back to article 'Everyone' is buying Twitter

Seems everyone is interested in buying Twitter, according to rumors flying around Silicon Valley today. The whisperings have managed to push the social network's share price up 21 per cent to $22.26. Overall, the permanent loss-making San Francisco upstart's stock price is down 30 per cent over the past year. Now Salesforce …

  1. cyrus
    Coat

    Please!

    Buy it. Take it into the alley. Shoot it in the head. PLEASE!!!!!

  2. Barry Rueger

    Sigh, It was inevitable I guess.

    Twitter is actually one of the things on the Internet that works well - if you have half the sense needed to use it effectively.

    It's managed to avoid becoming the massive craphole that is Facebook, and has resisted the urge to try and add a thousand and one "features" that add nothing to the actual utility of the service.

    It's one of very few things on the Internet that I actually use and enjoy.

    Given Google's ongoing campaign to either ruin or just shut down anything they touch, this could be a sad day. Microsoft - not much better.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Sigh, It was inevitable I guess.

      And that's why it is in trouble and looking to be acquired - they haven't figured out how to monetize it so its stock price is going to continue to sink. If it is, someone will change the things you like about it as they flail away trying to figure out how to place ads in 140 character tweets.

    2. Mage Silver badge

      Re: Sigh, It was inevitable I guess.

      It's pointless though unless you are a Celebrity or someone that wants to follow the vacuous tweets.

      Facebook is pointless too, but has been more successful? Or have they as it emerges they pumped up the video view time by a huge amount by not counting all the short views!

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Sigh, It was inevitable I guess.

        I follow various security researchers, US CERT, people/things like that. Far from vacuous.

        1. Barry Rueger

          Re: Sigh, It was inevitable I guess.

          Me too. It's bizarre that you can be downvoted for saying that you get value from a particular platform.

          Do these people also say "Because spam, all email is bad, and no-one should ever use it."

    3. a_yank_lurker

      Re: Sigh, It was inevitable I guess.

      Twitter primary audience is narcissists who have nothing better to do than to spew gibberish. Facebook is a different beast is connecting people worldwide with some real interaction, even if it is via text, photos, and videos. Facebook has some real value to offer to anyone while Twitter has a very limited value to most. Facebook potentially can have everyone in the world as a user even if most are only talking to family and friends. Twitter seems to have a much lower upper limit for users because of its fundamental pointlessness.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Sigh, It was inevitable I guess.

        And Google+ is the best bits of Facebook, Twitter, flickr and Instagram. It also the internet's best kept secret, is very active (despite what some that don't get it might say), arseholes are few and far between, as to your circles are a mix of people you know and purple you dont, but share similar interests.

    4. Kurt Meyer

      Re: Sigh, It was inevitable I guess.

      @ Barry Rueger

      "It's managed to avoid becoming the massive craphole..."

      Some say it defines "massive craphole".

  3. Electron Shepherd

    Always follow the money

    according to rumors flying around Silicon Valley today

    share price up 21 per cent

    It would be very interesting to know who started the rumours. I'm quite sure that there's no way it could be some of the folks with large holdings still carrying a loss from the IPO. After all, pump-and-dump schemes are illegal...

    1. Charlie Clark Silver badge

      Re: Always follow the money

      Agreed. Suggesting that Google wants to buy it is also part of an attempt to bid up the price, even if it doesn't fit in the list of any of the recent acquisitions by Google.

      Twitter itself is probably worth about £2.50. The companies it has bought might be worth a bit more: Vine is popular but all the good clips are also on YouTube.

      Over-the-hill company with no real IP? That must be tempting for Microsoft and they could bid against themselves, just like they did when they bought Skype! I just hope that, if Twitter is bought, it gets closed as fast as if went to the wall.

  4. Mage Silver badge

    $18bn?

    So it's got less users to take the personal details of than Whatsapp? ($19bn)

    The userbase is the only value of these parasite companies. Same with Uber and AirBnB.

    Maybe it would be cheaper to pay <state actor of choice> to hack the database, like Yahoo. I bet Verizon is cross that Yahoo kept it secret. They can only be buying Yahoo for the user details.

    1. Richard 12 Silver badge

      Re: $18bn?

      Uber and AirBnB have a revenue stream and actually make a profit.

      So they are far more valuable in real terms.

      1. Bibbit

        Re: $18bn?

        Erm. You might want to rethink Uber's profit making claim.

        http://www.businessinsider.com/uber-reportedly-operating-at-a-470-million-loss-2015-6?op=1%3fr=US&IR=T&IR=T

        1. Richard 12 Silver badge

          Re: $18bn?

          ...and could theoretically make a profit...

          Thanks for the correction.

    2. a_yank_lurker

      Re: $18bn?

      Do not confuse a company that provides useful services such as Uber, Lyft, or AirBnB with Twitter. The former are businesses that try to match potential suppliers with consumers. Uber and Lyft are essentially taxi dispatch services and are thus potentially useful to anyone. Twitter's "services" are more ephemeral in that one does not need them and many will never find them useful.

      1. Mage Silver badge
        Coffee/keyboard

        Re: useful services such as Uber, Lyft, or AirBnB

        They do NOT provide the service!

        They are exploiting the real investors in property and vehicles and exploiting the actual workers by having them as self employed contractors.

        They are just specialist advertisers, and Uber is also slurping all the user data (no doubt why Google has invested).

  5. Your alien overlord - fear me

    Once it's on eBay I believe the rumours.

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