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Salesforce, Google, Microsoft, Verizon Are In Talks With Twitter For a Potential Acquisition (cnbc.com)
Twitter is in conversation with a number of tech companies for a potential sale. The social company is in talks with Google and cloud computing company Salesforce (which also wanted to purchase LinkedIn), and may receive a formal offer soon, reports CNBC. TechCrunch corroborating on the report adds that Microsoft and Verizon are also in talks, albeit separately, with Twitter for the same. From CNBC report: Shares of Twitter were up 20 percent Friday. Twitter's board of directors is said to be largely desirous of a deal, according to people close to the situation, but no sale is imminent. There's no assurance a deal will materialize, but one source close to the conversations said that they are picking up momentum and could result in a deal before year-end. Suitors are said to be interested as much in the data that Twitter generates as its place as a media company.
I think another consolidation wave is upon us as relics of the internet get swallowed up. The startup business has slowed for now.
...so the next best option is to sell
Whoever buys them is taking in a white elephant. It will continue to bleed money, and won't be re-sellable for anywhere near what they pay for it. Changes to the service intending to make it less of a money pit could well drive away the few serious users it has.
This isn't like Microsoft acquiring Mojang, where they knew they would make money. They may still not get back what they paid, but at least the division is profitable, and they have done a good job of staying out of the way and letting it do its own thing (plus whatever spinoffs they request). With Twitter, the buyer most likely will lose money on both ends of the deal.
Yahoo is another white elephant. It probably won't be as loss-heavy, but it also offers less potential for turnaround.
How is the Riemann zeta function like Trump rallies? Both have an endless number of trivial zeros.
I don't even use Twitter, but I can see the social value in it as a tool for free speech. I can also see having it owned by any of the companies that are planning on bidding in it as being a Bad Thing. Twitter should be it's own company, not a wholly owned subsidiary of one of these big, oppressive corporations, that don't particularly respect their customers and users. Sadly, the Internet seems to be heading in the direction of being 'owned' by a few large corporations, at which point the Internet will become more or less useless for anything other than surveillance of it's users, and as a marketing tool. In a post-Internet world, I wonder what we'll use instead?