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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.
They only have 140 characters to fill, so I guess they manage.
...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.
...so the next best option is to sell
This has been the business model since the first internet bubble.
Start a bullshit business
Get bought by someone
PROFIT!
Worked well for Mark Cuban.
Do they mean the data generated by the estimated 20 million fake twitter accounts? Maybe they can use that data to feed the fake bots that are reported to be the next big thing. The utopian internet is emerging to be a huge pile of fake data moving back and forth for the sole purpose of generating fake ad revenue.
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?
Remember back to 2000 when AOL and Time Warner merged. That obviously didn't go well, but it did kind of mark the top of the dotcom bubble. Yahoo and Twitter are smart to get bought out while the bubble is still going...Yahoo's pretty irrelevant now, and Twitter can't make enough money off its users. People will only pay so much for Big Data about 140-character tweets. It makes sense as a useful little service, but not really a business. I think everyone is finally realizing that it's not going to cause a communications revolution and trying to get their money out.
I'll bet Microsoft will buy it and add it to its LinkedIn acquisition. I could definitely see them trying to shoehorn both things into their business offerings -- Twitter as a customer service channel, LinkedIn as an automated recruiting department. I'm an old fart, but I don't even see younger people I know tweeting. I see businesses hiring 23-year-old marketing majors as social media managers and letting them say random things on the company's Twitter account, answer customer questions, etc. But does having that channel open actually produce anything valuable?
...for their Orwellian "safety committee," they've lost billions of dollars in shareholder value.
They even suspended Instapundit yesterday for expressing non-approved thought, and they already banned @Nero and @RSMcCain.
Will any of Twitter potential buyers make it a forum for users of all political persuasions to enjoy free speech, or will the continue to ban people who object to the SJW agenda?
Given how yuuuuge the Donald has made Twitter, Ivanka, who runs their acquisitions, should be the one buying up the company, so that daddy can use a platform he owns
It can then be the Trump online channel! Screw Microsoft, Google, Verizon and... Salesforce (how on earth does Twitter have anything to do w/ Salesforce)?
> They are less evil than their competitors.
Hey Google! Hear that? I think I've found your new company motto. Right here.
I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.