Blankfein Photo Gets Traders Talking Again About Twitter Takeout

(Bloomberg) -- Call it the Blankfein bump.

Twitter Inc.’s shares soared on Thursday, the day after the Goldman Sachs Group Inc. chief executive officer tweeted a photo of himself with Jack Dorsey at the technology company’s offices in San Francisco.

The presence of Lloyd Blankfein was cited by several traders as a factor in the stock’s rally amid rekindled merger speculation on the day Walt Disney Co. announced a $52.4 billion deal for 21st Century Fox Inc. assets. Twitter shares rose as much as 7.3 percent, reaching the highest in more than a year.

Disney had explored the possibility of buying Twitter when the company considered selling itself last year, people familiar with the matter said at the time. Goldman Sachs was said to have advised Twitter in those discussions.

Blankfein was at the social network’s offices as part of an ongoing question-and-answer series with well-known users, Twitter spokeswoman Brielle Villablanca said. He spoke about leadership and his use of the service, she said. The tweet was Blankfein’s 29th since joining Twitter in 2011 and attracted nearly 3,000 ‘likes.’

Twitter has gained about 30 percent since reporting third-quarter earnings in October, when it beat analyst estimates and showed user growth. Bloomberg LP is developing a global breaking news network for the Twitter service.

To contact the reporters on this story: Jeran Wittenstein in San Francisco at jwittenstei1@bloomberg.net, Arie Shapira in New York at ashapira3@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Arie Shapira at ashapira3@bloomberg.net, Morwenna Coniam

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