While a sale is not thought to be imminent, Twitter‘s directors are very keen on sealing a deal this year, according to CNBC sources. Twitter’s stock is soaring following a report that it may be moving closer to selling the business, Friday, Sept. 23.
Advertisement
US-listed Twitter shares were up 3.38 U.S. dollars at 21.95 USA dollars per share. Salesforce.com Inc. and Google parent Alphabet Inc. are believed to be among the suitors, CNBC said. The shares were down nearly 20 percent this year before the surge Friday.
Twitter said it remained committed to India and would continue to maintain a presence in the city.
A Twitter representative declined to comment, as did a representative from Google.
As of the second quarter of 2016, the microblogging service averaged 313 million monthly active users, according to figures from Statistica.
FILE – In this July 27, 2016 file photo, the Twitter symbol appears above a trading post on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.
The report also highlighted that potential buyers are interested in Twitter due to the amount of data it generates and also owing to its high media value.
While Salesforce has already spent over $4 billion on acquisitions this year, it might still consider a purchase as expensive as that of Twitter. It also recently began allowing people to apply for verification.
Advertisement
The problems led to former founder Jack Dorsey returning to the firm a year ago as CEO, and he has tweaked the platform in a bid to improve engagement and user numbers, such as removing media content from the 140-character limit. Twitter would give Google a “legitimate” social media platform to tie in with its YouTube platform.
