More potential suitors for Twitter

Disney, Microsoft reportedly interested in acquiring struggling S.F. tech firm

The Walt Disney Company and Microsoft could be interested in purchasing Twitter, adding to the list of potential suitors and fueling speculation on Monday that the tech firm might be moving closer to a deal.

Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the matter, reported that Disney is working with a financial adviser to consider a possible bid for the struggling San Francisco tech firm.

CNBC, citing anonymous sources, then said that Microsoft might also be a potential suitor for Twitter. Microsoft declined to comment, but Bloomberg, citing people with knowledge of the matter, reported that the software giant was “approached to evaluate a bid, but isn’t interested.”

Speculation that Twitter

could be on the market resurfaced last week after CNBC reported that Twitter may soon get a formal acquisition offer from potential buyers that included Salesforce.com and Google’s parent company, Alphabet.

Rumors have swirled for a while that Twitter could be an acquisition target, but they started to gain more momentum after Microsoft announced in June it had purchased LinkedIn for $26.2 billion. Salesforce, an enterprise cloud computing company, was also interested in buying the business-oriented social network.

“All mergers and acquisitions of this nature require a catalyst. If Salesforce had ended up with LinkedIn, we probably wouldn’t be having this conversation,” said Brian Wieser, an analyst for Pivotal Research.

Wieser noted that Twitter — despite its struggles to attract more users and ad dollars — is still a major player in digital advertising. While a deal with Salesforce or Microsoft might seem like more of a stretch, Twitter also has valuable real-time data about the interests of its 313 million monthly active users.

Twitter could help Disney, which owns ABC News, ESPN and other entertainment companies, deliver more real-time news and sports content, Wieser said. Twitter CEO and cofounder Jack Dorsey, who also runs mobile payment company Square, also sits on Disney’s board. Twitter has marketed itself as a place to see what’s happening now and has been making a stronger push into live video streaming.

But Twitter also works with various media companies that compete with ABC, so being acquired by Disney might pose a risk for the tech firm as it competes with social media giant Facebook, Wieser said.

Disney and Twitter did not respond to a request for comment.

Other media companies don’t appear to be interested in buying Twitter, which has struggled to attract more users and hit Wall Street’s expectations. 21st Century Fox, Comcast, Time Warner and AT&T aren’t interested, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with those companies’ strategies.

Facebook is also unlikely to purchase Twitter, and a deal could happen within the next 30 to 45 days, CNBC reported.

Twitter, which has seen its stock price fall even after Dorsey returned to lead the company in July 2015, has benefited from the takeover rumors.

On Friday, the company’s stock jumped by about 22 percent at one point after reports that Salesforce or Alphabet might be interested in taking over the tech firm.

On Monday, Twitter’s stock closed up more than 3 percent at $23.37 per share. Twitter’s shares are still below its IPO price of $26 per share.

Some analysts said they’ve been receiving questions from investors, asking what responsibility Twitter’s board has to comment about a potential takeover and what preliminary meetings it has held with potential acquirers.

If Twitter clarifies that it isn’t for sale, its stock could tumble back down to $18 per share, wrote Bob Peck, an analyst for SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, in a note on Monday.

With all the chatter about an acquisition, some analysts say it’s more likely a deal will happen.

“If Salesforce came out with a low ball bid, and that’s provoked the board to move, then they’re going to be faced with the reality that the stock is going to get inflated to some level, and they’re going to have a duty to shareholders to respond,” Wieser said. “This is not a company where there’s a controlling shareholder, and it might even be a different situation if Jack Dorsey was a full-time employee.”