Twitter Sets November Deadline for Acquisition Hunt
- Thursday, October 6th, 2016
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Twitter has told firms that might be interested in acquiring the social network that it is seeking to conclude negotiations by 27 October, in time for its Q3 earnings report, according to Reuters.
Its an ambitious timeline, especially given that Twitter only began actively seeking a sale last month, and suggests that CEO Jack Dorsey is aiming to provide clarity to both employees and shareholders as the company finds itself on increasingly shaky ground.
While Salesforce and Disney are reportedly still interested in the firm, Google and Apple are apparently out of the race, with Recode citing unidentified sources close to the situation who said that Google has no current plans for a bid and Apple was unlikely to tender an offer.
The revelation that neither Google nor Apple were considering the sale wasnt great news for Twitter shareholders, with prices dropping 10 per cent in after-hours trading in reaction to the news.
Sources within Twitter have said that the process is not certain to result in a sale, but the search itself is a sign of how far Twitter has fallen since its height. The social network has struggled to keep pace with rivals like Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat, which all now boast more users.
As advertisers move their ad spending to the more popular, and more visual formats, Twitter faces a growing challenge to reinvent itself in order to remain relevant, or sell itself to a larger firm that would be able to utilise the wealth of user data it has acquired.