Could Twitter be acquired by Google? It seems like a rather outlandish idea, but thanks to the recent flop by Facebook in their efforts to go public, smaller internet companies like Twitter may find acquisition by an established giant like Google to be an attractive offer. In fact, Google’s mergers and acquisition team has been mulling over the idea for some time.
While Twitter may not be ready to go public in its current capacity, it doesn’t look to be far off either. On the other hand, the Facebook IPO should be a sharp reminder that success is not only in the eye of the beholder. According to Business Insider, both parties, Twitter and Google, may be open to the idea of an acquisition.
Twitter has some serious work left to do with securing ad revenues and illustrating performance before it can sell itself to shareholders. So maybe the safety of Google would be a better choice, and a faster route to success. Business Insider actually raises some very pertinent arguments in their coverage on the subject, here’s how they summarized the whole affair:
* It’s becoming obvious that Twitter’s business model will be ads in users Twitter streams, targeted through contextual matching – something that Google is better at than anybody.
* Twitter cofounder and executive chairman Jack Dorsey is spending less time at the company again, prefering to work on his other company, Square. That leaves a professional, non-founding CEO Dick Costolo in charge – one who has already sold a company to Google once in his career. Why wouldn’t he do it again?
* Google organizes the Web for desktops, through pull. Twitter organizes the Web for mobile, through push. The Internet will be mostly mobile by the end of the decade.
We’ll have to wait to see if there’s any substance to this speculation, but it would make a great deal of sense, and be a powerful partnership, if Twitter were to be acquired by Google. If both parties are willing, it could just be a matter of time and logistics.
