Twitter’s Abuse Problem Said To Be Deterring Buyers

It has consistently been rumored over the past week that Twitter will soon be acquired by some big company. Names of potential suitors included giants like Google, Salesforce, and even Disney. Multiple reports have surfaced since then claiming that the companies that were initially considering making a bid for Twitter have now backed off. A new report suggests that they might have been deterred from spending billions of dollars on Twitter because of its abuse problem.

Twitter has taken a lot of steps over the past year to rein in the trolls that run rampant on its social network but it hasn’t been able to shake off that reputation just yet. According to a report, Disney went as far as hiring two investment banks to come up with an appropriate bid but it decided to back out over concerns that sexist, racist, and generally abusive trolls wouldn’t hurt its image.

Salesforce reportedly reached the same conclusion even though it doesn’t really have a family friendly image to protect like Disney. CNBC’s Jim Cramer said that Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff talked to him about Twitter’s user abuse concerns and apparently that’s one of the reasons why the cloud computing giant back out as well.

The report also mentions that the price tag was an issue for Disney as well. A potential bid of around $12 billion seemed too much for major Disney investors even though it’s not like Disney of all companies can’t scrape together $12 billion.

Twitter is now doubling down on its video streaming ambitions as it becomes apparent that nobody is interested in buying it. Its growth problems persist and Twitter will surely need to work very hard to set itself on the path to growth once again.

Adnan Farooqui
Categories: General
Tags: Disney, Salesforce, Twitter