Don't Fall for Twitter Takeover Chatter

Like the rest of the world -- possibly including Twitter's own board members -- we have no idea if Twitter will stay an independent company. Speculation about a sale has circulated forever, and has never panned out. Yet. But one thing is abundantly clear: Twitter's stock direction is tightly linked to takeover rumors.

So far this year, Twitter's stock price has jumped 4.8 percent or more once every six trading days on average, or 24 out of 169 market sessions. And half of those stock pops are likely related to rumors, reports, hopes and dreams that Twitter might be acquired or could become the target of activist shareholders, according to a Bloomberg Gadfly analysis. These were mostly thin threads of takeover speculation, but that's all that is keeping Twitter's market value afloat these days.