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Twitter initiates talks with tech companies over sale

Salesforce, which lost out to Microsoft in the bid for LinkedIn, has remained among those seen as candidates, as has Google.

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At the same time, Twitter is weighing a possible revamping of the company that could involve divestitures and layoffs.

The prospect of a sale to technology analysts and observers seems likely, given that Twitter, which began trading publicly in 2013, has been struggling to grow users and revenue.

Twitter and Alphabet Inc, Google’s parent company did not respond to a request for comment. Compared to Snapchat, a rival younger by 5 years, which has a daily user base of 150 million, about 140 million people use Twitter daily. Twitter shares rose 19% Friday with news of a possible sale, the biggest jump in the company’s stock in three years. As of the end of the second quarter, the company has an accumulated loss of almost $2.3 billion since its inception.

“From a strategic standpoint, we think it would be more beneficial for Alphabet as opposed to Salesforce”, Mogharabi said. Tech news portal TechCrunch reported that software giant Microsoft and Verizon Communications could also be in the race.

“Why @Twitter? 1 Personal learning network; 2 the best realtime, context rich news; 3 democratize intelligence; 4 great place to promote others”, the tweet said. However, Salesforce’s chief digital envangelist, Vala Afshar, has hinted on the possibilities of the company being a serious contender for Twitter.

While user growth has been stagnant, it has even failed to attract advertisers on its board to earn revenue. TechCrunch is the only one to report Verizon’s name as a potential Twitter bidder. Facebook now has some 1.71 billion monthly active users while Twitter has just 313 million.

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Like Facebook, Twitter is moving into the live video space hoping that that will lure ad dollars.

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