Twitter is buyout bait for Google?


A fun game in the social networking world is to buzz -- or tweet -- about buyout scenarios for Twitter. After all, it's been a while since we've had a big deal, such as Google's (NASDAQ: GOOG) $1.6 billion purchase of YouTube in late 2006.

So, the chatter has surged again today with TechCrunch indicating that Google is making a play for Twitter. Keep in mind that earlier this year, Facebook tried to buy the site for $500 million or so.

The price tag from Google? It's definitely over $250 million.

The valuation could indeed get heated. I'm sure Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) wants to control the tweeting world too.

Funny enough, Google's CEO Eric Schmidt, recently dismissed Twitter as some kind of archaic email system. But in the deal world, it's usually a good idea to trash talk your prey, right? It helps to mute the valuation.

OK, so why the interest? Part of it is the Twitter brand, which is growing by the day. In other words, Google can instantly become a top player in the micro-blogging space.

What's more, Twitter has the potential for being a next-generation search engine. Already, there is search.twitter.com, which is pretty cool. Google certainly understands how to monetize such things, while Twitter is still fumbling around.

Besides, Twitter has a history with Google. The co-founder of Twitter, Evan Williams, sold Blogger to Google in early 2003. Why not a second bite at the apple?

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and the founder of BizEquity, a free online business valuation tool for small businesses. You can reach him on Twitter.

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