Zee Media Bureau
This is not the first time and won't be the last either. Rumours have once again started that internet giant Google Inc is likely to acquire social networking site Twitter in a deal, reportedly, worth about USD 50 billion.
Following the rumours, shares of Twitter on Tuesday jumped over 4 percent with its shares rising to USD 53.28, the highest they have been since October, on market chatter that the company has hired advisers to rebuff a takeover bid.
Unconfirmed reports said Twitter had hired Goldman Sachs to fend off two possible takeover attempts, one that from Google. And this rumour led to the company stock rising over 4 percent.
Earlier in January, such speculations of Google's takeover led over 3 percent rise in Twitter's stock. However, the earliest of such rumours go back to 2009 when Google would have bought the social networking site for just USD 250 million but then, it didn't work out.
Twitter is now valued at USD 34 billion with a revenue of USD 1 billion and a reported 288 million active monthly users with 500 million daily tweets, reports say Google will have to pay about USD 50 billion to acquire it.
In 2003, Twitter’s cofounders Evan Williams and Biz Stone had sold their blogging platform, Blogger, to Google for an undisclosed sum. Which also means that, Google acquiring Twitter is very much possible but when and for how much remains the question.
