Twitter $TWTR in Play: Is the Price Too High? (video)

The Companies That Might Buy Twitter:

Shares of Twitter surged by the most in more than two years following reports that the social media company may soon receive a takeover offer. Bloomberg Gadfly's Brooke Sutherland discusses the details on "Bloomberg ‹GO›" Sep 23, 2016. (Sutherland is a Bloomberg Gadfly columnist. The opinions expressed are her own.)

More Twitter Suitors Emerge Despite Premium | CNBC:

Neil Doshi, Mizuho Securities Internet Analyst, discusses the rise in Twitter stocks as rumors swirl around a potential sale of the social media company. Video above published Sep 27, 2016.

Chart below: Twitter Still Isn't Flying High | Statista:


Salesforce, Google, and Disney, among others, are now reportedly interested in Twitter, the social networking service.  In the short-term, this has been good for Twitter's share price, rising 19% Thursday to Friday last week, and over 28% since August 29th (see chart below). But Twitter is still not flying high. The current price is below the IPO closing day price ($44.90), November 7, 2013, and considerably below the high of $73.31 in December 2013. Since then, the company's market cap has been slashed by billions of dollars. With its current valuation, quarterly "numbers" consistently in the red, and user growth stalling, the potential buyers need to come with deep pockets and solid plans. See also on SeekingAlpha.com: Google Is Going To Buy Twitter and Why Twitter Is Unlikely To Accept A Buyout Offer (reportedly insiders may want as much as $30 billion, considerably higher than the current market capitalization of $20 billion).

Twitter Inc. (domain: twitter.com) NYSE: TWTR 30-day chart below:

feedback & comments via twitter @DomainMondo
Follow @DomainMondo

DISCLAIMER

YAHOO $YHOO Q2 2016 Earnings, Webcast Monday July 18, 5:30pm ET

YAHOO $YHOO Q2 2016 Earnings, Webcast Monday July 18, 5:30pm ET:

Yahoo's (YHOO) CEO Marissa Mayer on Q2 2016 Results - Earnings Call Transcript | SeekingAlpha.com

Marissa Mayer was appointed President and CEO of Yahoo! effective July 17, 2012, and
since July 20, 2012, Yahoo shares (NASDAQ: YHOO) are UP 137% as of July 15, 2016.

Yahoo reports Q2 2016 earnings results, Monday, July 18, 2016, after the market close, LIVE webcast at 5:30 pm ET: https://finance.yahoo.com/topics/yahoo-q2-2016-earnings. The webcast video will be archived after the event at https://investor.yahoo.net/ and will be available for 90 days following the LIVE broadcast.

Principal domain: yahoo.com
Investor Relations:  investor.yahoo.net
Stock exchange: symbol NASDAQ: YHOO
Stocktwits.com/symbol/YHOO

UPDATE: Yahoo Q2 2016 earnings release-- EPS of $0.09 misses consensus estimates by $0.01, revenue of $1.3B (+4.8% Y/Y) beats by $220M--

Our second quarter GAAP revenue and Cost of revenue - TAC were impacted by a required change in revenue presentation related to the Eleventh Amendment to the Microsoft Search Agreement ("Change in Revenue Presentation," as discussed below). Specifically, $252 million of GAAP revenue and Cost of revenue - TAC for the second quarter of 2016 was due to the Change in Revenue Presentation. Excluding the impact of this change, GAAP revenue would have been $1,055 million, a 15 percent decline from the second quarter of 2015, and Cost of revenue - TAC would have been $214 million, a 7 percent increase from the second quarter of 2015.--Yahoo Q2 2016 release

Yahoo Q2 2016 earnings release:

Preview:

• Yahoo! (YHOO) Auction Comes to an End: "Yahoo!'s (YHOO) final bids are due Monday, July 18, after a drawn-out auction and the company's board is set to make a decision as to who wins the bid soon after, Bloomberg TV's David Guru reported on "Bloomberg Markets" citing a New York Times report. Verizon (VZ), AT&T (T), and Quicken Loans' founder Dan Gilbert are expected to make a bid on Yahoo that range between $3 billion to $6 billion depending on what assets are accounted for in the bids, Bloomberg TV Emily Chang said. It is assumed the companies are bidding for Yahoo's core assets, which include search, emails, media, and advertising, she said. "It's very unclear what exact company is bidding for what, and what ..."
• As it nears sale, Yahoo's earnings likely to reveal continued decline: "Despite Yahoo's (NASDAQ: YHOO) not-so-sunny outlook, some analysts believe its impending sale will affect its stock price more than its current revenue ... Though Yahoo is nowhere near its heyday, it still boasts a robust media sector , and is one of the top trafficked online destinations. Yahoo has also made moves to build up its advertising business, though some have argued that its facing massive ad fraud issues . It could make it attractive to a company like Verizon, which needs more media content to make itself an advertising powerhouse. Analysts estimate that the company will report revenue of $1.08 billion, and 10 cents per share, according to Thompson Reuters."
• Yahoo Q2 earnings preview | BusinessInsider.com: "Mavens [mobile, video, native, social] revenue will once again be under the spotlight come Monday, when Yahoo reports its second-quarter earnings. Another slowdown will be a serious blow to Yahoo and Mayer's legacy as CEO, as Mavens has been one of the few bright spots during her three-year tenure. It could also send Yahoo stock down as the company's other legacy businesses have already been in decline for years now."

$YHOO on twitter:
Tweets about $YHOO

See also:
Yahoo $YHOO Q1 2016 Earnings Webcast, April 19, 5 pm ET (video) | DomainMondo.com

feedback & comments via twitter @DomainMondo
Follow @DomainMondo

DISCLAIMER

Yahoo Q2 2015 Earnings, LIVE Webcast, 5pm ET July 21 Replay

UPDATE (July 23, 2015): As discussed on the Q2 2015 earnings webcast, Yahoo has filed with the SEC to spin-off its Alibaba holdings into a new, independent entity: Aabaco Holdings, Inc. More information may be obtained from the SEC filings:

• SEC Filing: Form 8-K (July 17, 2015) "... Under the spin-off plan announced on January 27, 2015, Yahoo plans to distribute all of the outstanding shares of Aabaco Holdings pro rata to its shareholders. Immediately after the spin-off, Aabaco Holdings will own approximately 384 million shares of Alibaba Group, representing an ownership interest of approximately 15% in Alibaba Group, and a 100% ownership interest in a newly formed entity which will own Yahoo Small Business..."
• Form N-2: Preliminary Information Statement dated July 17, 2015
• SEC Filing: Form 8-K (July 21, 2015)

Yahoo Q2 2015 Earnings webcast above (replay).
Principal domain name: yahoo.com
Stock Exchange: Symbol - NASDAQ: YHOO
Second Quarter 2015
Read the Earnings Release (July 21, 2015)
Earnings Slides (pdf)

Screenshot from the YAHOO! Inc. Q2 2015 earnings press release

Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) today, July 21, 2015, reported results for the quarter ended June 30, 2015. (press release)

"I'm extremely pleased with our achievements in Q2, with revenue growing 15% year-over-year, marking our most substantial GAAP revenue growth in almost 9 years," said Marissa Mayer, CEO of Yahoo. "Our Mavens investment businesses across mobile, video, native and social grew to nearly $400 million in revenue this quarter, delivering 60% GAAP growth year-over-year. Further, our display business saw the most substantial revenue growth since 2010. Yahoo's transformation continues to make great progress."

Business Highlights--
Search:

• Over the past year, Yahoo's search presence has steadily grown through innovation and partnerships with industry leaders. In Q2, Yahoo introduced a new mobile search experience in the U.S. that connects users immediately to the people, places and things they care about by using context and location cues to deliver the most relevant search results.

Communications:

• In Q2, Yahoo delivered several new features in Mail including Yahoo Mail on Firefox Share which allows users to instantly share web pages when using Firefox; integration of Twitter and LinkedIn information in Contacts; and the addition of breaking news notifications to the Mail news feed tab.

