Twitter is in early stage talks with Google and Salesforce over the sale of the company, according to new reports.
A sale of Twitter has been the subject of on-again, off-again rumours for many months as it grapples with stagnant user growth, soft advertising sales and losses running at hundreds of millions of dollars a year.
Twitter has become a high profile social netowrk, sometimes billed as the “internet’s town square”, but in recent years failed to keep pace with rivals, notably Facebook’s Instagram and Snapchat.
The Financial Times reports that social network is understood to have been working for several weeks with Goldman Sachs to explore a sale of the company to buyers attracted by its wealth of data. It may receive a formal bid by the end of the year.
The potential deal, first reported by CNBC, could value Twitter at $22 a share, according to Morningstar.
Morningstar analyst Ali Mogharabi said Google’s Alphabet would be the best acquirer for Twitter since it has not yet been able to crack social media on its own, despite several efforts.
“From a strategic standpoint, we think from it would be more beneficial for Alphabet as opposed to Salesforce,” he said.
However, sources have told the Wall Street Journal that Salesforce.com, which is a $48.7bn US-listed tech giant that makes software for businesses, is considering a takeover, with discussions at an “early stage”.
Vala Afshar, who is ‘chief digital evangelist’ at Salesforce, appeared to confirm the reports in a tweet on Twitter.
Why @twitter?
1 personal learning network
2 the best realtime, context rich news
3 democratize intelligence
4 great place to promote others— Vala Afshar (@ValaAfshar) September 23, 2016
But a later Tweet seemed to suggest his views were personal.
I have tweeted my personal views regarding 'Why Twitter?' numerous times over the past couple of years. I simply love Twitter.
— Vala Afshar (@ValaAfshar) September 23, 2016
Twitter shares jumped more than 19 per cent to $22.22 per share on Friday, marking the largest one-day rise since their first day of trading in 2013. The company now has a market value of around $16bn.
The top dozen directors and executives share a pot of 76m shares that would be valued at $1.7bn under Friday’s valuation.
Twitter is working with investment banks Goldman Sachs and Allen & Co in considering possible transactions.