The Ashimmy Blog: Is Twitter a good buy for Google?

April 03, 2009

Is Twitter a good buy for Google?

So the blogosphere is all a-twitter (couldn’t help it) about Google buying Twitter. I am sure Twitter does not have a gun to their head to sell at this point, having raised substantial money recently. That would lead me to believe that if they are indeed serious about selling to Google, it is because there is some very serious cash on the table. One thing I have learned is that if you have an opportunity to cash out for serious cash, you should take it.

So we understand why Twitter would sell, why would Google buy? To this point revenue from Twitter is pretty much non-existent, so that is not a factor. Are Sergey, Larry and company just this generations William Randolph Hearst. Eccentric collectors who bring their shiny new baubles back to their Silicon Valley based San Simeon? Will Twitter go into the curio cabinet alongside Youtube, Green Border, etc.?

I understand the strategy of buying best of breed brands and worry about monetizing them later. But at some point Google even with its oodles of search advertising has to show how these acquisitions are going to add to the bottom line. Yes you can have twitter searching and with it the ability to do search advertising. But do you have to buy Twitter to have that? OneRiot announced a cool service to do this yesterday.

So when does this all come together? How do you monetize Twitter? Without a real plan to do this I think at some point investors have to ask themselves how long they are going to indulge the Google-ians in their pack rat desire to collect shiny trinkets back at the nest.