facebook and whatsapp is a good match.hey are similar kind of companies, two different modalities of communication. just like instagram does not need to be part of facebook, whatsapp is one of those perfect combinations with facebook. from that standpoint, we can talk about the money and how much money this brings, but this is additive to the facebook business. if the founders of whatsapp are against advertising, they developed a very native idea of advertising for instagram. whatsapp will come up with something similar. it will not be banner ads. i am not really that discouraged on the idea of them doing advertising. the founders of yahoo! -- of whatsapp who come from yahoo!, i heard that yahoo! was aggressively trying to buy them as well. >> we are getting more headlines out of this conference call. mark zuckerberg first proposed this acquisition last sunday night. i want to ask you, what makes you think this is going to be more successful than some major deals that have failed in the past? >> facebook is really in this

facebook and whatsapp is a good match.hey are similar kind of companies, two different modalities of communication. just like instagram does not need to be part of facebook, whatsapp is one of those perfect combinations with facebook. from that standpoint, we can talk about the money and how much money this brings, but this is additive to the facebook business. if the founders of whatsapp are against advertising, they developed a very native idea of advertising for instagram. whatsapp will come up with something similar. it will not be banner ads. i am not really that discouraged on the idea of them doing advertising. the founders of yahoo! -- of whatsapp who come from yahoo!, i heard that yahoo! was aggressively trying to buy them as well. >> we are getting more headlines out of this conference call. mark zuckerberg first proposed this acquisition last sunday night. i want to ask you, what makes you think this is going to be more successful than some major deals that have failed in the past? >> facebook is really in this

whatsapp comes into the picture. >> right. google reportedly also tried to buy whatsapp, but facebook snatched it away. the founders have been famous for hating advertising. we want to give our users something that is ad free. according to whatsapp founders, they say, here is what the change will mean for you. nothing. whatsapp will retain autonomous and operate independently. you can continue to enjoy the service for a nominal fee. you can still count on absolutely no ads interrupting your communication. if facebook is not going to add ads, why buy it? ofwe all know the position mark zuckerberg, emily. he seemed reluctant to bring advertising to that facebook platform. his reluctance to saturate facebook with ads and make people feel like that platform is less relevant. when they acquired instagram, he said, give instagram some time, let it breathe. a lot of people looking at the growth of the facebook business, in terms of dollars and cents, would say they are doing a pretty darn good job of finding ways to generate revenue.

whatsapp has 450 million users. they send 18 billion messages a day, which is nearly all the text messages sent around the world combined. this guy grew up on welfare and food stamps and was so poor he could not afford to call this family in the ukraine. his cofounder got turned down for jobs at facebook and twitter. the result, both of them after leaving yahoo! started a messaging service that anyone could afford. just days ago the ceo found himself eating chocolate covered strawberries at mark zuckerberg's home on valentine's day and striking a deal that will make him and his employees very rich. i want to bring in serena fido from new york as well as jon erlichman nla -- in l.a. telephone we know about the interest from google and microsoft -- tell us what we know about the interest from google and microsoft. >> there was not really a formal process to sell whatsapp, but the company through the years as it publicized how much users it was gaining, that got approached by other companies. we learned that google and

whatsapp iswhatsapp worth it?was instagram worth $1 billion or worth 1% of facebook at the time? the question for mark zuckerberg is around maintaining share if engagement and share of activity. it is a significant percentage of facebook. is taking a big chunk of people who should have been using facebook and they are all using facebook first. do youstion for him was, just sit and try to compete with that? they would be looking at facebook messenger or the numbers for that for the last year or two years. would you say, this is a really great mobile conversation product and should be part of facebook? >> looking at the landscape of mobile messaging apps out there, you are in taiwan, you have seen the rise of viber. do you think this is worth it? >> i tend to think it is. the price per user is very reasonable. the growth is fantastic. plateaued. i think it's not a great comparison. from that perspective, it is reasonable. the bigger thing that benedict was driving at is, i don't know if there's a price that would be