Digital Content:

• In July, the Company launched Daily Fantasy, now available in the Yahoo Fantasy app, giving users the chance to win money every day with new fantasy lineups.
• Yahoo announced a partnership with the NFL to live stream an International Series Game between the Buffalo Bills and the Jacksonville Jaguars from London this fall.
• Yahoo launched new daily live finance, news and entertainment programming including Ultimate DJ, a global Electronic Music competition-style live series that is executive produced by Simon Cowell. The Company also announced 14 new shows across Yahoo's digital magazine channels including Riding Shotgun with Michelle Rodriguez.
• In Q2, Live Nation and Yahoo continued their partnership by kicking off a music festival live stream series to bring artists' performances from this year's most anticipated music festivals to our global audience.

Ad Technology:

• Yahoo announced the availability of independent viewability and fraud measurement for display and video advertising across the Company's programmatic buying platform, including Yahoo Properties. Advertisers can now choose from leading accredited, third-party measurement solutions to independently validate for viewability and fraud across display and video at every stage of the campaign lifecycle.
• Yahoo introduced new powerful formats to help advertisers reach their audiences: native video and video app-install ads. With native video ads, brand content can be as compelling as video while beautifully integrated into other experiences on Yahoo's homepage, digital magazines and apps. For marketers and developers looking to drive installs, the Company now offers a format that combines the engagement of video and the performance of install ads.

Investor relations: investor.yahoo.net


Follow @DomainMondo

Should Google Buy Twitter? (videos)

UPDATE: Twitter CEO Dick Costolo is out and co-founder Jack Dorsey, who is also CEO of Square, will serve as interim-CEO effective July 1. Costolo will reportedly remain on the board.
Investors (see below) had been calling for changes in Twitter's strategy--stock is up in after-hours trading.



Om Malik: Google Should Buy Twitter - Om Malik, a partner at True Ventures, and Bloomberg's Joshua Topolsky preview Twitter's 2015 Annual Meeting of Stockholders on Wednesday, June 3, 2015 . They spoke with Bloomberg's Emily Chang on "Bloomberg West" (June 3, 2015).

Stock Exchange: Stock Symbol(s) - market capitalization (June 5, 2015):

• NYSE: TWTR - $24.23 Billion
• NASDAQ: GOOG, GOOGL - $369.97 Billion

Google is holding $65 Billion in cash - source: Sizemore Insights | charlessizemore.com. See also: Google's Cash Position | Seeking Alpha.

Twitter 2015 Annual Meeting

• Listen to webcast
• 2015 Proxy Statement - URL PDF 404.3 KB
• 2014 Annual Report - URL PDF 3.9 MB 

Chris Sacca, 40-year-old California billionaire and Twitter stockholder wrote a blog post critique of  over 8,000 words that was published and widely noted hours before Twitter’s annual shareholder meeting ... Later in the afternoon in an interview with CNBC [see below], Sacca said Twitter would be a “good fit” for an acquisition by Google see video below.

"Twitter would be an "instant fit" for Google, should the Internet search giant acquire the company, early Twitter investor Chris Sacca said Wednesday. "I think it's a fantastic use of Google's cash," the founder of Lowercase Capital said in an interview with CNBC's "Closing Bell" [above]. "This is the thing that Google has never had. They've never understood social, they've never understood those personal interactions. This bolts right in cleanly... Sacca also stressed that he wasn't threatening to sell his stake in Twitter. "I'm not out there selling shares ... This is a very, very long-term hold, and I know this company is going to be massively more valuable than it is today."" source: CNBC.com (emphasis added)

See: Chris Sacca--What Twitter Can Be. | LOWERCASE capital

And a critique on Seeking Alpha of  Sacca's article--excerpt below--

"... Perhaps the biggest mistake Sacca made was in not establishing his bona fides before launching. Sacca, a former Google employee, is well known in Silicon Valley, but almost completely unknown on Wall Street. What the Street wanted was for Sacca to shop his ideas around privately, to specific private equity firms and brokerages, before going public ... In fact, like many tech guys, he's probably on to something else right now ... But that's not how Wall Street works. These ideas are great, but they're not going anywhere, and neither is the stock until something like them is taken seriously. If Dan Loeb or Dan Ackman wrote this, in other words, we'd all be screaming buy, buy, buy..." --Why Sacca's Twitter Gambit Failed | Seeking Alpha (emphasis added)

see also: Twitter Announces Secondary For Shares Related To TellApart Buyout: How Successful Will It Be? - | Seeking Alpha

