Over the past week, Twitter’s fate has appeared to be murkier than ever. The troubled social media company, which has been engaged in talks to sell itself, seemed to be running out of potential buyers.
However, Twitter executives are continuing talks with at least one suitor, the online software company Salesforce.com, according to two people involved in the discussions who spoke on condition of anonymity because the talks are private.
The talks are continuing even though Salesforce has faced pushback from some of its biggest investors over a potential acquisition.
Twitter chief executive officer Jack Dorsey is now not averse to selling the company as long as it is what is best for the integrity of the product, according to two people involved in the talks.
That is a shift of heart for Dorsey from last month, when Dorsey was said to be resistant to a deal because he was concerned Twitter would be sold for parts.
At the same time, Twitter’s executives are pressing on as if the company will remain an independent entity, the people involved in the negotiations said.
While Twitter executives think they have clarified the social media company’s mission and focus, which now revolves around live events and live commentary, they had feared they were running out of time to achieve their goals given the volatility of its stock and investor skepticism over its prospects.
The strategy gives a glimpse into how Twitter is internally trying to come to grips with its path forward amid a shifting chess match of deal talks and considerations.
Even as Twitter is in the spotlight as a go-to discussion forum during this presidential election cycle, the challenges the company faces remain acute.
Twitter, which is scheduled to report its next quarterly earnings on Oct. 27, is still wrestling with questions about its growth in users and revenue.
The company, which is based in San Francisco, also faces mounting concerns around the potential threat of an activist shareholder lawsuit, a choppy stock price and a growing internal fear among employees that it is susceptible to forces outside of their control.
Dorsey was in the middle of a major turnaround effort, an attempt to stanch the bleeding of users and reinstall faith in the company with new efforts around live-streaming video. Dorsey, executives and many on the board wanted more time to prove Twitter could work as an independent company, even as they had a fiduciary duty to consider all options.
A Twitter spokeswoman declined to comment.
Salesforce also declined to comment.
The internal state of affairs at Twitter and its likely options was described in interviews with more than a dozen current and former employees.
Rank-and-file staff members are frustrated about being in the dark on the company’s future, and a handful of employees have stopped showing up for work entirely, several insiders said.
Morale has deteriorated over the past year, especially amid rumors of layoffs at the company, which took place in October last year.
Employees said management handled the situation poorly when at one point, some of them discovered access to a digital folder on Twitter’s network that had the names of people who were to be dismissed, before any announcement being made.
Eventually, Twitter announced it would cut more than 300 jobs.
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