Apple, Google, Disney Unlikely to Bid for Twitter Buyout, Claims Report

[MacRumors]

Twitter shares took a tumble yesterday following reports that neither Apple nor Google are interested in making a bid for the social media company.

Last month, Twitter shares rose 20 percent after rumors emerged that it had received takeover approaches from several tech giants and that its board of directors was open to a deal, which could come by the end of this year.

But according to sources who spoke to Recode yesterday, Twitter should have "low expectations" of receiving an offer from Apple, whose focus "remains on its flagship consumer products and not on social networks", while Google - hitherto considered its most likely suitor - is no longer moving forward with an effort to buy at this time. Disney, which had also considered a bid, has also ruled itself out.

That leaves American cloud computing company Salesforce in the driving seat for a potential acquisition, but the firm has so far refused to comment publicly on speculation that it is considering a buy.

Twitter is said to be eager to wrap up any deal before its quarterly earnings report on October 27, but the latest share slump suggests investors are wringing their hands over the likelihood of a firm buy offer any time soon.

For the last two years Twitter has been searching for ways to attract new users as the growth and profitability of rival social media companies like Snapchat and Facebook continue to outpace it.

In June, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey suggested Twitter can be somewhat confusing and alienating to its install base in comparison, but it remains to be seen whether its recent flurry of additional features will do enough to change that perception.

Critics remain skeptical and advertiser interest in Twitter has waned as a result, while the company has endured internal turmoil in recent years with a revolving door of executives and board members.

Article Link: Apple, Google, Disney Unlikely to Bid for Twitter Buyout, Claims Report

 

[lionsy]

You can't really blame them, they've been trying for what seems like forever to become profitable, it's unlikely a big brand could walk in and make it profitable while maintaining its user base, so why bother?

 

[Solomani]

It's basically a giant social media public posting board that gives each user their own forum. It could easily be copied by some 5-cent Chinese company. Maybe it already has.

 

[Quu]

Microsoft will probably bid on it, they love buying things that never make their money back.

(Nokia, Minecraft, LinkedIn etc)

 

[jadot]

Surely the problem with twitter is monetisation, but I would have thought that Apple or Google would have looked at ways of using the service as a tool for cross pollination if not for profit, but I guess that even that becomes a headache if it's going to be kept open (across platforms).

What could have been a possibility, I suppose, might have been Apple tightly integrating twitter into iOS more so that users might consider iOS if they're not already using it (and visa/versa for google/android), but even that seems like small pickings for either company for the amount of effort.

Surely Facebook buying out twitter is a good option for both groups? Twitter could work in much the same way as it does now but with better Facebook and instagram integration and new features added along the way. Like a Facebook Mini.

hey - I'm not saying I want this - I'm just saying that twitter will need to do something and this might be it.

 

[applepuree]

I find snapchat confusing to use, never been able to figure it out. Twitter on the other hand I use from time to time without issue.

 

[Lennholm]

Yeah, why would Apple buy the well established social network that everyone uses when they can keep on making failed attempts to copy it?

 

[and 1989 others]

The platform has killed itself, providing a platform that literally broadcasts everybody opinion on anything and everything which can be used to form media opinion and propagate positive or negative spin as the media see fit. Look at every news outlet today, there has been an increase of 'twitter users reacted..'. If Apple or the others bought it the news articles would be 'Twitter, which is owned by apple, users react...' giving value judgements of the company by proxy. Commercial Suicide.

 

[fitshaced]

Let it fall. It does more harm than good.

 

[dav1dd]

Shouldn't have banned Milo

 

[deany]

Any company that would spend 17.25B on that company then the board would need urgent neurocognitive tests.
Our Warren would also have a wry smile.
I wouldn't pay 00.02p for it
http://money.cnn.com/2016/03/21/technology/twitter-10th-anniversary/
"such a messy balance sheet"

 

[Vjosullivan]

So, rumours of buyer interest and the share price rose 20%. Rumours of buyer disinterest and the share price dropped 20%. Sounds like a typical day/week/month on the stock market rather than any reflection on Twitter.

 

[Goatllama]

Sounds like a case of...

.... bird flu.

 

[PBRsg]

Let it fall. It does more harm than good.

I hope it goes bankrupt, since Twitter provides the perfect infrastructure for SJWs to organize Internet lynch mobs.

 

[aleksander]

The fact that virtually every news outlet is sharing tweets of every company, celebrity or average Joe in their reporting shows how embedded it is in our culture. Twitter is distinct from Facebook and should focus on unique features instead of directly competing. The last thing they need is a money-focused capitalist because sure as hell it will ultimately sink it.

 

[samcraig]

Glad Apple is off the table. Personally I prefer Twitter to remain its own company vs being under someone else. Salesforce makes more sense than Disney, etc...

 

[WaxedJacket]

Too much censorship and political biased from that company to get me to treat it like a true form of social media. I just use it to get updates from outlets. It's a glorified RSS to me.

 

[Wahlstrm]

I´m sure a lot of users would pay if given the chance, many of them already do when they purchase 3d party Twitter apps. Some would probably pay for an ad-free version and other would probably pay for the service as is just to keep something they like going. There is money to make, or at least a lot less to lose if you give users options to pay.

 

[newdeal]

not sure how you make money on twitter. At least with facebook when they put in ads it blends into all the other content. On twitter its hard to place an ad in a 140 character space that people care about since there is nothing to catch their eye. If they start putting in large photo ads it becomes too evident what is an ad and what is not and the brain just ignores the ad as being useless. I like twitter for getting news from various small websites in a way that is easy to read and then link to their site for the rest of the story but thats about it

 

[0098386]

Shouldn't have banned Milo

Why not? He broke the rules frequently.

 

[adamjackson]

Twitter is a perfect example of why startups should try to operate independent of any outside investments and instead try to grow a community of paying customers. Advertising is not the end-all way to turn a profit and going public shouldn't be the end-goal for founders who think they have to "exit".

Imagine the trolls, spam-bots, teenagers and advertisements would all just go away if a single-digit percentage of Twitter decided to cough up $12 a year.

Twitter wouldn't have this many millions of users if they had chosen to charge for the service but they would be far from irrelevant. Big media companies and celebrities would still use it. Twitter, free to join, free to follow, $$ to tweet / DM. Seems like a solid approach.

Twitter has for some reason thousands of employees, half of them are community support & advertising. You could eliminate those quite easily with a paid model.

 

[and 1989 others]

Why not? He broke the rules frequently.

Because it shows in the most public way possible that a 'Social Media' platform actively censors the very media that keeps it alive, and aside from anything else, the whole Milo situation, even if his tweets were terse, showed that it was other people activities that gave Jack and chums reason to remove somebody who held opposing views.

A very fascist way to run something that is supposed to be an open platform.

 

[nick42983]

Twitter might have some value without the censorship king, free speech opponent, #JackDorsey creature.

 

[RiddlaBronc]

Cant believe people use twitter. I thought it was used for middle and highschool gossip only.

 

[coolfactor]

Checklist:

1. Ignore Mac client for years.
2. Release a brand new version, with great promise.
3. Ignore bugs in new version for months.
4. Release updates, while continuing to ignore bugs.