Fortune: Twitter Passed on $10 Billion

In next Monday’s issue of Fortune, Senior Writer Jessi Hempel takes a look at the internal struggles impacting Twitter, and reveals a company – despite huge potential – that appears to be going nowhere.

According to Hempel, the problem is that Twitter’s leadership is in a constant state of disarray. As company board member Peter Fenton explains, “The act of getting from there [the beginning of the site] to here was violent. We’ve had a revolving door of senior leaders who leave.”

But that’s not the biggest revelation from the piece. The part that caught our eyes was this:

Last fall Microsoft, Google, and Facebook itself all considered buying the company. Microsoft never made an offer, according to sources, but Facebook is believed to have offered $2 billion for Twitter, and Google, by far the most serious, offered as much as $10 billion.

That’s right, Twitter turned down a $10 billion deal. Not million, billion! It’s hard to believe the company will ever get an offer like that again. But hey, look at that semi-annoying tweet Ashton Kutcher just wrote! That’s what the site is all about, not making tons of money. Right?

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