Attendees visit the Twitter Inc. exhibition stand at the Dmexco digital marketing conference in Cologne, Germany, on Wednesday, Sept. 14, 2016. Dmexco is a two-day global business and digital economy innovation platform, attracting the industry's most important personalities and corporate decision-makers. Photographer: Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg

Twitter shares fall by a fifth as Google says: we’re not interested

Twitter shares fell the most in more than a year following a report that Google isn’t interested in buying the social-networking service.

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07 Oct 2016, 7:45 am

By Sarah Frier

(Bloomberg) — Twitter Inc. fell the most in more than a year following a report that Alphabet Inc.'s Google isn't interested in buying the social-networking service.

Attendees visit the Twitter Inc. exhibition stand at the Dmexco digital marketing conference in Cologne, Germany. Photographer: Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg

Twitter shares plunged as much as 19 percent Thursday in New York, the most since April 2015, to $20.10. The stock was trading at $20.84 at 9:52 a.m.

Technology news website Recode reported Wednesday that Google doesn't currently plan to make a bid for Twitter, citing unidentified people familiar with the situation. Walt Disney Co. and Apple Inc. are also unlikely to be suitors, Recode said, without naming its sources. A representative for Google declined to comment on the report, while Disney didn't respond to requests for comment. Apple declined to comment last week on reports that it was interested.

Google tapped Lazard Ltd. to explore making an offer for Twitter last month, people familiar with the matter said at the time. The search giant has looked at acquiring San Francisco-based Twitter in prior years and passed. Salesforce.com Inc. and Disney have also retained bankers to consider Twitter bids, which could come in the next couple of weeks.

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