Does Google Want to Buy Twitter?

Google may be considering a Twitter takeover bid, according to a report by The Telegraph.

Reporter Andrew Trotman wrote that two companies - one understood to be Google - approached the social network with "serious interest" in a buyout. Trotman cited stock market analysis company Briefing.com as the source for his story.

The report points to Twitter's hiring of investment banking firm Goldman Sachs to protect itself from takeover attempts, with Twitter shares reportedly jumping 4.8% when news of the hire went public.

Trotman also says Google could easily afford to purchase Twitter, as it has a reported $60 billion dollars in a "cash pile".

Rumours of Google's ambitions to take over Twitter arise fairly regularly. As Trotman writes, the two companies are rumoured to have discussed options back in 2011.

Business Insider drew comparisons between today's rumours and Microsoft's attempt to buy out Yahoo! in 2008. That would-be deal was widely seen as an attempt by Microsoft to improve its search engine offering by purchasing Google's biggest competitor. But in the end, the deal fell through, and Microsoft launched its own Google rival - Bing - in 2009.

Similarly, if Google were to purchase Twitter, it would likely be seen as a means to take on social networking giant Facebook, after the relative failure of Google's own platform, Google+.

Requests for comment by our sources from Google, Twitter and Goldman Sachs have so far gone unanswered.

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