Twitter Acquiring Foursquare & Secret Bidding
So I have this friend and this friend is an employee at Twitter. All of our conversations are very private. Apparently, there have been talks the last several weeks in an acquisition of Foursquare, the extremely popular location-based social networking site.
I don’t have a ton of information but I can say that from the beta site I’ve seen, the integration into Twitter is going to be top notch. Not only that but it’s going to add a whole new level of functionality on top of what we already see. Also, users will have an option to turn Foursquare “off” so it won’t interfere with those who don’t use the service.
I’d rather not disclose the offering but let’s just say it’s a little more than expected and Twitter’s investors are all in and interested in going forward on the deal. Now, if I said this was all that’s going on, it’d be a big fat lie.
Here’s what’s REALLY happening behind the scenes: Google, Microsoft, and Facebook have been involved in a rather large bidding war the last 3 months. The highest offer to date has been $605 million plus the current staff and management remains. This was a very enticing offer but Twitter’s founders believe the site is worth far more than that.
Through the acquisition of Foursquare, Twitter is hoping to increase its value and potentially hit the “sweet spot” in what they consider a good price. My source tells me this price hovers over $750 million even with Twitter’s supposed valuation at $1 Billion.
Anyways, this is all the information I have at this time but will keep you posted! As far as Twitter being acquired, it’s no longer a question of “if” but a question of “who”.
