Twitter might be going up for sale soon, as it has lost its traction and is in dire need of a new direction in order to avoid becoming the next Yahoo.
Observant techies might be able to see quite a few parallels between Twitter and Yahoo, and the former would better try and avoid the latter's mistakes.
Both companies faced the same slew of issues, starting with rotating leadership helming a huge potential platform and ending with an identity crisis paired with lackluster growth strategies.
Experts agree that Twitter needs to sell soon in order to avoid becoming another Yahoo.
Sources close to the matter say that, in case of a takeover, Twitter aims to ask for $30 billion. The market cap on Friday, Sept. 23 showed the company sitting at about $16 billion. To put things in perspective, Yahoo used to have a market cap of $125 billion and is now in talks with Verizon for a $4.8 billion buyout.
Microsoft intended to purchase Yahoo for $42 billion in 2008, something that the Yahoo leadership deemed unacceptable at the time.
Alternative Options
Twitter also has the opportunity to make it on its own, sans external intervention.
The New York Times reports that the company could choose not to sell and instead attempt to go through an internal revamping, but that would come with axing jobs. However, Twitter tried that approach before and it did not seem to fix its major issue: user growth.
Yahoo's experience demonstrated that no matter how many employees you fire and how many reshuffling of departments you pull, cutting your way to growth is simply not going to happen.
Sustained Interest
Regardless of its ups and downs, Twitter is still a strong tool for news gatherers, marketers, celebrities, world leaders and activists.
Insiders are touting that companies such as Google and Salesforce are considering purchasing the platform, and the recent rumors caused Twitter's shares to surge by 20.5 percent. Meanwhile, Google and Salesforce's stock dropped 0.21 percent and 3.7 percent, respectively, showing that their investors are less than enthusiastic about a possible purchase of the Twitterverse.
One thorn in their side is the fact that Twitter's company culture made a staple out of its independence. In its early days, the social media platform even knocked off an offer from Facebook.
However, there is a chance that the Twitter acquisition will leave the company's mission intact. Twitter's service might very well bloom under a parent company that fuels vision and resources into the Twitterverse.
It is up to Twitter's leaders to learn from Yahoo's "lost decade" and avoid repeating its mistakes.
