Investing.com – Shares in Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) gained more than 3% in pre-market trade on Monday on a report that Google had hired a financial adviser to consider a possible buyout.
Alphabet’s biggest subsidiary had tapped Lazar Ltd. to study the possible acquisition of the social media company, according to a Bloomberg report citing a person familiar with the deal.
Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) was said to be evaluating a deal, potentially pitting it against other possible suitors such as s Salesforce.com (NYSE:CRM), Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS) or Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT).
Speculation has thrived for the last several months that the 10 year old social networking service could receive bids as it continues to lose money and maintains talks with potential tech companies, according to reports.
Twitter had initially risen nearly 6% in pre-market trade on Monday, but had since pared gains, advancing 3.25% to $23.80 at 7:41AM ET (11:41GMT).