and whatsapp is one. the founder and managing partner of iron fire capital and a "forbes" contributor. he joins us now on the cnbc newsline. eric, welcome to the show. >> hey, simon. >> i guess the question is should they sell if it's $16 billion? >> well, with 19 if you include the stock units that are coming as well. i can never fault anybody, the two founders, nfor taking the money. it's a huge amount of money obviously. but i stand by my assertion over a year ago that, you know, had whatsapp stuck to its guns and stayed independent, they had a chance of being a massively successful company in the way that facebook did when it managed to squeak out of getting bought by yahoo! for a billion. >> but success in what terms, eric? given that the founders say they don't want advertising, they could have a billion users but they still wouldn't have monetized it, they certainly wouldn't have this amount of money in their back pocket now. >> well, i think it's silly to look backwards and say, hey, this is only

that is the biggest benefit of whatsapp.f there were a big benefit to being called facebook, then facebook would not have bought them. i think something like stickers makes sense. i love stickers and i admit to that. once you use them, you cannot go back. as far as ads, i don't think you need ads in messaging. there are fascinating does ms. cases of it being a direct marketing channel. stickers,through people give brands permissions to add them as a direct channel or they are pushing apps which is very effective and monetizing with the other apps. there is a lot of interesting ways to monetize through messaging apps. facebook does not need to. facebook's monetization is going very well. they have the luxury, i think, of continuing to push app growth and come back to it when they need to. i don't think they need to for quite a while. >> what is the biggest risk that facebook has right now? you can make a case that says that facebook is playing whack-a-mole. they bought instagram and i thought problems solved and that was clea

there was an interview with mark zuckerberg about the whatsapp app. >> whatsapp. >> whatsapp, i mean.been reported you were in the bidding. facebook got it. it is going to be up to $1 1 billion people using it. >> they estimate is that there are more than 400 million users on whatsapp. it is a way of bypassing the sms charges. it is primarily used outside of the u.s. the question of evaluation is a question of what to do with that? if i handed you a 400 million unit network, how much money could you make from that? it depends on how well they execute. they could make a lot of money or not. if they do not make a lot of money off of it, it is a bad deal. >> what about yahoo!? a lot of users. >> of course. >> but they are not on your list. where are they? >> they have an excellent ceo that we know very well. they have to define their part of the platform strategy. >> will it be a shared banana? -- bonanza. >> i hope that the market never goes back to the microsoft dominance i lived through 20 years ago. it's bad for competition. i fought it hard. i'm very proud that there are four well-r

twitter has about half the monthly active users as whatsapp but its market cap is about twice whatsapp's valuation. >> the strategic rationale for this acquisition is actually quite sound. this is ultimately about grabbing more mind sharon mobile and grabbing more real estate on mobile, very limited real estate i might add also in many ways a defensive move because there is speculation that goggle had one point had wanted to buy whatsapp for about $10 billion. >>> with one thing for sure, founder yan kum who created the service is worth an estimated $6.8 billion. quite the rags to riches story, he signed the paper work selling company against the front door of the welfare office where his family used to collect food stamps. he's not the only one. cofounder brian ack ton is worth about $3 billion. whatsapp's only venture capitalist stands to make about $3.5 million. 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 answe

what -- what is whatsapp me needook-- does whatsapp facebook?icher. >> whatsapp is one of the wetest-growing social apps try, the expertise of facebook will bring will help. >> they will keep it at an arms length. what does that tell us about how facebook perceives this asset? >> it tells us that facebook is aware that it is not the coolest network on the block anymore. you will see with recent purchases, instagram included, they are being kept separate so they don't become too associated with facebook. we have seen teens moving away from facebook and towards a newer platforms. facebook is being careful to not bring them to tightly inside the same name for that reason. >> this all happens out of the glare of the public eye. does that tell us about the fact that zuckerberg on the with the control he has over the company, he hasn't vanished -- he has an advantage, he can do things fast. >> after the attempt on snapchat is not surprising that there has been another name in the space approached. it is interesting that so few people saw this news com

has donehere whatsapp well.ur focus is to try to reinvent push to talk, which is about $100 per year. >> the messaging service has eaten the carriers lunch when it comes to revenue, but what about voice? whatsapp will be doing voice calls as well. what does that mean? >> it is along this game line. skype started doing this years ago. initially it was on the desk top. the big change is that it is mobile. mobile telephony is giant. now that everybody has smartphones, the transition to everybody using those applications over the top, and do not use the phone number they were given, that is the transition. >> it is not all bad news for carriers. mark zuckerberg talked about this yesterday. good partnerships with carriers to offer basic services. i want you to take a listen to what he had to say. not. >> i guess we do not have that sound bite. what he talked about was providing basic services. data plan from the carrier. so people would pay for something, but very basic. theetting this up as carriers having their lun

