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Because bit.ly took on a round of funding which probably made them too expensive for Twitter to buy. http://techcrunch.com/2010/03/01/bit-ly-1-5-million/ http:

Because bit.ly took on a round of funding which probably made them too expensive for Twitter to buy. http://techcrunch.com/2010/03/01/bit-ly-1-5-million/ http://techcrunch.com/2010/03/01/bit-ly-1-5-million/ Would you pay millions of dollars for an URL shortner or build your own?

terryjsmith 17y ago
Unfair question: I'm a developer so I would very likely to build my own :) But from a business perspective I would definitely consider buying it; Bitly in particular has a lot of valuable technology that Twitter could monetize on. Bitly seems to be the default in these discussions and it's clearly the market leader, but there are other companies to consider. I think even starting discussions with another company would force Bitly's asking price down considerably. They may talk about how Twitter is _only_ 30% to 40%* of their traffic, but no business wants to lose those kind of numbers. * http://www.businessinsider.com/google-and-twitter-wanted-to-buy-but-bitly-is-waiting-for-a-big-f-ing-number-2010-4 http://www.businessinsider.com/google-and-twitter-wanted-to-...
- jakarta 17y ago
  Really? I mean to me, it seems like Twitter is really holding all the cards here. Unfortunately, it seems like an acquisition of Bitly would really amount to charity because if they wanted, they could easily come out with their own competing service which would likely be adopted simply because it's easier to use. Presumably it would be right there on your twitter page or better yet, automatic.
- bradgessler 17y ago
  Would you buy it if it was over valued? If Google and Twitter really considered acquiring bit.ly, they must have arrived at the same conclusion at the end of their due diligence that it just wan't worth it. Running the numbers for these types of deals isn't rocket science and if something costs too much, you're not going to buy it.

terryjsmith 17y ago

Unfair question: I'm a developer so I would very likely to build my own :) But from a business perspective I would definitely consider buying it; Bitly in particular has a lot of valuable technology that Twitter could monetize on. Bitly seems to be the default in these discussions and it's clearly the market leader, but there are other companies to consider. I think even starting discussions with another company would force Bitly's asking price down considerably. They may talk about how Twitter is _only_ 30% to 40%* of their traffic, but no business wants to lose those kind of numbers. * http://www.businessinsider.com/google-and-twitter-wanted-to-buy-but-bitly-is-waiting-for-a-big-f-ing-number-2010-4 http://www.businessinsider.com/google-and-twitter-wanted-to-...

jakarta 17y ago
Really? I mean to me, it seems like Twitter is really holding all the cards here. Unfortunately, it seems like an acquisition of Bitly would really amount to charity because if they wanted, they could easily come out with their own competing service which would likely be adopted simply because it's easier to use. Presumably it would be right there on your twitter page or better yet, automatic.
bradgessler 17y ago
Would you buy it if it was over valued? If Google and Twitter really considered acquiring bit.ly, they must have arrived at the same conclusion at the end of their due diligence that it just wan't worth it. Running the numbers for these types of deals isn't rocket science and if something costs too much, you're not going to buy it.