The Drum Awards for Marketing - Extended Deadline

-d -h -min -sec

Snap Mergers and Acquisitions Rovio

Five companies that turned down acquisition offers: Facebook, Twitter, Groupon and more

Author

By Ishbel Macleod, PR and social media consultant

November 14, 2013 | 2 min read

Following the news that Snapchat turned down a $3bn cash buy-out bid from Facebook, we take a look at other companies that have turned down offers of acquisition, including Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare.

Facebook

Facebook itself received offers from multiple businesses including Friendster, Google, MySpace and Yahoo. However, Viacom was the most eager bidder, offering to buy the company three times. The third offer, in 2006, was for $2bn.In May 2012, Facebook launched its IPO, just prior to which it was valued at $77bn to $96bn.The company, however, is currently seeing a decline in daily use by teens in the US.

Twitter

In 2008, Facebook was in meetings to potentially acquire Twitter, for $500m of its stock, which also included a cash component, according to All Things D.The opening price of Twitter's IPO last week valued the company at $31bn.

Foursquare

In 2010, Yahoo offered Foursquare $125m. In August 2013, the pair were in talks to share data, following Google's $1bn acquisition of Waze.

Groupon

Groupon also turned down an offer from a search giant in 2010. Google offered to buy the daily deals company for $6bn.In December 2010 the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) referred the site to the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) over ‘serious concerns’, but the next year the company launched its IPO, and earlier this month unveiled a new site ahead of Christmas.

Rovio

Rovio, the developers behind Angry Birds, was offered $2.25bn from Farmville makers Zynga in 2011. This move followed Zynga bidding unsuccessfully for PopCap.Despite rumours, today Rovio has insisted that it is not planning an initial public offering 'any time soon'.
Snap Mergers and Acquisitions Rovio

More from Snap

View all

Trending

Industry insights

View all
Add your own content +