did you know about whatsapp? >> i did not. >> i did not. >> nope -- never used it. >> i do not think there was a core audience. remember, the big incentive is not to just compete against google, which was rumored to be but also by whatsapp, teens and trying to recapture that as well. >> let me point to the number here, the trade of the century, tom, sequoia capital took a 15% stake in whatsapp that cost $8 million a couple years ago. they got $3.5 billion. >> that is like you and your super bowl betting. >> at is your front page, these two big deals, situations rather. >> we need to talk to somebody smart on whatsapp. david kirkpatrick is a bloomberg conserving editor, author of the wonderful "facebook affect," and i thought really on a twitter feed, you got a lot of play last night. with your perspective here. what is the key distinction of mr. transaction for ou zuckerberg. pre-k's i have it here on my iphone. i'm surprised you do not have it because that is when people start using this, when they are outside t

also said that voice communication is coming to whatsapp before summer in q-2 coming to whatsapp. but what mark zuckerberg is likely to say here in this address at mobile world congress he's likely to talk about expanding wireless access globally. facebook is frankly at the size now where it's mainly limited by do people have internet access to actually get on facebook? it's been working with carrier operators in emerging markets lately to try to get people free access to facebook. and it's trying to convince carriers after this acquisition that working with facebook and this whatsapp is actually good for them despite the fact that these messaging companies like whatsapp have been disrupting carrier sms revenues. so quite a bit of diplomacy going on here. some announcements this morning about facebook affiliate internet.org is trying to do to expand access in emerging markets. they're trying to do a message to everyone that access is great, but at the same time push facebook's agenda. we'll see how successful he is with his speech. >> thanks, jon. he's going to keep an eye on zuck

facebook is buying whatsapp for $16 billion. the deal includes $3 billion in restricted stock for what founders and employees got back over four years. this is facebook's largest acquisition. it let's people chat with their smartphone contacts and send text messages, phone and video over the webb. whatsapp is free for the first year and only $1 a year after that. facebook may have targeted whatsapp for its key audience, teenagers and young adults. facebook shares in frankfurt are coming under selling pressure down by 2.6%. marine time, blackberry rose 6% after hours on speculation it could spin off its mess aenger service in germany off by almost 6%. what do the analysts think? analyst say when you look at how many active users whatsapp has, the deal is not so expensive. it equates to $42 per monthly user which compares favorably to other firms like facebook and twitter. there are significant opportunities to grow revenues in areas like games, stickers, mobile payments and the whatsapp could achieve up to $2 billion in revenue.

>> in terms of whatsapp, it is not.part from a small charge to subscribe in some countries, something around one dollar a taken as much is by whatsapp itself. >> what do you make in the advertising around whatsapp and facebook? two different set of principles here. they have vowed to never introduce advertising into whatsapp. >> indeed. i don't think mark zuckerberg is going to make the same mistake he did with instagram where he meddled early on in the terms and conditions of instagram, which upset the users. i think he is learned by that mistake. he will stickhat to his guns on the no advertising front. trust with maintain users, i'm fairly sure that facebook and whatsapp will not be putting advertising on the application anytime soon. to that is not the only way potentially monetize the service. what i think is perhaps more in zuckerberg's style is to drive sharing activity on facebook and use connections on facebook using whatsapp. >> right. this whole idea of integrating facebook and whatsapp rather than whatsapp i

--whatsapp is much more personal. facebook is a most the -- antithesis, putting your statements out to the world tubes or 400 friends to look at. they are at opposite ends but it seems as though they really want to remain totally independent. it is more about facebook and what facebook wants from whatsapp when it wants to understand mayor going to ca migration. they want wondering people to be on it, tapping in to that -- they are setting themselves up to a sea change as we see more more people not wanting to say everything on facebook and their life on social media and twitter, but go more personal and communicate one-on-one with independent friends. $19 billion, most of that in stock. passionate about what it is really. >> i will have to leave it there. mark zuckerberg has just taken the stage. i will let you get to that conversation. our own bloomberg contributing editor, let's take a listen. class people love using whatsapp for messaging. it is the most engaging app we have ever seen that exists on mobile alibi fa

