The hot rumor, seemingly traceable to this post by Josh Chandler, has Twitter buying Twitter search service Summize. It’s not confirmed yet, and given it took over a week for Twitter to confirm its last round of founding, don’t expect a denial or official confirmation any time soon.
Most people seem to be focused on the Summize platform, in that it will immediately deliver Twitter search, and at least one feature that doesn’t go down on a regular basis. Sure, the Summize platform will be a nice value add to Twitter, but if this deal is happening, is it really about the tech, or is it about the people behind the tech?
Consider that Twitter now has Bijan Sabet and Jeff Bezos on the board, both very smart guys. Do you think someone of the standing of Jeff Bezos is going to sit back and allow the Twitter train wreck to keep on chugging without radical change? The current management of Twitter seems incapable of doing much at all, which means Twitter desperately needs competent, new blood.
Enter the Summize team.
CEO Ajaipal “Jay” Virdy was previously a Senior Tech Manager at AOL, where he ended up after AOL acquired his earlier startup Localeyes. CTO and Co-founder Greg Pass was a systems architect at AOL, and prior to that was CEO of ToFish…another company acquired by AOL. Science Advisor Abdur Chowdhury ex-AOL systems architect who also spent a year at Revolution Health. Do I need to highlight more?
If Twitter acquires Summize, it’s the investors buying competent management that understands scaling, a management team who might be able to save Twitter from its self inflicted death spiral. Here’s hoping that the fresh blood takes control soon. Read more about Summize on QBase here.
