Twitter Says No Thanks to Facebook
Facebook offered a rumored $500 million in stock (based on its $15 billion valuation) to acquire Twitter, reports Kara Swisher of All Things Digital. No one went on the record to discuss the deal, but sources indicate Twitter felt it was undervalued in the deal — especially considering the high valuation the deal put on Facebook. From the standpoint of Facebook, the acquisition of SMS-based Twitter meant taking on potentially high messaging fees from mobile providers.
From All Things Digital:
About three weeks ago, Facebook and Twitter ended several weeks of serious talks, in which Facebook was offering to acquire Twitter for $500 million of its stock.
While rumors of Facebook’s interest were brought up in an interview with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg at the Web 2.0 Summit a few weeks ago, some shot down the idea as silly.
Quite incorrectly, as it turns out, since top execs at both Facebook and Twitter were right then at the tail end of discussions, which were initiated by the privately held Facebook in mid-October, about bringing the two together.
Those talks, sources on both sides said, are now over.
So why did the deal break down?
Well, as is usually the case, over price–was $500 million worth of Facebook stock actually worth $500 million?–and the typical concerns about integration and costs.
But, more important, it seems, was a feeling among Twitter investors and execs that the start-up should still take a shot at building its revenues–there are none right now–as well as it had done at building its growth.
“It’s more about timing,” said one person familiar with Twitter’s motivations. “There is a strong feeling that there is still an opportunity–even with the economic downturn–to blow this thing out.”
Still, combining the world’s fastest-growing social-networking site with what is quickly becoming the best-known microblogging service is actually a natural fit.
That’s especially true given that Facebook–for all its powerful online social connections–has seen Twitter race past it in innovating in the “status update” arena.
While some sources at Facebook said Zuckerberg was becoming frustrated by the buzz Twitter was getting–a market that should have been dominated by Facebook–others at the company said he was interested in buying Twitter because of his respect for its progress.
This entry was posted on November 24, 2008 at 5:21 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments.
Tags: Blogger, Blogging, Facebook, Kara Swisher, Mark Zuckerberg, Microblogging, Mobile Advertising, Mobile Content, Mobile Marketing, Mobile Phone, MySpace, SMS, SMS Text, SMS Text Message, SMS Text Messaging, Social Media, Social Network, Twitter, Web 2.0 Summit
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July 17, 2009 at 12:56 am
[...] It was also revealed that Twitter are not ready to sell their little innovation, maintaining a strong belief that their business will continue to grow in popularity, benefiting them in the long run. This is in addition to the fact that Facebook were offering $500 million of its stock at the $15 million valuation, with concerns being raised whether the amount offered in stock was actually worth $500 million. As such, Twitter felt the deal was slightly undervalued. [...]