is it the right way to think of whatsapp?t is not the way it has been discussed in the media, as a connect the world sort of tool. it has been talked about as an advertising platform. >> the first piece is, it is a company by itself. and then there is the strategic value, what we can do together. i think by itself, it is worth more than $19 billion. it is hard to exactly make that case today, because they have low revenue compared to that number. there are very few services that reach a billion people in the world. they are much more valuable. i could be wrong. there is a chance that this is the one service that gets to a billion people and ends up not being valuable. i have looked at other messaging apps that are out there, that already are monetizing at two dollars to three dollars per person with early efforts. i think if we can do a good job of helping whatsapp to grow. this is going to be a huge business. independently, quite a good bet. why were we excited to do this together? i was excited because of the internet.org v

that's the biggest benefit of whatsapp.f there were a big benefit to being called facebook, they wouldn't have bought them. i do think stickers makes a lot of sense. i love stickers. i will freely admit to that. once you have used them, you can't go back. i do not think you need ads in messaging. there is fascinating business cases built in messaging, a direct marketing channel. you see with line, through stickers, people give brands permission to add them as a contact. that's a direct channel. or there is pushing apps, monetizing within the other apps through in-app purchases. there is actually a lot of interesting ways to monetize through a messaging app. the bigger picture, facebook doesn't need to. facebook's monetization is going very well. they have the luxury, i think, of continuing to push whatsapp growth and come back to it when they need to. i don't think they need to for quite a while. >> that was ben thomson and benedict evans. well, tesla has set a goal to deliver 35,000 electric cars this year. we'll talk abou

can't even say it anymore. >> whatsapp? >> whatsapp?> what are your thoughts on that acquisition, $19 billion seems like an awful lot of money for some users who send messages. >> mind blown. the way i look at it, you have to make the terminator argument i think if you're facebook here. maybe this is going back and getting john connor before he grows into a threat. the scale of whatsapp was the only platform capable of potentially taking down facebook in the sense that it's so big it connected people and operated on -- it still operates on a nonadvertising strategy. but at the same time, i mean, it's hard to make a financial argument for this. this is the largest silicon valley based acquisition ever. it's like 50 people. >> can i ask you guys about the terminator? i came up with a problem the other day, the original one. right? he goes back, john connor sends somebody back to make sure that he's safe. but the guy he sends back is his father. you can't send your father back to re-create and change time. that's not possible. >> part of t

here comes whatsapp.w more messaging going through whatsapp every day than text messaging in the world. and is because of whatsapp the other messaging applications out there. are beingm companies cut off at the knees here and they have lost a high a profit. you will see moves by telecom companies to control the market. >> trends continue. what is next for facebook when it comes to acquisitions? they bought instagram and they tried to buy snap trap -- staff chat. chat.p it comes to spending. -- ithink that those abatingee spending whatsoever. they have a clear strategy and are swallowing up users. the technology has exceptional potential and it could hit one billion. twitter is an acquisition target. and that isgoogle would you have to look out for. >> great to talk to you and we will speak to you soon. but not make sheep executive speaking to us on the phone from london on the big deal today. the biggest internet deal of the last 10 years. the ukraine parliament is being evacuated, a courting to -- we wil

the whatsapp acquisition, they're doing 50 million messages on whatsapp. us they're doing 40 billion a day. that's on a closed network, just on ios. i find that interesting. look at the active users that facebook bought. 450 million. imessage, it may be difficult, between 250, maybe 400 million defen devices. bbm, blackberry, 50 million. maybe, just maybe, apple, they're just buying back their own stock. at a time when facebook was readying to buy their 10% of their market cap for whatsapp. you know what they can do, they can could halt that growth at whatsapp, make facebook one of their competitors, certain areas look is silly. if it stops whatsapp growth, maybe at some point, share holders cause it to spin out. itunes and the apps store in 2013 probably did $30 billion in sales. growing much faster than any other businesses. imessage, if they can monetize it. >> it sounds like a very unapple thing to do. >> i'm probably thinking he's going to do that himself. you know, we have seen this play out before, it seemed like it would have been made a lot of sen

