SAN FRANCISCO
Shares of Twitter climbed Wednesday morning amid reports Google is planning a buyout of the microblogging site.
A report posted by market analysis site Briefing.com said Twitter had hired financial management firm Goldman Sachs as an advisor in case of a takeover. The report said that two companies had expressed serious interest in buying Twitter, with Google named specifically as one of the interested parties.
Twitter’s stock soared more than 4 percent Wednesday morning fueled by the renewed acquisition rumors. At the market’s close Tuesday, Twitter had added more than $1 billion in market capitalization.
Twitter is currently valued at roughly $34 billion while Google has an impressive $60 billion saved in the bank, although less than other tech giants like Apple and Microsoft.
A buyout would require using up a substantial chunk of Google’s cash stockpile, however, by offering stock as well as cash Google would spend less, a strategy similar to how Facebook bought its recent string of acquisitions.
Twitter posted a revenue of more than $1 billion in 2014. More than 288 million monthly active users send some 500 million tweets per day and about 80 percent of the site’s users are active on a mobile device.
Google launched its own social network, Google+, in 2011, but it failed to find an enthusiastic audience. In March, the company announced that it was splitting the social media platform into several separate services -- like Photos and Hangouts, Google’s version of video chat -- effectively killing the Google+ as a unified network.
A takeover would send shockwaves throughout Wall Street and Silicon Valley but for now Twitter, Google nor Goldman Sachs are substantiating buyout reports.
Still, the rumors are earning real money for investors -- Google’s Class C stock has risen more than 6 percent in Wednesday trading.
