The former CEO of Microsoft Steve Ballmer has said that he never considered purchasing Twitter. He was responding to rumors that he is collaborating with Saudi Prince Al-Waheed to buy the embattled microblogging site.
Both Ballmer and Al-Waheed are prominent shareholders in Twitter.
In an interview with CNBC, Ballmer said that he is not interested in buying the company and had never considered this option at any point of time. However, he said that Twitter offers a valuable service which is irreplaceable. He also cited Donald Trump's tweets and said that without Twitter the current presidential election would not have been the same.
Twitter is currently dealing with many issues including a stagnating user base and management issues. Lately, there have been reports that the company is looking for a possible buyout. Initially, the company received many interests, but those interests failed to materialize into concrete deals. Salesforce is the latest company to walk out on the idea of acquiring Twitter.
Ballmer pointed out that Twitter founder is currently the CEO of two companies viz. Twitter and Square. He called it a "weird deal." He further added that this might cause issues during the turbulent times faced by Twitter.
Ballmer said that he appreciates the synergy between Google and Twitter for integrating tweets with the search results. He added that this might be the start of "a beautiful friendship." Despite many rumors, Google has not made any formal bid for Twitter.