facebook just bought whatsapp for $15 billion. whatsapp is more valuable than chipotle and bed bath & beyond. these are household names. they have tens of thousands of employees. what is whatsapp? it is a social network that is also an app and messaging system. it let's users send messages but avoid texting fees. americans may have never heard of it, but hundreds of millions of people around the world have. i want to bring in lauri laurie siegall with more. facebook would pay $19 billion for whatsapp. why? >> you know, it is a numbers game. when you look at it. 450 million monthly and let me emphasis this, active users. people are using this quite a bit. we may not be using it in the united states, but around the world, many have replaced sms with this app. they are adding 1 million users every day. also, it is a defensive move. they don't want google having this kind of company. if you do the math, facebook is spending $42 per user. when facebook bought so is this an investment they want to make. >> wow. >> it's very much mark zu

for whatsapp. >> dan, last question. biggest sigh, if you will, on news of this deal in minlo park. google's headquarters or cooper tino where apple is? >> the bigger size, probably google headquarters because google wanted the company. we reported earlier today that google bid $10 billion a couple of weeks ago. there's reports they've been trying to get this company for the last year or two. the biggest sigh is from them and to be honest there are other companies snooping around and putting in bids. i say it's google. >> is that how you see it in. >> yes. it doesn't fit with apple in the same way. >> google is going to have to step it up. if they're going to compete with zuckerberg, they're going to have to lay down the big bucks. >>> doc? >> i would disagree 100%. i think the sigh is heard over at google. but i mean, for having the guy that invented the internet on your board, apple, having al gore on your board and you guys completely missing mobile as far as messaging and so forth. like joe says with imessage and thi

david: it values whatsapp higher than 275 companies in the s&p 500 is whatsapp really worth all thatis facebook making a huge mistake or paying too much? one shareholder says it is definitely worth it. roosevelt investment portfolio manager jason benowitz joins us. jason, good to see you. last bid before we got all details of $19 billion, is about $10 billion less than what was finally paid. which would lead one to believe that zuckerberg really wanted whatsapp. he saw value there what others didn't see. but the question is could he have gotten for much less than what he did? >> we think price paid is full price but a fair price. we think $42 a user roughly in line with properties like instagram and youtube. david: snapchat, for example, forgive me for interrupting, they were only willing to pay 3 billion for snapchat. many say that so sort of similar? >> the growth in this asset has doubled in the last nine months in terms of how many users it has. reach ad point where 450 million users it really dwarfs the other messaging services. they're paying up a premium price for premium prop

if you are paying $19 billion for whatsapp -- >> candy crush -- if it is $19 billion for whatsapp, what on earth is snapchat worth? >> it could go and apply the same metric -- $40 per active user -- that seems to be what we are looking at if you look at it on a market user basis. >> weight. -- wait. the numbers on the per user basis are all over the map. i agree. look at linkedin, twitter, facebook valuation's. you are sitting at over $100. look back in history. hotmail,osoft bought you're looking at similar prices. these prices have been paid for a long, long times. i think people are going in the wrong direction by getting hung up on the $19 billion. that is the reflection of a company that has seen stunning growth over five years. >> is it too soon to evaluate mark zuckerberg is a dealmaker? >> absolutely. >> yeah. [laughter] >> you were laughing at me. >> i think that is a great question. zuckerberg just decided, i am going to hang out with this guy, we are going to spend valentine's day together, we are going to each covered strawberries, and that i will lead him -- give him $19 bi

they've been obsessed with whatsapp, and last year tried to pay what'stoop alert it, if whatsapp should get into acquisition talks. whatsapp said, no, we will not take that and google really wanted this company. they made multiple overtures to get it and didn't get t. targets along with in terms of google. lou, as a google shareholder. i believe you own google. what would you like them to buy, in anything, in order to beef up its presence in messaging and texting amongst the younger demographic? >> undoubtedly, google needs to beef up its communication. it continues to put a lot of work into google plus, but they're not getting the traction they want to yet. obviously, what'sapp would have been attractive for google, and it's really a big loss for them. i think they need to do something here, and i think any of the properties that were mentioned are certainly, i'm sure, google is looking at all of them today trying to figure out what they're going to do to compete. >> and some lost in all this, what apple's role is here. did apple miss out on an opportunity to beef up its own messaging

