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Who (If Anybody) Is Still Looking To Purchase Twitter?

GOOG, VZ, SFTBF, CRM, MSFT, DIS | October 25, 2016

Twitter Inc (NYSE: TWTR) is seeking to address fundamental weakness with some drastic measures. If a report that appeared in Bloomberg is to be believed, the company may soon announce plans to eliminate 8 percent (about 300 individuals) of its workforce.

SunTrust, in a research note released on Tuesday, explored job cuts as one of the options the company may mull to right-size cost structure in a bid to counter slowing sales growth.

Analyst Robert Peck of SunTrust estimates that an 8 percent reduction, if implemented, would align the company more with the other internet properties, providing leeway for savings of $50 million to $100 million per year.

Given its recent travails and the consequent drop in stock price, the Street is awash with speculation that a knight in shining armor may emerge to pull it out of the doldrums.

The kind of companies supposedly interested in Twitter have ranged from Google parent Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ: GOOG) (NASDAQ: GOOGL) to Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) to Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) to Walt Disney Co (NYSE: DIS) to salesforce.com, inc. (NYSE: CRM) to Japanese telecom and internet giant SoftBank Group Corp (OTC: SFTBF), with even a going private deal considered a possibility. The battered stock found occasional reprieves on these fleeting M&A rumors, although it is still down roughly 18 percent in the year-to-date period.

Now with the company looking to clean up, is it tidying up to make itself a more attractive target, or has it reconciled to the idea of surviving as a stand-alone company by setting its house its order?

In pre-market trading, Twitter shares were down 0.39 percent at $17.96. At last check, the stock was down 3 percent at $17.48.

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