Speculations Abound, But No One Is Buying Twitter Yet

After Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) surprised market spectators with its buyout of LinkedIn Corp (NYSE: LNKD), everyone from TV pundits to investment bank analysts began to speculate upon the next Internet/social media buyout target.

Many fingers pointed to Twitter Inc (NYSE: TWTR), and it appears those same fingers dialed up their brokers and placed buy orders, as the stock began a run that arguably has yet to end.

Related Link: From Brexit To Trump: You Can Always Trust The Internet, Right?

Although its growth has slowed, Twitter is making advertising money and has initiated several moves to improve end-user experience and compete better with some of its video-centric peers like Instagram and Snapchat. Twitter gets most of its high-value content from the rich, powerful and famous however, and still hasn’t found a way to increase the value of its non-users, who make up the majority of its visitors.

Wall Street Gossip, according to Techcrunch.com, said Twitter is going to sell in 2017 no matter what, and provided the following list of potential suitors, in order of likelihood:

• Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ: GOOG) (NASDAQ: GOOGL)
• A private equity fund
• Microsoft
• Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) or AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T)
• Facebook Inc (NASDAQ: FB)
• Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN)
• Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL)
• News Corp (NASDAQ: NWSA)

Twitter shares participated in the market’s Brexit bounceback, up 3.66 percent at $16.42 an hour before Tuesday’s close.