NEW YORK — Twitter’s stock briefly spiked Tuesday after a fake story said the short-message service received a $31 billion buyout offer.
Although the hoax involves a knockoff news website set up by a secret owner targeting a social media company with a $24 billion market cap, experts said the events look like a modern twist on a stock scam as old as the markets themselves.
The fake story, which cited “people with knowledge of the situation,” appeared on a website made to look like Bloomberg’s business news page. The website was registered Friday, according to a search of the nonprofit Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, and the identity of the person or company was not publicly available.
Bloomberg spokesman Ty Trippet says the story is “fake and appeared on a bogus website that was not affiliated with Bloomberg.”
Twitter Inc. did not comment.
Twitter’s stock spiked 8.5 percent in late morning trading. The stock closed up 2.6 percent at $36.72.
