Roger Fingas
Several major tech corporations — Google and Salesforce among them — have allegedly expressed in buying Twitter, as much for the data the social network generates as its actual media revenue.
The company could receive a formal bid in the near future, sources told CNBC on Friday. One person claimed that the pace of talks is picking up, and a deal could be announced by the end of 2016.
The sources added that Twitter's board of directors are largely in favor of an acquisition. Despite the service's continued popularity, it has struggled with how to grow, and seen a number of high-level staff leave.
Earlier today Salesforce's "chief digital evangelist," Vala Afshar, took the unusual step of praising Twitter online after CNBC's news. That might suggest strong interest in a takeover, even though Salesforce is a largely enterprise-focused company.
Why @twitter?
— Vala Afshar (@ValaAfshar) September 23, 2016
1 personal learning network
2 the best realtime, context rich news
3 democratize intelligence
4 great place to promote others
It's unknown if Apple is among Twitter's interested parties. It failed to gain any traction with its past social media efforts, namely Ping and the Connect tab in Apple Music. In fact the recent refresh of Apple Music de-emphasizes Connect, hinting that Apple may be going in the opposite direction.
Malcolm Owen
William Gallagher
Charles Martin
Christine McKee
Wesley Hilliard
Andrew Orr
44 Comments
I think it would be a mistake for Apple to even consider this. It doesn't fit into their product path.
I would like to see LinkedIn and Twitter be merged, though. That makes sense.
I kinda want Apple to buy them I kinda don't.
I doubt an exec from Salesforce would be tweeting about how much he loves Twitter if this was close to being true.
Apple missed a golden opportunity to acquire Twitter before they went public and also clean up the product and bring it back to its roots. It was the perfect social network for Apple and even Dorsey acknowledged at the time that if they were to sell it would be to Apple. As of now Twitter is worth too much. Apple's Ping and Connect efforts suggest they have social ambitions so the opposite argument holds no water. They should have bought Twitter way back when and made Dorsey their social media exec. I cannot think of a more perfect fit. And while they were at it they could have hired Loren Brichter to work alongside Dorsey to build the perfect Twitter clients for Apple's platforms.
If either of them purchases Twitter I will delete my Twitter account.