Twitter is reportedly considering a deal to purchase music sharing site SoundCloud.
The potential acquisition, first reported by Re/Code, is said to be an attempt by the NASDAQ listed Twitter to overcome its current growth problem; specifically its lack of growth.
Berlin based SoundCloud describes itself as a “online audio distribution platform where individuals can create sounds and share them everywhere.”
The company has become a major distribution for not only indie and independent artists, but also mainstream artists and celebrities.
While a proposed acquisition price has not been discussed, the company has raised $123.3 million in venture capital with its most recent round valuing the company at $700 million.
If Twitter was to acquire SoundCloud, it wouldn’t be its first foray into the music scene. Twitter acquired We Are Hunted in early 2013 which it used as a base to launch Twitter Music.
If you don’t remember Twitter Music you’re not alone: Twitter completely managed to destroy its acquisition and wound it up last month.
While SoundCloud would be a different proposition, Twitter’s previous history with acquisitions isn’t exactly a positive sign. They’re not in the Yahoo “lets destroy everything we buy” territory quite yet, but only due to time and a lack of acquisitions.
We sincerely hope that Twitter doesn’t buy SoundCloud; while music is heavily shared on Twitter (and SoundCloud is a big part of that) Twitter does not have the depth of management or knowledge to run a site that really has nothing to do with its core business.
Then again two months in Facebook hasn’t destroyed Occulus Rift yet…but give it time ๐
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