facebook's founder says he got a great deal on whatsapp. deutsche telekom seeks an alliance with its latest acquisition. good morning, everybody. welcome to "the pulse." bloomberge from european headquarters in london. francine lacqua is off today. privacying up, putting first. we test out the world most secure smartphones. is it really nsa-proof? we begin with the crisis in the ukraine. there could be a delay to the vote for a new government. remains onpresident the run with a warrant out for his arrest. bloomberg's -- managing editor is on the ground in key ever with the latest. what is the latest? with the latest. what is the latest? >> what we have seen over the last few days, the situation in central kiev is very disciplined. that more remember than 60 people died last week. unarmedal, the mostly citizens militia seems to be keeping control in the city. still no sign of the official police anywhere. >> can you give us an update on what is happening in the south of the country? a more pro-russian part of the ukraine. there seems to be a

using whatsapp, i contacted the founder of one of the u.k.'s most successful online businesses. >> should be free about 2:15 stpwhrfment it cost me and michael atkins nothing to communicate. does he think facebook overpaid? >> $19 billion is a lot of money but mentioning apps are super valuable. we're already seeing this in the far east with products like we chat and line. these are the center of the new mobile ecosystem, not just connect with wrur friends but to send money or buy a coffee or discover new games to play. >> making money won't be easy when whatsapp users have been promised the service will stay free of adverts but with people around the world using their phones to communicate in new ways, facebook seems ready to pay any price to be the one etwork that connects them all. >> $19 billion, that's a lot, isn't it? that bring's today ago show to a close. but you can find all of the news on our website. thank you for watching. >> make sense of international news at bbc.com/news. >> funding of this presentation is made possible by the f

whatsapp can competes with apt from twitter and snapshot. walmart says economic trends and higher health care costs is hurting its business. and tesla motors is gearing up for further growth. elon musk's electric car company will boost production of its model s sedan. it is also learning to build a massive battery plant. tesla is up 10% in premarket trading. we will hear from tony and their musk himself. facebook -- we will hear from billionaire musk himself. facebook agreed to by whatsapp for $19 billion, the biggest acquisition in more than a decade. why did the world's largest social network spend a fortune on a fortune on the five-year- old instant messaging service? we got paul kedrosky, bloomberg contributing editor, also deals reporter cristina alesci. $19 billion. it is a huge number. how does facebook justify this? number. it is a big i was just looking at the numbers last night, the largest venture capital based company in history which is remarkable, so the way to get at this kind of valuation is on a basis. 400 million users, may

issue facebook to whatsapp pots customer base. -- whatsapp pots customer base. 's customer base. >> is that practical? to.he commercial logic has andhey are creative people you cannot tell them there are all going to pay. they have demonstrated that they are capable of starting businesses and running them. we cannot dismiss this as something that may end up being good. ffawingmber people gu google and amazon. they have proven models. >> why did they survive? >> we don't really know why some companies survive. they have the capacity to leverage. i am impressed by the progress that facebook has made in their membership. i think it is more impressive than the bearers have suggested. >> view on facebook? -- do you own facebook? the eye worried about watering valuation and how much is in the price. >> i can tell you that you can be successful as a business. as an investment? so much of the good news is in the price. tragedy for telecom operators. >> it is. determinedpanies are on ancient fixed line dependency and we have seen a shift to mobile communications and a sh

. >> right. >> carry-on. >> this whole idea of integrating facebook into whatsapp instead of whatsappnto facebook -- i can it will exist with a business it hates? thanks so much for giving us that update. beyoncÉ's surprised self-titled album came out in december 2013. box may have helped. ♪ >> box is reportedly on the road to an ipo. jon erlichman caught up with the colorful ceo for an exclusive interview at the digital entertainment world conference in l.a. he always wears colorful shoes. he talked about how big names like beyoncÉ might be using box to keep content under wraps before it is released. >> there was a somewhat popular release of a new album that happened by surprise recently. one of the reasons why it was kept in secret so well was was the platform used for managing that content. they were able to decide to at thethe information time they wanted to. they could keep all the controls in one place in the meantime. this is allowing content owners to do more with their information and have more security around it than if they had not gone to the cloud. >> box and beyoncÉ? >>

he went on to co-found whatsapp. and a final winner we want to mention, sequoia capital, jim, the investors in whatsapp. put about 8 million to work in whatsapp fwlak 2011. back to you. >> josh, brian actin turned down for a job at facebook. like michael jordan not making his high school basketball team. wouldn't you say? >> right, right. went on to big around better. >> it's interesting, though, because this company had a very unique ethos, john, especially with roots in yahoo!. branched out, left yahoo!. started this company. some scratching their head why they chose to sell their company at this stage. what's behind this? >> stayed at yahoo! a long time. it's interesting. this isn't the drop out and start your own company story. jan dropped out of college to work harder for david phyllo over at yahoo! and so the timing of this, interesting. they had been very anti-advertising and facebook is the emerging advertising player, personalization, lots of information about you. that's exactly what whatsapp itself was try

