Twitter is a very interesting company they started out as a 130 character limit microblog and have now expanded to a 260 character limit with live video and much more. They are a company that has changed direction a few times and have struggled to post a profit but is very valuable due to large brand recondition and a huge user base.
Twitter has been entertaining offers from companies for a buyout but the question is
Who would buy them and why?
Disney was originally looking to purchase Twitter but that will not happen due to the political landscape on Twitter, Disney’s family-friendly reputation and the Twenty-First Century Fox purchase hanging in the balance. Disney has enough on its plate for now.
AT&T was thought to possibly want to buy Twitter to compete with Verizon who recently bought AOL and Yahoo. That looks to be unlikely as the AT&T takeover of Time Warner hit a snag with CNN and the Justice Department since then AT&T has done nothing further with Twitter. Verizon has made no mention of a Twitter purchase as of late.
A possibly deal with Salesforce looked good since Salesforce lost its chance to buy LinkedIn to Microsoft we all thought they would go after social network Twitter. Salesforce chose not to pursue Twitter in the end for the same reason as Disney the platform could be a hostile environment at times.
I would have thought that the best company to purchase Twitter would have been Google. Google has struggled for a long time to put together a strong social media platform. They even tried to use the popularity of YouTube to get Google+ off the ground but it never went anywhere and Google Buzz was another drastic failure before Google+ so it would make sense for Google to buy the platform.
Unlike Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat where friends, family, and followers are very engaged and are looking at stories, posts or pictures of friends lives over years of time, Twitter is more of a news and information outlet for media sites, journalists, celebrities, and politicians.
Twitter is great a great news outlet and a platform to get a message out. Users of Twitter don’t need a press conference or media outlet. Instead, they can send their message right out into the world. Twitter has even become more powerful as a media outlet with their addition of live streaming and Periscope.
I would think if Google, Facebook or Snap does not purchase Twitter I would think that maybe a news or media organization would buy them. The platform has value and I am sure will be purchased.