Microsoft and the Twitter Imperative
May 7, 2009
I found Nicholas Carlson’s “Microsoft Must Buy Twitter” here an interesting analysis. My thought was that deal makers would have a day at the State Fair if Apple, Google, and Microsoft began a bidding war over Twitter.com. Mr. Carlson offers five reasons why Microsoft has a Twitter imperative. I can’t reproduce the five points here, but I can comment on two of them and invite you to navigate to Mr. Carlson’s article to get the full story.
Mr. Carlson suggests that Microsoft can’t make its dream of attending Google’s funeral a reality with Yahoo as its principal weapon. Microsoft needs the T bomb; that is, the Twitter user base, buzz, and monetization opportunity. I find the idea intriguing, but Microsoft has not made any progress in closing the gap between itself and Google in Web search. Now the GOOG is aiming at Microsoft’s enterprise business. Twitter could be, in my opinion, an expensive distraction that leaves Microsoft vulnerable in a business sector it can ill afford to see slip downhill.
Twitter is, Mr. Carlson implies, will get more expensive. So, buy now and save. Twitter is definitely hot at this moment. The challenge for a company like Microsoft is to acquire something hot and then prevent it from getting cold. Hot properties in the hands of big, slow moving entities often lose their zippiness. My hunch is that if Microsoft owned Twitter, Twitter would be surpassed by another real time messaging service and quickly.
Microsoft may buy Twitter. That opens the door for another Twitter and Microsoft is poorer and more vulnerable as a result. Microsoft needs to leapfrog to stay where it is. An acquisition won’t do the job in my opinion.
Stephen Arnold, June 7, 2009
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