Twitter Woes To Continue?

Desperate for a ray of hope, Twitter Inc TWTR shareholders sent the stock rallying late Friday on unconfirmed speculation of Softbank Corp. SFTBY being interested in acquiring the company. Twitter’s shares surged 7 percent to close at $19.09.

Although SoftBank is a highly aggressive tech investor with the strength and fortitude required for such acquisitions, the Twitter purchase may be a tad riskier than what the Japanese giant is willing to undertake. Remember that SoftBank recently completed the purchase of UK chipmaker ARM Holdings plc (ADR) ARMH for £23.4 billion, or $31 billion.

Twitter investors hoping for a takeout at a hefty premium should consider that the company needs a complete revamp before there are any hopes of profitability. The company’s ongoing problems have been enough to dissuade Walt Disney Co DIS, Alphabet Inc GOOGL and salesforce.com, inc. CRM from placing a bid.

Related Link: False Hope: The Street Believed Twitter & Salesforce Rumors For Too Long

Looking Beyond Buyout Chatter

Twitter is scheduled to release results on October 27. The Street is mostly unanimous on the company’s turnaround taking much longer than was previously anticipated.

Pivotal’s Brian Wieser commented in a recent report that the stock now represents “seemingly greater risk than before.” Given Twitter's dismal user growth, decelerating revenue growth and no signs of new advertising initiatives working, the company is in more troubled waters than before.

One alternative is for Twitter to downsize, and this would have a significant negative impact on the stock, since investors consider downsizing as a sign of worsening numbers.

Twitter has a short interest of 46.84 million. The Street’s median price target for the company is at $16, with a low of $9.