Twitter's stock ended the week down more than 7 percent, as a recent board meeting seemed to do little to clarify market chatter around the social media company.
Twitter's board reportedly met on Thursday in a much-anticipated gathering that was expected to address the company's cost-cutting, including layoffs or divestitures, as well as its live sports strategy. Investors pondered whether Twitter could be a takeover target for another company or activist investor, after co-founder Ev Williams told Bloomberg TV that the company must "consider the right options" amid acquisition speculation.
Twitter has yet to receive any real expressions of interest, people familiar with the matter told CNBC. But that hasn't stopped the stock from whipsawing in volatile trade over the past month.
Shares of Twitter fell as much as 4 percent on Friday, on a day where the broader stock indexes dropped 1 percent to 2 percent. Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A contest for control of Twitter could take at least until July of next year to unfold, Robert Peck, managing director and internet equity analyst at SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, told CNBC earlier this month. Michael Pachter, managing director of equity research for Wedbush Securities, also sees no bidders for the company at the moment, though he thinks when the time is right a strategic buyer could be Facebook, he told CNBC's "Closing Bell" on Thursday.
It all comes as Twitter is under a microscope like no other company in the world, former CEO Dick Costolo told CNBC this week. Recent earnings guidance has weighed on the the stock, which has fallen more than 30 percent in the past year.
"I think it's reached almost epic proportions when a regularly scheduled board meeting starts to take on almost pontiff-like expectations," Costolo said. "I just think it's gotten a little bit out of hand with the normal course of business ... I'm sure they're evaluating all the different options."
— Reporting by CNBC's Julia Boorstin and David Faber.
