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Twitter Is for Sale and News Corp. a Likely Bidder, Michael Wolff Says
Posted Jul 07, 2009 12:12pm EDT by Aaron Task in Internet, Newsmakers, Products and Trends- Twitter co-founders Evan Williams and Biz Stone will be "looking to see what deals might be available."
- All other media executives will be "looking to see how amendable Twitter is to a deal."
To be sure, Williams and Stone have publicly stated they are not interested in selling Twitter anytime soon, and Marc Andreessen tells Tech Ticker he and other VCs aren't looking for a sale anytime soon.
But just as certainly, Twitter is the belle of Herb Allen's ball and the subject of ongoing speculation about possible suitors.
Wolff agrees Google is the "most likely" buyer of Twitter, given its deep pockets and the fact both Stone and Williams are alums of the search giant. Facebook "would sorely love to buy Twitter," he adds, but it's unclear if Stone and Williams would want to trade shares in one pre-public company for another.
News Corp. is also a likely entrant to any Twitter bidding war, according to Wolff, author of (most recently) The Man Who Owns the News: Inside the Secret World of Rupert Murdoch.
With News Corp. recently announcing major layoffs at MySpace and Murdoch telling TheStreet.com, "I blame myself" for the Interactive Division growing "out of control and really out of size," it might seem counterintuitive for News Corp. to make a big acquisition in the space.
"I think they probably have lost" the Web 2.0 wars, says Wolff. But "I think they think they can always buy their way back into it" and Twitter would be a smart addition to "their still rather formidable array of new media assets."
44 Comments
robert - Tuesday July 07, 2009 01:45PM EDT
The Tech Ticker's Aaron Task is correct; the Internet is almost profitless--with no profit in sight. Only traders selling to optimistic fools, have made money. Web amateur-"retail" users will never pay--and advertising is grossly, grossly, grossly exaggerated. As we plunge deeper into this depression, the internet will go bankrupt--and speculators will buy it for five cents on the totally crashed dollar. That is, one thousandth of it's currently purported value. The internet will be bought for scrap metal prices.
Ray - Tuesday July 07, 2009 02:09PM EDT
How bad do people want pay for social net work. It hard enough paying for a phone call with free weekend minutes. The internet started as a pay for service and now I see pop ups everywhere.
Mr. RD - Tuesday July 07, 2009 02:19PM EDT
i wouold sell it too!!!...take that cash and kick back for awhile..loke foreer kicked back into the sunset.....I f i ever make anything that i can make a chunk of cash from im taking it...
mulls - Tuesday July 07, 2009 02:35PM EDT
Rupert publicly called Twitter useless and impossible to monetize 5 days ago...maybe a negotiating ploy, but he'd have egg on his face if he turned around and got into a bidding war with Google over it. So seems unlikely.
Dentaiguy - Tuesday July 07, 2009 02:44PM EDT
GW Bush is to blame for the economy, by starting the Iraq war
Brad Chapin - Tuesday July 07, 2009 02:46PM EDT
Evan and Biz would be smart to dump twitter while it's relatively hot. There's limited value to a service that is free for users (and trying to charge users will kill twitter within days) and the biggest selling point is that one must limit themselves to 140 characters? I don't get it... there's much more valuable Web 2.0 properties out there.
Vasu - Tuesday July 07, 2009 02:53PM EDT
Google will probably do a deal - perhaps not at Allen's party but sometime over the next year. Ofcourse, google would spend that money unwisely as it so often does lately. But in its furious attempt to retain coolness it will buy its way into penury.
Gem - Tuesday July 07, 2009 03:00PM EDT
Who cares. Twitter is yet one more distraction keeping the American public confused and distracted while the country is destroyed. The whole tweeting thing irritates the heck out of me, I DON'T CARE what my friends, family or a news show is doing!
alcino - Tuesday July 07, 2009 03:40PM EDT
twitter has been trying to prop up its image by paying celebreties to use it and the sheep have been tripping over themselves trying to follow them. twitter is a useless social network website in comparison to myspace, bebo, hifive and facebook and the owners are dying to sell it so as to profit from it and as soon as they do they will go and create another ,prob called twats because you must be one if you use it, and then sell it again. wake up people.
Josey - Tuesday July 07, 2009 03:47PM EDT
Perfect... News Corpse and Twitter. What a dream team.
Yahoo! Finance User - Tuesday July 07, 2009 03:56PM EDT
Americans are always led by the nose! MySpace, Facebook, Twitter - who cares! Who cares how many "friends" you have in Facebook - are these people going to be there for you if you need them? Real friends are people that you share common interests with and can depend on when you are in need. Plain and Simple - Americans are followers!!!
Yahoo! Finance User - Tuesday July 07, 2009 03:58PM EDT
Americans are always led by the nose! MySpace, Facebook, Twitter - who cares! Who cares how many "friends" you have in Facebook - are these people going to be there for you if you need them? Real friends are people that you share common interests with and can depend on when you are in need. Plain and Simple - Americans are fools!!!
Yahoo! Finance User - Tuesday July 07, 2009 03:58PM EDT
These two are trying to pull a Mark Cuban. Good luck with that one.
Yahoo! Finance User - Tuesday July 07, 2009 03:59PM EDT
Only very lonely people have time for Twitter, Facebook, & MySpace!! GET A LIFE!!!!!
Yahoo! Finance User - Tuesday July 07, 2009 04:00PM EDT
Only very lonely people have time for Twitter, Facebook, & MySpace!! GET A LIFE!!!!!
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__A_YAHOO_USER__ - Tuesday July 07, 2009 12:51PM EDT
Too Big.....