Salesforce, Google, Microsoft, Verizon Are In Talks With Twitter For a Potential Acquisition (cnbc.com)

Posted by msmash on Friday September 23, 2016 @03:20AM from the who-should-buy-twitter dept.

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.

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So much for Twitter by Rick+Schumann · 2016-09-23 04:04 · Score: 5, Insightful

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?