Twitter Inc (TWTR) As An Activist Investor Target by Stock Pucker
Nothing better to do on a Monday than to mull over Twitter as an activist target.
Twitter has been battling Wall Street over monetization since it came public. With activist investing being a hot topic, it’s natural that everyday investors would start yearning for an activist investor to get involved and drive the stock price higher.
But for what? There’s no clear catalyst or path to unlocking value at Twitter. Excluding a forced buyout of course. The likes of Google, Apple, Facebook, Yahoo and Microsoft all being named as potential suitors.
Carl Icahn is the activist mentioned the most, yet, Dan Loeb’s Third Point would likely be a better fit, seeing as he’s had some experience in the space – taking on Yahoo a few years back.
Twitter is also in no man’s land without a clear leader, which only further excites investors pushing for an activist intervention.
Again, with the sale being the only clear catalyst, or the potential push to help with the search for a new CEO, there really is only one kingmaker for Twitter, and that’s Google. Google has a big hole that needs to be filled – social. Mobile and other players are eating into its core business – search – but social search could be the next level for Google.
Still – it’s a fool’s errand, as there is easier to money to be made in activist investing. Twitter has no clear path to income and recharging user growth. The true gain for an activist to get involved with Twitter would be publicity. As this point, though, activist investing is front and center and there’s easier ways to get attention without relying on a pipedream that would include a Twitter buyout.
Full disclosure: Long Twitter, but for the right reasons
