more than 200% since marissa mayer took over as ceo in july of 2012.s also on track to hit another big milestone next year. surpasss poised to twitter as the third biggest company in u.s. mobile advertising. joining me now with a look at the competitive mobile ad space .s brian we hear so much about marissa mayer spending money on video, has been on a on bringing in katie couric, bobby brown, and the like. why is yahoo! showing so much traction in the mobile advertising space? a big focus on mobile and when she arrived, she inherited a company that was not doing a lot in mobile. this was a time when the revolution in mobile was well underway. she put a lot of money, time, resources, and said we have to get more people. they have done a lot of that. they have hired, rolled out new programs. it is starting to pay off a little bit. that's not overstate how big they are in this market, but we are starting to see signs that there is traction here. >> what was it about the strategy? they camehe strategy up with, this new ad format? >> this was a key moment i

. >> you mentioned marissa mayer. >> i think she should not be evaluated on whether she invents something new, she is trying to improve those incrementally and that is fantastic. >> other than what you have written in this, what are some things that you believe that very few people agree with you on? >> certainly an issue that i have been outspoken is college education, it has become something of a bubble. a trillion dollars of student debt, not getting what we are paying for, and it has to be rethought of in a very fundamental way. >> if you could start education over again, what would you do? would there be no school? >> they are stuck in the 19th century, i think you need to figure out more ways to make them innovative, let students learn at their own pace. >> you do have a scholarship where you give aspiring entrepreneurs an amount of money to not go to school, and i know some of those entrepreneurs have gone back to school. >> most of them have not. it was designed as a two-year program in which people could take a break from college. i think across the board, they have found it to b

. >> you mention marissa mayer, what do you think her chances are of turning things around? >> she is by far the best ceo it has had in a decade. she should not be evaluated on whether she invents something new. that is setting her up for failure. the existing businesses are big, if you can improve those and make those work, that is fantastic. >> other than what you have written in this book, what are some things you believe that very few people agree with you on? >> an issue i have spoken about is this idea that college education has become something of a bubble. a trillion dollars of student debt is not getting what we are paying for. it needs to be rethought in a fundamental way. >> if you could start education over again, what would you do? >> get rid of the word education. >> would there be no schools? >> they would be very different. they are stuck in the 19th century. you figure out ways to make them individuated, where different students learn at their own pace. >> you have the thiel fellowship. you give aspiring entrepreneurs money to not go to school. some of those

. >> you think russ meyer is doing -- you think marissa mayer is doing a good job?i think it is a reasonable job. i don't know her very well. met a couple of times. yes. >> you are also a father. you have four kids. what kind of a parent are you? >> i'm close to my children, and i always enjoy time with them. because of the job, running around the world, i don't spend a lot of time with them. thank god, they all grew up pretty good. i feel good about it. >> how do they feel about you living half here and half in canada? >> i think my wife loves it. we have been married 34 years. i think sometimes she does not want to see me every day. it is good. if i go home early, she always says, what's wrong? you are not feeling well? i say, i just want to come home early. i am serious. i am not making any of this up. anyway, they support me. if i'm happy, they're just fine. >> what's an app you can't live without? >> e-mail. >> facebook or twitter? >> neither. >> why not? >> i tried it. i got so hooked on it. i'm spending an entire living moment on it. i can't do it. i need to

marissa mayer also majored in symbolic systems. what is that?so, symbolic systems -- it's a unique major to stanford. and, it's -- the simple explanation is cognitive science and artificial intelligence -- although most people will think, 'that isn't simple.' but really, it's actually a step deeper, which is -- part of what is performing the world are these notions of systems of symbols. whether they're computer programs, whether it's mathematics and logic, whether it's models of how we think and psychology -- i think i was the eighth or ninth person to acquire the major. >> so while you are at stanford, you met peter thiel. >> yes. >> tell me how you met. >> peter and i had both been told about each other by people we knew. i was told he was this really right wing person, he was told i was this really left-wing person. we both went, 'wait a minute, i've heard about you.' and so we grabbed coffee, and i think we argued for eight hours. right, because we were like, 'oh, you can't believe that.' and then we were like, 'that was fun, let's do that

