According to reports, Google is in advanced negotiations to acquire Twitter for a fee above $250m.
A report on US blog Techcrunch, citing people close to the negotiations, said Google would fund the deal through a mixture of cash and shares.
Twitter has already turned down one takeover offer in recent months, from Facebook.
Talks broke down last November,
When Facebook attempted to acquire Twitter in exchange for $500m (£330m) worth of stock last November, talks brown down because the two companies failed to agree on the stock's value.
Last month, it was reported that Google's appetite for acquisitions could be on the wane.
Google has not announced an acquisition in the past six months, despite recent links to Twitter and Expedia, the online travel agency.
Prior to this, Google had made dozens of deals, including its purchase of advertising giant DoubleClick for $3.1bn (£2.12m) in 2008.
However, Google chief executive Eric Schmidt admitted that Google was not active on the acquisition front.
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