -- 2 billion euro target. a former foxconn detective -- executive was detained yesterday. he was the second former employee held in investigation for brought -- bribe. alle

as envisioned by marissa mayer seems to be working.ble to be by about 30% on the earnings line assuming these are apples to apples comparison. inrevenue out with quarters a row of no revenue growth. that's about managing wall street. if your revenue is not growing out all -- i will look at how earnings-per- share ended up so much better. >> that's interesting. intuitively, you would think yahoo! would be a place that people would want to go and hang out. it is lots of interesting things to clicked on versus google inch is basically putting your search term. in terms of search, it is such an uphill battle for them. >> we do not say that i will yahoo! you. we say we will google you. >> when you become the verb. >> they have to put so much money into the content. it cannot be cheap. >> she was not. more aboutmay learn that if we see the actual number there. >> will that equate into collects the? -- into clicks? >> it's one of the most important things on the web and elsewhere, not just getting the person there but keeping them there. >> t

marissa alexander is on home detention while she's out on bond awaiting a new trial.e sheriff's department whether she could do certain things while she was on home detention. she wanted to go to the grocery store, she was given permission. she wanted to go to the bank, she was given permission. she ran some other errands and the sheriff's department monitored her with the gps and was gone from home for no more than two minutes. according to the prosecution, the sheriff's department didn't have the authority to give her that permission to go run these errands and that the judge's order for home detention was specific, she should remain home. the prosecution asked in court, how do we know she didn't go get a gun, for instance? well, there's no evidence she went to get a gun, but the judge was clearly upset that the sheriff's department had been giving her permission to go back and forth but didn't hold marissa alexander responsible for going out and doing this, and now the sheriff's department has a little bit of an internal review under way. the reason all of this is

ceo marissa mayer gave her keynote address.he outlined her company's plans for the year including new apps, sites and acquisitions and, of course, she talked about mobile. >> this fall for the first time ever we surpassed more than 400 million monthly mobile users, excludeing tumblr, that's half of the 800 million total monthly users we see on yahoo's core sites. mobile has made our daily lives more consistent, more convenient, and more inspiring in ways we didn't even think possible ten years ago. >> it's all about marketing at ces and they got their money's worth today, cover of the money section of "usa today" as mayer puts on a show, jim. >> yeah. she's heir apparent to the jobs show. people are riveted by what she says. i don't think it's that shocking that mobile's that strong. these are all part of the gigantic transmobile, social and cloud that have infected our stock market. and if you have mobile whether it be nokia another "back frof the dead" stock or when it be google which has been an incredible performer or yahoo

came in right after marissa took over. talk to us about the m&a strategy. it seems like yahoo!as bought five companies every day. >> it's definitely inappropriate for me to comment. i think they are building up a new yahoo! and they are doing a pretty good job. part of it is acquiring talent and smart young driven people that are attracted to the fact that the company has bets to place and think of yahoo! as a place to have a bigger lever. >> critics have said these companies that yahoo! is buying failed. why would you want telephone -- talent from companies that struggle to make it? >> i think it is about as generalized a statement as one can imagine. the one thing i can tell you about the yahoo! strategy is that they look at an incredible number of possible acquisitions and choose to acquire an extraordinarily small number. the ratio of pored over with a fine tooth comb and the actual check being written. i'm confident. >> you're a guy who loves starting companies. how confident are you that the people you're bringing and want to stay and want to be as passionate at yahoo! as