The team over at Benzinga is out with a list of every buyout rumor crossing their desk during 2016. It’s fairly entertaining, check it out:
* January 20: Twitter spikes 14 percent on rumors of a News Corp (NASDAQ: NWSA) buyout.
* January 21: The Wall Street Journals Miriam Gottfried suggests Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ: GOOGL) as a top Twitter buyout candidate. Gottfried also mentions Time Warner Inc (NYSE: TWX) and Twenty-First Century Fox Inc (NASDAQ: FOXA) as potential buyers.
* February 1: The Information reports that Marc Andreessen and private equity group Silver Lake considered a Twitter buyout.
* March 31: Twitter shares spike on renewed rumors that Google is considering a buyout at a 100 percent premium to market price.
* June 3: The New York Post reports that Twitter and Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) discussed a potential merger.
* June 13: Recode speculates that Google and Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ: CMCSA) are top Twitter buyout candidates.
* June 17: Vanity Fairs Nick Bilton claims that Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL), Google and Facebook Inc (NASDAQ: FB) are unlikely to bid for Twitter.
* June 27: TechCrunch names Google as a possible Twitter buyer, sending shares higher. The article also mentions Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ), AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T), Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT), Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN), Apple, News Corp and Facebook as potential buyers.
* August 3: Rumors circulate that Steve Ballmer and Saidi Arabian Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal are interested in acquiring Twitter for $22-26 per share.
* August 30-31: More speculation that Google may be interested in a takeover.
* September 23: CNBC’s David Faber reports Twitter is moving closer to a sale. Bidders could include Google and Salesforce (NYSE: CRM).
* September 26: Bloomberg reports Disney (NYSE: DIS) is working with an advisor on a potential bid.
* September 26: Faber reports sale could happen within 30-45 days; says Microsoft could be a potential bidder.
* September 30: Bloomberg reports Alphabet’s Google has tapped Lazard to review a potential bid.
* October 4: WSJ reports Twitter is expected to field bids this week.
* October 5: Source tells Benzinga Salesforce shareholders would not be happy with a purchase.
* October 5: Recode reports Google, Apple and Disney are no longer considering a bid.
Shares of the archaic social media platform are down more than -15% Thursday after all the rumors turned out to be bull-logna.
Writer’s note: I am long Twitter (ticker: TWTR) with a cost basis around $27.00 and still fairly optimistic about the company and the platform.
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Could just be a double-shakeout.
Company sale by EOM is still in the cards.
Could always just sell calls (inflated premium) to lower your cost against lower prices while ya wait.
I’m long again at $20.
I like it here