ZNGA: THESE,3,BAY,AREA,TECH,COMPANIES,COULD,FOLLOW,LINKEDIN'S,PATH,AS,BUY-OUT,TARGETS,
TECHFLASH
THESE 3 BAY AREA TECH COMPANIES COULD FOLLOW IN LINKEDIN'S PATH
JUN 14, 2016, 7:14AM PDT UPDATED JUN 14, 2016, 9:23AM PDT
INDUSTRIES & TAGS
Technology,
Media & Marketing,
Stock Market,
MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS,
SOCIAL MEDIA
RILEY MCDERMID DIGITAL PRODUCER
SAN FRANCISCO BUSINESS TIMES
NEWS THAT LINKEDIN WILL BE SOLD TO MICROSOFT IN AN $26.2 BILLION ALL-CASH SALE HAS IGNITED SHARES of Twitter Tuesday as investors hope they, too, could soon find big money suitors.
Shares of San Francisco-based Twitter climbed almost 4 percent to $15.11 on the New York Stock Exchange this morning, a sign that the LinkedIn deal may finally have thawed a mergers and acquisitions market that hasn't seen many deals in excess of $8 billion more than once a year for several seasons.
Enlarge
Jack Dorsey, CEO of Twitter Inc., which is being named as a potential acquisition target.… more
Photo: Simon Dawson / Bloomberg News
"[The deal] could potentially create a greater sense of urgency than there was before for acquisitions,” James Cakmak, an analyst at Monness Crespi Hardt & Co., told Bloomberg.“If the perception is that there is an appetite out there and there’s a willingness to make moves, then that could help create urgency and help pick up the pace.”
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OTHER POTENTIAL TARGETS? OAKLAND-BASED PANDORA (NYSE: P) AND SAN FRANCISCO-BASED ZYNGA (NASDAQ: ZNGA), which have both been rumored to be looking for acquirers. All of the companies named have had a bruising year on the stock market, with Twitter's share price falling more than 60 percent over the last year. (To be sure, Pandora and Zynga hardly changed in morning trading on Tuesday.)
“Twitter comes to mind pretty much at the top of the list,” Cakmak told Bloomberg, adding that Google makes “the most academic sense” for buying the social media company, although any large media company would also be a good fit, he said.
ALL OF THE COMPANIES MENTIONED ARE POTENTIAL TARGETS FOR MUCH LARGER, CASH-RICH CORPORATE GIANTS LIKE FACEBOOK, APPLE INC., CISCO SYSTEMS, MICROSOFT AND GOOGLE, WHICH MAY BE LOOKING TO MAKE STRATEGIC BUYS as the market pushes potential sales prices to new lows.
“Almost EVERYBODY’S IN PLAY AND NOBODY’S OUT OF REACH BECAUSE OF THE AMOUNT OF CAPITAL THAT’S ON BALANCE SHEETS,” IVAN FEINSETH, CHIEF INVESTMENT OFFICER AT TIGRESS FINANCIAL PARTNERS, TOLD BLOOMBERG.“I’M SURPRISED THERE’S NOT BEEN MORE DEALS.”
Riley covers breaking news and oversees all digital content.
Source:
www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/blog/techflash/2016/06/tech-takeover-targets-following-linkedin-deal.html
