Twitter rejects Facebook's buyout offer

Facebook has been a hot acquisition target for years but the massively popular social networking site is now looking to pick up some of its own big name web properties. Apparently, the company tried to acquire Twitter for $500 million worth of stock five weeks ago but senior executives at both companies gave up on the idea at the beginning of this month.

The sticking point was of course price, with Twitter executives claiming that the $15 billion valuation of Facebook is inflated and taking the all stock offer would have would have actually given the deal a 150 million dollar price tag according to their calculations. Moreover, it seems there was a feeling among Twitter investors that the start-up should keep growing on its own and take a shot at figuring out its own revenue model.