No, Twitter is not being acquired for $31 billion. Scammers on Tuesday distributed a fake story, disguised as a Bloomberg news report, that said Twitter had received a buyout offer for that amount. The company's shares spiked more than 8 percent in trading on Wall Street after the report came out, then fell back down after the "news" was outed as fake.
The fabricated article was posted on www.Bloomberg.market, a website made to look like www.bloomberg.com, Bloomberg's legitimate business news page. The story sported the headline "Twitter Attracts Suitors" and began: "Twitter is working closely with bankers after receiving an offer to be bought out for $31 billion, people with knowledge of the situation said."
Bloomberg spokesman Ty Trippet said the Twitter story is a fake and appeared on "a bogus website that was not affiliated with Bloomberg." Twitter also denied the report. A search of the domain on the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers shows bloomberg.market was registered on Friday by an unnamed party listing a Panama mailing address.
It’s hardly the first time fake stories have moved stocks on Wall Street. Scammers behind the hoax reports usually hope to make a quick buck off the spike in a company’s stock price. Bloomberg reported that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is looking into possible market manipulation over the fake Twitter story.
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