(2017-04-09) Twitter Users Want To Buy The Biz

Of course, a bunch of Twitter users want to buy the company and turn it into a Co-Op

Last fall, when Twitter was considering a sale, a group of Twitter diehards started a petition encouraging the company to sell itself to its users, which would essentially turn Twitter into a co-op. Sounds crazy? The movement garnered enough attention that a proposal to explore the co-op idea has made it onto the official agenda for the company’s annual shareholder meeting set to take place in May.

If the proposal passes, it would require Twitter to... look into the idea, although that doesn’t mean it would ever actually happen.

How might a Twitter co-op actually work, though? Nathan Schneider, who first proposed the co-op idea in an op-ed for the Guardian last fall, believes there are a number of different formats that could work, which is why he wants the company to look into options.

...Pointed to the Associated Press, a not-for-profit cooperative, as a successful example of the co-op idea working in the real world.

Twitter, despite its struggles, is still worth more than $10 billion. Not exactly pocket change. The NFL’s Green Bay Packers, which is often pointed to as a shining example of a “user”-owned entity, has an estimated value of just $2.3 billion.