According to rumors, Salesforce is one of the companies interested in taking over Twitter.
Salesforce To Take Over Twitter
According to The New York Times, the social network Twitter, based in San Francisco, has long positioned itself as a global venue where anyone can chat in 140-character messages. However, lately it has become more clear that the social media network is not drawing enough new people to it service. For this reason, Twitter is exploring now several strategic options and it might be rethinking whether it can survive as an independent company.
According to Business Insider, rumors say that Twitter is talking with various companies, including Google, Salesforce.com and others about a possible takeover of the company. CNBC reported on Friday, Sept. 23, that Salesforce has joined the parties interested in buying the social media network.
The talks are in the early stages and at this moment is no guarantee that a deal will be reached. Twitter's chief executive Jack Dorsey is in particular opposing to selling to some of the potential acquirers, according to rumors.
Salesforce is a business software company that designs apps mostly used by salespeople. For some, it might be surprising that a company such as Salesforce could be interested to buy Twitter. However, nowadays salespeople widely use the social media network as prospecting tools.
Salespeople use social media sites like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter to gain real-time insights into what their potential buyers are interested in and learn more about them. This sales tactic has even giving rise to the term "social selling."
More than 70 percent of sales professionals use these social selling tools, according to a recent survey by LinkedIn. This high percent makes social selling tools the most widely used sales technology.
In 2014, Salesforce actually published a blog post focusing on the importance of using Twitter in selling. In this blog post Twitter is called the "largest cocktail party in the world." Lead generation and engagement are cited as reason for Twitter's effectiveness in sales.
Salesforce just launched this week a new artificial intelligence (AI) feature called Einstein. Twitter's massive amount of data could be used by Salesforce to increase its own machine learning and AI capabilities.
