I think everyone is ignoring the fact that he really wanted to work there. If you're in that boat then yes this makes sense.
But if like most people you're not exactly gaga over the company but value other factors like pay and lifestyle then the traditional approach could yield more dividends. Return on time invested after all is important.
It would most likely not get past Google's board. And investors would crucify them for paying that kind of premium for a stalled social network (aka don't get the incremental benefits of growth via network effects). They would be left with 1) increase revenue/user or 2) cut costs.
Periscope doesn't fulfill the "toothbrush" principle, aka stuff that you use every day. That's how Google does M&A. Their corporate development people have talked about it publicly.
Also, the shares turnover every 26 days given that about 26MM shares trade every day. Hard to say that a majority of the shareholder base would not accept a 40% premium.
I have. Gives me a bunch of bs I have no interest in. How about ask me/infer from who I follow, what I'm interested in? Google now does that and blends it in with more general stories; simple and useful. Not intrusive and useless like moments.
If it is an early stage company that has the ability to not just increase revenue/customer but also total number of customers.
Also the competition in the bidding process matters. There are a limited number of players who can/will swallow an acquisition this size. Public companies never get bought for these numbers. Why would Google bid that when a 30-40% premium would be enough for most shareholders to vote yes?
On twitter itself, I feel the quote, "clown car that fell into a goldmine" attributed to mark zuckerberg is pretty appropriate.
Honestly even the changes twitter has made have been poor. Moments should ask you, like Google Now, what you're interested in. What use is a random burst of stuff if you're interested only in big basketball stories? It should blend what you want with what's going on around you in an artful manner. Google even showed the way with this.
Even assuming everyone bought in at today's low cost base; who would agree to this? Would you voluntarily lose $15+/share for...for what exactly? Greater good?
Bernanke and treasury alone could not have done it. The government could have. What he left out was that they never considered nationalizing the banks. No narrative here; just pointing out what a Nobel prize winning economist laid out.
Bass was kinda wrong on his Japan trade though. Doesn't work every time. Also the big issue with 2008 was that the government led Lehman fail; a huge mistake. They should have nationalized it or taken a majority equity stake in it at punitive terms.
? The whole company = the enterprise value of the company. Maybe you didn't understand what buying all of twitter meant. My point is if you bought twitter for $1 and with their XBN revenue, all you'd have to do to earn a 100% return on capital is make sure you get back a $2 after tax dividend. This illustrates why price matters in investing. But I'd suggest reading Seth Klarman and Buffett for further reading on the relationship between price and value.
Another way to think of it is, forget about speculating and expected price changes. Think about at what price you would be comfortable buying the whole company and taking it private and harvesting cash flows from it. At $1 for an XBN revenue company that's a no brainer. I'd earn a 1000% return in a year just by cutting some costs and making sure capital is allocated in a manner that generates a return.
Lol "We actually don't know if India would have been worse or better off without Britain's influence, and we can't possibly know"
See my other statement: Honestly I think this reflects a fairly common sentiment amongst westerners. Not the first time I've heard this; doubt it would be the last. I've even heard white south africans in the west say that south africa would have been better off under apartheid, to be greeted by a chorus of nodding heads. Scary people actually think subjugation is a good thing.
Proving my point. It's clear you're British and shamelessly defending oppression, for what reason I don't know. If I had to guess I'd say, unlike Germany, Britain never had a process of de-empirification akin to the germans realising they as a nation committed a crime and that it was unacceptable.