--- description: The companies stock rose some 18% on Friday after a report that Google and Salesforce may be trying to make a deal with the company. title: These Massive Tech Companies Might Buy Twitter image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltce6f0b8317b096cb/69889c640b72e32c0d6ea39e/twitter_crush.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Business](/section/business/) ## Business Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Companies](/tag/companies/) ## Companies Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # These Massive Tech Companies Might Buy Twitter by [Daniel White](/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Sep 23, 2016 5:47 PM CUT  People are seen as silhouettes as they check mobile devices whilst standing against an illuminated wall bearing Twitter Inc.'s logo in this arranged photograph in London, U.K., on Tuesday, Jan. 5, 2016\. Twitter Inc. may be preparing to raise its character limit for tweets to the thousands from the current 140, a person with knowledge of the matter said. Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg via Getty Images People are seen as silhouettes as they check mobile devices whilst standing against an illuminated wall bearing Twitter Inc.'s logo in this arranged photograph in London, U.K., on Tuesday, Jan. 5, 2016\. Twitter Inc. may be preparing to raise its character limit for tweets to the thousands from the current 140, a person with knowledge of the matter said. Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg via Getty ImagesChris Ratcliffe—Bloomberg/Getty Images by [Daniel White](/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Sep 23, 2016 5:47 PM CUT A few major technology companies may make a play on [acquiring Twitter](http://fortune.com/2016/09/23/twitter-google-salesforce/ "undefined") before the end of the year. Among the biggest names interested in purchasing the social network are Google and customer relationship management firm Salesforce, according to [CNBC](http://www.cnbc.com/2016/09/23/twitter-may-receive-formal-bid-shortly-suitors-said-to-include-salesforce-and-google.html "undefined"). Any potential deal isn’t likely to come to fruition soon. TechCrunch separately [reported](https://techcrunch.com/2016/09/23/salesforce-google-twitter/ "undefined") Friday that Verizon and Microsoft are also potentially interested in acquiring Twitter. (Verizon owns TechCrunch following the telecom company’s acquisition of parent company AOL.) That said, large technology companies often express interest in acquiring smaller ones only for discussions to peter out. Twitter shares were up more than 18% on Friday after news of a possible deal was reported. The company went public in 2013 but has [struggled to grow and retain](http://time.com/4248747/why-twitter-is-failing/ "undefined") its user base. Salesforce declined to comment on the report. Google did not immediately respond to a TIME request for comment. However, Salesforce chief digital evangelist Vala Afshar expressed his love for Twitter earlier. > [](https://twitter.com/ValaAfshar/status/779311514134118400) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4506103/twitter-acquisition-deal-google-salesforce/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4506103/twitter-acquisition-deal-google-salesforce/"},"headline":"These Massive Tech Companies Might Buy Twitter","datePublished":"2016-09-23T17:47:10.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:50:32.232Z","description":"Twitter's stock rose nearly 20% on Friday on the reports","url":"https://time.com/4506103/twitter-acquisition-deal-google-salesforce/","keywords":["Companies","Tech","Social Media","Google","twitter"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltce6f0b8317b096cb/69889c640b72e32c0d6ea39e/twitter_crush.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Daniel White","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/daniel-white/"}],"articleSection":"Business","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltce6f0b8317b096cb/69889c640b72e32c0d6ea39e/twitter_crush.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"twitter marriage","caption":"","creditText":"Chris Ratcliffe—Bloomberg/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/business/","name":"Business"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/companies/","name":"Companies"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4506103/twitter-acquisition-deal-google-salesforce/","name":"These Massive Tech Companies Might Buy Twitter"}}]}] ```