Twitter CEO dismisses acquisition rumours


15 Feb 2011

Twitter CEO Dick Costolo has rejected rumours that Google and Facebook were in acquisition or merger talks with the microblogging site. He said the reports were false.

Costolo dismissed the claims, which were reported in the Wall Street Journal, at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, Spain, stating, “People write that stuff all the time. I don’t know where these things come from, it’s just a rumour.”

Costolo insisted Twitter is making money through its promoted tweets, accounts and trends. He said Twitter carried 130m tweets a day, an increase from 100m at the end of 2010. He also insisted Twitter was focused on its mission statement, which is to “instantly connect people everywhere to what’s most meaningful to them”.

Twitter, which only made revenue of $45m in 2010 due to expenditure on hiring and data centre, claims it is making more money. Costolo said, “Every time I have an interview I am asked when we’re going to make money. The short answer is we’re already making money.”

Techtree.com reported that Costolo also questioned if Google could actually afford a US$10bn acquisition.

Article courtesy of Businessandleadership.com