Twitter to Facebook, thanks but no thanks

>> Sumi: Hello I'm Sumi Dos for ZDNet here with our Senior Editor Sam Dias, Sam thank you for being with us.

>> Sam: Sure, thank you for having me.

>> Sumi: There are 2 social media companies that were reportedly in talks, which reportedly broke down, tell us which 2 companies we're

talking about and what happened.

>> Sam: That's right Facebook the big social networking site and Twitter the more of a micro blogging site, now you might recognize

Twitter along the lines of the status updates that you can do on Facebook so clearly there was an element there that the two would be

interested in. The bottom line is or at least the general story is that it came down to money but doesn't it always, right? Apparently

Facebook had offered $500,000,000 in mostly stock and Twitter didn't really know that that was the right dollar amount, it's based on

a valuation that's kind of old for Facebook and so is $500,000,000 really $500,000,000. The way they looked at it they didn't think

it was.

>> Sumi: So, was that a smart move on Twitter's part?

>> Sam: I actually think it was a smart move on Twitter's part, ya know, the other part of this story is that Twitter's still growing,

as is Facebook, they're still growing and I think they want to go it on their own. They've got a couple of hot things happening there

they really caught the attention of big media companies, companies like CNN, The New York Times, our own CNET and ZDNet here we're

sending out our news updates over Twitter and because there's a mobile phone element there you can get those updates via SMS text

messaging, ya know, it's very valuable. The thing to remember also about Twitter is that the members that are receiving these updates

have asked for them, they've signed up to receive them so it's different from say like a website where you sort of just blast information

out there and, ya know, people will read it.

>> Sumi: You're not pushing stuff on them.

>> Sam: You're not pushing, they're asking for it and they're pulling it into their mobile devices or into their websites, so.

>> Sumi: It's a good tool for businesses to reach a lot of people very quickly.

>> Sam: That's right and, ya know, that always turns into inaudible angle later down the road, so who knows how they might find a way

to monetize it with these companies involved.

>> Sumi: Twitter might have their eye on that.

>> Sam: That's right.

>> Sumi: Okay, so does this close the chapter or does it close the book on the possible relationship between Twitter and Facebook?

>> Sam: I think it just closes the chapter, you know there's a lot of stuff that's coming down the pipeline for both of these companies,

neither of them really have a solid revenue plan yet.

>> Sumi: Right

>> Sam: Now Facebook on one hand --

>> Sumi: They're growing; I mean they have a lot of users.

>> Sam: They are growing but, you know, --

>> Sumi: But

>> Sam: investors are always down for bringing in that money, right? And so, Facebook has said that it'll probably be a few years before

they come up with a revenue plan, their focus, grow the company, make it bigger, right? Twitter, on the other hand, has said the first

half of next year they have to -- they hope to have some sort of revenue model in place but you know this is the Internet and things

change very quickly but not by the year but more by the month maybe even by the week so it's anyone's guess what this landscape will

look like in another 6 months, 12 months, 18 months down the road. Whether or not Facebook can hold out for 3 more years, that's anyone's

guess.

>> Sumi: Alright, Sam, there are a lot of Twitter and Facebook users out there you among them.

>> Sam: That's right.

>> Sumi: We'll all be watching this closely, thank you.

>> Sam: Sure

>> Sumi: For more you can go to Blogs.ZDNET.com.