Like a modern-day Helen of Troy, whose face famously launched a thousand ships, it looks like a tweet from Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein has launched a thousand Twitter takeover rumors.

Blankfein tweeted a picture of himself with Twitter (TWTR) CEO Jack Dorsey Wednesday along with the following joke: “And they say I don’t know jack!”

Blankfein was at Twitter headquarters to be interviewed by Dorsey. But since that tweet, there has been increased chatter about whether Twitter might be considering putting itself up for sale — and if Goldman Sachs (GS) would be its merger advisor.

Twitter shares have surged more than 6% this week and are up nearly 40% this year — despite the fact that many analysts remain concerned about slowing user growth, the lack of profitability and increased competition from Facebook (FB) and Snapchat (SNAP).

So the merger speculation makes sense. Some have suggested that Twitter would be better off as the part of a larger company.

by Paul R. La Monica

Source: money.cnn.com