Facebook and Twitter are perhaps the two biggest social media powerhouses of our time. But according to a book by New York Times reporter Nick Bilton, things could have been very different.
The name of the book is called Hatching Twitter: A True Story of Money, Power, Friendship and Betrayal.? The book says in 2008, as Twitter struggled for national recognition, co-founder Jack Dorsey was demoted from CEO to silent chairman. Then, other Twitter leaders was called by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerburg to a meeting. Facebook was interested in purchasing Twitter for $500 million. Apparently, Zuckerburg and Dorsey were talking for months about a buyout. But after Dorsey’s demotion, the buyout went south in a hurry. Other reasons were: The price wasn’t good enough and? concerns about the other company.
In 2008, Twitter was already worth over a billion dollars. The next year, it exploded! I wonder if Twitter leaders know it was on the verge of explosion. That’s why it didn’t happen. I wonder if Facebook knew Twitter was about to blow up. Maybe that’s why it was trying to buy Twitter. But what if the buyout happened? Would it have been so big it would have taken out everybody else? Or would it have been so big would they have collapsed under their own weight? What do think life would be like if Facebook and Twitter merged?