Unless you have been under a rock this week, its highly probable that you have seen the news on Twitter (NASDAQ: TWTR). In a Fed like fashion they have eased the market into the idea that they are considering a sale, and rumors have been spreading like crazy about who could buy them. Analysts have been all over the media outlets touting their prediction of who will buy them and for how much. Alphabets Google (NASDAQ: GOOGL) was rumored to be interested, which boosted the stock early last week. Then Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM), Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), and even Disney (NYSE: DIS) were announced as potential suitors for the fledgling social company. All of this excitement had sent the stock up over 32%, until Thursday.
Thursday before the open Google said it would not buy Twitter which sent the stock lower by over 20%. It's perfectly logical though that Google would not be interested in Twitter, and even if they were, they would have had plenty of opportunity in the past to take their shot.
So you think, well that's ok, it seems that there is still plenty of interest from the other parties mentioned to get a good deal done...Wrong! Also on Thursday a report came out that Apple would not be interested in purchasing the company either. This only further fueled the pressure to the downside after the open. As if it couldn't get any worse, the same article (written by popular tech blog recode) also reported that Disney would not make an offer either.
So this leaves only Salesforce.com which has had top brass on record as saying they would be "very" interested in buying Twitter. The fact that they are, at least for the moment the only potential bidder sent shares of Salesforce up over 4% on Thursday. Investors were speculating that Salesforce now has the upper hand to place a lower offer.
Analysts are split right down the middle as to the value of Twitter. Some are very adamant that Twitter has no real value other than its user base, while others think that there are paths to monetizing the platform. The question is if Salesforce can be the one to get them there.