Tweet this: Williams sees a bird on block
Twitter shareholders had high hopes for CEO Jack Dorsey, but more than a year later his turnaround act has fallen flat.
Maybe a little bird told him. Twitter co-founder Evan Williams, who sits on the board of the microblogging service and is its biggest shareholder, said the company must consider a sale.
When asked whether Twitter was a takeover target, Williams appeared reluctant to answer but then went on to say the bluebird brand must ponder its options, including a merger or an acquisition.
“We are in a strong position right now,” Williams said during an interview with Bloomberg TV. “As a board member, we have to consider the right options.”
The shares jumped 4.5 percent on his remarks, to close at $19.21, giving the company a market value of $13.5 billion.
Williams’ words reinforced what many on Wall Street already believe: Twitter is ripe for a takeover.
“We continue to see significant value in Twitter’s user base, content, and interaction data despite the company’s difficulty in realizing that value,” Goldman Sachs wrote in a July 26 report.
Despite its household name, Twitter is struggling with sluggish revenue and stagnant user growth.
Co-founder Jack Dorsey has been trying to persuade investors that he has a plan for reigniting growth, but so far those efforts haven’t paid off.
Still, Williams continued to stand by Dorsey on Wednesday. “My faith is high in Jack,” he told Bloomberg.
It’s not the first time the stock has spiked on sale talk. Shares jumped nearly 9 percent in early August on chatter that former Microsoft boss Steve Ballmer and Saudi Arabian Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal were potential buyers.
Verizon, which is shelling out $4.8 billion to buy ailing internet giant Yahoo, also is rumored to be interested in the tech bird.
Verizon and Twitter have a common interest: the NFL.
The phone and cable giant has a streaming deal with the NFL, and Twitter in April signed a deal with the league to stream Thursday night games.
Verizon declined to comment.