Salesforce has emerged as one of the front-runners to buy Twitter; the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that the company could make a bid as early as this week.
Salesforce’s Marc Benioff on Twitter acquisition talks: We look at everything, and usually pass
Benioff’s gamesmanship is strong.
Asa Mathat
But Salesforce’s investors aren’t super keen on the idea, sending the stock down almost 6 percent Wednesday after the WSJ’s report. Then notoriously vocal Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff splashed a little cold water on the rumors himself Wednesday in an interview with CNBC:
We look at everything. You name it, we look at it. It’s in our interest to look at everything. We have to go deep on everything to understand what is possible for our shareholders and what isn’t. But in the scheme of things, if you look back at my track record as a CEO I think you’ll find I look at a lot of things, [but] I actually pass on most things.
He followed that up shortly after with this:
We have to look at everything. We’re going to pass on most things. And the reality is our decisions have been very, very good for our company. On the vast majority of the deals we do, the stock goes up.
Notice he mentioned passing twice?
So while Benioff all but confirmed Salesforce is taking a look at Twitter, he was quick to point out that doesn’t always mean much.
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
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