Twitter ripe for acquisition

Will Twitter privatise or be acquired and if so who are the frontline suitors? 

 

What is Twitter? 

 

Twitter s sort of a news wire on steroids with an ability to easily comment on something you're thinking about now! 

 Twitter is also the go-to place for instant reactions to breaking news, political speeches, sports games ,  award shows and the like. In Australia, q and a is a case in point. 

How much? 

$20b or thereabouts - not bad for co-founder Williams 

Who are the suitors?

 

 Google, Salesforce, Disney, News Corp, Comcast and Apple.  Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal and former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, who are two of Twitter's largest shareholders, could team up to take the company private.

 

Why would some acquire twitter? 

 

Google (Alphabet)

 Google needs for what Twitter is selling and they have the money! 

Alphabet generated $21B in revenue last quarter alone, which is right on par with what Twitter ..  Twitter's executive chairman Omid Kordestani also used to work for Google.

 Google a much-needed complement to pair with YouTube, that will compete with Facebook and snapchat.

Will regulators would kill this deal in its tracks due to antitrust concerns. 

Because Google owns basically all of search, and a good chunk of social, would make them a totally dominant force.... if they are not already!!!

 

Salesforce

Salesforce already tried to buy LinkedIn, so clearly they have an interest in social.

Why? 

One word 

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Data

 

Earlier this year, SalesForce acquired MetaMind, a company that specializes in deep learning AI with the goal of bringing artificial intelligence to all of its products. AI will  help sales teams identify leads that are most likely to buy and help marketing teams determine which products will sell.

And what AI needs in order to actually work is user data. Lots of it. Something Twitter has lots of 

 

Disney

Disney owns ESPN.  ESPN streams 6200 live and/or original hours of programming per year.  Many people watching those games take to Twitter to celebrate a win, critique a play call, and engage with both friend and foe.

 

Joining those 2 things -- live video content and real-time viewer engagement -- is a good fit!  And thanks to Twitter’s deal with the NFL, we’ve already seen its potential firsthand.

 

Twitter CEO, Jack Dorsey, is also on Disney’s board. Certainly cannot hurt.

 

 (Source:- Bob Pritchard)