It’s clear that Jack Dorsey doesn’t want to sell Twitter, but Ev Williams and others are pushing that to happen.
Sarah Frier, Jack Dorsey Is Losing Control of Twitter
Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s chief executive officer, argued that the 10-year-old company should remain on its current course and work to capitalize on recent product improvements and success in streaming live video, people familiar with the discussions said. Ev Williams, a former CEO who has a history of clashing with Dorsey, was in favor of exploring a sale. Other directors agreed they had a fiduciary duty to consider that option. The board ultimately decided to consider takeover prospects after getting an expression of interest from a potential acquirer, which led it to hire Goldman Sachs and Allen & Co. to evaluate possible bids.
[…]
Though its fate is in flux, one thing is clear: A year after he officially took back the reins as CEO, Jack Dorsey has either ceded or lost at least some control over the future of the company he helped create. On the board, he may be overruled by fellow directors on the future of Twitter as an independent company. Within his management team, he’s largely delegated command of Twitter’s strategy to chief financial officer Anthony Noto. And among advertisers, Twitter’s fortunes are being constrained by its stagnant user numbers, which Dorsey’s product changes have failed to significantly boost, and by growing concern about harassment and abuse on its service.
Dorsey’s star has fallen, and the board believes it needs to integrate Twitter into something larger to break out of the doldrums.
The word on the street (thanks Recode!) is that Disney has dropped plans to make a bid, and neither is Google. Likewise Apple isn’t very hot on the deal, supposedly.
Salesforce looks like the last potential bidder, although Benioff won’t admit he’s interested in public.
Does Benioff have some higher level plan than using Twitter as a source for social selling? What about a Twitter for Work? Could Benioff want to go head to head with Slack, Google, and Facebook in the hotted up work technologies arena? Could he couple this with with his acquisition of Quip – and it’s leader, Bret Taylor – into a new productivity play? Or does he want to spread over into a totally new sector?
I guess we will soon find out, since Twitter has said all bids should be in by 27 October.
from Stowe Boyd http://www.stoweboyd.com/post/151422191037
