Twitter co-founder Biz Stone told reporters Thursday in South Korea that his popular micro-blogging website is not for sale.
Stone was responding to a Financial Times report this week that JPMorgan Chase & Co. is in talks to purchase a one-tenth stake in the website for $450 million. An earlier report in The Wall Street Journal said both Google and Facebook have approached the company about a takeover.
But Stone said the only talks with Facebook were "a couple of years ago" and that most of the reports are rumors. He told The Associated Press that Twitter "Is, has been, and will continue to be an independent company no matter what rumors are swirling."
The Twitter site, which allows participants to broadcast short messages to large numbers of followers, is used by political figures ranging from U.S. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley to Republican presidential prospect Sarah Palin.
It was credited with helping to enable dissidents to organize political protests that toppled the government of Egypt and is threatening the rule of Libya's Moammar Gadhafi.
Estimates of its value range up to $10 billion.
Stone is in South Korea for a forum organized by the broadcasting network MBN.
Some information for this report was provided by AP and Reuters.