Google to Acquire Twitter
Apr
3
Written by:
2009/04/03 02:37 PM
Rumours have been flying around the web on the topic of Google acquiring Twitter. This is not a April Fools joke, check your dates. Even though one should not give in to rumours, this is certainly one to watch.
The rumour has been sourced from two separate people close to the negotiations: Google is in late stage negotiations to acquire Twitter. We don’t know the price but can assume its well, well north of the $250 million valuation that they saw in their recent funding.
Twitter turned down an offer to be bought by Facebook just a few months ago for half a billion dollars. The offer was based partially on Facebook stock. The discussions Surrounding the deal with Google suggest that they would be paying in cash and/or publicly valued stock, which is equivalent to cash.
Why would Google want Twitter? Twitter’s real value is in search. It holds the keys to the best real time database and search engine on the Internet. Google does not have its fingers in that pie. Neither does Microsoft for that matter. In a post last month on Techcrunch, called It’s Time To Start Thinking Of Twitter As A Search Engine, Michael Arrington wrote about how people are using Twitter to interact with brands real time.
For Twitter founders Evan Williams and Biz Stone, this will be their second sale to Google - they sold Blogger to them just five years ago. Sad to say that Microsoft have missed the boat on this one.
Read more on this story on TechCrunch.
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