Who will buy Twitter, Apple or Google?
By Mwebya Fred: With the
recent upper margin purchase of LinkedIn by Microsoft, a lot of questions have
been raised most especially that of “who will buy twitter?”
I have thought out the above
question and here in this article I will share why I think Apple has 70% chance
of buying twitter compared to 30% by Google. However we also need to explore if
twitter as a company is ready for takeover.
Despite its
lack of success at growing its audience – its daily users were recently surpassed by Snapchat
– Twitter has a loyal and dedicated audience of around 400m users and is a
veritable hosepipe of information and analytical insights.
But last year
it lost its CEO Dick Costolo, saw the return of Jack Dorsey and has been
peddling fast to make sure it is on top of trends such as video and photo
content. But it has seen significant leadership departures and has yet to
deliver a user interface that cuts through the fast moving Twittersphere to
make discernible sense.
Twitter’s life
on the public markets has been harsh and exacting since the company peaked at
$73 in December 2013, valuing the company at $50bn at the time. Today, Twitter
has a market cap of $10.4bn based on a share price of just under $15.
Verdict: Yes Twitter is ripe for
the takeover.
But who will
buy it? In one corner you could see traditional media stables like Rupert
Murdoch’s News International licking their lips.
But what about
Silicon Valley’s finest? Like Apple or Google?
The Apple scenario
The company is
dead-focused on finessing its hardware ecosystem and at the same time building
out the apps economy; last week it revealed it is changing the split from the
sale of apps to 15/85pc for developers that hold on to their subscribers for
more than a year.
But Apple is
also facing declining sales of iPhone devices and the market is clamoring for
Apple to reveal its next big trick in terms of hardware, be it a TV or an
electric, self-driving car.
But what if the
next move was social? That will be tantalizing moment for all the apple users
with the ability to enjoy a customized social web. I imagine a better world of
periscope, twitter and podcasting. Let’s watch the space and very soon we shall
have very clear answers.
The Google scenario
And then there is Google, now a subsidiary of its parent
company Alphabet, which briefly surpassed Apple in market cap recently. With
30% chance of buying twitter, Google would not hesitate to grab the opportunity
of buying Twitter any time any day.
Google is a lot
of things, but its foray into social networking in the form of Google+ has been
a marked disaster. While it has yielded technical marvels such as Google
Hangouts and Photos, user engagement has been poor and hanging out in Google+
is a bit like meeting mates for cocktails in the Mojave Desert.
Google is
trying to stay on top of all the trends in advertising – mobile, video, web –
and the missing link is social.
It has the cash
and it has the expertise to turn a buy of Twitter into a paradigm shift that
could pay off handsomely in steaming a path into the next level of advertising:
programmatic driven by analytics.
If the
acquisition of LinkedIn surprised anyone, the surprise should be that no one
bought Twitter first.
Hi Fred, i love your take on this. Actually it's interesting that no one bought twitter first or even thought about it.
ReplyDeleteIn my view,
1.Apple has the funds to purchase anything and anyone. But should they, NO! Why, the smartphone market has hit its peak. Time to re invent and not to purchase.
2. Apple revenues in the last qtr as you could tell, iphone sales are still their biggest revenue earner. Be unique, Stay Unique!
On the other hand, Google purchasing Twitter would actually be the best move. here's why;
1. Advertising dollars have reduced greatly for twitter to the extent instagram has even overtaken it. Google on the other have been in this advertising business for a long while and still lead though FB is catching up.
2.G+ would be reinvented more into twitter and thus Google's plan to outcompete FB on the social media realm will have taken a bigger step forward. And in turn advertising dollars for twitter would rise up with the help Google's expertise.
4.Google is a more software brand than Apple thats more into hardware. Thus it'd be easy for twitter to integrate and grow its numbers online than sell some expensive "iphone" to its market that doesnt like to fuss about UI.
Yeah everyone will have their take on why this, why that but i think Google, having failed to acquire whatsapp, would best benefit from acquiring twitter to beef up the social media and maybe even reinvent it better than FB...why not.
Twitter will be soon owned by one of this company
ReplyDeleteWalt Disney Co. emerged as a capability bidder for Twitter Inc. it’s miles a famous micro-blogging platform for day by day happenings.