Domain Mondo opinion:
1. Should Google Buy Twitter? From Google's viewpoint--Yes--Twitter has what Google needs in Social and Mobile and this--Facebook and Twitter Will Take 33% Share of US Digital Display Market by 2017 - eMarketer--Google needs the Twitter platforms for mobile advertising growth.
2. Will Google use any of its cash or earnings for dividends or buybacks? No, not in the near future. Brin and Page are relatively young and have too many acquisitions and new projects still to do before Google starts "throwing off" cash to stockholders, unless, of course, the stock price becomes too "cheap"--and then, only provided Google does not otherwise have better use for the cash.

Principal domain names: google.com | twitter.com
Twitter apps: Periscope and Vine

referenced:
Bloomberg Business: bloomberg.com
True Ventures | Early Stage Capital: trueventures.com
Stock Markets ... - CNBC: cnbc.com
LOWERCASE capital: lowercasecapital.com
Stock Market Insights | Seeking Alpha: seekingalpha.com

see also on Domain Mondo: 2015 Google Stockholders Annual Meeting (video)


Follow @DomainMondo

Tencent, Another Huge Chinese dot COM, Taking On Alibaba

Tencent's Impressive Line Of Messaging + Social Platforms | Statista:
Above: Tencent's Messaging and Social Platforms include QQ, QZone, WeChat, Weixin

Can Alibaba Keep Growing Without Sacrificing High Profit Margins? - WSJ:".... Marco Ma, an e-commerce manager for Factory Five, a bicycle shop in Shanghai that runs an online store on Taobao [an Alibaba property], received a phone call last month from an official at Tencent's WeChat messaging app unit who offered to let Factory Five conduct e-commerce through WeChat free of charge. Factory Five co-founder Drew Bates said "their sales pitch was that WeChat is already an intrinsic part of people's lives, so bolting on an e-commerce platform is just a logical step." He said his company started selling some of its products through WeChat last month, in addition to Taobao. Tencent approached Factory Five with the offer around the same time the bike shop was redesigning its store on Taobao's mobile app using software tools provided by Alibaba, Mr. Bates said. But so far, Factory Five's Taobao store generates far more sales than its WeChat store, he said. Data so far show few signs of threat to Alibaba's e-commerce dominance. Taobao's mobile app [owned by Alibaba] accounted for 86% of China's online shopping done through smartphones and tablets in the second quarter, according to iResearch. But Tencent could be a threat in the future if more consumers warm up to the idea of linking social networks with commerce, Jefferies analyst Cynthia Meng said. "If people are spending so much time on WeChat and Mobile QQ, there will be little time left for other apps," she said."

Tencent Holdings Limited is a Chinese investment holding company whose subsidiaries provide mass media, entertainment, Internet and mobile phone value-added services, and operate online advertising services in China [Wikipedia --full profile]. Tencent services include:

• IM (Instant Messaging) Service
• Online Media
• Wireless Internet Value-Added Services
• Interactive Entertainment Service
• Internet Value-added Service
• E-commerce
• Online Advertising Service

see also: Alibaba IPO: How Tencent Became Alibaba's Biggest Rival

Tencent is one of China's largest internet companies [second quarter earnings report (PDF)--posted 37% revenue growth and 58% profit growth YoY]

Stock Price and links

Domain Names include:
Tencent.com (Chinese) [English: http://www.tencent.com/en-us/index.shtml ]
tenpay.com

paipai.com
tencentmind.com
qq.com


Follow @DomainMondoSeguir a @DomainMondo

The Internet, The World, Social, Digital, Mobile

Social, Digital & Mobile Around The World (January 2014) from We Are Social Singapore

Follow @DomainMondo
Seguir a @DomainMondo