“Twitter’s (TWTR) stock is crashing. Management is in upheaval,” Matt Krantz reports for USA TODAY. “But the micro blogging site has one giant thing going for it — $3.5 billion in cash — which buys it lots of time.”
“Shares of Twitter are down 65 cents, or 3.6%, to $17.19 Monday after CEO Jack Dorsey said four top executives were leaving the company,” Krantz reports. “The stock is now down 68% from its highest point over the past 52-weeks and off 55% over the past year. The stock is indicating a serious situation for the company.”
“Investors seem to be preparing for the worst — but the company’s financial standing indicates it has plenty of time to get things right: 412 years to be exact,” Krantz reports. “The company ended its most recently reported quarter with $3.5 billion in cash and investments, says S&P Capital IQ. If the company only burns $8.5 million a year in free cash — as it did the past 12 months — that’s enough cash to last 412 years.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Twitter’s market cap is currently $12.17 billion. If Apple wasn’t so bad at social networking, it might seem like a nice acquisition. As of May 2015, Twitter had more than 330 million active users.
Do you think Apple could take Twitter and help it to not only realize its full potential, but also use it to strengthen the Apple ecosystem and, ultimately, even help sell hardware? Or how about just to keep it out of Google’s or Facebook’s hands?
SEE ALSO:
Jim Cramer: Apple should buy Twitter or Netflix to spur growth – February 7, 2013
Apple won’t buy Twitter, but Google might – April 26, 2012
RUMOR: Apple to buy Twitter for $700 million – May 5, 2009
Only 412 years?
Twitter is doomed! 😉
Then for how many years is apples cash good enough for ?
312 Million users??? Over 1/2 of those are bots. Twitter is an example of something “some” people will use for free but NO ONE would pay for. Dead company walking. It will drag on for a few years until acquired and finally put out of its misery – I suspect either Microsoft or Yahoo will be the buyer. Neither Apple nor Google are stupid enough to buy them.
Only half?
The MDN Take is exactly what I, and probably every shareholder has thought about for years. It’s mind boggling why Apple does not make a move on Twitter. (if it is available, money talks), once again, if even to just keep it out of Google or FB hands.
But that would make way too much sense.
Just like improving the useless “SIRI” to put a serious HURT on Google search or simply enter Search and CRUSH Google. (GOOG stock would plummet),, Why not sell ads on both Apple Search and figure a way to get it on Apple Twitter? Seems to be working for Android/Google.
Why in heavens name can you not just have a type-in search bar for SIRI like GOOGLE? Am I Missing something? Maybe I don’t want to speak every query, knowing that SIRI ALWAYS gets it wrong, leaving the user frustrated and looking insane yelling at their phone.. and not getting the right answer.
Apple seems to be totally asleep at the wheel. Just give it the old College try…
Blogs like this are marginally useful in that 2-way dialogue can help share information and news. WordPress is flawed, but tolerable.
It is hard to understand what value Twitter provides. One more avenue to spread gossip? One more way for instant quotes from celebrities who are not capable of managing a well-designed blog? A shitty marketing platform for lazy companies to troll through self-selecting dorks’ emotional dribble? Or is it just another datamining organization out to steal personal data and sell ads?
If the last is closest to true, which I believe is the case, then I hope Twitter will die a rapid death with FaceBook and Google. These companies’ net value to society are negative.
“What would I do? I’d shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders.”
In ten years we will be explaining to kids what Twitter was.
Twitter, Facebook, both a waste of digital space.
If Apple bought Twitter, they could stop the current fuck-ups that are destroying its value to _users_ – a user-controlled medium for sharing news of multiple categories: global, local, and personal. The current ad-driven business model is gradually eating away at what could be a vibrant community. Apple’s ownership could convert that to perhaps a free model combined with a subscription model for some higher-end features. They could integrate the social graph with other Apple services. They could start to put a chink in Facebook’s domination of the social graph.
Twitter has so much promise for providing people with lots of reasons to use their iOS devices a LOT, but the ad-driven policies have been damaging it as a platform.
So, Apple would benefit in multiple ways from taking over Twitter:
1. Preserve something that many of their own customers love and use regularly.
2. Have a hedge against Facebook’s domination of online communication, if needed.
3. Have a way to engage their own customers more actively.
4. Protect their customers’ privacy when using Twitter, where that may be in danger if the ad-driven model continues.
I like the idea from last week of Apple buying Dish Network. It seems like it would move the entertainment segment of their business forward by leaps – even if the only benefit was to get those Dish contracts. If Apple bought Twitter, I’m not sure which would be worse off but I don’t think either would be in much better situation except Twitter with access to new pockets.