Shares of Twitter Inc. surged Friday morning after reports that the social media company could receive a formal bid soon.
Citing unnamed sources, CNBC reported Friday that Twitter has received “expressions of interest” from several tech companies and was “engaged in conversations with potential suitors.”
Those companies are said to include Google and cloud computing software firm Salesforce.com Inc., according to CNBC.
Twitter stock rose $4.01, or 21.5%, to $22.64 in early morning trading on Wall Street.
Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The San Francisco social media company has struggled to increase its user base. Twitter has tried to expand its platform by increasing its live streamed sports coverage.
In April, Twitter signed a deal with the NFL to live stream Thursday night football games. The company followed this up with an agreement in July with the Pac-12 Networks to live stream at least 150 conference games during the 2016-17 school year.
Twitter has also signed a deal with the NBA that would allow the company to stream two new, exclusive shows and additional video.
These plans were unlikely to jump-start user growth, but they could help bolster brand awareness or drive revenue. And Twitter’s potential profitability is likely what’s attractive to potential suitors, said Michael Pachter, research analyst at Wedbush Securities.
Though Twitter might not seem like a natural fit with any of the rumored suitors, he said companies could try to integrate it into existing platforms. Salesforce.com, for example, might see a fit with its customer database management software.
In a tweet Friday morning, Salesforce executive Vala Afshar said Twitter was a “great place to promote others” and “the best realtime, context rich news.”
Later, he noted that he has tweeted his “personal views regarding ‘Why Twitter?'” several times over the last few years. “I simply love Twitter,” he said.
But it is Google and its strong advertising platform that makes more sense, Pachter said. Google’s engineers could make Twitter easier to use, which could drive user growth, and its sales team could increase advertising opportunities, he said.
“Twitter certainly has value if someone runs the company to maximize profitability,” Pachter said.
© 2016 Los Angeles Times (CA) under contract with NewsEdge. -.
