Just imagine – you are one of the highest profiled tech companies in the world – a contemporary of Facebook, Snapchat, LinkedIn and Instagram and no one wants you – despite a roll call of the rich and powerful – Apple, Disney, Google/Alphabet, Comcast, 21st Century Fox, – being mentioned as possible suitors. In fact it now seems all have passed on having a crack at grabbing Twitter and making it their own.
Twitter is looking orphan-like after a series of leaks in the last 24 hours seemed to put a stake through the idea of a bid for the company. Complicating matters is that founder Jack Dorsey, who returned to run the company a year ago, doesn’t want to sell. He also has another company, Square – which is a payments group, that is said to be taking more of Dorsey’s time than Twitter.
Perhaps it’s the ongoing love affair between Donald Trump and Twitter that is deterring would be suitors, but two weeks after interest from Apple, Google and Salesforce.com was first mooted, nothing has transpired, and a report overnight listing the companies not interested in making a bid, saw Twitter shares lose 20% of their value. Only Salesforce is said to be still in the mix, but even that is a big if – Salesforce shares jumped almost 4% overnight on expectations it had joined the list of companies saying ’no’ in less than 140 characters. The share prices of Disney, Alphabet and Apple hardly moved – more in the ‘don’t care’ line of reaction.
Seeing Twitter shares had risen more than 5.7% during trading Wednesday, the actual fall from the close Tuesday was close to 26%, the company’s value plunging to $US13.9 billion from more than $US17 billion. But it’s not just the listed Twitter that is unwanted, Theranos, the unlisted company that claimed to have a revolutionary blood testing technology that was proven to be a fake, is getting out of the business and sacking 40% of its 700 staff in an effort to remain alive. At one stage it was worth a reported $US8 billion, now its worthless.
Twitter had told potential buyers it wants to conclude negotiations about selling itself by the time it reports third-quarter earnings on October 27, according to reports on Reuters, and there were other reports that it was to start accepting bids or expressions of interest from this week. No one has come forward to admit a bid or interest in buying Twitter. It still might happen – 313 million monthly users is still pretty impressive, even if it is less than 20% the number of Facebook users.
Twitter, which celebrated its 10th anniversary this year, has yet to make a profit. Co-founder Jack Dorsey returned as chief executive last year but has yet to re-ignite growth. Disappointment in his efforts saw Twitter shares fall to their lowest level ever earlier this year. To get control of Twitter the company would want any suitor to offer more than the $US26 a share in the float four years ago. A value of $US20 billion or more would be needed, especially after Microsoft paid $US26 billion for LinkedIn.