and the difference in users is 300 million to 450 in whatsapp. i cannot wait to speak to viber's ceo and he what he thinks about this. >> do you think he's feeling a bit poor? >> i think he sold himself short. >> plenty more to come. let's get our views on what's going on in the ukraine. parliament has delayed forming a new government until thursday, this according to the speaker of the parliament. as a result -- >> investors worry about the conditions of an imf bailout. reports suggest it could issue demands for a currency devaluation. russia has been stepping up its criticism of ukraine's new leadership. that's why ukraine's interim president has decided to form a fresh government. this as the country's finance ministry warns it will need $35 billion in aid over the next two years. cnbc's michelle caruso cabrera is joining us now on the phone. michelle, it seems we saw over the weekend highlighted the concerns about corruption, about wealth generation at the heart of the government. do you think people in the ukraine believe the next government

i'm going to whatsapp you, they said.s is big outside of the united states. >> there is the ukraine connection because one of the founders was from ukraine, and he didn't like the police state atmosphere. he didn't like being followed around. you don't do that on this app, right? >> right. they found facebook, helps, rule of law, helps to have a free and open market. helps the free capital markets that allowed mark zuckerberg to pay his own shareholder's money, not government money, for this company. it makes a point, with the contrast in washington, the common sense point is you want to have fairly free markets. that's the invasion. >> and there's only about 55 employees. that's one small corner of a factory floor. let me take this, and back to you. should we be worried that our bigst biggest growth sector is made up of the elite few, what does it say about jobs? >> it says that energy and manufacturing should be deregulated and let go free a little more. it's coming from the least-regulated, least-unionized least-focuse

>> whatsapp. >> whatsapp. i've never heard of it.acts, and allows you to text for free. >> i'm totally confused. >> all right. >> are you on my social notework? i don't even know what that means? >> no, i sort of know what that means. it means someone else's business, not mine. >> okay. >> we'll get to that. >> it's an interesting story. i think you'll have a lot to say about it, because you have a lot to say about everything. huge news overseas. >> there is. we want to start with the breaking news out of ukraine, as more violence has continued in kiev's independence square. there are visual reports of more slain protesters and police refusal to abandon an edge of the square. field hospitals have now been set up in hotel lobbies and at least 20 police officers have been injured. one of the enduring images from the violence on wednesday, a lone woman standing her ground, throwing rocks against a line of riot police. the fighting continued despite a negotiated truce. nbc's chief foreign correspondent richard engel is here to explain. r

i think technology enables people to do what whatsapp has done.l say that in my experience nobody that i have ever seen be successful has started the company in order to make money. everybody wants to make money. you have to love what you do, you have to look for an innovative idea, you have to work incredibly hard, you have to be incredibly lucky. [laughter] still, i think more and more people want to do that than ever before. technology enables it. it enables a 15 person company to become a huge company. >> thank you so much for joining us. joe abrams, who helped cofound abrams -- myspace. david patterson, thank you for joining us as well. be 2014, but may it pays to be retro. we get behind the wheel of one companies that is cashing in. ♪ >> breaking news. has just written an open letter to ebay's shareholders. more --gan joins us with more. >> this is an open letter to shareholders. he is criticizing the board, pacific lee to members of the board -- specifically to members of the board. he goes on to urge ebay shareholders to vote for his suppo

whatsapp massive threat to mobile. it is worth billions.model -- she will be joining us live at 10:00 to talk girl reunion.er ♪ >> live picture of new york city. rent 58th street here. it is friday, everyone. which means, we are headed to the weekend. you might want to pay extra attention to this. importanthat is more for skiers. they look for exploration, the more they encounter an avalanche. if we say you can leave in 15 minutes, if it's a heavy snow come you can be completely broken and that already. everything cracked around me. i cannot see that i was on top of a huge hill. . fell and fell i was in a huge avalanche. there's so much power. sometimes the avalanche, you just hit over. different times of the year, after midday it is really dangerous. in the right environment. the system was really big and really heavy. the most important thing is that it keeps you floating. you don't really need to swim. you are out of the avalanche. we will be back on the markets in a few minutes. ♪ >> welcome back. it is 56 minutes past the hour. boomer

