Stone not moving on Twitter sale

 

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By Reuters

Posted on 7 May 2009 at 08:27

Twitter founder Biz Stone has confirmed that the micro-blogging site is not for sale, as rumours continue to swirl around the service.

Biz Stone made the declaration in an appearance on US show The View when questioned by host Barbara Walters.

He was responding to a question regarding the frequent rumours that Google, Microsoft and, more recently, Apple might be interested in acquiring the company.

"We're just getting started as I've said. The company is two years old, we have so much to do, so much product stuff to fix, and so much growing to do," said Stone.

Twitter has been the subject of takeover speculation since the company turned down a $500 million acquisition offer by social-networking heavyweight Facebook.

Twitter is a free service that allows people to send short, 140-character text messages to their network of friends. It has become something of a cultural phenomenon, with politicians, celebrities and athletes all signing up to send messages, or "tweets," to a growing audience of followers.

According to Nielsen Online, which measures Internet traffic, Twitter's website had more than 7 million unique visitors in February, compared to 475,000 in February 2008.

The company, based in San Francisco, California, is focusing on monetising its service this year.