New report suggests Google may be considering purchasing Twitter

Twitter’s stock rose this morning after several reports revealed that the social media giant is getting closer to being sold to another company. According to the report, several big names in tech are interested in the service and could place bids on the social network before the end of the year.

The shortlist of companies interested in a possible purchase include Google and Salesforce.com, along with several other unnamed technology companies. Twitter has long had a problem in determining how to monetize its social network, offering paid promoted tweets as ads and other attempts to monetize that haven’t been well received by the Twitter community at large.

Still, shares of Twitter were up more than 20% this morning on the news of suitors, despite no concrete evidence of a deal. According to sources familiar with the matter, Twitter’s board of directors is largely looking forward to striking a deal with a larger company, but currently, there’s no assurance that the company will be sold to the highest bidder.

Tech giants interested in purchasing the company are likely after the amount of data that Twitter can produce, as well as its place as a media company in today’s high-tech society.