Twitter has been looking for ways to make money given its growing popularity. The company has tried a number of things from sponsored tweets, accounts and even hashtags. These have worked out fine for now but the company is not just going to sit and wait for money to roll in.
Twitter is believed to be in talks with Flipboard for a possible acquisition. Twitter is interested in buying Flipboard in its entirety for $1 billion. This is not cheap as you can see. Since Flipboard mostly relies on ad revenues, Twitter will probably help it recover the money in due course.
Why Is Twitter Interested In Flipboard
It is still not clear why Twitter is interested in Flipboard at this point. Flipboard is not that profitable and according to reports, the company made over $50 million in revenue last year. This is not a small number but question is, is it worth the $1 billion Twitter is offering? Probably Twitter will help that grow but by how much?
When you consider it, most people who use Twitter also use Flipboard and in some way, Flipboard needs Twitter more than Twitter needs it. Flipboard has over 100 million activated users but its growth has stagnated for a while and Twitter may help change this.
The news curation feature presented by Flipboard may be appealing to Twitter. Twitter is interested in serving news to user’s timelines. The company may use the same technology Flipboard uses to do this.
Some people are arguing that Twitter is interested in getting Flipboard’s team on board. Twitter is particularly interested in Flipboard co-founder Mike McCue. McCue served on Twitter’s board from 2010 to 2012.
What Twitter Should Do With Flipboard
If I was asked, I would say Twitter should acquire Flipboard and let it run as an independent company. This will give the two companies a chance to grow independently for the better. There may of course be some integration between Twitter and Flipboard’s services, but that should be all. Twitter should also use its experience to help Flipboard gain ad revenue without affecting user experience.