Why?
It's simple: after acquiring LinkedIn (which will hopefully soon be integrated into the ubiquitous Office suite), Twitter would provide the software behemoth with a powerful social network component to round out Office.
Every month, Twitter claims to have over 300 million active users. However, its total audience is estimated to be around 800 million people. This includes tweets that appear outside of Twitter, such as those at the bottom of reality television shows, news and sporting events, and so on.
Unfortunately, Twitter recently reported that the number of users in the current quarter increased by only 1% over the previous quarter. Needless to say, this did not endear it to investors.
To counteract this apparent stagnation in growth, Twitter has recently launched Nuzzel, a new client app. This new app shows traditional Twitter users which links are shared the most by the people they follow.
A new moments tab was also added to provide users with even more relevant content.
However, one of the most difficult issues that users face is locating the vast amount of content that Twitter continues to accumulate. For example, how can a student conducting research or a professional seeking information on a specific topic search Twitter to gain quick access?
But what if Microsoft bought Twitter and integrated it into the Office suite?
Imagine having the social network capability of tweeting directly from Outlook. An email (or sections of it) could be easily tweeted to a group(s) with a few mouse clicks - just before it is sent to its intended recipients.
Consider the ability to tweet out all (or a portion of) a Word document to specific groups while it is being written.
Excel would benefit from once again allowing all (or a portion of) a spreadsheet to be tweeted to a group (s).
Entire presentations in PowerPoint (and yes, even Publisher) could be tweeted to specific groups. The near-instant feedback would be worth the price in and of itself.
Unfortunately, only Access may be left behind; the need to tweet tables or an entire database is unlikely to be at the top of most users' priorities.
In my humble opinion, Microsoft should seriously consider Twitter at its current valuation - before another suitor grabs hold and a bidding war ensues."""
