Twitter: Years After the Alphabet Acquisition • Hacker News Board

Re: Twitter: Years After the Alphabet Acquisition

#21

Post by karangoeluw » Sat, Feb 13, 2016, 6:40 PM UTC

wslh wrote: post #12

This is an unreal post: "When Alphabet bought Twitter back in June 2016 for almost $29 billion", you can easily check Twitter valuation at $10 billion here: https://www.google.com/finance?q=NYSE%3ATWTR&ei=gHO_VpH9GsnB... so... spending 3X the public market valuation will be crazy. And speaking about science fiction, what will Alphabet/Google do to turn around Twitter? Also the posts saying: "I quit Facebook" are nons…

> spending 3X the public market valuation

Just last year, Twitter’s market cap was more than double what it is today. Since then, they have managed to grow revenue by 48% while reducing the losses by 9%. So, with all that, I think $29B is a steal for the acquisition.

EDIT: my last response here was uninformed.

> And speaking about science fiction, what will Alphabet/Google do to turn around Twitter?

Clearly you have not read the post, and are jumping to conclusions.

Re: Twitter: Years After the Alphabet Acquisition

#22

Post by qj4714 » Sat, Feb 13, 2016, 6:41 PM UTC

Ha ha...April Fools came early this year

Re: Twitter: Years After the Alphabet Acquisition

#23

Post by pavlov » Sat, Feb 13, 2016, 6:42 PM UTC

wslh wrote: post #12

This is an unreal post: "When Alphabet bought Twitter back in June 2016 for almost $29 billion", you can easily check Twitter valuation at $10 billion here: https://www.google.com/finance?q=NYSE%3ATWTR&ei=gHO_VpH9GsnB... so... spending 3X the public market valuation will be crazy. And speaking about science fiction, what will Alphabet/Google do to turn around Twitter? Also the posts saying: "I quit Facebook" are nons…

Twitter's market cap was twice as large as recently as October 2015. The current market makes it very hard to guess where tech companies are in 6 months.

Re: Twitter: Years After the Alphabet Acquisition

#24

Post by karangoeluw » Sat, Feb 13, 2016, 6:43 PM UTC

fchollet wrote: post #14

So Periscope and Moments would be the saving grace of Twitter? On what planet does the author live?

How much have you used the two products?

Re: Twitter: Years After the Alphabet Acquisition

#25

Post by mschuster91 » Sat, Feb 13, 2016, 6:45 PM UTC

melted wrote: post #15

mschuster91 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Twitter's chance of death goes up dramatically if it's not a standalone entity. Currently the whole TWTR management is looking to please short-term "investor" and "speculator" scum. Companies don't exist for 3-month intervals and maximum gains, they exist for creating LONG TIME wealth (and that's the mistake Capitalism does). Existence inside a huge, rock-solid company frees management from the cognitive and financ…

It also frees the management from "fear of God", which results in ridiculous investments and initiatives, accelerated (and unnecessary) hiring, proliferation of middle management, empire building, politics, etc, etc.

> It also frees the management from "fear of God"

It doesn't really matter if the "God" is Wall Street or a holding company like Alphabet.

Only that I'd trust a holding company to be forced to maintain the company in order to not risk its value. A stock holder on Wall St just wants as much profit as possible as fast as possible, and if it goes bust then you can always sell shorts and still profit.

Re: Twitter: Years After the Alphabet Acquisition

#26

Post by riffic » Sat, Feb 13, 2016, 6:47 PM UTC

Way overpriced. All the cool kids are using GnuSocial/OStatus anyways (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OStatus).

Re: Twitter: Years After the Alphabet Acquisition

#27

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Feb 13, 2016, 6:48 PM UTC

karangoeluw wrote: post #21

wslh wrote: post #12

This is an unreal post: "When Alphabet bought Twitter back in June 2016 for almost $29 billion", you can easily check Twitter valuation at $10 billion here: https://www.google.com/finance?q=NYSE%3ATWTR&ei=gHO_VpH9GsnB... so... spending 3X the public market valuation will be crazy. And speaking about science fiction, what will Alphabet/Google do to turn around Twitter? Also the posts saying: "I quit Facebook" are nons…

> spending 3X the public market valuation Just last year, Twitter’s market cap was more than double what it is today. Since then, they have managed to grow revenue by 48% while reducing the losses by 9%. So, with all that, I think $29B is a steal for the acquisition. EDIT: my last response here was uninformed. > And speaking about science fiction, what will Alphabet/Google do to turn around Twitter? Clearly you have…

[deleted]

Re: Twitter: Years After the Alphabet Acquisition

#28

Post by Riod » Sat, Feb 13, 2016, 6:49 PM UTC

karangoeluw wrote: post #21

wslh wrote: post #12

This is an unreal post: "When Alphabet bought Twitter back in June 2016 for almost $29 billion", you can easily check Twitter valuation at $10 billion here: https://www.google.com/finance?q=NYSE%3ATWTR&ei=gHO_VpH9GsnB... so... spending 3X the public market valuation will be crazy. And speaking about science fiction, what will Alphabet/Google do to turn around Twitter? Also the posts saying: "I quit Facebook" are nons…

> spending 3X the public market valuation Just last year, Twitter’s market cap was more than double what it is today. Since then, they have managed to grow revenue by 48% while reducing the losses by 9%. So, with all that, I think $29B is a steal for the acquisition. EDIT: my last response here was uninformed. > And speaking about science fiction, what will Alphabet/Google do to turn around Twitter? Clearly you have…

If it is an early stage company that has the ability to not just increase revenue/customer but also total number of customers.

Also the competition in the bidding process matters. There are a limited number of players who can/will swallow an acquisition this size. Public companies never get bought for these numbers. Why would Google bid that when a 30-40% premium would be enough for most shareholders to vote yes?

On twitter itself, I feel the quote, "clown car that fell into a goldmine" attributed to mark zuckerberg is pretty appropriate.

Re: Twitter: Years After the Alphabet Acquisition

#29

Post by melted » Sat, Feb 13, 2016, 6:52 PM UTC

mschuster91 wrote: post #25

melted wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It also frees the management from "fear of God", which results in ridiculous investments and initiatives, accelerated (and unnecessary) hiring, proliferation of middle management, empire building, politics, etc, etc.

> It also frees the management from "fear of God" It doesn't really matter if the "God" is Wall Street or a holding company like Alphabet. Only that I'd trust a holding company to be forced to maintain the company in order to not risk its value. A stock holder on Wall St just wants as much profit as possible as fast as possible, and if it goes bust then you can always sell shorts and still profit.

It does. Alphabet would care a great deal more if Twitter lives or dies. Wall St doesn't care in the slightest.

Re: Twitter: Years After the Alphabet Acquisition

#30

Post by Riod » Sat, Feb 13, 2016, 6:52 PM UTC

sigmar wrote: post #16

fchollet wrote: post #14

So Periscope and Moments would be the saving grace of Twitter? On what planet does the author live?

Moments is pretty amazing. Have you used it? Seems to me like it is miles ahead of snapchat's stories

I have. Gives me a bunch of bs I have no interest in. How about ask me/infer from who I follow, what I'm interested in? Google now does that and blends it in with more general stories; simple and useful. Not intrusive and useless like moments.