shareholders want a lot more from marissa mayer.t if she makes the right moves in this coming year this is a stock that could go to $80 a share, which would be shockingly high to a lot of people who bailed out of the stock earlier on. but all the possibilities are there. if she spins off the asian stakes that she has in a tax-free way if she shows marginal improvement in the yahoo! core business you could go from an implied value of negative 7 billion for the core business today to something like $15 billion, which is more appropriate. so it's all right there for the taking. i think she can be the hero if she makes the right moves. >> so we're going to throw a lot of names at you. one that investors are wondering about is samsung. what happens to samsung next year? they're getting hit on the high end. competition from apple. and hit on the low end, competition from some of the chinese producers. >> yeah i think they're really stuck in the middle. i think they're really facing a difficult road again in 2015. as was 2014 for them. and

while you were sleeping yahoo gained over 220% since marissa mayer took over as ceo in 2012. >> it has come a long way. the best performing stock in the s&p 500 right now is priceline.com. i know you were wondering about that so i brought it to you. a little extra content. >>> existing home sales falling to the lowest level in six months in november, but take a look at this chart from the national association of realtors. our levels, you can see, have come well off lows. however, we are still well off the highs back in the housing frenzy of 2006. tim joining us now. tim, what are your expectations for housing next year? >> well, i'll tell you i decided i'm calling 2014 a push. there is really no winners or losers. it is like 1% up or down. looking at 2015 i think it is more of the same. think about housing in this one proxy. so in 2013 things were going gangbusters. we were really moving. rates up 4.5%. that was enough to chill the housing market up through 2014. that shows you you have a tentative recovery. you start seeing the economy rebound and incomes pick up you should see a lot

marissa mayer said 200 million. so it is just a drop in the bucket for that company. and they have to taken some shares. but they are not letting it down either. so it is nice to do this but it is still just a minor business for them at this point. >> what is the mind set at twitter this morning? >> i wasn't there for breakfast at all. but i think you know they have got to get this number up. in terms of mobile. because that is where people are accessing these things. and we had the guy who founded full screen. and he was talking about how difficult mobile is to get the business going. just when you have captured a really good business online you have to move to this area that is very problematic from a advertising point of view. >> this morning cramer called yahoo a silver spoon stock because of that stake in alibaba. we're still asking questions what they are going to do with those proceeds once they put them to work. would you argue that is still fair? still fairly characterize meyer mayer's tenure. >> yeah. i don't mean so say i'm bored but i want to see an innova

. >>> there's a new book out about ceo marissa mayer. the world got a preview in "new york times magazine" written by the same author. in it, nicholas carlson walks you through. its sixth since the year 2000. one tidbit lots of people are talking about it. deciding not to hire actress gwyneth paltrow to write a blog because paltrow doesn't have a college degree. there are other parts to the book, as well. mayer is the really last great hope for yahoo. >> thank you. >>> taking a look at norad san tra tracker this morning. the countdown underway. we are less than 36 hours away from takeoff. nbc bay area's bob redell is at the north pole taking a look at the flight preparations. >> reporter: you're very lucky, within the past few moments, santa's reindeer have arisen at their pen here at santa's house at north pole where they're starting their daily calisthenics, practicing liftoffs. you'll see them bouncing about in the pen, practicing their takeoffs, which they will be performing within under 48 hours, of course, for christmas eve to haul

marissa mayer. >> not personal losers. they have had a tough year.of ali baba has revealed the underlying metrics of the yahoo! business and it is a tough story could the display advertising has been challenged. mobile has picked up for them, which is good. she has a huge challenge ahead of her to catch up to the giants in internet advertising -- google and facebook. >> is it worth comparing go pro and yahoo!? gopro was a technology company that made the leap into a content company. >> the challenge for gopro -- they ipo'd this year and have done a fantastic job of positioning themselves as the home of the best user-generated content. but can you make money from it? >> not until you are making money off the content. they are eight device company. what's wrong with being a device company? >> you can't make as much as you can by owning the hearts and minds of millenials. >> apple is making tons of money doing that. >> but they also get into content. music. >> they don't own the music. they are a platform. >> the question for gopro is what kind of conte