andou look at whatsapp, they w went stealth. you would not even know they were in mountain view, california. >> they d not seek money, money sought them. really great entrepreneurs work in stealth. theyey do not promote ththemsel, they promote when n it is time. a lot the people that make e a lot of noise are fails because theyey make noise instead of dog a lot of doing. a a company in this town that makes a lot of noise, but the problem is, customers are not in this town. they make a lot of noise in the vc techcene -- >> who are we talking about here? >> i would not want to speak about them but i just did. to their credit, they have a good product, but they started ramping up their pr engine in thisown before the product was ready. because of that, many of the people who used them early fail. i am talking speak. t talk on speak. defend that warhead onto other examples? >> it is a great company, there are a lot of companies that do promo. whate have here is a general initial difference to a certn extent. millennia is an generati

but koum was hesitant. >> mark zuckerberg wanted to buy whatsapp two years ago. the ceo of whatsapp said no thanks. >> reporter: on valentine's day a change of heart. koum was ready to sell. >> he came over for dinner and actually interrupted mark zuckerberg's valentine's date. and over chocolate-covered strawberries they hammered out the deal. >> reporter: koum signed the deal, where he used to wait in line to collect food stamps to sign the lucrative deal. tonight, he's $6.8 billion richer, still never forgetting where he came from. >>> up next -- sleepless in america. a nation of insomniacs. turning to pills to get some rest. a new report raising new questions, ahead, when we're back in two minutes. so ally bank has a raise your rate cd that won't trap me in a rate. that's correct. cause i'm really nervous about getting trapped. why's that? uh, mark? go get help! i have my reasons. look, you don't have to feel trapped with our raise your rate cd. if our rate on this cd goes up, yours can too. oh that sounds nice. don't feel trapped with the ally raise your rat

a $16 million buyout of whatsapp.tech economy leave the majority of workers out in the cold? we'll discuss that with a top economist coming up next. >>> plus, some say zuckerberg is paying too much for whatsapp. we want to know how you think the deal will be viewed three years from now. tweet us your thoughts@cnbcclosingbell. we'll put the best ones on air at the end of the program. make it happen with fidelity active trader pro. it's one more innovative reason serious investors are choosing fidelity. call or click to open your fidelity account today. you want everything.orks an expert ford technician knows your car's health depends on a full, complete checkup. 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. a 401(k) is the most sound way to go. let's talk a

he's got news on whatsapp. jon?e voice communication coming to whatsapp in the second quarter before summer. the i don't kn they gave an update on the user numbers, 465 million monthly active, 330 million daily active. that's about a 71% daily active user account versus the monthly and active. >> real quick, when you explain that voice is going to be introduced, we'll make voice calls as in skype calls or almost like text to each other that are instead of calls like this. >> we have to see this key in the emerging market and how to keep it sample. other competitors in the messaging space have much more features than whatsapp. but they seem to adapt fast if they keep it simple. >>> when we come back, one of the buzz topics at the world congress. is your information secure? we'll have an officer talking to us about innovations for swiping in a couple minutes. >>> then later a squawk master ron baron has earn ed 60,000 a year for 20 years. that's coming up. tdd# 1-888-628-2419 searching for trade ideas that spark your

. >> whatsapp is smoother. >> the interesting thing is there will never be any advertising on whatsappthey only charge $.99. although i don't member ever paying for it. >> evaluation means these are worth $42 billion to facebook, so we will see how they want to monetize it. mark zuckerberg says he wants the company to go on its own, he wants to row the user base. it is not to interfere and focus on monetizing, he just wants to grow the user. the biggest promise not to u.s. carriers, it is to the international carriers and what it does to texting people abroad. for example, in mexico, 90% of all instant messages in mexico are sent on whatsapp. that is enormous. think about how much money that is costing carlos slim. >> i have to remember to call at&t and text -- and cancel my texting plan. olivia, thank you for that. olivia sterns on the incredible price and valuation of whatsapp. now, a company that has cornered its market, the one that oil and gas companies have to go to when it comes to fracking coming up next on "market makers." ♪ >> it is one of the biggest chemical companies you h