News Corp says Twitter takeover rumours 'untrue'

Rupert Murdoch's News Corp has denied reports it is looking to acquire Twitter despite the social media company's recent share price weakness.

After a rumours that News Corp was building a stake built to a crescendo overnight, Twitter’s shares flew as much as 14% higher from the record low reached in the wake of its outage earlier in the week.

The unconfirmed chatter was intensified by a segment on CNBC on Wednesday where Twitter was evaluated as a takeover target.

Bloomberg reporter Alex Barinka tweeted out that there was a sizeable purchase of Twitter shares around the time the rumours began to gain steam.

But later last night, News Corp spokesperson Jim Kennedy told website Re/code: “The rumor’s untrue.”

Nevertheless, Jasper Lawler at CMC Markets speculated that Twitter shares "could be active again" on Thursday.