Google in talks to buy Twitter

Rumours see $250 million plus acquisition

3 April 2009 9:59 GMT / By Amy-Mae Elliott

Google is in talks to buy out Twitter, the micro-blogging service that is the social networking service du jour, reports suggest.

TechCrunch has it from three separate sources that the search giant is considering the purchase, pegged at over $250 million from a recent valuation.

Twitter reportedly recently turned down a half a billion dollar buy out approach from Facebook, but that price was made up of Facebook stock, rather than the cash/public stock rumoured from Google.

One of the sources suggests that Google is interested in Twitter's search possibilities, with the two companies said to be considering working together on a Google real time search engine.

UPDATE: Twitter co-founder Biz Stone has responded to the rumours in a blog post:

"It should come as no surprise that Twitter engages in discussions with other companies regularly and on a variety of subjects".

"Our goal is to build a profitable, independent company and we're just getting started".