and if this marissa mayer falls out of favor or it's been rejuvenated then we'll talk about it. >> would you rather own alibaba or yahoo. >> yahoo all the moves of aliba alibaba. i own both. i'm in both. >> i think the stock niles owns as his second largest position is facebook is most interesting. i think it is getting ready to set up its next leg higher. and as i'm talking it is breaking its 50 day moving average again. >> i agree 100%. and we've seen unusual options in there today as a matter of fact. look at facebook, right there is a great stock. >> is apple more exciting than all of them? >> no. >> no. >> no. >> facebook. >> i'm still on the apple story. when people go through this holiday quarter they are going to be floored at what they see. >> coming up. starbuck's, new strategies new products and new stores. will this work. and morgan brennan down on the farm today. >> i was going to milk this cow today but unfortunately it is actually a very tough process and this is a precious commodity. udderly precious. more on that after the break. female announcer: get on board for better

marissa mayer said do not try to reinvent the wheel. what are your calls? >> we are going to see more adding to the wheel. i think we have amazing businesses. you look at london and the foreign exchange businesses. we have funding circle and our business. to see great growth. we are growing 300% a year and continue to do so. we will see it across the board. x we will see more specializing inh businesses that operate the similar sphere as yours. .> i actually think not we will see more models across the same platform. >> thank you for joining us today. thank you for joining us. parison website is in for a windfall today. stake in the her business. found out -- find out how much after the break. >> in a couple of years, we'll have the possibility to invest and improve our visibility around the world and provide more and more success and visibility to the brand. >> that was a ceo talking to abouterg's pimm fox reinventing the luxury brand. we have a little bit of news for you on some of the markets. marquez the record on the china market. let me bring you with

and how marissa mayer thought she could remake yahoo!. her struggle on how hard it is to make money online. from alabama, michael is on the phone. caller: hello. when i think, after 9/11, i never voted. i'm 76. all republicans do is start wars and keep their kids at home. host: this is from another viewer saying all america is worse off. bob is joining us from kentucky. caller: i am a lot better off. my wife and i are both retired. i am 70 years old. $1000 arance went from month. we are on medicare advantage. it's now $144 a month. that is for both of us. the 401(k)s are doing so much better. retirement did not go up, but are social security when up this year about $100 between the two of us. everything is a lot better off. -- thank obama for the way things are. to 6800 and now it's almost 18,000. know where their thoughts are at? with him being black, i think everybody is against him because of his color. host: our lines are open. a lot of you are weighing in on facebook. you can join the conversation on facebook. this is from george. ja

talking about silicon valley about a piece coming out this weekend that reveals new details of marissa mayer's. it talks about the fight to save i can't hamilton let's bring in our own tech contributing editor david killpatrick for his reaction. david, dogging often marissa just before santa arrives? what do you think about this? >> hi, stephanie. i was sorry to read the piece because i've known marissa for a long time and have a lot of respect for her. but nick who is a fantastic journalist and i'm really eager to read the rest of the book revealed. it said she focused too much on the media stuff that she didn't understand and not enough on what is truly her true gift which is tech products and code and programming. and you could argue that maybe she was not the right person to be the c.e.o. of yahoo, lthough i've thought she was good but she might have done as well as anybody could have done. but it's heading towards a relatively unhappy resolution, it would appear based on nick's reporting. >> so fine. let's put it aside and say maybe she shouldn't they shouldn't focus so much on awkwardnes

and name marissa mayer its new ceo. strike three.year's -- >> well, we're going to give you -- >> all right. okay. >> we're going to play along here and give you bob's 2015 predictions and find out whether they're just as bold. here they are. >> russia will be an even bigger problem next year though europe will surprise and google gets serious in its fight with apple. here are three predictions for 2015. boring, they're not. first russia defaults on its debt. the russian ruble has hit new lows against the dollar. oil has dropped 40%. crude oil and petroleum products are half of russia's export revenues. how will they pay for imports? they will default on their debt. second, the european stock market outperforms the u.s. stock market. no recession next year in core europe. the eurozone is stuck in a long-term slow and no growth environment. but the core countries will not sink into a recession. the euro will remain weak boosting trade. after a year when expectations rain shower constantly revised downward, european corporate earnings